LED Bulb Upgrade for 981 PDLS Cars
04-13-2024, 07:38 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
LED Bulb Upgrade for 981 PDLS Cars
Hey all,
I see a lot of people discussing upgrading to 35w ballasts and the like, but if you already have that (I was told PDLS cars do), what is the next upgrade?
I have a 981 GT4 with PDLS, and on a night drive last night in an area with no street lighting, I find myself very underwhelmed.
I've seen these mentioned, has anyone tried them? https://precisionled.com/shop-by-bul...onversion-kit/
Am I right that a GT4 with PDLS would already be 35w, or is it possible I have 25w? The headlights are coming out next week to get the lenses redone, so I'd like to sort this out while handling that if possible.
I see a lot of people discussing upgrading to 35w ballasts and the like, but if you already have that (I was told PDLS cars do), what is the next upgrade?
I have a 981 GT4 with PDLS, and on a night drive last night in an area with no street lighting, I find myself very underwhelmed.
I've seen these mentioned, has anyone tried them? https://precisionled.com/shop-by-bul...onversion-kit/
Am I right that a GT4 with PDLS would already be 35w, or is it possible I have 25w? The headlights are coming out next week to get the lenses redone, so I'd like to sort this out while handling that if possible.
04-13-2024, 08:43 PM
#2
Rennlist Member
04-13-2024, 10:59 PM
#3
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
04-23-2024, 07:54 AM
#6
Hey all,
I see a lot of people discussing upgrading to 35w ballasts and the like, but if you already have that (I was told PDLS cars do), what is the next upgrade?
I have a 981 GT4 with PDLS, and on a night drive last night in an area with no street lighting, I find myself very underwhelmed.
I've seen these mentioned, has anyone tried them? https://precisionled.com/shop-by-bul...onversion-kit/
Am I right that a GT4 with PDLS would already be 35w, or is it possible I have 25w? The headlights are coming out next week to get the lenses redone, so I'd like to sort this out while handling that if possible.
I see a lot of people discussing upgrading to 35w ballasts and the like, but if you already have that (I was told PDLS cars do), what is the next upgrade?
I have a 981 GT4 with PDLS, and on a night drive last night in an area with no street lighting, I find myself very underwhelmed.
I've seen these mentioned, has anyone tried them? https://precisionled.com/shop-by-bul...onversion-kit/
Am I right that a GT4 with PDLS would already be 35w, or is it possible I have 25w? The headlights are coming out next week to get the lenses redone, so I'd like to sort this out while handling that if possible.
04-25-2024, 05:45 PM
#7
Hey there, I have PDLS on my 981 GTS and I've been wishing for a straight forward "substantial" upgrade.... not really out there. Hopefully my experience/pain/obsession with automotive lighting will help streamline your road to brightness.
-Your new lenses could actually be the most impactful clarity improvement.
-Perhaps, when headlights are disassembled the shop can clean the projector bowls and lenses. They can get dusty/cloudy/discolored.
-New set of high quality HID bulbs. A DD with significant hours on the HIDs could use new bulbs after 3 or 4 years. I believe the best in terms of output right now: Osram Xenarc Night Breaker Laser D3S (I put almost 40K miles before I noticed a decrease in output, but also contributing was the beat up lenses from all those miles.) A little yellow, but brighter than the gimmicky bluer bulbs. Research what's out there, maybe there's a better bulb now, but keep in mind that the marketing is bunch of BS.
-There are a lot of D3S LEDs out there, I have bought and tested about 1/2 a dozen, at least. They are not created equal, some are private labeled so you think you're getting something different but not, and then the beam pattern and cut-off will be different due to the LED placement inside the projector. I settled on a $50 pair that are 5000K-just bright white. All the others were too blue, didn't fit well, or the beam pattern was janky. Now I can't find them online to give you a link.. they were made by Car Rover and had the best specs. Yet to try the PrecisionLED, maybe those will be the next for me, but kind of pricey with mixed feedback: https://www.macanforum.com/threads/p...antirx.187404/
-I upgraded my ballasts to 45w. A slight bump but hopefully not too much to burn the reflector. I haven't collected any lumen data to measure the improvement. For all I know, the extra 10w are just burning up the LED resistor; they definitely make a difference with HIDs, tho, slightly brighter, slightly less blue, but hotter.
-The thing that I may do eventually, is replace the OEM HID projector with an LED projector. Problem is that no one seems to have a custom bracket, or has documented all of the fitment issues to make a bracket. I believe a few super custom shops have swapped out the 991 projectors for LED projectors, but the 981 seems to have a different mounting pattern. I was thinking about doing it all myself but I just don't have the time right now. For $$$$, I bet you could hire a custom lighting shop to figure it out for you. like Lightwerkz or Retrofit Source, etc...
-Your new lenses could actually be the most impactful clarity improvement.
-Perhaps, when headlights are disassembled the shop can clean the projector bowls and lenses. They can get dusty/cloudy/discolored.
-New set of high quality HID bulbs. A DD with significant hours on the HIDs could use new bulbs after 3 or 4 years. I believe the best in terms of output right now: Osram Xenarc Night Breaker Laser D3S (I put almost 40K miles before I noticed a decrease in output, but also contributing was the beat up lenses from all those miles.) A little yellow, but brighter than the gimmicky bluer bulbs. Research what's out there, maybe there's a better bulb now, but keep in mind that the marketing is bunch of BS.
-There are a lot of D3S LEDs out there, I have bought and tested about 1/2 a dozen, at least. They are not created equal, some are private labeled so you think you're getting something different but not, and then the beam pattern and cut-off will be different due to the LED placement inside the projector. I settled on a $50 pair that are 5000K-just bright white. All the others were too blue, didn't fit well, or the beam pattern was janky. Now I can't find them online to give you a link.. they were made by Car Rover and had the best specs. Yet to try the PrecisionLED, maybe those will be the next for me, but kind of pricey with mixed feedback: https://www.macanforum.com/threads/p...antirx.187404/
-I upgraded my ballasts to 45w. A slight bump but hopefully not too much to burn the reflector. I haven't collected any lumen data to measure the improvement. For all I know, the extra 10w are just burning up the LED resistor; they definitely make a difference with HIDs, tho, slightly brighter, slightly less blue, but hotter.
-The thing that I may do eventually, is replace the OEM HID projector with an LED projector. Problem is that no one seems to have a custom bracket, or has documented all of the fitment issues to make a bracket. I believe a few super custom shops have swapped out the 991 projectors for LED projectors, but the 981 seems to have a different mounting pattern. I was thinking about doing it all myself but I just don't have the time right now. For $$$$, I bet you could hire a custom lighting shop to figure it out for you. like Lightwerkz or Retrofit Source, etc...
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04-25-2024, 07:55 PM
#8
Rennlist Member
-I upgraded my ballasts to 45w. A slight bump but hopefully not too much to burn the reflector. I haven't collected any lumen data to measure the improvement. For all I know, the extra 10w are just burning up the LED resistor; they definitely make a difference with HIDs, tho, slightly brighter, slightly less blue, but hotter.