How important are Litronics?

[JW911]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 03 August 2012 at 20:18

[miroku]

Hi JW. I have a 2.7 987 with Bi Xenon lights. Have found them to be very good in all conditions. A friend has the standard lights and mine certainly seem to be much better.
Oh, by the way, mine may be for sale soon as I am going down the Cayman route. Subtle or what !

[MadMark911]

It's personal preference, but having had them on my last couple of Porkers - I wouldn't have one without the Xenon's.

My Boxster didn't have them, so I upgraded the standard bulbs to "Night Breakers" and this made a significant difference with a much whiter light, more range and more edge definition. In fact I've just chucked a pair in my Dad's Boxster and he's thrilled!

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/H1-Osram-Night-Br...

[stubbsy996]

JW911 said:

I'm hunting for a 2.7 987 Boxster for Mrs JW911. She's decided she'd quite like Xenon lights so we're on the hunt but there aren't many 2.7s with them.

I've had two 996s, both with Litronics which have been great and have never driven a Porsche without them. Having heard various reports, allegedly the standard lights aren't that brilliant. Are they "bad" by comparison or "adequate"?

Ta.

Had standard lights on my old 996 C2 - they're not brilliant but adequate.
Lights on my turbo are litronics and are much brighter/big improvement!
If I was swapping now I'd deffo be trying to find something with litronics.

[LordHaveMurci]

MadMark911 said:

It's personal preference, but having had them on my last couple of Porkers - I wouldn't have one without the Xenon's.

My Boxster didn't have them, so I upgraded the standard bulbs to "Night Breakers" and this made a significant difference with a much whiter light, more range and more edge definition. In fact I've just chucked a pair in my Dad's Boxster and he's thrilled!

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/H1-Osram-Night-Br...

Are they easy enough to change? I have a 3.4 996 & I'm no mechanical whizz that's for sure!

[hendy]

LordHaveMurci said:

Are they easy enough to change? I have a 3.4 996 & I'm no mechanical whizz that's for sure!

Piece of cake. video here showing headlight removal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D65x8G1f6AI

[MadMark911]

LordHaveMurci said:

Are they easy enough to change? I have a 3.4 996 & I'm no mechanical whizz that's for sure!

The bloke in the video is rather "cack handed" and obviously hadn't read the instructions (it's all in the manual) as he was pushing the headlamp extractor the wrong way - but it took me less than 20 mins to do both and have everything back in place.

The only tools I needed were the headlight extractor tool (in your car's toolkit) and a Phillips screwdriver to take the cover off the back of the headlamp unit to get to the bulbs. Top tip is to put a little silicone (or white grease) on the moving parts of the headlamp locking system, before putting it back in place.

The differnce is marked, but before you do it, make sure that you don't need separate bulbs for the high beam as well as the dipped beam (which I did for my Dad's 986). That way you don't have to do the job twice, like I did .....

[gsewell]

I have seen a few reviews of the NightBreakers being fragile (as in they last less than 18 months in normal use). As I typically have headlights on as daylight running lights (old habits die hard), this could be an annual service job.