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.

arenared

Nice writeup and glad it worked out for you. Do you think you could use these for fogs? (Obviously, it's not foggy where I live.)

blinkwatt

Jim very nice write up. Do you have pictures of where you drilled the plastic on the headlights?

986Jim

Arenared: Not sure what you mean particurarly. Do you mean put HID lights in the fog light spot too? I probablly wouldn't try and you would have to hide another ballast and ignitor behind the headlight and it's gettin tight in there with the one's I already have. The stock fog lights acctually work quite well with the hid lights, they still light up the outside just like normal.

Nothing really changed putting in the hid. I get more light but not in any different spots, so the fogs still help out to light up the sides of the road and down low etc..

blinkwatt: Just drill the backing cover anywhere, I just put a hole in the middle of it. Just to be sure, were talking about the plastic cover laying on the ground in picture 7. The wires were plenty long enough for the hole to go just about anywhere. The cover has a few nice flat spots to drill. It's not really scientific, just drill anywhere and run em through. Honestly this was the easiest HID install ever.

First986NJ

Nice write up and lead. Thanks for your efforts. One question: Any particular reason that you selected the 5000k over the 6500k,8000k, or 10000k kits ? I would probably have gone with the 6500k myself.

986Jim

I had a 4300k OEM kit from a Audi A6 in my previous cars. It looked the most stock and the color was nice like OEM hid on cars. I saw my car next to guys with the 6500k hid when they first came out and were like $600 for a kit like this about 5 years ago if you remember that. I saw the 6500k and thought they didn't look very nice. They were too fake blue looking like all the guys with the then popular Xenon halogen lights that were $40 or whatever.

I have always equated them to that since then so I didn't want the 6500k kit. My buddy has the 8000k kit from CQlight in his Audi A3 and they look pretty good, nice and purple looking pretty cool.

I have the 5000k in my Jetta with projectors and like the color so I stuck with what I know. I didn't wanna order a kit and not like it.

Turboflyer

They look good, but I still think the pattern is broken. Reflectors not designed for HID dont fair well. The projection adaptation is a good way to go but it still utilizes a reflector housing. There are basically to types of bulbs reflector and projector, but the housing makes or breaks it. I personally like the 6000K spectrum. Nice blend giving a brilliant white blue twinkel light. Beyond that we get to far towards the purple and ultroviolent range. Some like the color for show, but not really a visible light to drive by.

986Jim

It's not more or less broken than the stock halogen lights in the stock housing are, however it's easier to tell now with HID in them and snapping a pic that stops everything with a camera. There is still more light on the road with better visability and no glare. True it's not a completly smooth light like litronics would put out, but they are not 1300 bux either.

Like I said before, better than what you have now, not as good as litronics, but a hell of a lot cheaper. There is no glare to oncoming traffic which is the most major problem with HID in a halogen housing. As long as you don't have that the other small trade-offs are made up in the extra light you get, plus the cool look of hid.

What you say about HID in halogen housings is totally true. I have had retrofits in a lot of my different cars and they were horible. I lit up the tops of trees down streets and stuff with glare. The Porsche headlight has a pretty sharp cut off stock so the HID did work out pretty well in them much to my surprise.

986Jim

Just an update, these lights are still going strong in both my Jetta and Boxster.

Jaak Lepson

Which colour would be better? I like the bright light ... just not the blue or purple tint.

986Jim

5000k is your ticket then. If you buy a used set from ebay that are oem they are 4300k. So the 5000k is pretty close to those just whiter. My 5000k upto my buddies 4300k made mine look normal and his a little yellow acctually. He still prefered his hahaha...

All hid's are a deep color when they first start up so initially they will look really blue, but about 2-3 minutes after they are turned on they go white.

Jaak Lepson

Jim ... thanks ...


BTW ... what was the duty & tax from post office delivery?

986Jim

Big fat zero if you get it through USPS. However I think he ships through fedex which cost me about 25 bux when they came through that way.

Jaak Lepson

He stated USPS ...... gotta like it .... according to his site. Thanks for the tip.

BTW .. like your beepster ... looking to get an '00s after I sell the 951.

What's yours? Like the arena red & rims

IXLOR8

Thanks for taking the time and effort in providing details on the HID conversion.

I was considering upgrading the H7 halogen bulbs.

I received an email from Daniel Stern Lighting concerning bulb upgrades:

Quote:

Osram Silverstar, Narva Rangepower+50, and Philips VisionPlus are all "Plus+50" H7 bulbs. They are, as a class, the best 55w H7s you can buy. But, Osram offers (and I stock) an even better option with higher output and longer life. Here is the comparison:

Standard H7: 55w, 1400 lumens, 500 hours

H7 ultra "Plus+50" (any brand): 55w, 1550 lumens, 225 hours, $17.50/ea

H7 rallye+65 (Osram only): 65w, 2100 lumens, 500 hours, $26.40/ea

The extra 10w is of no consequence as far as electrical power or heat -- those 80w to 100w bulbs are a different story, and they produce less light and have a shorter lifespan than the Osram 65w item.

Can also make your brake and front / rear turn signal lamps 40% brighter for $6.10/bulb, your reversing/backup lamps 100% brighter for $7.20/bulb, and your front parking lights, interior dome light(s), trunk/cargo compartment light(s), underhood light(s), and front sidemarker lights 60% brighter for $3.98/bulb.

There is also a zero-dollar easy modification you can make to the front sidemarker light wiring so that the front sidemarker lights also act as side turn signal flashers, see http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...rkerflash.html This is a LARGE safety improvement, as your turn signals become visible laterally instead of just front- or rear-on!


Has anybody upgraded the bulbs with these recommendations? Is this only a small step of improvement? Are HID's rated in LUMENS too?