petonic

I was wondering if anyone has fitted 100w or even 80w bulbs to their high beams on their litronic units?

I live in deer country in Marin, and I'd like a better light for seeing those little bastards. Our other car, a CL55, has instant daylight for high beams, and the 996TT seems a bit underpowered compared to it.

1. Will the wiring harness/fuses handle 80 or 100w?
2. Will the plastic headlight housing yellow?

Thanks!

insite

i did higher wattage bulbs on my NON-hid units. burned the plastic.

i wonder if you can hack the low beams to stay on w/ the hi beams?

BostonDuce

For very short bursts you'd probably be ok.

Otherwise you're drawing over 7A per bulb. Your bulb housings, wiring, and headlight switch are all at risk. Heat is your enemy.

BD

petonic

Thanks for the perspective. Makes sense. I put 100w in my BMW motorcycle, but the housing is glass, not plastic.

I like @insite's idea of keeping the dipped lights on with the high beams. Good idea. I used to be an engineer in a past life, so maybe I'll take a look at the wiring diagram thats available and see if there isn't a way to hack the lights so that they both stay on.

insite

petonic -

FYI, there is already an advertised 'hack' that keeps the little driving lights (close to the hood) lit when the highs go on. i bet it would be pretty easy to keep the highs & lows lit simultaneously. probably just a matter of shorting two terminals in a relay...

petonic

Hi Insite --

Thanks for the reply, but over 45 mins of Google searching and I couldn't find this hack. From memory, do you recall if this hack involves the fuse or the light switch? You wouldn't happen to have a link, would you?

Not asking you to do my Googling for me, but I'm at a loss.

Thanks!

insite

the only thing i found so far is how to use the fog lights as daytime running lights. it involved running a wire from the fog light fuse to pin 86 on the fog light relay.

i would think you could instead run a wire from the hi beam fuse to the fog light relay that would trigger the fog light when you hit the high beams.

not sure what year your car is; i'm looking at the wiring diagram from a '00. the fog light relay is #12. run a wire from the hi beam fuse to pin 86 on that relay and the fogs should come on when you hit the highs. shouldn't interfere w/ the fog light switch.

jpflip

Is it the one you are looking for:

petonic

Thanks to both of you, insite and jpflip. Sounds do-able with a minimum amount of work. I'll check out the behavior of the lights now (just to ascertain that the DRLs go off with the brights), and then I'll confirm the electrical connections (high beam and fog lights) and see if I can get it done without frying my car :-)