Bi-Xenon / Litronic for 986/996 Main Beam?
Discussion
henry-f said:
You can get kits for the main beam…….but I don`t think it`s road legal.
I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if aftermarket main beam HID upgrades were illegal but Porsche themselves offer Bi-Xenon lamps these days so presumably, it can be done, somehow.
I think that the law for dipped beam HID’s states that they must be self leveling (to prevent dazzling) and have washers fitted (to prevent scatter from salt caked headlights) but I’m not sure that there are any supplementary rules for main beam lamps other than a wattage limit which presumably was set for ‘a good reason’. However, I can’t imagine what that good reason was as there should be no dazzling issues as you shouldn’t be using them in the face of on coming traffic.
aceparts_com said:
Manufacturers who fit HID to high beam also usually install a 'normal' bulb as this gets up to full brightness much quicker than a HID.
Are you saying that there can be an additional mainbeam Halogen bulb in there that remains on in conjunction with the mainbeam HID lamp?
What is the warm-up time on the kits you sell? I have OEM Litronics on my Boxster and as far as I can tell they are as good as instant. I do remember seeing the first Audi TT’s etc. circa 1999 and their Xenons took more than a second to warm up from memory.
Dr S said:
limited to certain models (e.g., Turbo). I personally would not bother...
I think you have something there... Did the 996 Turbo have Bi-Xenons as standard or as an option? Presumably, the required hardware could be adapted to fit any 9X6 lamp unit as they will all be similar/indentical at the back.
I also agree that you don’t really need HID main beams if you have 'swiveling' OEM Litronics but I used to run Scoobysport driving lamps on my old Impreza (110w halogens?) wired to come on with main beam and these were pretty awesome (given how low they were mounted). The only trouble was that when you switched back to dipped beam you could see buggerall!
Cheers!
aceparts_com said:
Dipped beam is so bright you'll rarely need high beam anyway. Manufacturers who fit HID to high beam also usually install a 'normal' bulb as this gets up to full brightness much quicker than a HID.
that's not correct, as what is the point of fitting a normal bulb to a 30k watt iginitor (or whatever the watts are)
the latest cars i.e. most german cars (as currently on my other new shape Audi A4 so I do know) that have proper high beam HID's (yes they are legal), use a slightly different type of Ignitor, where in effect it sending the full 30k of volts in one go to the bulb, to get the bulb lit instantly, make a very odd noise but works very well........
I've got OEM Litronics on a 996.
If you turn the lights on, they seem to go full bright, straight away. If someone else turns them on and you only see the light shining onto a surface, you can watch the brightness increase over approx 3 seconds. Its a weird effect.
The HIDs are always on and the H7 (?) main beam supplements them when needed. This works well for me and main beam can sometimes be needed instantly, which HID cannot do, fully.
Scoobysport Cibies... that takes me back
If you turn the lights on, they seem to go full bright, straight away. If someone else turns them on and you only see the light shining onto a surface, you can watch the brightness increase over approx 3 seconds. Its a weird effect.
The HIDs are always on and the H7 (?) main beam supplements them when needed. This works well for me and main beam can sometimes be needed instantly, which HID cannot do, fully.
Scoobysport Cibies... that takes me back
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