gu9cci

Is it plug and play kit out there?i have litronics now but the light output even after new bulbs replacement is poor.
Can someone steer me to easy ballast/bulb upgrade?

Capt. Obvious

Can't speak for the 996.1 since I haven't seen the back of the headlights on those, but on a 996.2 like mine it's plug and play (I'd assume the mk1 uses the same style ballast). The only modification needed is some sort of a spacer in the ballast bracket to keep it from bouncing around since the newer digital ballasts are smaller than the old style ones. The wire harnesses are standardized, so you literally just need to plug in the new ballast and replace the bulb.

I prefer to get my stuff from www.ddmtuning.com. Never had a bulb or ballast die on me from there.

gu9cci

Great.thank you

gu9cci

well i just check the balast and look different then mk2.

alpine003

Their first few batches of slim line ballasts had some issues which have improved but not eliminated. I've had a couple go out. I upgraded a couple other cars with the full size ballasts and had no issues with those personally.

Capt. Obvious

Ballasts might be different, but the power harness plug should be the same. Did you grab a pic of it?

gu9cci

i dont have pics.I will get the morimoto balast and bulbs

petonic

Wait a minute? So, can I replace my stock Litronic bulbs/ballast to get a higher light output? I'd love that! There are a lot of deer around my place, and I'm always driving with my head on a swivel. Not a bad plan, generally speaking, to do so, but a little more light would be welcome.

I have an '04 996 TTx50. Any clues would be appreciated. Thanks!

Capt. Obvious

Plug and play on a 996.2. I'm doing a bixenon retrofit into the headlights on my F250 this weekend, I'll yank the headlights from the 996 and do a quick "how-to" while I'm at it.

wwest

The early HID systems, as in my 2001, has a shading apperture/"shutter" for low beam that is ALWAYS in place. So you have a sharp "high" level light cutoff even when the headlight shifts upward (via leveling servomotor) into the high beam mode/position. So you lose a substandual level of forward illumination.

The easiest fix is to buy an aftermarket projector hi/lo HID kit that shifts the internal apperature/shutter (low beam "high" light cut-off) out of the beam-way when in high beam mode. That will also require a biasing resistor be added so that the leveling servomotor doesn't move between the hi/lo positions.

How would/will you ever know that the 55W bulb/ballast isn't simply a relabelled 35W kit???

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-CAR-MOTO...0d5bad&vxp=mtr

alpine003

I think it's important to note that the standard HID lighting in mk1 cars isn't exactly poor and a matter of fact it is on par with other systems. I believe gu9cci has tinted headlight lenses and wants to improve his lighting situation while still retaining his tints. Please correct me if I'm wrong gu9cci.

RallyJon

Thank you. Looking forward to it.

Capt. Obvious

Most of what you just said is not true. The HID headlights on the 996 are low-beam only, they do not point upwards via the servo motors when you turn on the high beam. The high beam is a separate halogen bulb with it's own reflector. The servo motors adjust the headlight up or down based on input from the level sensors on the suspension to ensure the low beam is pointed correctly. The "apperture" you speak of is there to provide a cutoff to the light so you're only projecting light onto the road and not upwards into the eyes of oncoming drivers. In a bixenon projector setup, the cutoff flips down to allow the light to project in its full range.

If you choose to retrofit bixenon projectors into your car, no resistors are needed, you just need to splice the power lines for the cutoff actuator into the wires for the high beam.

As for ensuring you're not just buying a 35w ballast relabelled as a 55w, be sure to order from a respectable dealer.

alpine003

I originally thought this too, however at least on the mk1, there is a moveable cutoff aperature that does move up when high beams are activated just like bi-xenons in addition to a separate housing that has high beam halogen's come on as well. I think the rational there was to have separate halogen high beam to flicker during the day when your xenon's aren't normally on as xenons need warm up time and can't react as fast(as you know). I'll try to verify this sometime by yanking my high beam halogen bulb and turning on my lights in the high beam pattern to see if the cutoff moves up or not. I'm not sure if the MK2's work on the same premise but would just as well be easy to test.

My wife's BMW does the same thing, During the day when normal xenons aren't on, the inside headlight bowls(normally used for DRL) turn on for high beams. But at night with the headlights on, the bixenon plate takes over and moves up when high beam is activated. The difference being that BMW chose only to move up the cutoff plate and not turn on the halogens at the same time.

Capt. Obvious

Sorry, I should have read the first post better, I was speaking for 996.2 headlights, which function as I described. I can't speak with certainty for the mk1 headlights.