Glenn

Hi - well I went and did it. Bought a 99 996 and am already in improvement mode. Considering upgrading the lights to HID/Litronic - but am reluctant to spend $1500 to convert the entire assembly. Saw this conversion kit on eBay and its intrigued me. I've bought from Vertex before so I trust them.

Here is the link:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Porsche-Boxster-9...QQcmdZViewItem

Any opinions/advice would be appreciated.
Thanks Glenn (aka - the guy with the perma-grin!!!!)

TCR

I can't speak to this conversion specifically, but I did change my lights to the litronics, and could not be happier!

You can find someone selling the litronics used on ebay for $800 to
$1000. They are just plug and play, but it is my understanding that you do not get the auto adjust feature unless your car originally had Litronics

Wellardmac

I too am interested in the conversion that Glenn mentioned. Looks interesting - as long as no one has experienced electrical or over heating problems.

LVDell

I bought mine to upgrade my standard lights to litronics several years ago. They are straight plug and play in the 99-01 cars. Best this I could have done for my night lighting.

I paid 1095 shipped from Brandywine through an eBay auction. I you are paying near $1K they better be brand new. Personally, even to save a few bucks I would NOT buy used litronics. Chances are they are stolen. Very easy to steal and if we keep buying them they will continue to steal them. Think about it.....who "upgrades" their litronics to standard lights? Nobody. Unless of course they want to skirt the thieves and just have a car that isn't a target.

Wellardmac

Do you know anything about the kit that is referenced? I've seen several and was wondering if there are any drawbacks.

LVDell

The kit in that auction is something I would totally stay away from (heating issues are probably not tested or if done, trusted!). I would either get the OEM Litronics or just get better bulbs that illuminate better and have a truer white light.

Wellardmac

Yeah, I was worried about that. I'll probably go with the replacement bulbs next time that I need one. Thx.

LVDell

I "upgraded" my bulbs first and then after a few months of that I decided litronics were the right way to go and pulled the trigger on a new set. $1095 shipped was hard to pass up.

Wellardmac

I'd like to do that, but I have some nice headlight covers that I'd have to trash if I replaced the headlight units for lits.... so until they start to look scuzzy I'll have to stick with the original units and upgrade them to a "cleaner" bulb.

I'm figuring that by the time the car is ready for an upgrade I might be onto my next car.

programmatore

Make sure you get 55 watt bulbs. Some aftermarket bulbs have a blue coating so that they give out whiter light. However, the blue coating takes away some of the brightness so they compensate by increasing the wattage of the bulb to 75 watts or 80 watts. The increased wattage results in more heat that will melt your plastic headlight lens. Stick with Sylvania Silverstar or Philips BlueVision (both reputable OEM suppliers) and you should be fine.

Wellardmac

Thanks! I had noticed the heat issues on replacement bulbs and hadn't come to a conclusion on the best way to go - thanks for the guidance!

Glenn

Yup - all good info. Thanks for the advice.
Glenn

s14roller

If you're looking for a plug and play, I would probably use a plug+play kit from Philips or something. Philips ballasts have been proven to be reliable over the years. Just the fact that the vertex ad states that other kits use "weak" 4800K means I wouldn't buy from them. Everyone knows 4300K produces the most light...anything higher may look more purple/blue but certainly doesn't produce more light.

I'd probably just throw in Silverstars and call it a day for now.

Wellardmac

I checked out the specs on the Silverstar and Silverstar Ultras and they sounds like they're as close to HIDs as you can get without switching the hardware. Nice idea!

wrljet

What's the story on Litronics / Xenons with and without the little flat ruler thing sticking out that shows the leveling adjustment?

Bill