rahuld2

Still pretty much a newbie, though I've had my car for almost 9 months now. I live in NYC, so don't even get the car out of the garage during the week. I wish I could drive it more.

Does anyone find the stock headlights less than adequate. I definitely feel I could use an upgrade. I find the headlights to be a little too dim. Any suggestions for replacement? There is a nice section on replacing the headlights on the 944 but don't know if those parts would work on a 968.

JDS968

By 1992 standards, they were pretty phenomenal.

By 2011 standards, they're in serious need of an upgrade.

Never fear, I'm working on a rather elegant solution.

RL911

Seems like the better place to look is to the 928 and not the 944. If I'm not mistaken, they are the same or very close.

Damian in NJ

They were incredible for their time, and a huge improvement over the 944 variants.

John Etnier

I recently bought my wife a late model Audi A4 Avant with Xenon headlights and while they're a bit better than my 968, it's not so much of a difference that I feel any disadvantage. Of course my 968 bulbs don't steer around corners. :-)

Perhaps you have old bulbs in there and they're not as bright as they should be. This happens: the filament discharges stuff onto the envelope. Try new bulbs? Easy to replace.

odurandina

well, first of all welcome to Rennlist. we have quite a few ny/nj guys here (with a somewhat vast knowledge) who will surely, help you toward happy Porsche 968 ownership!. there's also Mr. Jeff in southern Connecticut with his Mint Green convertible who keeps his 968 Registry...

there are good arguments on both sides when it comes to the question of changing up the cars vs/ leaving them completely stock.... quite frankly, the 968 has disappeared into near-obscurity. (even the wealthiest Porsche owners rarely bother getting one). since cars kept completely original don't sell for much more than modded up cars, in the end, whatever you do IS PURELY a personal choice.

https://rennlist.com/forums/968-foru...the-968-a.html



i'm in love with the 993 headlamp. the profile of the 993 "fender-rise" is probably the most attractive part of the last air-cooled 911 (subjective) ... the fender rise on our cars is close to the 993, but our headlamps really make the cars look "dated..." a few years ago somone had the bright idea to ask if morphing the 993 riser and fixed headlamp with a 968 fender would 'work' as an alternative to the hideous, "frog-eyes."


i think the answer is clear...

https://rennlist.com/forums/968-foru...onversion.html


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76 911s

I actually think the headlights are pretty good. The ability to have 4 bulbs running whether on high or low beam produces alot of light. Putting in new bulbs and cleaning the lenses/reflectors would be an improvement. The wiring is probably also somewhat oxidized at this point creating a voltage drop by the time current is delivered to the bulbs.

odurandina

Porsche was going through really tough times when our cars were designed and the first few 968s started rolling off the assembly lines... for the times, the cars were pretty good. the truth is — because of the severe recession of 1991, and resources being moved toward 993 and Boxster production, they just stopped. i mean, we missed out on many more improvements that could have, at least, in a more perfect world, would have gone into our cars during the final years of production... instead, there's still a bit too much "944" that stayed going on with the 968.... that's just how i feel. it's just an opinion.

in automotive design, going "big" on finding "one" solution to "one" problem often brings about new problems—and in some rare cases, other problems sometimes sort of go away. Benji's fenders, sort of fall into this category. there's about 100 grand in upgrades i can think of doing to a 968. if i could do them, i would do everything i could to stay as close to the spirit of "Porsche," (an example would be 9 thousand dollar 993/996 sport seats from LA Porsche), but i'm pretty happy with these Sparco's at half the price.... either way, the car would be a head turner, and blow just about everything else's f_cking doors.... for better or worse, the only V8 engines Porsche ever made, can't be stuffed into our cars, (the only 4 cylinder supercar ever built at the factory is Porsche 968 Turbo S (the Lotus Esprit Turbo is not a supercar).... but, i'm yet to see one being daily driven the way i drive).... the next best thing was to go "chevy." the engine is better than anything Porsche ever built anyway (subjective)... but, all the op said was he's not liking the headlamps so much.


1. well, it sounds like he might be jibing at Xenon Litronic (HID) lights. unfortunately, the 968 lamp is not designed to accommodate this upgrade... and before anyone had any ideas, there are many good reasons why HID lights should never be retrofitted into the 968 lamps. sometime around the time that the 968 was going out of production, the HID headlamps were first introduced in the 993.... win.

2. in 1994, the 911 fender finally made landfall onto the shores of the 20th century (see previous post for old and new). WIN.

3. although the the HID option for the 993 was a couple of thousand dollars when it was first introduced in the late '90s, ALL the 993 lenses came HID ready. that is to say, all the lamps are designed to accept the xenon litronic upgrade! WIN.

4. at the Porsche factory they're obsessed with weight... the D-9 fenders are clearly, an UPGRADE from the heavy, old technology pop-up lamps because the D-9, 993 lamps not only look better, not only can be upgraded to Xenon Litronic, but they eliminate a significant amount of weight where you don't want it ! (see photos below)... i also happen to think the efforts Benji and others are making to make more fun stuff available in an affordable package is nothing short of spectacular. WIN.

one area of concern with the fenders—is strength. not just going fast, but over time, a fender is subject to serious stress and abuse. for this reason, i believe that Benji's fenders would benefit from adding one or two layers of carbon/epoxy... (epoxy resin is also extremely resistant to UV. one more reason it would benefit to have epoxy just below the paint).


also;


5. the key word here is "subjective." you remember the Iris Blue 968 that couldn't sell for even near what the car should be worth.... at the Barrett-Jackson auction on SPEED, they had some retro-modded musclecars from the early '70s that probably should have been restored "all original..." however, the cars were very nicely done, (at probably less cost) and sold for just a few thousand dollars less than the same cars that were being kept bone stock.... people love cars that are fun to drive. some of the old crap can really be a pain in the ***. the modded cars turned out to be real crowd pleasers.

the "$$$" clearly demonstrates that there is no particular restoration/preservation strategy that properly fits 968 ownership. i don't know where the 968 community "splits" on this question. quite frankly, who cares? there's virtually no demand for our cars. adding better suspension, modern wheels and tires, huge brakes, turbos, etc., all have the potential to make the cars not only more pleasant to look at, and more functional, but also more FUN to drive. at the 24 Hours of Daytona weekend racing event, i had several dozen people asking me all about the car—really a lot of fun considering many of the guys were driving their 993s/996s/997s, but looked back on their 944 na/turbo ownership from years gone by with many fond memories.... doing stuff to the cars is ALL about personal choice.

6. i originally posted 11 photos becuase i first wanted to have a 993 pic from a good angle, showing both the old 911s, and their new design.... also, it isn't easy to show Benji's work with only a few photos. most of the 993 guys on Rennlist have changed their bulbs over to xenon litronic... i really like Benji's lightweight lamp mod, but my one concern is the strength of the fenders, especially over the long haul.

7. one last thing. currently only one of my pop-up lamps goes back down. you have to push it down manually. f_ck these fugly, pieces of crap! Porsche came out with the 959 in 1988. they only reason they didn't redesign the fenders and the lamps for the 968 is becuase they were BROKE...



amazing how when it comes to the 911, tuners like RUF were taking apart the 930s, 964s and 993s for years, and making the cars better. then when you start and do a thing or two with the 968, people start talking like you got a hole in your head. truth is—VERY FEW Porsches are treated like old vintage Corvetts. it's all about options and upgrades with nearly all Porsches.... there's a lot of great stuff on the 968. there's also a lot of not-even-close-to-supercar crap on these cars (examples: the lower valence, batwing and grillwork is a joke. hideous steering wheel and gear ****, dull instrument panel and interior lighting, aging, 944, plastic interior w/ goofy cassette box, 1,300 pound exhaust to help tame all the vibrations from the big-block four)....


benefits;

1. ugly, disfunctional, pop-up lights gone.
2. greatly improved look, closer to the 993.
3. xenon litronic upgradable.
4. significant weight reduction.

liabilities;

1. significant downgrade in the integrity of the fender substrate.
2. cost of the materials and completed work (just wait 'til you see the cost of adding cf).
3. might need to integrate the D-9 fender with part of a full 993 hallogen lamp assembly to properly convert to HID.






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ramius665

Wow. Had no idea you were so passionate about lighting. For a while I was running HID H4's in my E-code lenses on my 951. The light dispersal pattern was all wrong and they were absolutely blinding to on-coming traffic. I've since gone back to standard H4 bulbs but I did really like how far the light projected. I just didn't like having 817328472158 people flash their brights at me every time I drove at night.

odurandina

precisely why xenon litronic lamps should never be retrofitted to the stock, 968 headlight assembly.

Fox944

Wierd, i always thought the 968 headlights were awesome, especially for a car of its vintage. They light up the road better then cars 10 years newer. My Audi A6 4.2 has Xenon HID headlights (just replaced the bulbs) and the 968's headlights def. do a better job of lighting the road...especially the highbeams.

968 GUY

I do agree with Fox944. Both of my 968's flame up the night, esp. on high beams. Maybe there is a poor grounding issue, or just plain old bulbs.

I also agree that the pop-up headlights are a bit ugly. I would definitly change that if it were as simple as swapping the 993 assy's into the fenders. That was one of the first things I asked about as a new 968owner.

Fox, did all 951's come with H4 bulbs? Supposedly, the orig owner of this 951 went to Germany on some sort of buy, drive arnd Europe, then ship the car back to the States thing. It has H4 bulbs, not sure abt Euro lenses(prob not). I thought that was why it had H4's.
Ken
Sorry Fox, the last part was meant for ramius

rahuld2

Maybe it is a problem with my specific car. Will clean out the lens and the look into getting new bulbs. How hard is it to do something about old wiring. Sorry if the questions are a bit silly. The high beams are quite okay its the low beams that worry me. But going by the comments again, I think I just need to fix a few things on the ones I have and I should get better performance out of them.

odurandina

same deal here. my high beams are good. the low beams quite horrible. the problem maybe can be partially fixed by changing to 6,000 k xenons on the driving lights (on the front bumper). i'm thinking it should be impossible to upgrade the lamps.

JDS968

I find it rather odd how many of you say that the pop-up lights are "ugly". If anything, I'd complain about the potential for a single electric motor failure crippling your entire headlight system (yes, one light failing to lift will disable both lights), or about the aerodynamic inefficiency of them, but as far as looks...every time I hit the switch and they pop up, I say to myself, "Wow, that's cool."