DIY: 996 HID Xenon Headlight upgrade

I did this work last fall but just getting around to posting here. Hopefully it will help anyone interested in doing this. Despite the fact that my 04 C4S has option code 601 (Litronic Xenon Headlights), there is no ballast assembly to be found and the bulbs are regular H7 Halogens. I don't know if the PO removed them or what, but at any rate, the lights are anemic and make it really difficult to see the road at night. I found the parts I needed on www.theretrofitsource.com: Parts: H7: Morimoto Elite Kit HID Ballasts - 2 x 50w / AMP: Morimoto XB Ballast H7 HID Bulbs - 2 x H7A: XB 5500K Wire Harness - 2 x Canbus: H7 Tools Needed: 1" wood drill bit Dremel tool with drum sander Hot glue gun Heat gun 3M double-sided tape Misc size heat shrink tubing Project time: ~3hrs total Difficulty: 4 / 10 Total Project Cost: ~$200 Parts needed Ballast, bulb and various connectors Procedure After removing the headlight assembly from the vehicle, remove the back cover. Twist to remove the bulb assembly from the ceramic housing. Unplug the Hu7 bulb from the 3-tabbed fixture. Here you can see the new HID Xenon bulb. Comparing it to the original there is an immediate problem: it is not going to fit in either the ceramic housing nor the 3-tabbed fixture the H7 bulb sits in. Modifying the fixture In order to get the new bulb to fit it needs to modified so that it will fit into the 3-tabbed fixture, and then be twist-locked into the ceramic housing. First thing to do is open the tabs and remove the square housing around the wires. They just snap open and you can remove the housing. The wiring bracket pops right out, leaving the 3-tabbed fixture. Unfortunately, we have to modify this bracket to fit the new HID bulb onto it. The base of the bulb will get glued onto the 3-tabbed bracket so that the entire thing will seat and twist lock into the ceramic housing. Essentially, we need to remove all the interior material of the bracket so that the new bulb will fit though it and can be glued onto it. First step here is to break (I know) the plastic tabs off by hand (or use pliers). Now use the Dremel tool to sand away the rest of the material. This is what the bracket looks like when you are done. We are looking at the bottom where the wires from the bulb will come out. The bulb will sit flat on the other side and will be secured with hot glue. Remove the bulb from the packaging. Careful not to touch the bulb. I taped the bulb with tissue paper to protect it during this procedure. Feed the wire from the bottom of the bulb through the tabbed fixture. Test fit the bulb onto the fixture. Notice the alignment of the tab on the bulb housing and the registration key in the fixture. The bulb does need to be oriented properly - check the instructions that came with it, but basically the wire goes up. Here you can see where the bulb fits onto the tabbed fixture. Get out the hot glue gun and apply glue to around the bottom of the bulb (the metal ring, which sits on the rim of that fixture) Getting ready for gluing. Here you can see the bulb has been glued onto the fixture, with the tab aligned to the register. Bottom view of the bulb attached. You can see some glue in there. The glue holds the bulb very well and firmly in the fixture. Another bottom view of the bulb glued into the fixture. Now you can see how the bulb and fixture will fit nicely into the ceramic hub. Note the bulb alignment with the wire up. Twisting to the right locks the bulb securely in place in the housing. Now take the wires from the original H7 bulb and attach to the new bulb wires. Remember to put the heat shrink tubing on before attaching the wires. Another view of the wires connecting the new bulb. Next we need to attach the ballast to the outside of the headlight, on the back of the cover that we removed. Drill a hole in the back cover so that the wires from the new bulb can feed through the cover and connect to the ballast. Use the Dremel tool to de-burr and widen the hole in order to fit the connector through it. Now the wires fit through and the rubber plug secures the hole from moisture. We will attach the ballast to this location and plug the wires into it. The ballast will fit perfectly into this area. First the little tab needs to be broken off so that it will fit flat. I used a pair of plier and broke off the tip of the tab. After breaking off the tab the ballast fits perfectly, like it was made for it. Two metal sheet screws securely attach the ballast to the housing. The rest of this is securing the canbus and heat-sink to the housing. Attach 3M double sided tape to the back of the heat-sink. Also attach 3M tape to the connector. Here you can see where the connector will be secured with the tape to the housing and ballast. Another shot of the connector. And the heat sink is attached to the top of the ballast. Remember to use alcohol wipes before attaching these. Finally, wrap up the wires neatly and with zip ties. I fit them in between the various parts to make it all compact and neat fitting. The Result There is a very noticeable difference in the light output! New bulb is on the right. You can see the nice cutoff and a big difference in brightness. Hard to tell from this photo but much brighter. New bulb on the left (passenger). Driver side original Passenger side new Xenons There is a very noticeable difference in light output and I highly recommend anyone with Halogens to upgrade their lights. I did this last fall and have now had then on the car for over 6 months with no issues. Driven through rain and lots of bumpy roads, lights have held securely with no issues.

Nice! My C4S came standard with halogens so I don't recall if the housing is the same. I'll need to take a look and see if I can use this DIY to upgrade as well. I have LEDs in there now which were a vast improvement.

Hot Glue for that bulb? Are you sure that's not going to melt and come loose?

Yep, its been running over 6 months now and I've checked it twice - its holding with no issues. Other reason for using hot glue is I can change the bulb out if it ever goes out in the future.

I�ve been debating attempting something like this for my wife�s 2010 boxster base with halogens vs putting in LED bulbs. R324U, what LED bulbs are you running?

Great write up...you,my friend are a BRAVE man..........

That can't be great for oncoming drivers with all that glare. So you put an HID bulb into a projector meant for an H7 bulb? Sorry but that's not a safe way to do a retrofit. You're also going to destroy your projector bowls with the added heat with enough hours. I mean I don't want to knock your ingenuity and hard work but I'm surprised it worked at all as far as creating a usable beam. For anyone wanting to retro their lights, changing out the projector with one suited for HID's by opening up the headlights are really the only safe way to go.......

Wow - where are you getting your information? I'm an electrical engineer and did a bit of research into this. The cutoffs are exactly the same, look at the line on the garage - no blinding glare for oncoming drivers. Also halogens lamps run hotter than xenons at the same wattage.

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Correct, the only thing we won't have is the self leveling that the HIDs have from the factory. The halogen projectors have a distinct cutoff.

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I did an upgrade but to an H7 LED replacement. Install required a small rewrite that I did with spade connectors so I could go back to the Xenons but I like the modern look and they actually appear brighter than the Xenons.

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I think I remember your thread/write-up, but a link would be nice

Followed these great instructions on the Morimoto Elite kit. Everything is pretty accurate, except I didn’t have to break the tabs on the retaining clips. I made enough space with a Dremel to slide all the connectors through. On my newer kit, the internal power comes from a plug now rather than the floating spade connectors. Beware that polarity is correct all the way out to the igniter. It is labeled on the control boxes, and I was surprised to find that the brown power lead went to the + eventually.

You'll have to look around, but I found a couple places that sell H7-HID adapter rings.. The H7 support seems to be a standard sort of.. I found a pair that were specifically to adapt a thin HID bulbs to a H7 hole.. Halogen housings don't have a cap for the bulb, they assume your using the H11 whitch has the end of the bulb opaqued so light has to reflect out the front to prevent the "dazzle" point in the center of the light as viewed by oncoming traffic. You cant see the glare on the wall,, only when viewing the bulb as a oncoming driver..

Has anyone retrofitted a double xenon projector into these headlights, not just the bulb? I've searched the forum but can't seem to find an example of such retrofit.

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Attempting to revive this thread. Just bought a 2004 C4S with halogens. Looking into upgrading to LED. Which LEDs do you have now and are they low beam only, or high & low? Thanks!

The thread discusses Xenon install, not LEDs. For Xenon, you need a ballast for both Hi and Low beams. I left low beams alone.

Right, understood. The user I was responding to (R324U) said their C4S came with halogens (like mine), but now "have LEDs in there which were a vast improvement." I should have tagged @R324U to make it clearer I was directing the question to them. FWIW, I have been corresponding with TheRetrofitSource to see if they recommend the Morimoto H7 2Stroke 3.0 LED. TBD.

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Reviving this as I'm curious if anyone did the LED upgrade for their headlights? I have a 2003 C4S that has the factory xenon so I'm not certain I'll improve my headlight output that much going LED.

Hi @Coussa . 100% recommend the Retrofitlab.com LED lights. I had the factory halogens. The LEDs are as bright as the factory HIDs or LEDs from any modern manufacturer. They are more expensive than other LED bulbs, but they are a complete solution, aka include replacement reflector bowls that are custom designed for the LED bulbs. My reflector bowls were flaking and orange peeling - not optimal reflective surface. Do NOT go with the Morimoto 2Stroke bulbs for your 996. I purchased a set, procrastinated and finally got around to fitting them only to find that the black plastic 3 prong adapter on the original bulb can't be attached to the Morimoto bulbs. I even bought a set of 3D printed replacement adapters on eBay trying to jerryrig something. Maybe with some cutting and gluing....? Luckily, Morimoto was very understanding and gave me a refund even though the return window was months prior. Good customer service. Get in touch with Adrian @playswithcars on here if you have specific questions. He runs www.adriantaillights.com . He's Retrofitlab's US distributor. Very helpful guy. Good luck! Ace

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As kgtace stated, the RFL kit is definitely a HUGE improvement in light output. If you don't like LED, there is also a bi-Xenon upgrade kit specifically for the Litronic lights. Here's a video I made when I upgraded my own 2002 C2 Litronics: Vimeo

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Thank you so much for the detailed explanation and sharing your personal experience. I will get in touch with him as I love his LED taillight upgrade.

Are you talking about a Bi-xenon bulb or 2 xenon bulbs? The Bi xenon with the shutter in the housing to me would be awesome.. To replace the low beam projector housing with a low/high beam capable housing. Replacing the high beam halogen half of the bucket with a second projector for high beam would not suck for driving either, but the pure Porsche folks would likely have a tizzy.. You'd have a pair of stacked projectors. Extra points for a BI-xenon in the original low beam position and then ADD another projector in High beam. If only the wiring would take it..

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The bi-Xenon kit from Retrofitlab does exactly that: It combines high and low beams inside one projector. If you have the halogen lights, it replaces that entire housing with a projector. If you have Litronics it replaces the Litronic projector with a bi-Xenon projector. You can also put an H7 LED bulb in the high beam bowl for even more light output. www.porscheretrofits.com