deilenberger

I've been giving some serious thought to picking up a 2013 diesel while the prices are depressed.. but I've found that ones with the HID lights are far and few.. apparently some diesel buyers are on the thrifty side (drove one today, no nav, no sunroof, no backup camera, no HIDs, no parking beepers, no heated seats and a 10 speaker audio system.) I think many of them sold for close to the $57,000 list price when new.

I have found a few that have all the options I want (pretty much the above list of missing options) with the exception of the lights.

So - the question is - has anyone added HIDs or the adaptive lighting to one that was originally equipped with halogens (marketed as "xenon" - but ALL halogen bulbs use xenon gas - it's required for the halogen-cycle.. but I digress..)

Anyone?

And if anyone knows of one for sale in the Northeast US that isn't listed on the big used-car websites - and it isn't black on black (sorry - I can't stand polishing black paint, and don't like hot interiors) - please let me know. I'm looking at the 2013's - they seem to be the sweet spot in pricing at the moment.

TIA!

gnat

The Halogen headlights are labeled as such. The Xenon lights in Porsche's are the HID bulbs.

As far as retrofitting I don't know if there are after market kits (though you wouldn't have the leveling feature), but doing a factory conversion is going to be $$$$ if it is even possible. The big part of the issue is that the Halogen lights don't have the leveling system and that will be your biggest challenge to add. Some PIWIS reprogramming would also be required.

Just the housings themselves are about $2500 if I remember correctly.

skiahh

Uhhh... huh? One of the halogen elements is what is required for the halogen cycle.

Not sure who's been whispering in your ear, but I think you need a new source. That statement is about as wrong as it can be. Halogens normally use argon or krypton as their inert gas. And pressure; no vacuum bulbs. Some do use xenon gas, however, as their inert gas, and claim - as a marketing tool - that it's better. I haven't found that to be the case.

Zingari

I wanted Xenon lights that come with the directional lighting feature in the UK. I've had experience of poor halogen lighting for night driving hence it was on my priority list. Having said that any extra you have is worth nothing at part-ex time as here in the UK values are based on stock price - I know I tried arguing the point but no doubt the re-seller will make a big play on them. So any extras you have will only benefit your use and not necessarily the next person.

You could try some of the high performance bulbs and/or new LED fitments which get good reviews.

I will say that having Xenon for wide field of view they're great but they dont give the long range reach I was expecting so if buying again it wouldn't be on my essential list.

Session

I just installed an aftermarket HID kit from DDM Tuning, it's a 35W canbus kit and the improved light output is amazing. The site claims 3400 lumen per bulb at 4500k color (which is what i got - and I believe must be in the neighbourhood of most factory xenons). The cutoff is super crisp too, so having driven around at night a bit no one has been flashing their lights at me or anything.

The onlyyyyy thing is that you will need a harness/relay setup to avoid getting a bulb going out if you keep your lights on auto (which I do so the harness is on its way..). Otherwise if you have a drill/dremel and stick-on velcro it's really easy to tuck all parts away and keep a waterproof seal on your headlight assembly. Im driving around now without the harness and I just get the lowbeams going before I start the engine and I have no issues until I go to auto....which should all go away once the harness arrives

Here's a link to what I got - they also offer lifetime warranty on the kits compatible with our cayenne (i.e canbus)

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDMPlusCanbus35W

and the harness that`s on the way

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Pr...-Relay-Harness

not a bad price for a xenon upgrade