tmckenna

So being the "enthusiast" that I am I can't leave well enough alone and everything has to be perfect, or at least my definition of perfect. So after picking up my fully loaded, super lengthy window sticker having, 958 Turbo S I began my list of desired modifications for what most people would describe as a perfect car.

Front facing bulbs seemed like a good place to start because theyre not as spendy as exhaust parts, or a lowering module, and theyre extremely easy to install.

This idea, began a month long process of researching lightbulbs. Now I'm sure that sounds brutally boring, but let me tell you, it really was. I learned an obscene amount of information about headlight bulbs and output, but it took a long long time.

After much research, deliberation, and comparing drop in halogen bulb replacements, vs drop in led bulb replacements, vs full led system replacements, and even HID kits that require drilling the back of the headlight and mounting a ballast, I finally decided what I was doing for each bulb in the headlight.

Low Beam:
This was the easiest because it was just a matter of choosing a new D1S HID Bulb. Originally i went with the new Gen 2 Xtreme Vision bulbs from Philips. They were great bulbs, that perform really well on paper and also in real life. I probably would have kept them but my high beam choice (which youll read about shortly) was a much cooler (tested) 5950K than the Xtreme Vision's (tested) 4800K. I ended up settling on a set of the OSRAM Cool Blue Boost that perform very similarly to the Xtreme Vision but test at a slightly cooler 5450K.

High Beam:
This was the tough one because there were so many options. The first option I eliminated was a quick and easy halogen bulb upgraded. I came to this conclusion because the light output is very limited and basically all bulbs from reputable brands are very very warm in color. Next option, which I was actually set on doing for a while was an HID system upgrade. This option offers the absolute most light output, but it requires drilling the headlight housing and mounting the additional ballasts externally. I wasnt completely against the idea, and there are a couple other downsides to this option, but the light output from option 3 seemed to be sufficient enough to not justify drilling the costly PDLS headlight housings. Option 3 was replacing the H7 Halogen setup with a bulky LED bulb, with built in heat sink, and external driver. I ended up choosing this option because you get a huge amount of light output and don't have to put a hole in the headlight housing. The result as mentioned before was an LED that tested at 5950K

Cornering Light Bulb:
The factory H7 bulb was very warm, so naturally I wanted to swap it for something cooler. The problem was that the large LED systems with heat sinks and external drivers wont fit in the socket for the cornering light. Fortunately during my research I found less expensive LED options that drop into the factory socket and mount. I would NOT do this for the high beams because in the chance that you needed them to to be on for a extended period of time, without the heat sinks and/or fans I'd be worried about the heat production within the housing. Considering the cornering lights are only on for a couple seconds at a time, I'm not too concerned with the functionality of these bulbs in the cornering light sockets. The bulbs are advertised at 6000K but have not been tested like the others because theyre a bit of a lower profile option.

Fog Lights:
Now I haven't installed these yet but the best option for this car is the LED Projector Fog Lights from Morimoto. Because these are projector based housings they provide a better beam and better light production than any halogen or LED bulb replacement for the factory reflector housing. Will provide pictures in the near future.

Now for the pictures.

Low Beam:
I don't have "before" pictures, and to be honest the "after" isn't very a dramatic difference. You can see the low beam in all the following pictures.

High Beam:
Both pictures with Philips Xtreme Vision Gen 2 Low Beam Bulbs (4800K).
Before:

After:


Cornering Light:
Before Pictures with Philips Xtreme Vision Gen 2 Low Beam Bulbs. After Pictures with OSRAM Cool Blue Boost Low Beam Bulbs (Very slight color difference, but certainly noticeable).
Before:


After:


Fog Lights:
TBD

JoanClaymore

FYI: The Morimoto's aren't built to the recent SAE/ECE F3 standard, and they hit a maximum intensity of ~5000 candela, or in other words, about half the intensity of a Saturn daytime running light.

tmckenna

So you think theyd be worse than the factory housing?

DrBillyD

Nice look with the new bulbs; looks much more consistent.

Have you gotten any error messages after switching to different bulbs?

About a year ago I got some LED cornering lights (don't have exact brand/specs handy at the moment) and kept getting error messages. Somewhat interestingly, it only seemed to trigger an error message from one side (left, I believe). Yes, I tried switching the bulbs side to side--same resulting error message from same side.

After about a month of error messages, I switched back to OEM. No error messages since.

It's kinda hard to see in your pics, but have you switched out the side marker lights to "Euro" style with orange/silvered bulbs?

I've thought about changing out the entire light assembly for a blacked out GTS type (mine's a triple black 2014 CTTS with the grey/silver headlight housing), but am too lazy to pursue it.

tmckenna

When purchasing the LED Systems for the high beam the website recommended a "Decoder" for European cars. Most reviews I saw mentioned that it was unnecessary because in pretty much every application it worked completely fine with no bulb out errors. The decoder was only $20 so I figured if I wanted to install them in the most timely matter I was better off having them and not needing them, then needing them and no having them. Well needless to say I installed the systems without the decoders and they work fine with zero errors on the dash.

The cornering lights I was a bit more worried about because they appeared to be a much lower end product. No heat sinks, no fans, no driver for the diodes. Just a regular looking H7 bulb that happened to have LEDs on it. Luckily the bulbs popped into the factory socket without any issues and work flawlessly with no errors on the dash.

The side markers aren't swapped, Just tinted. I prefer the appearance when theyre black rather than clear/white or orange. I may even have them wrapped over with black because in really bright sunlight I still get a lot of orange color from those lenses.

My Cayenne is also Triple Black and luckily happens to have the Black PDLS housings. Ive never paid close enough attention to the headlights to differentiate lol

kennyt

Can you list out the brand/model of those bulbs?

hotrod2448

I actually started the research for this same project over the weekend. I don't really care about the color temp so much as having really good light output and to be honest the more blue the lights are the more the reflection off road signs seems to bother me. I think I'm going with the OSRAM Night Breaker Laser Xenarc Next generation (Good god these names are getting ridiculous). It looks like you can get this same series of bulb across the low beam, high beam, cornering light and fog light so hopefully they match up alright.

tmckenna

I got all my information from https://bulbfacts.com/ . They test the lumens, lux, and color output of each bulb individually, apples to apples, in a controlled environment. Theres a ton of information on that website and I learned a lot from my time sorting through it.

High beam (H7):
I chose the Lumibright XT1 because it uses high end Philips LEDs, and has the best high beam performance (lux output) of any of the LED kits on the website. Also these bulbs seemed to be made in America because they only ship to the continental United States.

Lumibright XT1, tested 7110 LUX in High Beam configuration, tested 5950K color, "PERFECT" beam pattern.

Because this was the largest modification of any of the bulbs this determined my bulb choice for the other components, to match colors as much as possible.

Low Beam (D1S):
Originally I went with the Philips Xtreme Vision Gen 2s but wanted a cooler bulb to match the above LED. Although the OSRAM Cool Blue Advance and Cool Blue Hyper test at a cooler color than the Cool Blue Boost, the Boost performs better than the Hyper and is about half the price of the Advance.

OSRAM Cool Blue Boost, tested 843 LUX with High Beam activated, tested 5450K color

Cornering Light (H7):
Amazon special advertised as a fog light bulb, it was the best reviewed drop in LED H7 replacement. There are some 1 star reviews regarding longevity and error codes, but considering the cornering lights are rarely on and I have no codes, I'm not worried at all.

Daywalker H7 LED Bulbs, ADVERTISED 1600 lumens (not lux) per bulb, ADVERTISED 6000K color

tmckenna

To be honest I took this approach as well, but if you're looking for really good light output you have to go LED or HID for the high beams. LEDs wont produce a warmer light and HIDs require drilling of the housing. Ultimately I tried to stay as close to 5500K or "pure white" as possible because I am aware that very blue light is actually bad for most if not all road driving conditions. Also... I really hate the "dirty", warm incandescent look lol.

All of the Night Breakers are great bulbs, the Lasers in particular. Just take a look at tested colors because theyre not necessarily the same across the board. Nightbreaker Laser HID bulbs (D1S for the projector) test at 4750K and the Laser Halogen bulbs (H7 for the the High Beam reflector) test at just 3625k

spyderbret

I was just going down this path myself. Thank you so much for saving me the time!!!! The results look great so I will be following your lead!!

tmckenna

Good to hear. Glad I could help out haha. Figured the extra detailed write up would give people most of the information for what I picked and why. Even if you don't do exactly the same thing, you have the information to make youre own educated decisions. Ultimately what it came down to for me was the the high beam bulb. My choice of high beam bulb determined the color, and everything after that was just trying to match it, with the best possible light output. The cornering light was a plus because I happened to find that cheapo drop in bulb during my searching.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

YaNi

Was there a noticeable improvement from upgrading the D1S low beam? I still have the OE bulbs.
I'm rather disappointed with the performance of the 958.1 PDLS; it's a pretty mediocre setup. Rather low intensity and not even a smooth beam pattern or cutoff. It's quite apparent with a car behind you; it looks like the Cayenne is casting a shadow.
I've been considering upgrading them to a Phillips or Osram in the 5000-5500k range, but am a bit skeptical that dropping >$150 on bulbs will have a significant improvement.
The fogs are pretty useless, like basically all factory fogs. I don't really see the point of upgrading them aside from aesthetics.

hotrod2448

Good to know. I assumed they would be reasonably close in kelvin if you are staying within the same bulb line up but, it does make sense given the HID vs Halogen difference. I've been hesitant on the LED replacements due to not being sure how well they work out in a housing designed for a different type of bulb. It may well be projectors that are finicky with LED replacement bulbs and halogen reflectors are just fine with it. I need to look into it more. Are you happy with the beam pattern after making the switch?

tmckenna

If youre a bit skeptical about upgrading the Low beam you probably wont like the difference for $150 or so. For me the biggest upgrade was the high beam and I changed everything else to match the color.

I've used my fogs productively in torrential downpour but that was once in my 9 years of driving. Figured if I was going to upgrade everything else I might as well do the fogs as well. It helps the projector fogs are mostly black so they look a bit more subtle but aggressive.

tmckenna

I have a lot of friends that are hardcore car enthusiasts and they were very against the idea of an LED or HID system in the factory Halogen location. That thought process was the reason for my extremely lengthy and thorough research. This is a common misconception that most people have because the market is so flooded and saturated with garbage. 99 out of 100 of the LED replacements or HID retrofits that are out there are crap, so people automatically assume that its all garbage, and most of it really is. Thats why I like bulbfacts.com so much, because they test a ton of the kits from all different sources and in all different price ranges and review them unbiased. The bottom line is that when it comes down to it the factory reflector housing is there to take light from the center and redirect it in a specific direction and it will do that regardless of the source of light (yes it can do it better or worse in certain scenarios).

In terms of beam pattern the LEDs are recommended to be clocked specifically so the direction the diodes are facing is parallel to the ground. I'm not sure about some of the other LED options but the ones I chose are clockable at every 10 degrees so you can position the bulb perfectly to get the best light output and beam pattern. The drop in LED bulbs for the cornering lights are not clockable but that was too important to me because its not a main source of light.