billhart

Are these bulbs essentially standard fittings and amperage draw?
I bought one of those Internet cheapie kits in around Jan 2007 for my 96 993 C4 cabrio based on discussions here, and it has worked flawlessly- I put over 25k miles on the car since then, running the lights during the day, and now, one bulb appears weak and I am assuming it has reached its end of life. (FWIW, it is 4300 Kelvin bulb and i will obviously replace both sides when i do this). But can I just buy, say, a pair of Philips HID bulbs, or do i have to worry about issues concerning the receptacle or amperage. (I am assuming that the ballasts are still OK, but if any of you think I should replace the whole shebang with a new kit, which doesn't cost alot more than the bulbs alone, I'll do that to save trouble). I am not going to buy the OEM Porsche lighting, it's too expensive, and these have worked great, don't you think?

CorrdoBrit

For what they cost (~$50 shipped) I'd be tempted to get a complete slim ballast kit and not worry about incompatibilities and aging components.

jhg41977

Do you have a link or brand for a good kit? I would like to do this but im worried about getting a crappy kit that causes a fire or something bad.

Ed Hughes

Carnewal.com

P-daddy

Lots of folks here get the slim ballast kit to stuff inside the headlight bucket from ddmtuning.com

911RufRT

Just bought a pair of genuine phillips bulbs on ebay from hidbulbzrus for $64. The prices on these bulbs have come down quite a bit over the years since there is so many fakes online now.

billhart

Thanks for all the responses to my original post. It does make sense to 'refresh' the whole system. I've seen 35 and 55 watt systems, and would probably opt for the lower wattage one, just to be conservative about overtaxing the electrical system, although as i understand it, the power gets 'amped up' in the ballast and the wiring harness that comes with these kits is what carries the load to the lamps, so theoretically, is there no greater demand on the existing electrical system?
I think, based on a posting i made back in 2007 or so here, when i bought the earlier kit, i had 4300k bulbs. I'm gonna stick with modest color temp because i don't want to look too [fill in the blank].
Best,
Bill hart

djantlive

stick with 35w if the stock output is satisfactory, which i find it to be. you can prolong the life of these if you don't turn it on during the day.

on my gallardo, i upgraded the stock 35w to 55w since the stock output was insufficient. i changed from 4300k to 6000k for a more white color as well. the 6000k dims the brightness slightly and kind of offset the higher 55w to maybe 50w if I were to keep the OEM color. I went with a Morimoto ballast and bulb setup which ran about $300 in parts. not cheap but that's what the stereo shop had. lights are flawless and i would recommend it.

billhart

Djantlive: 300 bucks is reasonable if it is high quality, i was actually surprised that the Internet cheapie system i bought circa 2007 performed as well as it did. funny, you mention lambo- i had a 6.0 Diablo for several years, and as I remember, it shared headlite assemblies with Nissan and the 'factory' HID units were relatively cheap compared to what Porsche gets for them, say 500 bucks vs. 2700 dollars.
Thanks.

CorrdoBrit

Got my kit from DDM Tuning. They are a pain to deal with from a Customer Service POV, but their products are fine especially for the price. I opted for the 35W which are plenty bright enough. Remember the stock lamp housings are not auto aligning so the projectors have the possibility of interfering with the oncoming traffic. The 55W may be a little too intense. I got the 5000K bulbs and they are bright white with a hint of blue. IMO 6000's are too blue.

billhart

Corrdo, thanks. I may actually need a supplier that is responsive. I had a porsche mechanic install the last kit, and though i would assume he didn't cut up the original harness- presumably, it goes harness to ballast, ballast to bulbs, I want to make sure i have what i need and if DDM is not customer service oriented, I'm fkd. I'm gonna take the car over to a local shop tomorrow and see what's what. I appreciate your input on this question.

M. Schneider

+1 for hidbulbzrus.com

Its a young fella out of Ogden, UT trading in quality original bulbs. +1 .

Ed Hughes

As I suggested above, carnewal.com is a good source. Gert is a Porsche-friendly and excellent supplier. The negative comments on DDM here were enough to tell me that for $30 or $40 more, going to Gert for my kits was money well spent. I had a question on a Saturday morning in Calif, and got his answer almost immediately. Price isn't always the prime factor for a purchase decision.

Maybe someone here will chime in that they didn't like his service. That was not my experience. I'd like to see the lowball no-service suppliers all burn in hell.

P-daddy

+1 for Morimoto HID kits. They are much pricier than say ddmtuning but quality is excellent.

Halcyon

I got a $35 kit off of ebay. After maybe like 10 starts later, one of the bulb sometimes (50% of the time) doesn't turn on anymore. I figure I just need to make sure my lights are on before I roll out of the driveway. I didn't really bother to figure out if it was the ballast or the bulb but in the end, I got an extra free ballast from a very responsive customer service agent ( that emailed me back in minutes , waaaay after working hours (like midnight in US) ) . So, $35 for three ballast total and two bulbs, and super easy wiring. Although I wouldn't really suggest these for daily use ( i don't drive mine daily/nightly) , they do "work" to a certain extent and I'm pretty happy with it for the amount of money i spent xD as least i don't have to deal with ddmtuning's customer service that i have heard numerous stories of...