Hated driving my 86 911 at night as the lights were so dim. Now with an 04 Boxster, while not quite as bad as that 911, it’s still crappy halogens. Anyone replace their halogens with leds that can recommend a set? Quite a few choices on Amazon. Watched a view videos and seems you can now do a direct swap, no fans or anything else needed, just remove old bulb, pop in the new one. just looking to hear from the experience of others, if there were any issues, and how you like the result (e.g., brightness, pattern). Not really a lot of recent threads on this topic for the 986 that I could find.thx

 

I was considering the LED replacement but couldn’t find an LED bulb that was DOT compliant and didn’t say, “off-road use only”. Installing a non DOT approved bulb opens up a can of worms in a collision. A smart attorney is going to point out that your car was running such lights. It’s not worth the risk in my opinion.

 

I can't say you're wrong, but I've never been in a collision yet that involved attorneys. Results will vary by location, but I work for a medium sized police department half an hour south of Seattle, and the chances of getting stopped for modified but not awful headlights are close to zero. The chances that anyone taking a crash report will take any notice of your headlight bulbs are about the same- I would think especially for a Boxster since the lights are so low compared to your average SUV that even if they were aimed poorly it would be less glaring than half the factory lights out there.

I have these in my car, and they have a decent beam pattern, on par with the halogen bulbs and no terrible glare. They're definitely brighter, not overpowering, but I wish they were a bit warmer in color. Overall satisfied and don't intend to switch back.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/h7-hlv7-h7-hlv7

If you're looking at LED bulbs in general, look at the placement of the actual emitters- older bulbs packed as many as possible without regard to how the light reached the reflector, and the result was terrible patterns. The light from half the emitters would come out at the wrong angle. Many newer bulbs take care to place the emitters in the same spot as the conventional filament would be, so the angle of reflection and pattern are consistent with the original design.

 

All the aftermarket led lights seem to be on the cooler side. I’d much prefer a daylight bulb around 4500. Thanks for providing that link.

 

I see that the supplier sells a load resistor kit.
Headlight Load Resistor Kit - H7 LED Headlight Bulbs - H7 CONNECTION Kit
Is this necessary? Do you use the resistor kit?
Thanks

 

I did not use those, I think they're meant for newer cars that can give you a warning on the dash for a burnt out bulb. At least, that's my assumption, I've never had a car that tells me about bulbs, but I have seen no issues running without the resistor.

 

A guy in my mom’s neighborhood has a 986 - with heat damage in the headlight lenses from aftermarket brighter bulbs. I don’t know what type.

Do these LEDs get hotter than a normal halogen bulb? I’d love better light, but not at the expense of burning my glass/plastic headlight housing/lens.

 

Good LED lights make way less heat than traditional bulbs. There are news stories about how LED replacements for traffic signal bulbs can get covered with snow, which wasn't a problem with the old style lights that melted the snow off by normal operation. Look at the ratings on house fixture LED bulbs, a 100w incandescent equivalent LED uses something like 13w, the savings is by only emitting light in the desired wavelength and not losing so much to heat.

 

I'd highly recommend Auxito bulbs - I had a set in my Honda Insight and the beam cutoff was fantastic - no blinding other drivers while still providing significantly more light output. I recently ordered a set for my Boxster, haven't gotten around to installing them yet though. Will update once they're in!

 

Spent my professional life working with all types of studio lighting going back to the old Kliegel Bros tungsten instruments that used to be the studio standard since the advent of television.

LED was a big innovation in lighting technology and has come a long way in the last 20+ years. In the nutshell, more light, more flexibility in color and intensity output, and a fraction of the energy needed. The energy savings alone saved the studios big time of electrical costs. Remember, the tungsten lamps not only sucked a lot of current, they also generated a tremendous amount heat that had to be vacated from the studio.

Anyway, the early forms of LED didn't produce the light output and were very limited - ex. couldn't dim them like a conventional lighting instrument. That was a problem. But now, those problems have been eliminated and LED is the future of lighting in the home, work, and the automobile.

Regarding LED bulbs that are being pushed as an alternative to halogen - There is a reason DOT regulations are against a direct replacement for halogen and it's because of safety. The LED light element is very intense at the source and lacks diffusion like a conventional filament. LED produces intense "hot spots" and are better suited for projector style lighting with active balancing which uses mirrors to direct the projected beam downward. A conventional headlight enclosure that was designed for halogen bulbs is very limited in it's ability to diffuse or refract the intense LED light cluster in a way that still makes it useful for the driver and yet not blinding to on-coming traffic at the same time. Another note - the prismatic patterns in the Porsche halogen enclosures were never intended to properly refract LED light.

The Porsche halogen enclosures get the yellow burned marks from the intense heat the filament generates over time. LED does produce heat but it's usually at the power source or the rear of the bulb. Hence, why some high output LED bulb come with heat sinks on the rear of the bulbs. IMHO, an LED bulb will NOT produce the yellow burn marks like the halogen. However, with so many brands of LED being pushed on Amazon, eBay, and other online retailers it's hard to know if any would be safe to use. For now, the rule of thumb is replace the bulbs with suitable halogen.

 

Thanks @ZuffenZeus . That is good to know. I might just live with my OEM lights.

 

What about something like the spec-d lights? Cheaper than some of the litronics I’ve seen for sale and seem like a better option for the money.

 

I think those DOT regulations are outdated, I remember all too well the days of HID bulbs placed without care into every lowered Civic and producing random hotspots like a disco ball. I had some really bad LED bulbs myself in a different car, so I've seen exactly the problems ZuffenZeus is talking about- but I've also seen them improve quite a bit. I now have LED bulbs in the Boxster, a Ridgeline, and a Civic, and all produce beam patterns as good as the halogen bulbs the cars came with.

I'm actually thinking about trying these- but still looking on and off to see if one brand or another looks like better quality. Probably would need to bake the housings open and take the internal lens out for best results, though.

https://www.led-colight.com/products...40565533999209

 

Although I considered LED lighting upgrades, I ultimately chose to buy HID Litronic lights from Porsche to retrofit to my halogen light equipped Boxster instead. I decided that since the factory did it this way, that it was the smart and prudent option. Had there not been a factory upgrade available, I would have considered the aftermarket LED options for sure. My average price per used headlight assembly is $525, so the total investment was $1050. I can live with that compared the price of the new Litronics of course.

 

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Do they plug right in? Any additions needed to retrofit them?