Litronic vs Bi-Xenon

What is the difference. My 2003 996 has Bi-Xenon's according to the codes.

Litronics are the factory Xenon unit for 2001 and prior model years. Only the low beam is xenon, and (with electronics pkg) rotates up to aid the high beam halogen bulb when hi beam is selected. Bi-Xenon is the factory install for 2002 and subsequent. Both low and hi beams are xenon lamps.

Are the Bi-Xenon's significantly better than Litronic's when the high beam is selected?

Actually, Bi-Xenon was an option in '02. My '02 has low beam Xenon's only.

So does my 04

My '04 C4S lists "Xenon Headlamp Package" (N/C) on the sticker. Can I assume this means the car has bi-xenons? Phil

Another mystery solved

Are you guys/gals really sure litronics and bi-xenon aren't exactly the same...??? HID lamps/bulbs "ignite" (strike the initial arc) quickly but do not rise to full brightness for a few hundred milliseconds so they are not likely to ever be used for high beam "flashing". Most of the "bi-xenon" systems I have seen simply modify the beam pattern/path of the low beam HIDs upward via some electro-mechanical method.

on 99-01, does the litronic xenon light bulb lit in high beam? Or is it just high beam halogen only? on my 02 bi-xenon, the xenon light is lit in high beam. High beam is a halogen lamp, not xenon. i suspect the difference is whether xenon is used in high beam mode or not.

The low-beam xenon in Litronics stays lit low or high. On high, the xenons pivot up as well as halogens turn on. I could not see how a dedicated xenon bulb would work for high beams considering the start up time. I thought the high was done either by mechanically pivoting (as in the Litronics) or some other optics. If djantlive is correct, then bi-xenon and Litronics seem to be the same.

Litronics only use HID/Xenon bulbs for the low-beams. High-beams are conventional. Bi-Xenons use the same bulbs also for the high-beams. Bi-Xenons have true HID high-beams. Bi-Xenon light output is much higher than Litronic light output, hence why the output is restricted with Bi-Xenons in low-beam mode. Bi-Xenon, straight from Bosch: "Bi-xenon headlamps use a single xenon lamp to produce both the high beam and the low beam. The full light output is used to produce the high beam, while the low beam is formed by moving a shutter between the bulb and the lens, thus blocking off a portion of the light. "

That Bosch quote does not truly clarify the issue. Yes, the "single xenon lamp" is used for both high beam and low beam. The quote clearly does not address nor preclude the use of a halogen bulb to enhance the high beam light pattern and provide quick "flash" capability. Which I am quite sure is the case with the earlier Litronic lights and now with Bi-xenon. So I stand by my earlier position.

How does this not clarify the issue? You position is clearly stated that Lintronics and Bi-Xenons are the same and they are clearly not. This is true for both the bulb output and the fact the Litronics don't have HID high-beams. You are correct in that a halogen is also used for both lighting assemblies, but in different ways. With Litronics, the halogen is the high-beam. On flash-to-pass, the only thing that changes is the halogen turns on. When you turn the high-beams on, the halogen turns on and after they are sustained the Litronics rotate up to add fill to the lighting. Bi-Xenons on flash-to-pass immediately open the shutters and turn on the halogens. I tested this with my car running and you can easily hear the shutter assemblies opening immediately when moving the switch forward or back. I never noticed how loud they are before (of course I wasn't listening for them). What is really interested is to unplug the connector to the halogens and see what happens to the light when they can't turn on. What you get is a very bright spotlight at a distance with high beams. The beam pattern drastically narrows when the shutters open. Directly in front of car, the light is about the same intensity (and more noticeable white) without the halogen. What you lose is the width of the beam pattern. The halogen provides all the fill to the sides. Mystery solved.

fellas fellas... litronics is just a porsche name for an HID setup. xenon is the name of the type of gas used in the HID bulb. So litronic and bi-xenon are one in the same except the latter simply means that it uses the same HID bulb for the high beam. you can call it bi-litronic if you want to. there's nothing special about the word litronic other than it's another marketing ploy by porsche to make it sound really cool. right? Bi-xenon setups don't rotate up as in the lighting unit itself points up. there's a shield inside the bulb that simply lifts up so as to reveal the entire bulb v. just half of it which produces the sharp cutoff you see. so if porsche dropped the whole "litronic" moniker, cool. bi-xenon just means it uses the HID bulbs for the high beam as well. i think i'm confused now? FYI, the "litronic" setups in the 996s.. happen to be one of the weaker HID setups in the market. easy to steal too.

Sorry, I'm in the midst of designing a Luxeon 1 watt LED based DRL bulb/assembly to fit these 996 headlight assemblies, 99 and up "litronics", and later "bi-xenon". I have several headlight assemblies laying around that I have bought via Ebay plus I have owned a 99 with aftermarket Porsche HID and currently a 2001 C4 with factory HID. Both of these, the 99 and the 01, electro-mechanically move the HID "shutter" in high beam and flashing mode plus turn on the high beam halogen. Might I ever so kindly suggest that if your "litronic" doesn't do the same then you have a failed "shutter" mechanism. I think, suspect, Porsche invented this technique as a way to overcome the poor "forward" light pattern coverage resulting from the unusually low mounting level of the 996 headlamps. Or Porsche was simply the first to bring it to market, called it Litronic and then it was adopted by others but called Bi-xenon so Porsche has simply fallen in line with the rest of the crowd.

Litronics don't have shutters, only Bi-Xenons do. Litronics only rotate the bulbs up in high beams. Light output is actually the same from the Xenons in Litronics in both cases. With Bi-Xenons, the output form the bulb is higher than Litronics. It is partially blocked off and redirected with the low beams on by the shutters to restrict it's output. Although it was mentioned about the lighting position being low, it is actually the opposite in reality. The HID is placed high in the assembly with the filling Halogen in a reflector below the HID.

i don't place great value on self-leveling or bi-xenon or whatever. so long as it's projector HID system, i'm fine. i rarely use the bi-xenon feature. i guess it's a cool thing tos ay you have. a novelty... that's about it. what i am excited about is the next step. LED headlights.

Self-leveling is different from the high-beam movement and shutters with both assemblies. The assemblies are allowed to float so they are directional with the tilt axis of the vehicle. I don't know about Litronics, but when you first turn on Bi-Xenons the HIDs turn up and down to reset. I don't know about novelty factor, but the low beams in my 996 have a wider beam pattern than my G35 and are far brighter in high beams. More light = better.

I have the factory litronics on my '01 996 and I am very pleased with its output and coverage. The post by 02 carrera where he quotes bosch I think explains well how the '02 bi-xenons work. The delay in start-up is not there when doing flash-to-pass because the bulbs are already on. The shutter uncovers more of the light bulb for high-beam since its the same bulb as opposed to the litronics which uses a separate halogen for the high-beams. Since I have an '01 model, I don't know if the '02 and up bixenons have a separate halogen for when all the lights are off and you want to do a flash-to-pass illumination? Just curious.

I agree on your equation. Let it be known that no reflector based HID setup (G35) is going to throw out as much light as a projector lens based setup. The S2000, for example, throws out an insane amount of light. The lens on those things is crystal clear (i.e. not diffused).