Litronics
 

Okay, someone tell me what bulbs are in the litronics. What wattage are they? I assume they are higher than the standard 55W? If they are just the 55W, why do we not hear people just replacing stock bulbs with whatever is in the litronics?

I'm sure I'm about to get a lesson from Stryke :)

probably...hehe
actually I dont know what bulbs are in there. I got the Litronics about 3 months ago and installed them but havent had my car pretty much since due to work being done. I do know the litronics are superior for lighting over the aftermarket bulbs. I put the aftermarket bulbs in my ML320 and I dont think it works as well :/

I really like no ambers on the front lights, but in truth, I don't have a problem with visibility with my stock lights. I certainly don't like the 'blue' look. (they're annoying when I see them on the road) Everyone says they're great (the litronics). Maybe its a world of difference if I sat behind the driver's seat.

From what I've seen you can get something fairly close to HID/ litronics by using a high output 100/80 watt bulb. However, you will only output about 1400 lumens on lowbeam compared to maybe 2500-3000 on a HID system. You may need to upgrade the headlight wiring harness and I don't know how long they last.

I would choose

http://www.sylvania.com/auto/silverstar.htm since I rarely drive at light. The output color is whiter and you don't need to upgrade your head light wiring harness with a 60/70 bulb.

In the US the Porsche HID (known as Litronics) uses the Philips 4100K HID bulbs. I import them as well. They cannot be used alone. HID bulbs run on 35W and require a ballast to power. They do not have filaments like halogen bulbs and they work by igniting an arc in a compressed gas capsule and by exciting the gas creating illumination at 3,200lm. They are about 350% brighter than a 55W H7 halogen bulb.

Because they do not have filaments you need very high voltage to ignite an arc through an air gap. Air is an insulator and it requires 23,000 volts to allow the arc to jump the gap. Here's a simple electrical formula. Voltage X Amperage = Wattage.

A 55W halogen bulb running at 12V will draw 4.58 amps. That is what creates heat. An 80W H7 running on the same 12V will be brighter but now draw 6.66 amps and produce about 46% more heat than the 55W bulb.

A 35W ballast in HID will draw 35W at 12V which is only 2.91 amps and therefore less heat and power from the vehicle. It will simply act as a transformer and raise the voltage to 23,000 Volts and as a result drop the current to around 0.001527 amps (or 1.5 milliamps) That is why HID burns much much cooler than halogen.

Remember, it is not high current (amperage) that's required to ignite the HID bulbs, it is merely high voltage and voltage does not create heat, only current does!

The second item built into the ballast (Hella is used in Porsche and sometimes Bosch, all German made) is the igniter or starter. They help initially ignite the bulb and the xenon gas in the capsule also aids in this process. The more xenon gas, the bluer the light, the more krypton gas, the more purple the light. Philips Ultinon bulbs are rated at 6000K which makes them more purple. The 4100K factory bulbs are pure white. They may give off color at certain angles because they are running through a Hella crystal projector.

The spherical shape of the projector tends to bend the white light at angles and when light is bent the different colors travel at different speed thus allowing faster colors like blue and purple hit your eyes first. The same effect can be seen in a quality cut diamond when it bends the light and gives off colors in the blue-purple hue.

There is alot more technical data about lighting and HID, but this is good general knowledge for those interested. I will link you here to my company's FAQ on HID's for a little more detail. :)

HID FAQ

Hope this helps shed some light (pun intended!) :)

That was easy even for me to understand. The volts are jumped up but the amps go down. Like when I switched my electric air compressor motor from 110 volts over to 220 volts. I sort of remember ohms law from school. And it is not the volts but the amps that can kill you I think.

If there is a bulb question I will send them to you. Check the tech board from time to time as there are lighting questions. http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php?act=idx

About all I know is that too much heat will discolor/burn our plastic headlights. I have seen them.

Jeff,

While it is high current (amperes) that will kill you, high voltage is required to drive the current through your body. A big misconception is that water is a good conductor of electricity. On the contrary, water is a great insulator. It is the salt and other minerals in the water that conduct. Pure distilled water is an insulator.

Think of the current as the poison and the voltage as the force driving it. The poison will only harm you if injected with high enough force. Low voltage and high current will not do much (such as a 12V car battery capable of 120A typically but only 12V.) On the other hand, a high voltage low current will not harm you either like a static electric shock which can be 10,000 volts or more, but with milliamperes of current. It's the combination of both like the socket in your house which is 120V with 15A or so which will knock you off your feet!

I am lazy to keep typing out these answers all the time so I apologize for not responding to every light question I see on forums. I also come here to enjoy my hobby of P-Cars and not to drive business so I typically hide my occupation on these boards.

Aside from my Bachelors in business (B.S.) I also have an A.A. in electrical engineering.

Regards,
Gil

So, at 6.66 amp draw the stock wiring harness and basically all the wiring that deals with the light needs to be at least 16-18 gauge wire...16 to be on the safe side. Does anyone know what is the gauge of the stock wiring harness?

So, the good thing is we elimated the 100/80 watt bulbs as an option. A probable melted harness and melting covers are not good.

I had a small rock crack in a cover a while back and went to the dealer expecting it would be about $150-$200 for the cover with the Porsche pricing being what it is...Nope, $450 plus tax. Ouch!

Well if you do manage to burn the plastic I will make you a hell of a deal on replacing your front lights. I have my origional front lights since I upgraded to the Litronics. If anyone melts theirs or messes them up I will be happy to unload my old set :)

450 bucks on a small plastic headlight cover!! Only porsche could rob someone like that! Stryke, you are the man when it comes to lights. Thanks for the above posts, they were very informative and interesting.

Adam, if you think that $450 for a housing is alot it's a good thing you don't have litronics. The dealer price on EACH is $1,110.98.

But Stryke, I do have litronics. They were a 1,050 dollar option on my car. Way better deal than the $1,800 extra I spent on the bose stereo(its good, but not $1,800 dollars good). I don't have a problem with the lights( I think they are well worth the $$) however $450 for plastic!!! We are talking about a piece of molded plastic here.

About 1k for each side stryke?? Lesson of the day, if you want litronics get them with the car, not later. It sounds like some people are paying 2ice as much as they should.

Suncoast Performance sells the litronic complete setup brand new for 1,050. Thats where I got mine since I bought mine much later.

Yup, I just confirmed with Rick that they do sell them cheap. Can't beat that price! They list at double normally. :)

Rick tends to have great prices on Porsche stuff.

yeah also these guys sell them cheap too....

http://www.2fam.com/index.html

Yes, Bob at Foreign Affairs also has good pricing on Porsche parts. :)

Headlamp wiring
 

Does anyone know which is the negative and positive wire for the headlamps? I'm putting in the HID Xenon kit but got confused by the yellow and brown wires on the Boxster headlamps with nothing showing negative or positive? Also if anyone had done this where did you mount the ballblast device?

Our factory HID bulbs are the DS2 type. If you need to replace them, tell the vendor you need DS2, i would upgrade the color temp from the stock 4000-4500k range to the 6000k cause that is more of a bright white with a hint of blue.

FYI, the DS2 type bulbs are the most expensive out there.