Widsinator

Hey guys, I am looking into upgrading the lighting output on my 944, and having ridden in a few of my friends cars would like to go with HID's. I did a search but most threads are sort of old so I was looking at what the best price for a quality kit would be? Any good DIY's? Cheap kits?

Thanks

Jeremy

Keithr726

HID will not work good with 944 headlights, they'll 7" rounds and HIDs are designed to be used in small projector lenses.

rennbay.com sells e-code headlights and a headlight wiring harness, with some white bulbs that combo will be brighter than HID.

krystar

u'll need headlight conversions that take normal bulbs. i just got a set of ebay projectors that use H4 bulbs and a H4 hid kit.

the light output....is at least 100x better than fogged up original sealed beams. but it's so much worse than my other car with proper oem HID's.

Widsinator

Pictures and links to the kit you went with? Thanks

I would be doing e code housings with hid's, would it really be that bad? The rennbay kits are expensive too.

krystar

the rennbay kits might seem pricey but the output is worth it if your car is a driven alot.

mine are seriously ebay (in the full sense of the word) cheapo $40 h4 headlights, and i added hid kit for $50. it's just to make my car legal to drive around at night and not run into things. the output is...bright but horrible dispersion.

Widsinator

Oh, will stray away from this route then, thank you anyways!

Johnny Player Special

You get what you pay for.

I have the Hella H4 lenses and will use a HID hi/lo H4 type bulbin them. I have an 04 Honda Odyssey that uses a H4 type bulb too, the bulb has a cover/refractor the same type that you will find on a typical H4 bulb if you look closely at it that changes the light pattern to be DOT legal.

The major confusion people seem to have about HID lights is that there are several types of bulbs out there and to upgrade to HID's is not a one size fits all. Yes the lighting is brighter/whiter than standard bulbs and a proper adjustment should follow the install.

Wipeout

+1 for Rennbay harness and good e-code lenses.

There's a great write-up in the DIY forum. [/shameless plug]

Johnny Player Special

The write-up you did was in fact very useful.

The only reason I am a big fan of the HID kits is that they offer better lighting and consume less power than conventional bulbs. Most people are running higher wattage bulbs to get a brighter whiter light. If you do not use external relays you end up with a melted headlight switch and/or wires. Ask me how I know. If you price out the Rennbay harness, new lenses, highwattage bulbs you would exceed the cost of switching over to HIDs. A lot of the quality HID kits come complete with a new harness too.

V2Rocket

made my own harness...

had stuff laying around...got a 30amp relay on there which can handle some serious wattage...will be going to 100w bulbs soon. even on full light cannon mode thats only about 16 amps total. if i get a euro bumper i might put 55w headlights in that too (and ill still have amperage left over )

krystar

but with HID's u still need a proper lense. a halogen lense technically will not give the proper light dispersion. normally halogen bulbs the filament is "horizontal" if you look at the bulb. so the light source is a horizontal beam that's projected onto the road. however, in a HID bulb, the gas chamber is "longitudinal". when u a put a HID bulb into a halogen lense system, the light doesn't get focused correctly.

the proper way of doing HID's is to do a OEM retrofit...but that costs money. and i don't drive my 944 at nite enough to warrant that. my daliy driver though....that's what I did and it was worth every penny and every hour of my time.

krystar

lol we'd have a problem if u maxed out the alternator from running too many lights. this ain't no dakar rally porsche! :P

V2Rocket

90 amp alternator i think will be ok lol

shadowknight

+1 on the e-codes

Fox944

your headlights are designed for halogen bulbs. Even with E-codes, the hid's will not work correctly. They will produce excessive glare and bother on coming traffic, the light pettern/beams will be way off.

If you want to do an HID installation the proper way, i would suggest going the fixed headlight route with some projectors designed for HID lights.