xenon light blew out... any idea why?
 

hey guys, i've had my 2003 boxster since april, perfect car never a problem, i just use it to commute to work and drive around the neighborhood... i have 6000 miles on it, and apparently i realized today that one of my xenon bulbs isn't working? but what surprised me is, aren't they supposed to last a decent amount of time? i think its covered under warranty im going into porsche tomorrow to have them replace the bulb... any ideas on how or why this could have happened... the litronics system works fine (the bulbs move up and down still when you turn the key i checked) and the normal fog lights work... just one of the xenon bulbs is apparently blown, i cant see any damage or anything to it, and i always garage my car, never drive it hard...

I totally doubt this is it but... is it possible it got disconnected or something due to the subwoofer vibrations or something ridiculous like that?

That is wierd, I have a Lexus with 30,000 miles with Xenons, and the service guy said they will not blow until after I sell the car.

I thought i read somewhere that xenon bulbs were more prone to dying when you flash the high beams a lot. But again i'm totally clueless on this subject so don't take my word on it...

I consider myself an expert on xenon lighting as I was one of the largest importers of automotive xenon lighting products for the last three years. I will tell you that on average your bulbs are rated at around 2,000 hours but as with any other "electronic" device they may be defective or fail prematurely. Considering the age of your vehicle see if the dealer will replace it for you. A bulb alone can be had for $100-200.

holy buckets! It costs this much to replace a HID lamp in a litronic setup?

I think I'll stay with my conventional old headlamps for now... the replacement bulbs are less than $20!

Thanks for the info guys here's my debriefing

I went to South Shore Porsche this afternoon on Long Island (my dealership), my mechanic tried to replace the bulb but that wasn't the problem, he said he thinks the module was broken, so he replaced the entire litronic light. He said sometimes this happens, but its rare. Either way - the bulb was covered under warranty as was the entire lightcase/module/litronic thing itself which is what I neded up needing.

Thanks again for the input.. while I was there got to see the 2005 911 Turbo S & 2005 Carrera. I'm kind of glad they left the 2004 lighting style on the Turbo, personally I like it better than the redesigned 911 carrera front.

Your problem must have been either the faulty ignitor or ballast. I did a retrofit on my car from a bmw x5 hid and put the bulbs in. The bulbs you can get easily from anybody as long as its philips or osram xenarc. Brand new they are 100-120 but people in my forum think its ridiculous so they sell theirs once their bulbs *colorshift* which makes ur bulbs output a little blue with intense color at the cutoff around 200 hrs. So you get that nice blue/deep purple flicker from miles and miles away. If you had blown a ballast, people on the site are always helping people out by selling ballast and what nots. I had one of mine fried and a friend of mine sent his immediately w/ of course the price which is FAR FAR cheaper than the ones at a dealership for which they are asking 350 for ONE I have a set of OEM ballast and bulbs for 200. So if anyone of u think u have a problem hit me up. Thanks

BTW when I said retrofit . its not putting BLUE lights in. I think those are lame and you just lose the useable light for when you drive. When I said retrofits I took a bmw x5 projector light out , fabricated it in my car , added ballasts and ignitors in. aimed it. and now u can see a honda civic with HID lol. And no I'm not one of those ricer boys that kit up their car. I like to drive safe at night and dont want to be one of the MASS people hitting a deer or moose. I have to say HID or how Porsche calls it Litronic I dunno why , HID's have basically made my driving at night safer. I suggest people with the boxster have their litronics installed. Porsche as that auto-leveling system and I must reiterate. Drive in one of those at night and you'll never go back to Halogen lights or BLUE bulbs. lol . Okay I'm off my soap box

TO SHORTBUX Porsche Litronic on the boxster is called bixenon. Now when I say that its a little shield that is called the cutoff. the dark area above the light when u shine it on the wall. like this ______/--------- _______/-------- Now for a high beam to work that shield will move down from the bulb and use that Xenon's bright bright light to spread all all over. Basically the bulb never got brighter at all when instead a shield moved down and the bulb spread up the higher part of the cutoff line