944 & hid upgrade

[appletonn]

Hi,
picking up my new 944 turbo soon and have clearly spent far too much time on Rennlist and other such forums as I have already ordered a strut brace from the US for a car that I have not yet bought and am now worrying about the integrity of the headlamp wiring loom, especially if i want to upgrade the lights to hid...!!

Anyone had any headlight loom issues with their 944 and has anyone done a 'hid' conversion on their 944?!

Thanks
Nick

Note to self, get some work done and stop loitering on Porsche forums...

 

[John Sims]

Welcome to the forum Nick. I can see you are going to fit in here just fine.

Have a search on the headlight issue. I would recommend the IceShark conversion but, regrettably, he is no longer with us. 944s have very adequate headlamps providing all the connections are in good working order. A small drop in voltage (as we only have a handful of volts to start off with) equates to a large drop in wattage.

Not a great lover of HID systems or overly bright lights as your search may reveal.

 

[xenon]

I did this on my 944 and there is a thread with some installation pictures somewhere. I carefully adjusted the shield on the discharge tube to get the cut-off nice and sharp and then took it to a beam aligner at an MOT station who decreed it was perfectly OK. Nevertheless, it seemed to meet with universal condemnation on here.

The last three cars I have had personally and also my wife's car have had factory-fit bi-xenon lights and whilst the 944 can't quite match those it is infinitely better than the standard 944 H4 headlamps which are woeful by modern standards. I'm an electronic engineer and was quite certain that the connections on the halogen lights were in good order but the light output was not satisfactory for me.

If you do go for it, try and get 4300K bulbs.

Also be aware that it is, strictly speaking, illegal.

 

[appletonn]

Thanks for responses thus far and will now go off to search under hid conversions!

Having quite a low riding/ low slung car for my day job, I am all too aware of the dazzling effect of badly installed/adjusted Xenon lights. However, having driven a few 944 turbos prior to picking this one, I think I have been spoilt by my 'modern' day to day cars in so far as the headlights are concerned.

As I am booked to go to Le Mans next year and i want to use my new toy as much as possible, I do not want to put my, already myopic, eyes under any more strain than they already are, hence my desire to improve the lux of my lux (well turbo)!!

Car is going into Hartech at the beginning of December for full health check ahead of next years plan to do some track days and apply for my basic B licence to try my hand at some gentle sprinting.

Look forward to exchanging advice and experiences with you all over the year to come.

Cheers
Nick

 

[poprock]

ORIGINAL: xenon

I did this on my 944 and there is a thread with some installation pictures somewhere.

Just out of curiosity, can you shed any light on these?(Pun unintentional, but recognised.)

Do they seem reasonable, or cheap tat? I don't believe the "˜plug and play' claims for one moment, but would wiring them up be a fairly simple job?

 

[xenon]

Also see:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/videos/featuresvideos/204742/xenon_test.html

and

From the DfT:

December 2006

Aftermarket HID headlamps

In the Department's view it is not legal to sell or use after market HID lighting kits, for converting conventional Halogen headlamps to HID Xenon. If a customer wants to convert his vehicle to Xenon HID he must purchase completely new Xenon HID headlamps. The reason for this is that the existing lens and reflector are designed around a Halogen filament bulb, working to very precise tolerances. If one places a HID "burner" (bulb) in the headlamp, the beam pattern will not be correct, there will be glare in some places and not enough light in other places within the beam pattern.

The following is the legal rationale:

The Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 regulate the situation in the UK.
Under these Regulations, HID/Gas Discharge/Xenon headlamps are not mentioned and therefore they are not permitted according to the strict letter of the law.

However new vehicles have HID headlamps. This is because they comply to European type approval Regulations. The UK cannot refuse to register a vehicle with a European type approval. These are to ECE Regulation 98 (for the HID headlamps which are tested on a rig in a laboratory) and ECE Regulation 48 (Lighting Installation on the vehicle).

For the after market, a used vehicle cannot obtain type approval because it is only applicable for new vehicles. However we feel that saying "HID is banned in the after market" would not be reasonable. Instead we should make analogies with new vehicles. It would be reasonable to require HID in the after market to meet the same safety standards as on new vehicles. The same level of safety should apply.

Therefore a HID headlamp unit sold in the after market should:

1. be type approved to ECE Regulation 98 as a component.

2. when fitted to the vehicle should enable ECE Regulation 48 to be complied with (although no government inspection will take place).

3. Comply with RVLR as far as "use" is concerned.
In practice this means:

1. The headlamp unit (outer lens, reflector, bulb) shall be type approved to ECE 98 and be "e-marked" to demonstrate this. That can only be done by the headlamp supplier - Hella, Valeo etc. who must test the headlamp in an independent laboratory.

2. Once fitted to the vehicle it must have headlamp cleaning and self-levelling (which can be for the headlamp or can be in the vehicle suspension - some expensive estate cars have "self-levelling suspension" and that is adequate). Also the dipped beam must stay on with the main beam.

3. The headlamp must be maintained in good working order, kept clean, and aligned/adjusted correctly like any other headlamp.

Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 it is an offence to supply, fit or use vehicle parts which are not legal.

In summary it is not permitted to convert an existing halogen headlamp unit for use with HID bulbs. The entire headlamp unit must be replaced with one designed and approved for use with HID bulbs and it must be installed in accordance with the rules stated above.


If you require any further information regarding the regulations covered by this fact sheet, please contact the DfT at the address below:

Transport Technology and Standards 6
Department for Transport
Zone 2/04
Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street Telephone: 020 7944 2078
London Fax: 020 7944 2196
SW1P 4DR Email: TTS.enquiries@dft.gsi.gov.uk

 

[xenon]

ORIGINAL: poprock

Just out of curiosity, can you shed any light on these?(Pun unintentional, but recognised.)

Do they seem reasonable, or cheap tat? I don't believe the "˜plug and play' claims for one moment, but would wiring them up be a fairly simple job?

@ Poprock:

No good for a dual-filament H4 bulb as they are low-beam only. As you know the 944 low and high beam are the same unit (forgetting supplementary lights). You need a bi-xenon conversion.

 

[appletonn]

By the way, why does it say I am a non-member under my ID, when I have my PCGB membership number in my profile?!

Just wondering...

...gets coat

 

[xenon]

If you do a search on "Switch illumination" that (bizarrely) contains pictures of my HID conversion.

 

[appletonn]

Thanks Xenon

How does the current draw with the new setup compare to the original halogens?

Just to refer back to my original query too, is there any risk with the original lights loom, cracking/ shorting etc?

Thanks again
Nick

 

[xenon]

The current draw of the ballast is less than the halogen bulb, IRO 35W. (as opposed to 55/65)

 

[Diver944]

Hi Nick, congrats on the purchase and I know exactly what you mean about the addiction of Rennlist (especially all their talk of huge power turbo cars [8D] ). Good call on taking the car to Hartech. Barry, the owner is as clued up on 944s as anyone so you won't go far wrong. We generally organise quite a few 944 track days during the season so stick around until it all strats up in earnest next Spring.

The wiring loom that attaches directly to the back of the bulb is prone to failure. Purely due to the mechanical up and down mechanism as you repeatedly switch your lamps on and off over the years. Both of mine have had the offside fail and needed wiring replacement. I am another one who is more than happy with the lighting setup on 944's and positively hate to distraction all these modern overbright headlamps that cause me to squint or even close my eyes as they approach. I agree that it is probably due to the low seating posiition in our cars as I am generally happy as Larry when driving my VW van []

Before going down the potentially illegal route of HIDs I would recommend making sure the lens and reflective surface in your current lamps are still at 100%, new headlights are around £70 each. Then make sure you are getting the full voltage to the bulb or it won't have a chance. A good local auto electrician will be able to wire in a relay system so that the bulb gets the full voltage and doesn't route it through the dash switch

 

[Diver944]

Oooh and see this thread about getting your membership status updated for the forum:

http://www.porscheclubgbforum.com/tm.asp?m=70284

Don't worry if it takes a while []

 

[poprock]

ORIGINAL: xenon

@ Poprock:

No good for a dual-filament H4 bulb as they are low-beam only. As you know the 944 low and high beam are the same unit (forgetting supplementary lights). You need a bi-xenon conversion.

That's a very good point. Cheers! I skim-read the eBay ad and though it looked a bit on the cheap side.

 

[xenon]

See? You make no friends with the HID route! []

I can only conclude that there must have been something wrong with my halogen lights then, if eveyone else swears by them but I don't know what. I measured the voltage at the bulb and even measured the voltage-drop (negligeable) from the main live feed to the fusebox, through the fuses, headlamp switch and to the spade connector on the bulb. I didn't physically exchange the headlamp bowls however, which may have helped.

Too used to modern lighting systems I guess.