Halogen Headlights and Bulb replacement 2014 981

[Changedstate]

I know there is a raft of threads on this, but most seem pretty old and I wondered if views or indeed products have changed...

So I love my new baby too bits... but a couple of things need attention as they really bother me. One of these is the yellow headlights that look like the ones I had in my old Escort RS turbo (they perform pretty similar as well!!).

I have standard bulbs now so hopefully whatever I put in will work a bit better, but my main aim is the light temperature. the Osram cool blue intense look pretty decent..
https://www.osram.com/ecat/COOL%20BLUE%20INTENSE%20(NEXT%20GEN)-Halogen%20headlight%20lamps-Car%20lighting-Automotive/com/en/GPS01_3570150/

What worries me though is it says for use in glass headlamps... the Cayman ones I believe are plastic and the last thing i want to do is damage the lens! Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions?

I have also just noticed the Halford versions of 5000k bulbs specifically state 'UV cut - Suitable for Plastic Headlights'

 

[JohnCRS]

I have not heard of lenses melting on Porsches when using bulbs such as the Osram. I installed them on my old R and they worked well.

A quick search on line suggests that most of the reported issues were some years ago, and as most cars have plastic lights these days, perhaps any issues have been resolved. You could, as a precaution, avoid using main bean unless you are actually moving. And, of course, don't cover the lights with anything whilst they are on.

 

[JPnell]

Hi,

I was in the same situation, frustrating how poor the basic headlights are! I took a punt on a set of LED headlights from Amaz**. I believe they are 60W but you can buy more powerful ones if you wish. They are absolutely fantastic I must admit. Easy to fit, just don't touch the diode (put on the provided Michael Jackson gloves!). Quite high temperature as well, I believe 7000K.

Cheers

JP

 

[Changedstate]

Hi,

I was in the same situation, frustrating how poor the basic headlights are! I took a punt on a set of LED headlights from Amaz**. I believe they are 60W but you can buy more powerful ones if you wish. They are absolutely fantastic I must admit. Easy to fit, just don't touch the diode (put on the provided Michael Jackson gloves!). Quite high temperature as well, I believe 7000K.

Cheers

JP

interesting.. i kind of dismissed that right at the start as i expected it would be an MOT failure and i didn't want to have to swap in/out every year... any idea of a link you used would be interesting to research

 

[JPnell]

I haven't got to that time of the year yet... maybe a favourable MOT tester will allow it. They aren't still on the level of the laser beams from the other German manufacturers though!

The ones I bought are from a brand called OUSHI (H7 70W 6000k it turns out).

I do keep the original ones in the car just in case!

 

[BlackCab]

Do these lamps give any CANBUS errors? If not' I'll give them a try too. My candles, I mean halogens, are awful. Have you had your car MOT'd now? If so, what happened?

Has anyone found H9 Main beam LED lamps that a) fit the headlamp unit and b) work without errors?

 

[JPnell]

Do these lamps give any CANBUS errors? If not' I'll give them a try too. My candles, I mean halogens, are awful. Have you had your car MOT'd now? If so, what happened?

Has anyone found H9 Main beam LED lamps that a) fit the headlamp unit and b) work without errors?

No errors for me. Car sailed through MOT as well, no issues. Honestly, they're still not as bright as the other laserbeams on the road, but fantastic compared to the candles. My original set is still going strong.

I didn't bother changing my H9's mainly because it looks a bit more fiddly, but I'm considering it as well..

 

[BlackCab]

I installed these H7 Oushi LEDs yesterday ( https://amzn.eu/d/3mlf62j ) and happy to report that that they work perfectly. No CANBUS errors, no irritated drivers flashing me and quite easy to fit. The only thing to pay attention to is that the mounting "ring" on the LED lamp is about 2mm thick plastic and the original halogen is 0.5mm metal so that you need to double check that the metal spring that holds the lamp in place is on top of the clips. Actually one of my halogens wasn't fitted properly when I took the headlight unit out! That probably didn't make matters better in my original assessment of the lights.

I also purchased an H9 LED for the main beam too. It was the shortest H9 I could find from Oushi ( https://amzn.eu/d/czML74c ) as I knew that there wasn't much room to fit the unit inside the headlamp case. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the lamp in..... It was really close but, if only I'd read the instructions first!!! There is so little room to manoeuvre that it would have been smarter to remove the plastic collar on the bulb first, then fit the lamp in the collar and rotate 45 degrees in the opposite direction. It will still be tight but it should be easier. No time to do it today but sometime. If I do get them fitted it will lift the lighting from BAD (original halogens), via NOT TOO BAD (with H7 LEDs) to QUITE GOOD (with LED H7 and H9). We'll see. []

 

[Changedstate]

Did you ever get the mains in?

 

[BlackCab]

Yes I did. It was very tight to install them, but if you fit the collar separately first, then install the bulb after having connected the cable it works but be prepared for some grazed knuckles! My problem however was that the main beam wasn't better than the halogens. As a result I have swapped the high beam back to halogens but..... I realise now that you can rotate the led lamps to any angle in the reflector lamp and maybe I should have tried that before dismissing them completely. I'll probably try them again soon. I will definitely keep the led for the normal headlamps as they are twice as good as halogens. No way am changing back to standard.....

 

[Changedstate]

so they are changed…. Waiting until it’s dark to see what they look like! They seem super bright as i can already see the beam on my wall and it’s still in the sun!!!

Slightly concerned I may have put them in upside down as the instructions arent super clear but I have put the with the chips vertical as in the diagram. Wonder how many times I’m now going to check my lamps are secure before driving off!!!!

 

[BlackCab]

Let me know how they work. I can't remember which direction I had them. If you look at the reflectors they are on the left and right of the bulb, not above... My guess is that the LEDs should shine to the left and right too but who knows! One thing I did notice was that the main lamps would sometimes glow very very weakly even after the car was locked. After a couple of minutes it would extinguish itself but one night I noticed they were glowing again. Weird!.