tmw157

Went out early this morning to get snap splices, bullet connectors, new Sylvanias for the high beams, and other stuff to do my HID install. I even have a set of beautiful new lenses from CarreraX.

First issue is trivial and takes about 20 mins to sort out...the soft metal clip retainers that hold the spring clips in both of the low beam housings (bottom of circular housings in the pictures) are twisted and disfigured and not really holding the spring clips in the way they should. So, some screwing around with the springs and hopefully they'll keep the bulb tight to the housing..

Now the kicker. My HID bulbs do not fit through the low beam housing. Bulbs are a bit too wide. They (on both lights) go down about 3/8 before being stopped by metal nubs in the tunnel through the housing. Bottom pic shows how far they go before being stopped. WTF!?

Anyone else had similar irritation?

tmw157

I didn't do enough searching. Apparently this problem is not too uncommon and requires a dremel with a drum sander....

Texas993

Yes, no big deal. A small amount of Dremel action will fix it. Don't worry, it will be worth it when you are finished.

RDS928S

No sweat. Had the same problem. Just take a rats tail file to the opening and File a small amount of material away. Only a few strokes are required and presto the bulb slides right in.

Good Luck
Rich

tmw157

This is such a great place! 5 seconds with the dremel and they slid right in..

And what a difference! Mine are 5000K, very slightly blue. Also very impressed with the quality of the kit and timely responses from the company.

http://www.retro-solutions.com/

no affiliation, etc.

cheers,
Todd

Rinty

Silver Stars?

Rinty

tmw157

yes. seem a tad brighter than the oem brights

Rinty

The xenon conversion is on the short list of projects for my 993, but I hadn't thought of what to do with the high beam. From the BMW MOA motorcycle forum, I have the impression (which may be incorrect) that the Silver Stars, while excellent, don't have particularly long lives. But for high beam use this may be academic.

I don't do a lot of night driving on the highway, but last month we found ourselves in the Lewis and Clark Forest, southeast of Great Falls, in the dark, and I thought the stock lights were not that bad. Even my wife, an ophthalmologist, thought they were OK.

But you can't have too much light.

herman maire

Rinty,

were you in Canmore last weekend? I saw a black 993 cruising around.

tmw157

My membership has long since lapsed, I joined them about 30 years ago. Your avatar brought a smile to my face when I remembered riding my R75/5 through Calgary in '81. It was rainy that summer and I was driving coast to coast and too broke to replace my stolen rain suit, so I wrapped myself in trash bags and duct tape and rode like that through the Canadian Rockies...

cheers

Rinty

That would have been a tough, but memorable, ride. I know a few guys that have done the old trashbag trick.

I hung up my helmet last year, but still think about my rides nearly every day. I used to have an R 100 RS, then moved into an R 1150 RS:





No. The car is actually Arena Red. The avatar is quite dark, so I'm going to have to do something about it, but my tech guy removed my Photoshop Elements, and I can't find the software.

Leucadia

How interesting. Another rennlister and myself worked on putting my Vertex kit in yesterday, and ran into the same exact problem of the bulbs not sliding into the space without having to dremel about 1mm away. For some reason, all the other "HID DIY's" fail to mention this rather important bit of info...

The other bit of info I'd like to mention is that the ballast you get from Vertex kit is not small enough to fit inside the light housing. We had to mount the ballast elsewhere. There seems to be other kits out there with very small ballasts, the Vertex kit is not one of them....

The other disappointing part was the one of the bulbs arrived DOA. I've had to contact Vertex in the hopes that they will send me one that actually works... So far I cannot recommend the vertex kit.

vern1

i am looking at ordering the aceparts hid kit which apparently has a slim ballast that fits right in the housing and i have not heard about the problem of getting the bulb in without filing. We'll find out soon enough I guess because unless someone tells me otherwise they will be ordered tomorrow

D-Uber Cars

I did the HID conversion just 2 weeks ago w/5000K bulbs. Love the outcome and looks factory behind the low beam projector lenses. Funny, you should mention your two issues. Experienced same as you described.
Question, I now notice that once car is started the "i" and airbag light stays on for up to 2min before turning off vs. immediatedly turning off before the conversion. Anybody experience this?

AX993

FWIW, there is a factory TSB and fix for this problem. I don't have the info with me but the fix pieces from Porsche are relatively cheap and do the job. Had to do both of mine also.

Edit: found this on "pcarworkshop", don't think he'll mind me posting this:
http://www.pcarworkshop.com/images/1...1999_69019.pdf