Can someone point me to some H7 LED headlight bulbs for my 2002 986?

[BoxsterInTheSun]

Has anyone had any success with H7 LED headlight bulbs that can be sourced from Amazon? If so please drop some links here. Thanks in advance!

[Starter986]

Originally Posted by BoxsterInTheSun

Has anyone had any success with H7 LED headlight bulbs that can be sourced from Amazon? If so please drop some links here. Thanks in advance!

I don't think anyone ever has had success with those H7 LEDs. Furrther, I don't believe that topic has been covered in detail, on this forum and in this category, within the last 60 day. I'm sure a less smart-ass personality will chime in with a proper response to your inquiry.

In my defense, it's only 420A.

[PLP]

Originally Posted by Starter986

In my defense, it's only 420A.

It is always 5 o'clock somewhere...


As for the LEDs

Are you asking for a plain swap? Plug and Play like setup?
Then you can let it rest. There is no good LED chip that would relatively good mimic halogen filament in light distribution.
Yes, on paper the light source is much more intense and bright. But the reflector is unable to distribute the light properly. As a result you get hot spots, cold spots, glare... Some parts of the road will be well lit, while others will be dim.

The only proper way is to perform a LED projector retrofit/swap.

Or, if you must, do HID.

HID, as opposed to LED, is concentrated light source (small spot, like filament and with almost 360 degree of light, minus the electrode). LED chips are placed on two sides on a piece of metal and LEDs have 120 degree light distribution. Hence, from both sides you get a total of 240 degree max, what means you get two sides of 60 degree each that is dim.
And that is the problem with LED, which is not for HIDs.

[Wret]

I went down the LED rabbit hole. I bought 3 different brands before finding one that was an improvement over standard halogen bulbs. You might not find it surprising that the specs of led bulbs available on Amazon are greatly exagerated. It's kind of like sheet thread count: everyone claims a bit more than their competitors with no testing or accountability.

My results were as follows:
#1 Beamtech: very cheap and very dim.
#2 RIDROID: Spent more. Light output was pretty good but one failed in about a week.
#3 Fahren: Spent even more. Very bright and has held up for about a year. I had to adjust the lights way down to prevent dazzling oncoming traffic.

[Uwe]

I installed a set of Katana LED's in my 986 in April of last year. I am quite well pleased with them, they are definitely much brighter than the Halogens, and seem to run cooler, which should help discoloration of the clear headlight cover on the inside of the assembly. Mine have crispy corners near the top, not bad but noticeable. As far as beam spread goes, mine work fine, I did one at a time and then pointed the car against my white garage wall. No adjustment was necessary, the height and tilt of the beam seemed right to me. The beam spread is very nice, which works for my somewhat rural area with many non paved sand roads. I had the same concerns as PLP about internal light points, but in the end it worked out very well.No one so far has flashed their lights at me at night thinking Im blinding oncoming traffic. And of course their output ratings are grossly exaggerated, but I must say it is a vast improvement over the H7 Halogen lens burners.

[Deserion]

There are several issues with the glut of LEDs available on Amazon at present.

While an LED unit can get close to a halogen in terms of usability in a reflector designed for the latter, it’ll still end up with glare to some extent. I had a decent set of H7s in mine with low glare.

The main issues I’m seeing now are LED cluster size versus halogen filament, placement versus halogen filament, adaptability (some have easily movable adapter rings that hinder correct orientation. Bar-none the major shortcoming is the lack of thermal management. Majority I saw on Amazon (cursory look) had no means to dissipate heat. Those with fans can be hit or miss on fitment into the low-beam due to clearance with the back cover. I had flexible copper mesh and it worked well enough though after time the units did dim somewhat compared to startup.

If I were doing this again I’d try the units from Philips, Sylvania/Osram, or genuine Porsche.