LED Headlight issue...

Hi guys- finally was able to source that headlight removal tool thingy (ridiculous) from the local dealer. Replaced the headlight bulbs with H7 50w LED 's sourced on Ebay. Bulbs are rated at 6,000 kelvins. I recently did LED 's for the fog lights, and had no problems with the plug &play bulbs. However, after installing these I am getting "Check Left Dipped Beam/Right Dipped Beam" warnings, and the lights are intermittently coming on and off. When on they look great. They do seem a little dimmer than the stock halogens (which were 55w). Should I just hunt for a 55w set, or would 60-65w be ok? I played it safe with 50w and I think that's the issue...

On a 987.2 , the fog lights are not monitored - you can even remove the fixture and it will not throw an error. Many LEDs are advertised with their wattage equivalent - that is - the wattage of the equivalent normal bulb they replace. Another common practice they sometimes state the wattage used by 2 bulbs. So you may be replacing a 55w halogen with a 25 watt LED .Not the actual wattage consumed by the LED bulb. Your best bet is to add Load Resistors . They ad resistance to increase the current draw to fool the canbus monitoring.

Thanks, good advice...funny that the LEDs are so efficient they need extra resistance added

any luck finding a fix? I saw these.. Choose Your Own Colour Temperature | DIY | 3000K, 4300K, 6500K, 8000K, 10000K any body have experience using? would these look as good as stock xenons does anybody know?

They won't fit your light enclosure without modification to the enclosure's bulb retaining clip. Here is what a standard H7 base looks like (BTW, I have used these and they do match the color temp of OEM HID. Philips - Diamond Vision H7 Halogen HID Bulbs With our headlight enclosures, the H7 bulb is inserted from behind the enclosure and a hinged wire clip latches to hold it in place. These LED bulbs have a fat bottom which would preclude you from clipping the latch into place. You might be able to modify that locking hinge. Here's some pics I took during my HID installation that show what I'm talking about: It looks like the retaining clip hinge is just held in place with a screw - so you might be able to remove the screw, take the clip off, work it around the LED bulb, then insert the bulb and re-attach the hinge screw and lock it into place.

I tried a second set of higher rated wattage bulbs and still threw a fault light...I clipped the wiring on the load resistors I got too short and couldn't maneuver them into the housing very well. may be throwing in the towel on this one guys its a real pain popping the whole housing out each time, unscrewing everything, ughh

thanks for the info guys, I've read Philips - Diamond Vision H7 Halogen HID Bulbs have quite poor visibility, although do look quite white? I wondered why you've swapped for HIDs?

I'm not sure if they are much dimmer than OEM halogen. I have been running with aftermarket HIDs for over 2 yrs. While on vacation, my right side started acting-up. It wouldn't re-ignite after it got hot (on a long trip, after a re-fueling stop). After letting it cool down about 15 minutes it worked fine. Then, a few days later it just quit entirely. I was home by that time. I had a 5yr warranty (from The Retrofit Source) but I figured it would take a while to get sorted-out* (ended up taking two weeks for the replacement to arrive). In the mean time I didn't want to use the OEM halogen - it looked blood-shot compared to the other HID. So I got a set of the Philips Diamond Visions and just used one on the right. Yes, it looked dimmer than my HID on the left, but that's to be expected. But the color temp matched fairly well. I didn't do any highway driving with that mix, so I didn't get to judge how it affected distant vision. Besides, the driver-side HID fills-in quit well at distance. Even driving with the right side totally out I only noticed a problem for near things on the right. * trouble-shooting these HID kits is a real pain. Basically - with my setup, there are 3 components that could be failing: bulb, ballast, canbus adapter, (or 4 if you include the car's wiring). The only way to isolate it is to systematically swap each component with the known good one on the other side. So, each time I swapped, I had to remove, open, change, and re-install both headlights . Turned-out to be the ballast. Then, to be 100% certain, I swapped ballasts again, to make sure the problem followed the ballast. So I sympathize with you Rittmeister.

Woww Rschwerer...that's quite the saga and exactly what I want to avoid. foxton- The Phillips bulbs still look like halogens (because they are of course) and the combination with the thin white/blue LED DRL looks weird to me IMHO. If you've seen the last gen C Class Mercedes or CLA cruising around, same story...halogen HL's, LED DRL's I get that the boxster was and is the 'entry level car' but man do I miss the PDLS I had on my '10...it SEEMS like a senseless option until you actually have it for a while...like ventilated seats...just completes the whole package....ughhhh#regrets

If you are referring to the LED strip on 987.2's, this Philips halogen is actually only slightly cooler (bluer) than the LEDs. It is 5000K. My HIDs are 4300K and are very close to the DRL LED strip. What really looks weird is the OEM halogens (3000K). Total miss-match. BTW, I also replaced the OEM fogs with the 5000K H11 version - looks MUCH better (although I don't use fogs very often). Philips H11

agree with you, the OEM halogens were just a bizarre choice. I changed the fogs, and by comparison that was easy and they look great.

I purchased these a few months back and they have be excellent. The are literally plug and play. They have a built-in fan and are guarantied not to code. Sirius LED - 3rd Generation LED Head light

How is the lighting dispersion and the cutoff?

It is performing as expected. It came with standard bulbs so anything else was better.

I put some phillips diamond vision bulbs in (thanks RSchwerer) , they do a good job of matching the little led strip on the cayman and imo look pretty good in the projectors, so would also recommend, if you aren't looking to go the HID route

Guys. I purchased and put led light bulbs on from Amazon . Plug and play type. No fan and no adopters. After installed. The Error code messenger came on. Then it went away after 40 miles drive. it’s been 4 days now. No error code yet. I turn day time running light on to make sure. Doesn’t it mean the computer “adopted” the new bulbs after a while?

Should be fine. I’m now using led bulbs and have no errors

I'm not sure what to think. Can you provide a link to the bulbs (on Amazon or elsewhere)? It's possible the bulbs have a resistor built in to avoid triggering the bulb-monitoring system. As far as I know, the light-control-module doesn't have the capability of self-programming (which would be needed for it to "adopt" an unknown bulb type.) BTW - when you have a chance - please visit New Member Introductions and introduce yourself and your Porsche. LOTS of photos is a good thing..

Over the last few years I've bought LED bulbs off Amazon for the fogs, low, and high beams. In all cases, I've gotten a letter from Amazon about a year later stating the product had been recalled. I'm guessing it was because they are only legal for off-road use. However, I still use them (well, rarely use high and fogs) and I doubt the low beam is causing issues with on-coming traffic. I never get flashed, I just passed the N Carolina safety inspection which included low & high beam alignment tests.