NOTE - this isn't intended to be a complete tutorial on doing this installation, mostly because as usual I didn't remember to take photos when doing it. If someone wants to buy the kit, and come to my house to install it - I'll expand on this with a completed DIY tutorial. What it is intended to be is some hopefully helpful hints on doing the job - so you aren't in the position of "Experience teaches you things you may not want to know.."
Here it is (borrowed from the "What did you do with your 987 Today?" thread..
WARNING:
Aliexpress
can be habit-forming. I receive packages from China about daily today. It's probably no surprise to find out much of what's sold as either genuine
Porsche
parts (even from the dealer) or accessories, or aftermarket replacements - is made in China. Using
Aliexpress
lets you cut out the middleman and buy directly from the Chinese manufacturer or vendor. The result - greatly reduced prices.
Anyway - I get to browsing on
AliExpress
, and end up with a lot of things saved, and usually a few things ordered. It's cheaper than me browsing
Amazon
.
Recently I ordered this:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805263222604.html
Less than $12, free shipping. How could I resist it?
They arrived in about 10 days from China, in a perfectly taped-up little box - which I opened revealing what you see above (except the two big elements - which aren't for a 987).
I've been installing a few every day for the past few days - today should be the last of them - the overhead lights in the header above the windshield/mirror.
I was really surprised at how lucky I must be - since every LED I've installed lit right up, no fussing with polarity. It must be I have magic hands - or - what I figured out - these are cleverly designed so they'll work with any polarity. If you use a "bridge" rectifier, which consists of four voltage-blocking diodes (all diodes do this..) the circuit to make sure the polarity on the LED (which is also a diode) is actually pretty simple and just requires 4 small diodes to achieve.
For the EE's in the audience (or those who understand how diodes work) - the circuit is:
The diodes used like this allow only the correct polarity to reach the LED, no matter how the power leads are connected. Clever!
This worked great. There are lots of videos out there showing how to install this sort of kit on a 987, but a few hints that will make it easier:
The door/puddle light
- the sockets on those get rather brittle from the halogen bulb heat and will crack if you play with them too much. And the contacts in the socket are likely stretched out a bit due to the thickness of the glass-based bottom bulb and the heat. To get these to work reliably (and this goes for any replacement LEDS at this location) - I'd suggest:
Gently bend the contacts using a tiny jeweler's screwdriver - toward the center of the socket to make better contact with the LED element contacts. If this isn't sufficient - and you know how to solder - putting a thin coating of solder on the contacts on the LED element makes it thick enough that the contact will work. BTDT.
These lights are removed by prying out from the end closest to the door hinges (ie - front edge), screwdriver under the lip, and pulling straight out. The other end (latch end) has a hook on it that you'd have to break to pull it out.
Underdash and trunk lights
- these have a small slot under the plastic lens at the end opposite the socket assembly. Pull it out using a screwdriver under that slot. It will not come out the other end since the socket protrudes beyond the light lens behind what it's mounted in. These also have a reflective/protective shield around the bulb - best removed using a jeweler's screwdriver prying the bottom of the shield away from the plastic light housing. Bend it back to shape after replacing the element and before trying to reinstall it.
The visor makeup lights
- these have a small gap around the bottom of the light/mirror assembly. If you can get your plastic pry tool (which comes with the kit) under the edge, and work it left and right, the light lense/mirror assembly will pull away. Hopefully, the thin metal bars that make up the switch assembly stay in place. The LED elements here are best rotated so the LEDs face toward the reflective surfaces in the housing. You don't want to be able to actually see the LED elements when they're on, you only want light to come from the reflectors. The reason is - the LEDs are too bright facing the person using the mirror and will blind them so they can't see their reflection in the mirror. IF the thin metal bar pops out of the light assembly when you take it apart - it goes above a clip in the center (cutout in the bar for it), then into two pin assemblies at each end - to locate the bar to hold the light element, and to provide a switched contact for the light assembly. I probably should have taken photos of this - I haven't seen anyone address this.
- The center map/cabin lights:
Almost every YouTube video I've found for this is doing it wrong. Some of them have you pull the home-link garage door buttons off and unscrew the entire assembly. Reassembling these buttons is a royal PITA. Don't do that. The correct way is to simply remove the lens, which also removes the entire light assembly. Here is how the manual shows it:
Easy. I circled the one item because I couldn't think what its purpose is. The switch for the light is on the right. The circled item looks like a place for another switch (the same shape cutout in the clear lens) - but it's not. It's a molded plastic recess with a REALLY TINY white LED in it. I have no idea what that LED is for - you can't actually see it from either seat. It might be to provide very minimal illumination of the center console (my Cayenne has this sort of LED - but it's MUCH brighter). If anyone can think of what that's for I'd love to know.
The FRUNK light:
It's different from the TRUNK light. Again - the housing lens has a recess at one end that you can get a screwdriver into and pop the assembly out. My only cautions here are: The bulb IS going to be hot when you remove it. And make sure the LEDs face the clear plastic lens before replacing it. Piece'a'cake..
EDIT: two days after posting this - I was getting to the last lights to be done - the center dome lights, using the illustration above from AllDataDIY as a guide. I attempted to pry out the socket as shown in the illustration.
My response to their suggestion is now simple - at least for the Boxster - BullSh!t
The light is slightly recessed in the plastic lump, meaning it wasn't possible to actually pry out the entire light assembly. Instead - doing it as shown - I pried out the clear plastic lens. That may, or may not have been glued in. If it was glued - it seperated without any issue, but I still couldn't get to the bulbs, you have to get to the back to reach/replace the bulbs.
That means - the chap who removed the Homelink buttons and found the screws holding the lump to the header might have been on to something. It's not necessarily a way I'd suggest because getting the Homelink buttons back in places is pretty iffy how they're mounted (but I have some ideas about that..)
The plastic lens did push back into place, and seems secure, hasn't fallen out and I did drive the car after. Hang around if you want to find out how I finally do get to those bulbs.. and I'm still puzzled about the reason for the white LED on the left side. Seems totally useless to me, but maybe if I turn up the instrument lighting higher (mine is down pretty low) - it's reason for being will become apparent.
More to come.
That's about it I think. I replaced the license plate light assemblies with LED ones a number of years ago. All the interior ones are brighter than the halogen bulbs you're replacing, and if you selected the "white" LEDs - they're white instead of pee colored.
I'm keeping all the old bulbs in case I decide I don't like the LEDs. So far the jury is out (jury = wife) on the visor lights. The footwell and glove box and frunk lights are all keepers. If the puddle lights don't get flakey - they're keepers too. The overhead console/map light - is it too bright? Maybe. Time will tell.
11-06-2023 - Update - overhead light... grrrr...
Forgeddabout the cross-out picture above.
What you see above crossed out is sort of correct. The only way the light assembly might be removed from the center of the windshield header (without disassembly of the header) is by prying it out from the left side. The right side of the light has hooks that go under the edge of the opening it mounts in - meaning you can't get it out from any other direction.
I was determined to replace the lamp today - so I started early (for me) and kept at it until it was done.
I first tried prying from the left side. Just like the picture shows.
UNFORTUNATELY
- that piece it mounts in, while it looks sort of plastic-y it's actually made of metal. And there isn't a recess in the lens to get a screwdriver in there to pry it out.
Since the lens came out the other night - I tried removing the lens again, and prying around the left side. I had no luck. When the light housing started showing little cracks from the prying I decided I had to try a different way.
SO - I decided to take out the home-link buttons again, and hopefully find the T30 screws that hold this piece to the header. A YouTuber had shown this way of doing it, but he left out a lot of detail into that might help doing it successfully.
The buttons can be removed by prying around them with a thumbnail. There are TINY little fingers that go into the half-moon recesses at the end of the switch (see pic below). Those tiny fingers like to go missing. Go figure.
I took off the buttons and found:
HINT: To keep the buttons and frame from flying off into the darkest recesses of the car, I found putting some painter's tape on the buttons and frame kept them all together as it was pried out. The only part then that will go flying is the rubber goober behind the buttons that make the contact for the switches. Watch for where it goes. It's not magnetic so you need a bright flashlight to locate it.
This is the actual switch. The two round things on the green circuit board are the poles of a switch. There is a rubber thingie that has two small round metal disks embedded in it. When you push the button, the metal disk connects the two poles of the switch, actuating it. Clever. The square things are LEDs to light up the buttons.
What I have circled is what you have to use to get this gem out. Turns out there is a small catch made of
very
fragile plastic behind that slot in the circle. You need to push the catch toward the center of the switch assembly, and the switch will drop right out. At least one side did. The other side the catch-hook broke, meaning there was no way to hold the switch in place.
That will be dealt with later on.
That's the T-30 screw. There is one under each switch. These are quite tight from the factory (they do hold the catch receiver that holds the top down.. so I guess there is a reason). I needed to use my handy Torx driver kit from Gearwrench to break them free. They can then be unscrewed and will fall out (so watch where they go.)
Here we have both switches down, and the screws just about removed.
All coming down. The light assembly can be turned and will fit through the hole it gets mounted in. The connector for it did not want to release... so I decided not to fight it. The switch connectors did release, so those I took out.
About to turn and push the light through the hole..
So I want you to look at the next one carefully:
The metal clip in the red circle is what holds the light into the metal latch receiver. I see no way to actually release it with the receiver bolted to the header. You can't even slide a screwdriver down along that end since the light is recessed in the receiver.
Once you get it down - it takes about 30 seconds to swap the LED element in place, and it looks quite nice when done.. but what a PITA it is to get to. IF you can pull just the lens off the light assembly - leaving it in place - and have some small rubber tubing you could slip over the end of the halogen bulb to pull it out - you could replace the LED with a lot less effort.
It turns out the lens IS glued in place (perhaps a thermal-weld thing) - but not very securely. I worked it off with a thumbnail starting at the rear edge (closest to me in the driver's seat) then worked a small screwdriver around and the lens came right off.
When I was done (I'll have to take a photo of the results) - I ended up re-gluing the lens back to the light housing. The LED element should outlast me and the car so hopefully there is never a reason to go back in there.
The switch I mentioned as losing its catch on removal was also glued back in. Some AliExpress loudspeaker glue was used (seems like a 3M glue I used to use at Bell-Labs, a contact cement sort of glue, coat both surfaces, wait for it to haze over, press together and it's done.) The AliExpress glue was used because (1) I had it handy and (2) it has a very cool feature. The glue is dispensed from the tube in a tiny hypodermic size needle coming out of the end. The cap that seals it up has a thin metal pin that goes into the hypodermic when closing the glue, preventing it from clogging up in the nozzle. VERY cool and very easy to dispense just a tiny bit of glue when needed.
SO - all the lights are installed and all of them are working. Would I do it again? Maybe - I tend to keep cars as long as I have projects for it - and so far I've been having fun with this one. The wife was happy with the increased light in the visor mirror assembly last night, and being able to see her feet in the footwell, so I guess that's also a plus factor (happy wife = happy life). The cost was certainly reasonable. The kit was around $12. The glue was around $2 (how can they possibly make something and sell and ship it to the US for $2??).
I'm off to AliExpress now to look for new ball receivers (those screw-on socket thingies) for my top. Due to an error in operation, I ended up using up my two spares today. That's another long story that I don't think I'll tell.
Any issues with background hiss on the speakers with the
LED
's? I am starting to chase this on my car and have read that can be an issue. When I turn my
headlights
on an audible hiss emanates from the speakers.
None that I've noticed. I do have an
alternator
whine issue on an amplifier I added to the frunk that's feeding speakers behind the headrests, but the
LEDs
didn't change this. Maybe that whine is drowning out any added hiss - but I don't think there is any.
