a bit of a scare last night...

[Chronohunter]

So after dinner out last night I fired the car up to head home and the battery and oil pressure lights stayed on after I fired it up. I shut the car of and tried again and they went out immediately/normally. I then drove it gingerly and everything was normal (zero engine noise and bright headlights) then stopped shut it off and retired it again (just to check) and all was normal again. The car drove perfectly on the way home and fired up perfectly again this morning.

I am almost positive it is a problem with the gauge cluster warning lights or sensor glitch and was not an actual low oil pressure/low voltage event. I searched and could only find one person reporting the same anomaly in Florida with no solution posted.

Any thoughts on this?

Does anyone make a nice little DIN plug and play auxiliary gauge cluster that can put me at ease if it happens again?

Thanks in advance

[Timco]

A mediocre / low battery will give all kinds of odd light combos. I would start with new battery before condemning any part.

[Chronohunter]

Originally Posted by Timco

A mediocre / low battery will give all kinds of odd light combos. I would start with new battery before condemning any part.

Thanks, it seems to have good cranking power, could it still be faulty and have good voltage/amperage?

Like you said good place to start!

[Timco]

Originally Posted by Chronohunter

Thanks, it seems to have good cranking power, could it still be faulty and have good voltage/amperage?

Like you said good place to start!

Someone will weigh in on voltages and which way the electrons flow shortly.

I was amazed how much faster mine cranked over with a new battery and I thought mine cranked fine....

[tomc88]

I've had two cars' electronics go crazy due to low battery

[Chronohunter]

So the cause seems to be my aftermarket HID high beams. I have now had several different random warning lights come on when I switch on the high beams. The warning lights stay on until the car is turned off. Everything operates properly just the warning light(s) come on. The headlights operate perfectly. It seems to stop happening after 10 minutes or so of driving if you turn the car off and restart it. I have had oil pressure once battery twice and rear spoiler once. I hope there is a solution because the stock high beams are horrible! The HID's are seemingly good quality and supposedly "OBED2" compliant and they work great (besides the warning light issue).

Anyone else seen anything like this before... I sure haven't!

Suggestions welcome

[Nine8Six]

Sorry to hear about your issues mate. I actually hate those kind of ghost electrical issues in my anything. Even less on my cars

Like some mentioned, weak voltages/current may cause a few things to act up or even fail. HID kits draw aprox 6~7amps. More if you use those 55watts kits. If you fear your ballasts or bulbs being defect, I'd remove those immediately and replace with some of the latest gears. Doesn't have to be "supreme quality" as most if not all common HID kits you find today has pretty solid built-in protection features. Cheap ones you see advertised everywhere has them also. Pretty standard

If you are in love with the HID kit you have, the first thing I'd do to them is reseal them. HID kit are known to act when humidity/condensation reach inside the ballasts. To sort this problem you need to dry first and poor thermally conductive epoxy inside the ballast enclosure enough to cover all of the components. eBay $5/300ml or something like that...

Luck 2U

[BrandonJames89]

Originally Posted by Chronohunter

So the cause seems to be my aftermarket HID high beams. I have now had several different random warning lights come on when I switch on the high beams. The warning lights stay on until the car is turned off. Everything operates properly just the warning light(s) come on. The headlights operate perfectly. It seems to stop happening after 10 minutes or so of driving if you turn the car off and restart it. I have had oil pressure once battery twice and rear spoiler once. I hope there is a solution because the stock high beams are horrible! The HID's are seemingly good quality and supposedly "OBED2" compliant and they work great (besides the warning light issue).

Anyone else seen anything like this before... I sure haven't!

Suggestions welcome

Did you install a relay to get power from the battery directly? When the ballast is drawing current at start up it is probably dipping your voltage at the other components too low and setting off the warning lights. Could also be electromagnetic interference from the ballast. Make sure the ballast is placed far away from other electrical components and grounded properly to the chassis. Because your battery light comes on when you turn the lights on I'm guessing it's because of the current draw the ballast requires on start up. If there is no relay, try installing one first, if not, ground and shield the ballast or move it to another location.

I'm assuming it starts up fine after driving more aggressive because you are getting the voltage levels back to normal using the alternator. If you have a multimeter get a voltage reading at some part of the circuit and have someone flip on the HIDs to see if there is a drop in voltage when the lights are turned on.

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by Chronohunter

So the cause seems to be my aftermarket HID high beams. I have now had several different random warning lights come on when I switch on the high beams. The warning lights stay on until the car is turned off. Everything operates properly just the warning light(s) come on. The headlights operate perfectly. It seems to stop happening after 10 minutes or so of driving if you turn the car off and restart it. I have had oil pressure once battery twice and rear spoiler once. I hope there is a solution because the stock high beams are horrible! The HID's are seemingly good quality and supposedly "OBED2" compliant and they work great (besides the warning light issue).

Anyone else seen anything like this before... I sure haven't!

Suggestions welcome

Very common with aftermarket HID kits, have encountered several cars with similar issues.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

Very common with aftermarket HID kits, have encountered several cars with similar issues.

Do me a favour please, pass my contact to these guys (Nine8Six lol). We've lit-up little over 200 Porsche cars over the last 10months without issues (canbus only). Old 986s to new 997s and Panemeras.

OP had them functioning fine before. Very common for those aftermarket HID kits to 'unseal' with time so if not the battery then I suspect humidity (90% of time is what makes those kits go wrong) :/ reseal or just get another kit dispatched from HK. Cheap-Cheap High Tech these days!

[CoBeerToad]

I'm pretty sure this is the guy who sold me my car.

[Chronohunter]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

Do me a favour please, pass my contact to these guys (Nine8Six lol). We've lit-up little over 200 Porsche cars over the last 10months without issues (canbus only). Old 986s to new 997s and Panemeras.

OP had them functioning fine before. Very common for those aftermarket HID kits to 'unseal' with time so if not the battery then I suspect humidity (90% of time is what makes those kits go wrong) :/ reseal or just get another kit dispatched from HK. Cheap-Cheap High Tech these days!

Thanks for the help everyone

It actually did start the day I put in the HID high beams (I have Litronic HID factory low beams) and it does happen on start up, it think the relay would solve it I will try that first. I did seal the ballasts (and everything else) when I installed the kit. The kit was listed on ebay as:

(CAN-BUS)12V 50W H7 4300K Germany ASIC chip HYLUX HID Xenon conversion kit

What relay would you guys recommend?

[Nine8Six]

lol the problem started the same day you installed a HID kit and you are asking the crowd what could be a mysterious electrical problem?! Was great you found the problem "first" at the end

relays are DC12-24-48volts good to go and everywhere mate. ebay is a good shop

[Chronohunter]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

lol the problem started the same day you installed a HID kit and you are asking the crowd what could be a mysterious electrical problem?! Was great you found the problem "first" at the end

relays are DC12-24-48volts good to go and everywhere mate. ebay is a good shop

I know! Sharp as a bowling ball huh!? In my feeble defense it's my first Porsche and couldn't see how that could be related, they are exotic strange beasts and I am learning slowly with all of everyone here's patient help

[BrandonJames89]

Just a side note about using HIDs for high beams:

Most companies and individuals don't use HIDs as a separate high beam because of the time it takes for the bulb to get to normal operating temps. If you use them for long periods of time in remote areas where you aren't blinding people then they might be better. They won't be very effective flashing for a warning and the short on/off period will most likely greatly reduce bulb life.

Bi Xenon headlights are usually the only ones to use HID bulbs as a high beam and that's not how the litronics were designed.

[Chronohunter]

Originally Posted by BrandonJames89

Just a side note about using HIDs for high beams:

Most companies and individuals don't use HIDs as a separate high beam because of the time it takes for the bulb to get to normal operating temps. If you use them for long periods of time in remote areas where you aren't blinding people then they might be better. They won't be very effective flashing for a warning and the short on/off period will most likely greatly reduce bulb life.

Bi Xenon headlights are usually the only ones to use HID bulbs as a high beam and that's not how the litronics were designed.

Those are valid points, the actually flash pretty well but then dim and slowly brighten to full power all in about two seconds. I can say however that even when at the dimmest of the warming cycle they are brighter that the stock (pathetic) hi beams. Also once warmed momentary dimming for on coming cars doesn't really have any warm up period, they go straight back to full power. I do live in the rural mountains of colorado so I really need great headlights... high and low.