Porsche Headlight Retrofit [from CAD, prototyping to finish)

[Nine8Six]

Chris - you said "When I flash my high beams, the stocks headlight comes on". Misleading mate, confuses even myself loll nocando!

1) from a DCV source, test all of your equipment first

• apply 12v to the ballast, see if one is doa (could happen, those mailmen loll)

• apply 12v to the high beam solenoid 25 times min. Should click 25 times just like it did prior shipment. If it misses half a heartbeat, send it back to me pls (its for the museum) - irrelevant

• apply 12v to the angel eye mini-ballast

If all works, slip inside the fender and do the same thing from the ignition switch (parking light chk, low beam chk, high beam chk)

Any trouble, you need to trace back to the Porsche part connectors on both, inside the fender and the back of the headlight. Oh, when fitting inside the fender... ensure they are as far back before starting the owner's headlight locking procedure. Trying to lock those while loose can create misalignment with the connector.

Old cracking cabling. Do a continuity chk on the low beam cables (Yel & Br) between the connector (were the ballast conn) and the headlight/Porsche PIN connector. Your cabling seems cracked a tad but nothing like I've seen before. Worth checking anyway

Can't be a wire short, your fuse would have gone. Last one I can think of is reversed polarity/somewhere... although your wiring seems to be in order mate. Strange one I agree... nothing with not being the best electro dude (I'm happily in your club btw!)

Guessing you've chk the xe bulbs already?

[KRAM36]

Here is another set particlewave did with gunmetal.



You don't really notice at first, but those have a black base to them like these and still looks sweet.

[BruceH]

A shot of my gunmetal

[KRAM36]

Looks great Bruce! Man these projectors sure spark up the Boxster headlights. Mine look just like yours.

[BruceH]

Originally Posted by KRAM36

Looks great Bruce! Man these projectors sure spark up the Boxster headlights. Mine look just like yours.

Yes they do, I am very happy with the results

[gtoger]

Originally Posted by KRAM36

Looks great Bruce! Man these projectors sure spark up the Boxster headlights. Mine look just like yours.

+1! I'm jealous! LOL

[amagalla]

Bruce has all the cool stuff. He flies planes, has a cool ass Porsche... He probably stopped aging when he was 25.

[BruceH]

Originally Posted by amagalla

Bruce has all the cool stuff. He flies planes, has a cool ass Porsche... He probably stopped aging when he was 25.

Now that's some funny stuff! My S is the coolest thing I own and it was less than half the cost of either of my two other vehicles, a truck and a Toyota Highlander. Without this forum, my Boxster would just be a plain Jane example. Thanks to this forum, I have those outstanding headlights(thanks Fred and Charles!), the OBC hack(Pdwight), the Skybreaker(Fred again), the one touch soft top(Shehadehd) and of course lots of various items from eBay I have a short shifter waiting in the garage(Ben) that looks like a work of art! Jake's spin on oil filter adapter. My calipers look better than new, I have an iPad mini installed that looks OEM, and a very reasonably priced performance exhaust, all thanks to the DIY section. Some really cool stuff and all of it because of a great group of guys, seriously, this forum is a pretty unique place. With the exception of a few spats and as long as we don't mention a certain animal that rhymes with "spats", things are pretty civil around here.

I just got in this morning at 4:50am after a 10 and a half hour flight, that will age you really fast But yes, flying airplanes is still pretty cool. It is all I have ever wanted to do and I know I am very fortunate to be able to get paid for something that I love doing

[clickman]

Originally Posted by BruceH

... all thanks to the DIY section. Some really cool stuff and all of it because of a great group of guys, seriously, this forum is a pretty unique place. With the exception of a few spats ... things are pretty civil around here.

What he said.

[CHRISP357]

Finally, my lights are done! All the trouble I was having and it turned out I was only missing one small step to have them perfect.
That one step was sending them to Particlewave!
Seriously, anyone considering projectors, don't waste your time. Just have them shipped to Charles direct. I won't go into detail about everything he did for me because I don't want everyone to expect extra work but suffice to say, I'm stoked! He started on them one night and sent status pictures that very night. He shipped them out the next day. They were out of my hands eight days total! Pretty impressive, even before you realize that one of the lights, I had started on and completely butchered. Total basket case that one.

In the end, I can't sing Charles praise enough! Great guy, great work.


Now, I do still have one problem. While working on my first light, at one point I reinstalled it (the other light was still in, untouched) and my headlights wouldn't come on. Running lights, fogs, everything worked but headlamps. When Charles did my conversion, he installed them in his car and sent me photos so I know the lights themselves aren't the problem. Anyone have any ideas? Before I started, everything was perfect.

[Pdwight]

Originally Posted by CHRISP357

Finally, my lights are done! All the trouble I was having and it turned out I was only missing one small step to have them perfect.
That one step was sending them to Particlewave!
Seriously, anyone considering projectors, don't waste your time. Just have them shipped to Charles direct. I won't go into detail about everything he did for me because I don't want everyone to expect extra work but suffice to say, I'm stoked! He started on them one night and sent status pictures that very night. He shipped them out the next day. They were out of my hands eight days total! Pretty impressive, even before you realize that one of the lights, I had started on and completely butchered. Total basket case that one.

In the end, I can't sing Charles praise enough! Great guy, great work.


Now, I do still have one problem. While working on my first light, at one point I reinstalled it (the other light was still in, untouched) and my headlights wouldn't come on. Running lights, fogs, everything worked but headlamps. When Charles did my conversion, he installed them in his car and sent me photos so I know the lights themselves aren't the problem. Anyone have any ideas? Before I started, everything was perfect.

Echo that......

[particlewave]

Hi Chris.
Glad you got them back ok and thanks for the kudos!
I probably spent 10-12 hours on them that first day, but I wanted to get them back to you ASAP.

So, both main beams aren't coming on? Angel eyes working ok?
I did find some bad wires that were missing insulation and shorted together...maybe a blown fuse, but IIRC, both have their own fuses so I doubt that. My next guess would be that the short cooked the contacts in the headlight switch.
I'll have a look at the wiring diagrams and see what all both headlights have in common.

[particlewave]

After some research and memory refreshers, I'm 99% sure that your headlight switch is cooked. You describe the exact symptoms of a bad switch, so that's where I'd start

Fuses A9 and A10 are the low beam fuses, so check those, but I doubt they'd both blow at the same time.

[CHRISP357]

Thanks Charles, I'm hoping for something easy. I'll order the switch tomorrow. Yes, angel eyes are working. Those red lights on a black car in a dark garage look so cool!

[particlewave]

Wow, those are expensive! You might check with Woody (itsnotanova) to see if he can set you up with a good used one at a decent price. There are some used on eBay, also, but Woody usually has the best prices.

[CHRISP357]

Not really a fan of used electronics. I just ordered one for $158 including freight.
Thanks though!

[particlewave]

That's probably best, especially since these switches don't have a great track record.
With the HIDs, the load is dropped by about 1/3 on low beams (from 100 watts with halogen to 70 watts with HIDs), so that will help the new switch to last longer.

The main issue is that all of the current passes through the switch. With most cars, the switch just operates a low current draw relay which powers the headlights.

[dagdisco03]

When ordering from Pelican do these still come with a halo ring inside? Is there still a choice of color for the halo? I'm going to email Pelican to check also. Thank you

[tominpa]

Just ordered from Pelican parts...was told order was processed and would be shipped...then got the dreaded email saying that all parts weren't ready for shipping no indication on when and my headlights were already boxed up and ready to be shipped for install...hope this doesn't take forever

[particlewave]

Yikes...I'll do some checking for you.