notthd

We were all talking about Erics cool lights sometime back and questioned the internals of the Fog high beams and the sizes. Well here are ones from my parts car apart. The overall length is about 4.5". the brackets to mount are 3" square and projecter is just under 2" The pics tell the story

Cheers, Mike

bombfactory

I've heard 968 fogs are HID upgradeable - has anyone done this mod and how do they work?

Thanks -- Austin

JDS968

Mike, thank you! I really appreciate it.

So under 2 inches? Hmmmm that's a hell of a lot less than those 90mm bixenons we were looking at. I blew up the photo a bit and, best as I can tell, it LOOKS LIKE 1 13/16 inches, which is just a hair over 46mm.

Hella appears to have 50mm xenon high OR low beam lamps, but I don't see a bixenon. It looks like the hole in the housing could be bored out another 2mm in radius for a total of 50mm diameter (Mike, if you still have the housing apart, do you think you could have a look and see if 50mm would be possible?)

Now the key is to find 50mm bixenon units.

FRporscheman

My cheap solution to this is to drive only during the day.

notthd

I still have them on the bench- I'll measure them with mics. I am assuming you hope the projecter glass ( I do not know what to call it ) hole will take a 50mm replacement....? I'll check or take it apart.

Cheers, Mike

JDS968

Great, thanks!

The problem is that I haven't yet found a 50mm bixenon, only a 50mm xenon low beam, which gets me nowhere. Unless of course I can find some way to graft the guts of a small-ish bixenon headlight into a 50mm unit...but that sounds like a bit more than even I want to contemplate.

I'm continuing to do more research, I've begun talking to the guys on HIDPlanet...

JDS968

Okay I pulled my driver's side light out and mic'd it.

The projector lens itself has a diameter of 1.974 inches which is 50.1396 millimeters.

However, looking at the innards of the light, that measurement isn't TERRIBLY important, because a retrofitted projector lens would merely have to clear that grey metal plate that you can see in the photo, which serves to adjust the beam left/right and up/down.

The tightest clearance through that plate is vertical, and that measures 2.118 inches, which is 53.7972 millimeters.

Better, but again way too tight for any bixenons I've found.

Here's the key, though. If you cut up that adjuster plate, you have up to 2.528 inches to work with, which is 64.2112 millimeters. That's starting to open up a lot of options.

This kit looks perfect, and at $275, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than a 993 headlight conversion:

Bi-xenon Morimoto Mini Stage III Kit

They use these projectors, which are supposed to be 2.5", so it should just barely fit in the housing.

Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini

Those flanges will have to be trimmed back, and MAYBE even a bit of that black plastic ring around the lens, but neither of those should cause any problems.

The question is, once I hack up that adjuster plate, what do I mount the projector to? And will I have ANY way to adjust the beams? As long as I get them aimed correctly, they shouldn't need to be adjusted, because the M030 suspension doesn't allow barely any change in rake depending on loading, and they're mounted so low that I have a bit more leeway. But even if I do find a good way to mount them, how am I going to aim them before I get them fixed in place?

I love this kind of project

JDS968

Another question, while we're on the subject.

My understanding of our lighting system is that the the fender lights are only for the low beams, and when you switch on the high beams, the projectors in the bumper additionally light up, but the fender lights do not change their beam pattern. Is that incorrect?

I'm asking because the 9003 halogen bulbs which go in the fender lights are dual-filament bulbs for headlights that switch between low beam and high beam operation. Do our lights simply never use the high beam filament?

Furthermore, maybe this is a stupid question...but can H4 bulbs be plugged into 9003 headlights? I would never think to do such a thing, except that rallylights.com lists this Hella H4 bulb under the H4 and the 9003 section, which makes me wonder.

JDS968

Another issue I've been looking into...

Does anybody know for sure whether the lenses are glass or polycarbonate? I always assumed that they were polycarbonate, but upon closer inspection, it seems like they're glass. This presents another problem...my original plan was to cut the fluted fresnel lens off and epoxy a flat piece of polycarbonate in its place, for better and sharper light output. However, if it's glass, I don't know how to cut it off without breaking the whole thing...does anybody know how to do that? Maybe some kind of a diamond-embedded cutting wheel on a Dremel? And will epoxy bond Lexan to glass?