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Installed HID Kit Today on Base Boxster

26K views 61 replies 20 participants last post by  Cosmo M3 
#1 ·
Bought a Philips HID kit but instead of putting in a 4300k or 6000k H7 bulb, I installed a JDM 5000k bulb. I like that there is no hint of yellow or blue, just pure white that matches the daytime LED driving lights.
 

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#3 ·
I am the King of being unmechanically inclined. I had the kit for a week before attempting this because I was scared I would screw it up. I looked up how to remove the headlight which was ridiculously easy. Basically plug and play from there. I double sided tape the ballast in the housing and tucked all the wires in and I was done. I was even faster on the second headlight. Surprisingly easy.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I recommend you stay away from LED kits, their light output will be less than your stock halogen. Stick with a HID system, since even the projectors inside the non-hid headlights are more than likely either Hella or Valeo, except in halogen setup, but the light output should be very similar to oem HID. And in case anyone is wondering here is the site https://www.theretrofitsource.com, looks like they sell kits now with a wiring harness, which takes the guess work out of where to find a good one.
 
#5 ·
If your Boxster/Cayman has halogens then the bulbs needed are H7s not H8. I bought mine here:

http://www.philipsxenon.com/porsche-c-375/porsche-xenon-lights-kit-by-philips-hid-p-1260.html

Specific for Porsche and made in Germany. The company is based out of Nevada. I called them and requested to replace the bulb to a non Philips 5000k temp bulbs. Only because Philips currently don't produce 5000ks. Even if you chose 4300k or 6000k, it will be an improvement to the halogen bulbs.
 
#6 · (Edited)
35W or 50W?, either way, I really hope you used a wiring harness, because 90% of all hid "kits" use crap ballast that draw very high amperage at startup and they tend to rate their kit wattage from the point of power draw, not power output, so you rarely get 35 or 50 watt. The problem with using the original harness to power the kit, is that if you have any damage to the wiring, you are pretty much screwed. Seeing as how our cars have the battery up front, and the frunk area is fairly small, routing a wiring harness in there is relatively easy from what I can tell, and the price for a good one is around $50-60. Another benefit of going with a harness, is you can use a 50w kit safely, and not worry about overloading factory wiring, and trust me, the difference in light output is very noticeably, they will outperform stock HID headlights by approximately 20%. Anyway, I dont like plugging any company, but Morimoto makes very high quality kits, and their warranty is great, those guys have been around HID retrofitting forums/market for a very long time, and most of their products reflect user feedback.
 
#8 ·
Also, for those of you guys who buy regular 35w kits, 4300k is stock color look, 5000k is slightly whiter, and anything above that to 6000-6500k is going into blue territory, but keep in mind, anything above 4300k, and you start loosing Luminous output. If anyone here decides on a 55-50w kit, use the reference and add 1000K, because the 50-55w systems will reduce the color output by about 1000K, for example, if you buy a kit with 6000k bulbs, the light output will be closer to 5000K, and so on.
 
#9 ·
I have also researched on Morimotos which seems to be a great brand with very good reviews. Just wasn't sure their ballast would fit in our headlight housing. A ballast can't be mounted outside the headlight assembly because of the way our headlights are engineered to be removed and placed back. I chose the Philips brand because another Boxster owner had installed them with no issues at all, especially that the ballast was small enough to be placed in the housing along with the wires.
 
#10 ·
Not the best idea to have the ballast inside the headlight, it gets really hot inside, you will definitely reduce their life, I remember seeing many problems on forums where a resistor or capacitor inside would fail due to excessive heat, you can see all factory placement is outside. Morimotos for example come as a two piece setup up, with an ignitor, separate from the housing, in case one part fails, you can swap them easily, with that setup I would at least place the ballast in the same position as factory, since the space is already allocated, I still have a set of Morimotos that I'm incidentally taking with me to Europe as a gift to my friend in a few days, if you want to see their size let me know.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Full disclosure - I've had a Mortimoto HIDs from The Retrofit Source (TRS) in my 987.2 for the last 4 yrs and have had 3 component failures. Luckily it had (ATT) a 5 yr warranty, so the parts where covered. But there was a major hassle to isolate the failed component - through swapping left vs right parts to see what part was causing the problem. Since the failure was intermittent, this was a lengthy process.

First, you need to verify that the inhouse (OEM) wiring/circuit worked. Then the bulbs needed to be swapped. Then the ballasts, then the igniters, then the CANBus adapters... You get it. Since it was often intermittent, each test took several days.

While it isn't that hard to remove and replace the headlights - it gets real old when you have to go through the process multiple times at the direction of someone on the phone or email. Once the failed part was identified, the shipped the replacement via USPS. So it often took 4 days due to weekends.

I do think that heat is an issue in the sealed headlight enclosures. My last failure was during a 3300 mile trip - where my left light refused to ignite after stopping for gas on a 10 hr trip segment. I proceeded with just the right light and fog lights. It did restart (after cycling power switch) about 15 minutes later while driving. This behavior repeated for several days. Finally it just gave-up and would never ignite. When I got home I called TRS support. After hours of swapping the parts and driving for days, it turned out to be the ballast (my first guess - but TRS support required proof).

BTW, my normal driving at night was relatively short local trips. So I would be very unlikely to heat stress the ballasts except on long trips.

My guess is that with front engine cars, there is enough air circulation to cool the ballasts.
 
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#13 · (Edited)
I also seldom drive my car and my night drives are usually short too. The bay area weather will hopefully help in keeping ballast cool. Funny thing is I checked out a couple of Morimoto reviews on YouTube earlier today, and one poster stated he had problems too with ballasts and had to deal with several replacements.

I'm also going to look back at my setup and see if I can mount the ballast outside the headlight housing with double sided tape.
 
#16 ·
Okay, ballast is now double sided taped outside of headlight housing where it can breathe better and dissipate heat. Extension cables helped. Had to make a hole on the cover as shown on the photo. Rubber grommet will keep dust out. There was enough room to place the housing back with the additional wires.
 

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#17 ·
I had to do the right side differently because of the AC condenser pipes in the way but I found out it is the best way to mount the ballast, including where the hole should be made on the housing access cover. The headlight goes back smoothly unlike the other side where there was a little tension to place back in. Still it wasn't too bad. The ballast was placed at the back where the firewall slopes up. Hope this helps others that wants to attempt this.
 

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#18 ·
Thank you for sharing your experiences with installing your HID kit. Philips makes a kit for my 987.1S, so I'm thinking about buying it. But I wanted to ask you if you've experienced any issues since you installed your HID kit: codes? flickering? bulbs buying out? radio interference? Other?

Also, how hard was it to install the kits? I can barely remove and replace a burned out light bulb in the hallway. So I'm worried this project might be getting me over my head.

Thoughts?
 
#20 ·
After reading and posting on a few "HID conversion kit" threads, there are STRONG opinions that an HID bulb SHOULD NOT be placed in a halogen projector housing. Apparently a halogen projector lens focuses, aims and projects light differently than an HID projector lens. Because of this, from what I've read, a holden projector scatters light causing on-coming traffic to be blinded.

True?
False?
True, but not as bad as reported?

But I see on The Retrofit website that they sell actual HID lenses as well as ballasts and bulbs for a 993. Will this fit/work in a 987.1? Has anyone installed this retrofit setup?
 
#21 ·
I did this in a 987.1, installed a HID kit into it (originally halogen) and the aim was perfect, as was the light distribution and cut off was exactly the same as that years HID. I also recommend the 5000k bulbs.

As for installation, yes a bit involved, but if you are careful and follow instructions it is not too bad. My kit is obviously not the same as the current generation of stuff, I had to run power and a relay because of the Can Bus signals, todays offerings should deal with all of this. Once installed I enjoyed 6 years of HID lighting, no issues with over heating or burnt out bulbs, todays kits should be at least as good.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Yeah, but you're not gonna like it :( I had the same issue with my TRS kit a couple times. They had me swapping the individual components from side to side until the problem was solved. On my original setup that included: bulb; Canbus adapter; ballast. The newer kit has another component (igniter). One time it was the ballast, the other it was Canbus.

Once the failing component is isolated, you'll need to deal with the seller's warranty replacement policy. For TRS, they wouldn't ship me a new ballast until I sent photographic proof that I had permanently disabled (via cutting in & out cables) the old one. So - for the week I was waiting for ground UPS, I was without one light. I had to re-install the Halogen bulb which looked like crap.
 
#33 ·
Just wanted to update my experience with the Philips Xenon HID Lights Bulbs Ballasts Kits HID kit that I had.

The HID kit did not play well with the automatic headlight feature during a cold engine start because the ballasts were drawing too much power, therefore shutting off one of the headlights then turning them back on once the alternator was powering up. This inconsistency was not the quality I was looking for, therefore I returned the kit to Philips Xenon HID Lights Bulbs Ballasts Kits (I'm also pretty sure their ballasts are not PHILIPS ballasts either. I believe their ballast are from a different company but they stick on the PHILIPS sticker on them regardless) and turned my attention to XENONDEPOT - HID & LED Lighting Products and their Xtreme HID Kit. I ordered a set of their HID kits with the 4300K genuine Philips bulbs and CANBUS adapters (PWM).

Their HID kit were definitely better sorted out and you could tell that their ballast looked beefy (albeit slim) and all their kits come with low draw ballasts. My first cold start ignition with the headlight switch on "AUTO", the lights turned on with no issues. I was blown away.

I've tried this several times and both headlights continued to come on consistently.

I'm pretty impressed with the kit and I recommend XENONDEPOT - HID & LED Lighting Products over Philips Xenon HID Lights Bulbs Ballasts Kits for anyone interested in going HIDs with their P Cars.
 
#37 ·
OK, my update.

The kit works fine. However, the light bowl in the 981 places HID ground wire on top. Easiest fix is to notch the H7 bulb base to allow it mounted 180 degrees (ground wire at 6, not 12). If Cosmo didn't do this, he will have two pronounced shadows in each beam.

Properly mounted, the xenons give same pattern, same cut-off and are very *BRIGHT*. Liking the difference :)

I used 5000K bulbs. Nice color, not ricey...
 
#38 ·
OK, my update. The kit works fine. However, the light bowl in the 981 places HID ground wire on top. Easiest fix is to notch the H7 bulb base to allow it mounted 180 degrees (ground wire at 6, not 12). If Cosmo didn't do this, he will have two pronounced shadows in each beam. Properly mounted, the xenons give same pattern, same cut-off and are very *BRIGHT*. Liking the difference :) I used 5000K bulbs. Nice color, not ricey...
I had the same problem with the two pronounced shadows on each beam due to the wire. How did you notch it? I think that was the problem and returned the kit. Does the light have any issues with stability? If you have photos of where you notched it that would be great!
 
#39 ·
Hi all,

sorry to revive an old thread and thank you for taking the time to read this message.... i spent about an hour searching this forum as well as other forums on some HID conversion tips for the 981/987 Halogen but I couldn't get any definitive answers... most folks seem to be able to get the HID working, but with flickering, cold start issues, etc. And those post were a few years ago.

In about two days i maybe in possession of a 987.1.... From what I can tell its a based S without HID or navigation.... I can live without Navigation on a Porsche but I would like HID... I've heard Morimoto is a good option on other cars but every thread I have read seems to indicate issues with the Cayman. Any brand folks recommends other than going full HID conversion using porsche parts? I am aware of the potential blinding impact of oncoming drivers, I think the projector headlight should help...

If everyone is against HID/LED, I guess I won't take possession of that car. I do have a shop that can/will do the conversion, so I just need to make sure the lights doesn't flicker or throw off an error.

thank you very much for your help
 
#40 · (Edited)
A little less than a year ago I was doing the same search you were doing. I vacillated between getting LED or HID. While both are good, I went with HID, which I haven't installed, yet! The biggest anti-conversion argument is HID bulbs were (allegedly) not meant for projectors designed for halogen bulbs. Some say an HID bulb in a halogen projector will be blinding to oncoming traffic. For me, in my humblest of opinions (and remember, I haven't installed my HIDs), there is little to no difference between an HID projector and a halogen projector when it comes to projecting a beam of light.

I'll check to see what brand HID I bought and post it soon.

https://kensun.com
 
#42 ·
I just installed a set of HID 5k lights in my 15 Cayman. Install was uneventful. Tested the lights after install and they worked great. Went for a drive this morning and within a block both headlights started to go on and off. Got a message to check left and right headlights. Additionally, my windshield wiper stopped working.

I went ahead and switched out the HID lights back with the stock H7 halogens. Everything worked afterwards. Any idea of what happened?
 
#50 ·
So I got the kit from xenon depot today, and it has so many components. And about 8 possible ways to install things and different components sets. With no instructions whatsoever onto which ones do *I* need. I suspect I don't need all of them?

Technology Electronic device Electronics Wire Ceiling
 
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