HID Retrofit lights in Stock Halogen housings.

[986Jim]

OK, so looked at real litronic lights and couldn't swallow the $1300. I have had HID retrofits in a lot of my cars before but have had mixed results with them. I generally buy a projector housing for the car then put hid in that and even then they are not that great.

I bought this kit from CQ Light:

H7, 5000k http://www.cqlight.ca/index.php?cPath=32_45

They are plug and play lights ment for a H7 halogen headlight. The install was really easy. As a matter of fact the easiest I have done in any car. The headlights pop out with the tool in your bag in the spare tire in about 30 seconds then plug in the HID light, zip tie the ballast in the headlight hole to something so it doesn't flop around then re-install the headlamps. You will need to drill a hole in the plastic cover on the back of the headlamps for the hid wiring to go through. Two wires for the bulb it's self and power and ground that plugs into the stock wiring harness. No cutting or soldering involved. The kit comes with power leads with spade connectors on it already that just slip into the stock bulb socket no probs.

The stock halogen lights have the european code light cut off like this. ____/ if you have ever driven close to a wall you will notice it. I took before and after pics. The cut off was exactly the same with no glare or light wandering away. The cut off on the stock lights is really good and cuts the hid off just like the stock bulb so you only get light were the factory light intends it to be unlike most cars. Generally hid retrofits in stock housings have light all over the place which was the case for me a few times. This is NOT the case with Porsche lights, lucky us.

Here are some pics. Notes for each pics are under.

Halogen lights as stock from Porsche.

HID retro fit installed. You can see the cut off is exactly the same on the wall. The car is in a slightly different spot here and it's much darker ouside in this pic making the lights look a lot brigher. More or less the light is exactly the same and in the exact same position.

Halogen light stock.

HID Retrofit with fog on to see difference.

Stock H7 vs. HID H7. You can see the arc point is in the exact same spot. Might be hard as I'm holding the bulbs but they were identical.

Headlights outta the car. 30 seconds a side really.

Stock bulb out. Got kinda hot there wow. HID are cooler running so thats good. The top is the low beem. The HID retrofit goes in like stock. Just run the wires out the plastic cover, drill a hole.

On the front of my house. Same as stock cut off.

HID on the road through the windshield at eye level.

HID on the road over the windshield.

Color of HID 5000k retrofits.

Color of stock halogens.

Just incase you wondered about HID retrofits, you can now see they are just as good as stock. You get the light of HID without 1300 bux. Remember real litronic are better, self leveling etc. so they are worth the money. For $200 you get more light output than stock, the nice HID color, and no downside typical with HID retrofits.

I think that Porsche did a really good job on the stock headlights as they have good cut off from the factory. With a lot more light output from HID lights, they still control the light very well and get it right on the road with no glare.

Bottom line, really good for the cost, and really look nice too.

Edited March 2, 2007 by 986Jim

[DANNOV]

Great writeup, I just have one question. I went to the website you referenced and it seems that the HID conversion uses only one HID bulb per side. I assume the HID is the high beam whlie the low beam is the regular halogen bulb. Is that correct?

[986Jim]

Great writeup, I just have one question. I went to the website you referenced and it seems that the HID conversion uses only one HID bulb per side. I assume the HID is the high beam whlie the low beam is the regular halogen bulb. Is that correct?

No it's exactly the opposite. I have the HID in the low beam for normal driving and the high beem which you hardly ever use is still a regular halogen bulb. Thats why you see the HID light and my fog light in one of the pictures at the same time. When you turn on the high beems the fogs go off.

Typically most cars with HID have Halogen high beems, though this is changing, as HID have a warm up period so they are less effective with being able to turn on and be really bright instantly (for flashing or passing when you flip them on for a few seconds). They have almost overcome this with bi-xenon and stuff that is already warm so it lights up immediately. I was not interested in paying for another kit simply to have HID high beems that you hardly use.

When you see the picturs of the halogen light vs. HID, thats only for comparison. That was before the HID was installed and after how it looks. None of those pictures have the high beems on or anything to do with the high beems. They are the lower bulb in the housing. As you can see in the one picture the upper bulb the low beem is the one that was removed.

[DANNOV]

Thanks for the clarification and update. I think I will do this mod.

[BobMarley]

Great write up!

Question:

Why didn't you go for the higher/10,000k ones?

Whiter/bluer light, right?

[blackkatt]

It says on their website that their 10k bulbs are purplish. I was thinking of going with the 6500k bulb.

[percymon]

I did this mod on my old 986 over 18 motnhs ago - it makes quit e a difference to the 986 headlights. I took the retrofit kit out when i sold the car. I recently reinstalled in my 987, which has projector style lenses in the stock headlights - jeez they make even more difference on the 987.

So one kit ($500) is serving me on my second car now - bargain!

[986Jim]

Great write up!

Question:

Why didn't you go for the higher/10,000k ones?

Whiter/bluer light, right?

The higher the Kelvin rating the dimmer the light. It also makes the light a darker color. 4300k are white 5000k are light blue white, 6500k are more blue, 8000k are dark blue, 10000k are purple, 13000k are almost dark green.

6500k are too blue for my taste, they look too much like the $40 fake blue xenon bulbs from ebay to me, lot of peope love the color, it's just a personal thing. I wanted the most stock OEM looking color I could get. My buddy has the 10000k in his A3 and they look kinda cool in purple but they stand out a lot and look like they are not supposed to be there.

Edited August 2, 2006 by 986Jim

[klueless7571]

986Jim,

I just installed the same HID system you had put in. I noticed that the aim on the HID seems a bit lower than on the Halogen. Did you notice the same on yours?

This just shows the colour difference

Notice the height difference. The Halogen is aimed considerably higher and also the angled slant cutoff seems more prominent on the Halogen

This is with both HIDs installed - the left and right both aimed at the lower point now.

[986Jim]

Mine were the same. I'm not sure that it being lower is really a problem however as they HID is brighter and the extra light being pointed a little lower shouldn't be a problem. If anything it will save you from problems you might have otherwise had.

Do they look like the stock lights on the road?

If you feel that they are not pointed up high enough it's easy to bring the lights up a little bit to make up the difference.

[djantlive]

Great write up. Any more pics of the hole you had to drill and where the ballast was mounted? Great job!

[blackkatt]

klueless,

What K bulbs did you get? The 5000K ones?

Also to any one running these bulbs for any amount of time, have they discolored your lens, like they are overheating? I have seen a couple of pictures of headlights that have been overheated by some bulb, but I do not know what type/kind.

[986Jim]

djantlive: I just drilled the hole in the center of the cover, the wires have lots of lenght so it was pretty easy to put them through. I zip tied the ballast to some of the wires behind the headlight. One side was a hard bar probablly for A/C the other side part of the wiring harness. I just lightly zip tied the ballast to something on each side. It's pretty easy trust me. Then put the headlight in and plug everything in, piece of cake.

blackkatt: The bulbs that do that are the Blue Halogen bulbs with higher wattage than stock which get a lot hotter than the stock bulbs do. Even my stock bulbs did a bit of yellowing of my stock headlights and the lense, not too bad tho. The HID bulbs run cooler than a traditional halogen bulb does so it wont happen.

[klueless7571]

Mine were the same. I'm not sure that it being lower is really a problem however as they HID is brighter and the extra light being pointed a little lower shouldn't be a problem. If anything it will save you from problems you might have otherwise had.

Do they look like the stock lights on the road?

If you feel that they are not pointed up high enough it's easy to bring the lights up a little bit to make up the difference.

I'll take some time tonight and make some measurements on the headlight alignment. The manual says 1% grade.

Also, after reviewing and comparing your photos and mine, I see that your cutoffs are much more pronounced than mine. I wonder if the bulbs are a different batch (from CQ) or if the Porsche headlight enclosures are slightly different. <_<

klueless,

What K bulbs did you get? The 5000K ones?

Also to any one running these bulbs for any amount of time, have they discolored your lens, like they are overheating? I have seen a couple of pictures of headlights that have been overheated by some bulb, but I do not know what type/kind.

Yes, mine are the 5000K bulbs just like 986Jim's.

The original OSRAM and/or HELLA are 55W whereas these HID bulbs are only 35W, so there are no problems with overheating.

Derek

[blackkatt]

blackkatt: The bulbs that do that are the Blue Halogen bulbs with higher wattage than stock which get a lot hotter than the stock bulbs do. Even my stock bulbs did a bit of yellowing of my stock headlights and the lense, not too bad tho. The HID bulbs run cooler than a traditional halogen bulb does so it wont happen.

I was wondering what bulbs someone was using that caused the melted/yellow look on the lens. I figured that it was some higher wattage bulb.

So have you found yourself just driving around on low beams all the time now, or do you still use your high beams?

[986Jim]

So have you found yourself just driving around on low beams all the time now, or do you still use your high beams?

I never used them that oftin in the first place but when you flick them on you still see farther down the road because they are angled up so high.

Honestly nothing really has changed except that the lows are HID now and look better. I get the same visability on the road, just the light is a bit brighter where it was, whiter too. That and it looks a lot nicer.

Generally when you toss an HID bulb into a halogen housing they suck, but I'm seriously impressed with how well it worked on this car.. My previous 3 attempts or so have been pretty horible.

[bjarne996]

I am just about to start installing 42w HID conversion kits on my 996. It would be really helpful with some tips on the placement of the ballasts and the igniters. Did you manage to find room for them inside the wing, or did you have to place them in the luggage compartment?

[Paul Grainger]

I did this conversion on my 1999 996 C4 last month. I found that the best place to locate the ballast unit was on the 'shelf' between the wing and the headlamp unit guide frame. I cleaned the surface with a solvent cleaner, and then stuck the ballast units in place with double sided adhesive tapes (the system I used had a single ballast unit with integral igniter). I could have drilled and bolted them, but didn't see the need. I was concerned that the ballast units might get wet (they use high voltage on start-up), but this has so far been OK despite some really bad weather and flooding in the UK. I was originally planning to mount the ballast units in the luggage area - but the conecting cables between the ballast and the lamp unit weren't long enough (you need to be able to withdraw the headlight with the cable still attached) and I did not want to extend the HV cable. I removed the plastic inner wings to do this mod, but it is possible to complete the work without doing this.

It's a good mod, and well described in the previous postings.

Paul G

[bjarne996]

Thanks Paul,

I managed to install the two 42w ballasts on the "shelf" next to the wing, fixing them together and placing them sideways. I attaced them to the shelf using double sided tape as well as some silicone, in case the tape loosens with time.

I now enjoy my 98 996 C2 with bi-xenons!

Bjarne

[986Jim]

Glad you guys got it figured out!

I placed my ballasts in teh same location, however I just zip tied them to some existing wires that were running past the area so they didn't flop around. There really isn't anywhere for them to go so not much to worry about really, and seems like there is ample room for them back there so nothing gets tangled up.

[niebyl2002]

Recently I did my coversion also, however I picked up nissan 350z ballast and bulbs. Why? I figure out that these ballasts are the easiest to mount. One headlight took me 30 min!!!. No cut cables, no glue and what's more important ballast and back cover are sealed really good, since there is a big rubber o-ring.

I thought I will share my set up with everybody so others might to the same thing.

The Final effect.

[Westcoaster]

Recently I did my coversion also, however I picked up nissan 350z ballast and bulbs. Why? I figure out that these ballasts are the easiest to mount. One headlight took me 30 min!!!. No cut cables, no glue and what's more important ballast and back cover are sealed really good, since there is a big rubber o-ring.

I thought I will share my set up with everybody so others might to the same thing.

The Final effect.

Are they expensive... where did you get them?

[niebyl2002]

I bought them from ebay for 200$. Two ballasts and two bulbs. There are hundreds of offers, just search for one that suits you best.

You might find even cheaper. Usually average price for is set around 160$.

Edited September 24, 2006 by niebyl2002

[986Jim]

Except for the fact that the D2S bulb is not designed for an H7 housing, nor is the positioning of the ark on the bulb in exactly the correct spot.

Retrofitting a HID bulb into a halogen housing is bad enough, but luckly for us Porsche designed a really good halogen housing where an HID bulb works out.

If the light output isn't exactly as stock however you may end up with light in undesired spots. I would be curious to see the light from your headlights on a wall or something like what I did to see if they land as uniform as the stock lights do.

Any other pics?

[niebyl2002]

Yes you are right but only in 50%. There are a lot of different types of bulbs (D1S, D2S, D2R, not sure but I heard about D4S), but making long story short here's how it looks like.

There are two types of headlights: first ones are halogens (Mercedes, Porsche non litronic, Hondas, Acuras and etc.), the second types are projectors (Porsche Litronics, Bimmers and etc.)

Both types has xenon lights. The first type uses D2R bulbs like that:

The second type uses D2S bulbs like that:

The difference is that one bulb has been covered partially. There is also another factor: some of the halogen headlights doesn't have bulb cover inside the light:

Honestly in every conversion I've made, I'm using D2S bulbs and I'm lowering settings for both lights a little bit.

Later today I will post pics of my set up focused on the wall. At least I try.