turboluvr

Greetings, I know several RLers have had this problem over the years.

I've had intermittent Litronic problems for the past 10 years. One light will occasionally go out, just takes a flick of the switch to bring it back but it has finally bitten the dust and it looks like the other side is following close behind. One of my ballast ignitors, the part inside the headlight bucket, has gone bad, I isolated the defective part by swapping HID components between sides. It is a Bosch (p/n 1 307 329 019) 35w, 2-pin ignitor, unfortunately Bosch discontinued the part in 2002 w/ no replacement identified. Porsche doesn't sell the part by itself and no independent parts houses carry it, however they will sell it to you as part of a $2500 headlight assembly or a $680 repair kit. For prices like that it better be hand-made by Bosch gnomes from pure unobtainium. LA Dismantlers doesn't sell them individually anymore and used supplies have just about dried up. Occasionally they show up on eBay, but it's still a 12-18 year old electrical part. My options are:

(1) Find a secret hidden stash of OEM HID parts.
(2) Find a similar replacement ignitor that fits and is electrically compatible, I tired a 35w Bosch ignitor from a '99 996, didn't work.
(3) Retrofit a modern HID kit, I'm leaning this way. Not so much a stickler for originality if it works and improves drivability, and we're talking about an electric system designed in the HID dark ages. I'm assuming that a slim ballast for D2S bulbs will work fine but would like some suggestions on rewiring before I start messing with the headlight harness.

Any help on these options would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks James

Bradford

I feel for you! I had the exact problem with my car and was lucky enough to get a used one from LA Dismantlers for around $250. This was probably 4-5 years ago. Since then, as you mentioned, LAPD stopped selling just the ignitors. On occasion, you will see these pop up on the 993 forum. I am pretty sure that there are not any ignitors from other cars that will work. Good luck

turboluvr

Scott, I saw your old posts and felt your frustration. This has finally gone past annoying and quirky and it's time to do something about it. I do call my Turbo Leela, after the one-eyed character on Futurama.

Slate993tt

I had similar problem on my 96'. No other igniter works...however my wrench Mike Schatz was able to fix mine. There is a retro fit ok that he was able to source. It was something like $600. Anyway I've had no issues since...just waiting for the other one to die one of these days. Mike owns MKS performance in Camarillo, ca. Call and tell him Chad pointed you in his direction and that you need the same kit my car did.

Hope this helps.

Chad

turboluvr

Chad,

Thanks for confirming my fears about the lack of an interchangeable part. Folks on the HID forums insist that a matched ballast and ignitor should work, after all 35w is 35w. Unfortunately the 996 ballast set I tried won't fit the 6-pin plug in the harness and the similar plugs appear to be wired differently. Getting the $680 parts kit is an option, Pelican and the dealer carry them. It just grates on my to pay that price (times 2) for old Bosch technology when complete modern systems go for around $100

Knight

Wow $680 in parts, agreed for old technology it doesn't make sense.

Couldn't we just fit in an aftermarket kit like this and save some $. Can the lighting performance be really that inferior?

http://boman993.com/diy-hid-headlights/#more-701

turboluvr

And that's $680 per headlight. The lighting performance is better. more reliable and more compact on the higher end HID conversions. Still only looking at a couple hundred bucks.

I like boman993's site and have studied his conversion. The problem is that all the kits are made for converting halogen lights (like on his C4S) to HID but no one makes a kit for upgrading Litronics (different headlight housings and wiring on our cars). Probably not a big market as they're rare cars to start with. I think what I'll need to do is make my own kit, just wondering what the others who have converted have done.

Ridin Dirty

That is brilliant knight!!! Excellent resource. Think there is a lil narrative error on it though it comments on the weak low beams when actually its the high beams that are weak. Aren't our low beams just fine b/c they are true hid xenons. It's the high beams that are halogen. Bi-xenons are hid on BOTH the high and low beams.

Wonder if any of these kits could ever make our litronics into actual bi-xenons. that would sure be welcomed


Ya know I used one of these HID kits for my fog lights! Headlights aside the fog lights are the biggest joke on the car. So I put 50w hids in em. They look amazing. But be careful some of the hid kits are garbage. I went through a couple before I found ones that are a good quality. Spend at least $50 from a reputable vendor. Do not buy the $20 ebay ones...ask me how i know. And they are a tasteful white not blue....4000k. temperature scale.

turboluvr

I think the issues involved with converting the high beams would be:
1) Fitting the HID projector into the Litronic headlight housing (lots of cutting and refitting)
2) Where do you put the seperate ballast/ignitor as you've already used up the available space with the low beam ballast/ignitor. You'd have to mount it in the trunk where the factory Litronic ballast was and how does that wire through the existing socket behind the headlight bucket.
3) Getting an instant on HID high beam that doesn't have the warm-up period of the low beams (so you could still flash them as a greating to other Pcars).
4) What sort of a fuse/wiring upgrade is required, probably different than what's needed for the existing halogen, as you don't want a HID electrical melt-down.

Ridin Dirty

Actually now that I think about it....it's impossible. Warning...going to get preachy here:

We cannot put HID high beams in our cars. That's it....end of story. Here's why:

Ever see those meat head kids running around in 1993 civics with hids? Ever wonder why they look even more silly than simple aesthetics? Hids throw light everywhere HID light cannot be controlled by simple reflection of the inner headlight assembly like halogens and incandescents can be.

THAT'S WHY ALL HIDS FROM THE FACTORY ARE ALWAYS ALWAYS IN THAT LIL GLASS BULB HOUSING INSIDE THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY.

If you install a HID where a halogen was it will shimmer and throw light everywhere. This is illegal in some states and should be in all states because it shines in the opposing drivers eyes...it twinkles...I know you all have seen this before. And what makes matters worse the "meat head" driving the old civic thinks he has HIDS now so he can see better BUT HE CAN'T he has effectively decreased his usable light b/c it is no longer focused on the road it just twinkles without the proper inner glass housing around it.

So we can actually never do this change in a responsible manner. We would need a full purpose built retro fit...and we know that will never happen.

turboluvr

That round glass fish-eye lense is the HID projector and there are lots of good kits that include them. The fun would be modifying the existing headlight bucket so that those fit, looked factory and didn't melt the plastic w/ the extra heat.

nrubenstein

Actually, there are in fact legal OEM HID reflector assemblies.

Regardless, the issue here is making the connection. I'd suggest that it ought to be possible to bypass the stock connector and figure out a solution. After all, the ballast is already connected in the car anyway. The easy way would probably be to use a D2S to AMP adapter so that you can pull the assembly and then disconnect the wires.

(Note that I am speculating off the top of my head - it's been a few months since I had an assembly out and I wasn't focused on this. Either way, the stock Litronic units are garbage, even with brand new Phillips 85122 bulbs installed. A projector retrofit would be pretty desirable, especially since you could get bixenon capability. The halogen high beams, even with Osram Nightbreakers, are pretty pathetic.

Bradford

I would be very interested to see what Mike does for this fix. The ignitor is a sealed unit and to the best of my knowledge cannot be repaired.

Seeing that everyone is so concerned with keeping their cars original, I would not consider using any parts other than original for this repair.

turboluvr

Scott,

I think he is refering to the OEM Litronic repair kit (Porsche # 000 043 204 37) which is a NOS ballast and ignitor for about $625-680 and ordered directly from the fatherland.

nrubenstein

Bah. Non-original parts that can be installed without altering the car (especially when they work better and save large sums of money) probably fall into the category of "let someone else worry about it." Your downside scenario is, what, a deduct for the cost of the part at a future sale? Given the way these cars are selling, I suspect it wouldn't move the dial at all.