BruceP

I don't know about ROW, but in Canada the DRLs are simply the low beams, at least on 996s of my vintage. It's actually a pain in the ***. You fire up the car, and you've got low beams, side markers, tail lights on all the time. The only thing that changes when you turn the headlights on is that the dash lights up. A lot of older 996s without Litronics develop a nasty looking burn-in because of it.

Even my Landy has a separate bulb for DRLs. I guess this is the price I pay for living in what must surely be Porsche's least significant market...

wwest

Absent knowing the actual current flow I have no grounds for disputing what "the company" told you.

But the present "state of the art" for LEDs would indicate a fairly high wattage, high lumens, LED for supplying a light level even close to that of an H6W halogen, especially absent a colimator lens.

wwest

My first 996 was a '99 of canadian origin, HID low beams and street/parking/tail for DRL mode. Since I thought that was a rather good idea I wired my '01 C4's street/parking/tail/DRL(***) circuit into the seat heater power source circuit for canadian DRL functionality.

*** Was H6W but now 3 watt Luxeon LEDs with collimator lens for narrow forward beam focus. 9 ohm 10 watt resistor each side for ~1 amp current limit to LED, mounted within the back of the headlight assembly.

Ray S

The H6W is not by any means a high lumin bulb. While you are correct that heat dissipation is a huge problem in high wattage LED, it is not a problem in lower wattage applications.

BillJ

what color was this bulb? White or Blue?

johnnyz

I just ordered these. I will take pictures of one new LED with one original H6W bulb, and see how they match up.
Less than $20.00 for a pair delivered to Seattle.

Johnny

Turboflyer

Has any one found a replacement receptacle for the bulb. Mine has just disintegrated so I need a new one. I have the LEDs ready to go. 01 Boxster S Lintronics

Duane Salmon

This thread is not complete without comparing the BAX9s white LEDs to the old H6W halogen city lights. You are not going to get more illumination out of the LEDs but they are a better colour match.

wwest

Maybe you should have a look for comparison at the level/type of heat sink included in a simple household 40 watt LED bulb that only consumes 5-8 watts.

And keep in mind that the atmosphere inside the headlight assembly gets pretty damn HOT with a 55W halogen high beam bulb and a 35W HID bulb inside.

wwest

The LED bulb to the right are the ones I used initially for corner/street/parking in my '95 LS400...

Both types have roughly equal brightness, color, and current draw/load.

Note that the cluster LEDs are mounted on a simple circuit board, no heat sink other than the printed circuit board 's solid metal rear layer.

They began failing with weeks of installation.

So I found the ones on the left.

The LED mount itself, as you can see, is something of a heatsink. Then add the screw on heatsink knurled cap...

None have failed after at least a year of use.

alpine003

^^^^ Technically those are SMD's. LED's generally will last quite a long time without any type of heat sinks, for example in the 194 bulb type application as above.

BAD.TAG

Duane, are those the 42 Draft Design LEDs ?

Ray S

Welcome to 5 years ago. A 5-8 watt led in a 40w (equivalent) A19 is indeed a high wattage for an led and requires a large heat sink. Such a bulb will typically produce around 450 lumens of light. That is not what we are talking about for a an HW6 bulb that produces a fraction of that output.

I have used just such led bulbs in my Boxster for years now (they are about as old as this thread). They operate with no heat sinks and have yet to burn out. On the other hand a high watt (relatively) led (such as your 5-8 watt in the A19 you mention above) would burn out in minutes without a heat sink to draw heat off the back of the led chip.

wwest

Okay, take the "fraction" and reduce the 40W led bulb heat sink accordingly.

And then adjust for headlamp HEAT containment.

Ray S

I'll take that as a concession that you acknowledge a 5-8w led is actually a fairly high wattage for an LED and does indeed generate a ton of heat compared to a lower power chip such as the examples used in a low lumen bulb. Truth be told, any material you put on the back of an LED is going to draw heat off the chip including small amounts of solder used to attach the chip or the base of the bulb. For plenty of low wattage LED's that's going to be sufficient to keep the chip cool enough to provide a relatively long life. In such an example no large metal sink is necessary. Look no further than LED's in night lights and cheap low power flashlights for working examples of such systems.

As I indicated previously I've had replacements LED bulbs similar to those referenced in the OP operating in my 986 and 996 for years with no failure and these bulbs have no large heat sinks on them similar to the type that are necessary to cool the far higher wattage A19's you described in your earlier example.