Byron in MS

Hello all. Something interesting that I discovered while trying to find a replacement headlight control unit for my 997 headlight. You can use a Toyota part # 85967-08010 or 85967-50020. This should be direct replacement for 997.631.283.01 and 997.631.183.00. You can find these new for around $125 vs. $500 from Porsche. I bought a used one for $50 just to make sure it worked. I did a search here to see if anyone else had discovered this, but found nothing, so...here you go.

Here's the original Porsche part in the right headlight:


And here's the Toyota part mounted in the left unit:

Wolfk

Cool, nice find. Same unit without the $375 Porsche part no. sticker.

DYSL

Is this ACTUALLY the same part just different sticker? Any issues so far? If so I'll be doing the same thing.

captainbaker

Good for you. I did the same thing on my Range Rover. Saved a ton. In reality its a fairly common electrical component. Find the same piece and swap it out on the cheap.

DYSL

Unfortunately this didn't work for me. I bought the Toyota units. The DME is showing that no bulb is present. Maybe bad units? Or something needs to be coded?

semicycler

Koito is the original equipment supplier to Porsche. Their part number is KDLT002. These two parts are identical as shown by the Koito part number in the upper left on both boxes. The only difference is the car manufacturer's sticker customization on the right of the sticker.

A google search for Koito KDLT002 shows this headlight ballast being used in Toyota, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Land Rover, Porsche, Renault, Subaru and others.

This part is also sold under the Denso brand name as DDLT002. This amazon link shows the Denso module as compatible with Porsche: https://www.amazon.com/DDLT002-Xenon.../dp/B007FIKQ1S

DYSL - first verify the KDLT002 part number matches. Then swap parts between your front left and right headlights until you confirm which part is failing.

david

Many thanks for the fine detective work!

DYSL

Yes both Toyot labeled units have the KDLT2002 part numbers on them. Both were connected to 12V power on the work bench to make sure it wasn't the car itself and neither powered up the bulbs. When it was connected to car the DME showed no bulb detected.

I have a 997.2 GT3 that has the light weight halogens and I am trying to do a conversion to Xenon. I bought a set of Standard Xenon housings, these Toyota ballasts, and OEM xenon bulbs. This should be plug and play as 12V is 12V and the car wouldn't know the difference between a halogen vs a xenon bulb, as long as the ballast was sending a charge to the bulbs.

Any input on my halogen to Xenon conversion? Am I missing something?

I realize I'm not going to have the auto leveling feature but I'm ok with just fixed xenons.

semicycler

Ah yes, halogen to Xenon conversion is an important piece of information. Yes there is a coding difference in the front module. From a Durametric screen capture:

DYSL

So all we need to do is recode to Xenon this and it should work?

semicycler

Honestly I don't know for certain. But it's a great starting point. Set Xenon to yes but leave all the HBA settings to no/not installed. Then see what it does. Otherwise you will have better luck finding a Halogen to Xenon upgrade thread somewhere. There are a lot of 996 ones, not too many 997 ones though. The one 997 thread on renntech.org talks about the wiring being different too. So you might need to switch a wire in the connector.

For reference the DME senses when a headlight is out based on it's current draw. A burnt headlight will throw a hard error message on the instrument cluster. But a burnt out interior light like the frunk light only has a soft error message, nothing on the dash. The only way to see the interior bulb out error is with PIWIS or Durametric. I suspect your DME thinks the halogen bulb is missing either because the new headlight is wired to a different pin or the current draw is outside of what it expects to see for a proper Halogen bulb.

DYSL

Thanks Semicycler - You have been a wealth of knowledge. Curious, are you a Porsche tech? We'll try all of your suggestions to see if this works.

seewong

Sorry to bump this thread but I am looking into a halogen to xenon conversion as well. Did you mean to say that the 12v on the work bench DID turn on the lights but the car showed bulb out?

Thanks

shyamvenky

I did a halogen to Xenon conversion for my 997 recently and did not use OEM (or the Toyota components).

One of the main reasons you can't just get the OEM/Koito ballast and igniter and use a D2S bulb is because the halogen bulb mount is for a H7 bulb.
A D2S bulb will not sit properly and hence you may not get a good beam pattern.

Good thing that our cars have a projector setup for halogen bulbs as well, so you won't be blinding anyone even with a cheap Xenon kit.

The reason why the car still thinks there's a bulb out is because of the CANBus system in there that looks for a load (I'm guessing resistance, experts please correct me).
The low beam halogens are 55W and pretty much draw that entire power right away.
But an HID ballast "warms up" and slowly gets to that full rating of 35W (or 50W depending on what you buy).
CANBus doesn't wait for the "warm up" and says that the bulb is out.
Most good HID kits these days come with some sort of "error canceler" or "CANBus adapter" which basically uses some capacitors and resistors to reduce (if not eliminate) the warm up period.

A 997 with the Xenon option already knows to wait and then look for the load, but halogen cars don't.
So yes, you can add a basic Xenon kit without the "error canceler" and then play with the coding.. maybe it will work, or it won't..

I got an H7 Morimoto Elite HID System from LightWerkz with their 35W ballasts (XB35) and their H7B 5500K bulbs (but I recommend 4500K as it's closer to OEM 4300K).
I also ordered the CANBus adapter module from them and validated that without that module I was seeing bulb-out warnings.

Coming to bulbs.. remember that our cars have a H7 mount for halogen bulbs. So you really need an HID bulb that is as close a match to the halogen's filament location.
Several reviews I read said that Morimoto's XB HID are are very good match to H7 bulb dimensions.

The other critical aspect for bulbs is the position of the electrode (the pole next to the glass bulb). The projectors in our cars expect the electrode to be in the 6 'o clock position.
A lot of other bulbs don't come in this configuration and hence your beam pattern will suck.
Morimoto's H7B - note the B suffix that's not part of the regular H7 standard. That B style bulb has the electrode at the bottom (and the A style has it at the top 12 o' clock position).

Another little gotcha with HID kits is that the halogen bulbs (and hence their plugs) don't have a + and - side as they're just resistors.
But the HID kit is sensitive to polarities and won't work if you swap them. Our halogen bulb harness has a yellow and a brown wire.
Now, generally German cars have brown to be the ground (colour of the earth, I guess), but weirdly it was the other way round here!
The yellow wire is the ground - you need to know this to connect the HID ballast correctly.

LightWerks has a discount code for first time purchasers - Welcome15
Again, I'm in no way affiliated to LightWerkz or Morimoto - this is all just from my experience.

Once you've purchased the components and you've opened up the headlight assemblies is when you'll realize that there is not enough space to stash all the modules in there
This wasn't the case with the 996

So you now have to devise a plan to do the wiring. Use the adapters that came with the kit in creative ways
I spent hours and hours on planning with all the components laid out on my bench..

I decided to keep the ballast and the igniter within the assembly and have the CANBus adapter module outside the assembly.
The main reason for this is that I did not want to mess around with the output line coming from the ballast as it is high voltage.
The CANBus module is supposed to sit on the input side of the ballast (basically a 12V line controlled by the headlight switch).

I dremeled out the ridges on the inside of the headlight assembly lid so it had enough flat space to house the ballast.
Then I drilled out a little hole to pass wires on the "top side corner of the lid" - for 2 pairs (input and output of the CANBus module).
If you make this into a quick-disconnect harness (I used a molex 4 wire connector pair), then you can mount the CANBus module remotely.
I used 3m Dual Lock velcro strips to secure the ballast to the inside of the lid and the CANBus module in the "front inside corner" of the headlight void.
Ensure that you use some silicone sealant to caulk the drilled hole, and you're all set

Yes, the procedure I followed is a bit more involved, but I wanted to ensure I didn't strain anything by stuffing everything into the assembly itself.
I also did not want water ingress to be an issue - hence the silicone seal, tape-wrapped wire harness with nice molex quick-disconnects.

I think overall this mod cost me less that $150 and a bunch of hours or work.
You could send in your lights to LightWerkz like someone recently did to get them blacked out.
They would do a more professional upgrade, but yea - it definitely won't be $150.

The difference in lighting was day and night! The HIDs put out 3x the amount of light as the halogens.
And best thing is.. you're not blinding anyone else on the road!

seewong

Thanks for all the info shyamvenky! I understand your explanation on the the position of the electrode needing to be on the bottom. My understanding is H7A bulbs have the electrode on the OPPOSITE side of the notch in the bulb, while H7B bulbs have it on the SAME side. Are you saying that the notch facing down in the headlight housing, so we need the H7B bulbs? Thanks again for all the info!!!