Porsche offered ...

[PHOTO; Sylvania Silverstar]
[drive.google.com]

Yo, Everybody:

One recent evening sitting around in my darkened garage, I noticed that my low beams were almost nonexistent. High beams seemed fine. Fog lights... fine.
I dilly-dallied around a while, then scored on some Sylvania Silverstar H7, 12.8V / 55W Halogen bulbs.
Now, these aren't the Silverstar Ultras or the Silverstar Xtrras, just the plain old Silverstars.
Will I end up with scorched and or melted headlight lenses b/c of these "whiter light" bulbs?
Headlight boxes are sooo expensive.
All feedback welcome. I am just sitting here, paralyzed by fear.

baba
Los Angeles

... drive at night or with your lights on a lot with hallogwns the lenses will burn.
HID Xenon bulbs are a lot cooler and won't cause that much damage.
I'm also looking into new LEDs as a direct drop in for H7s with similar light pattern as halogens.
Happy Boxsteting
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Pedro:
Yeah, I've been researching LED headlights, but haven't yet found any at the right price point. Please tell me if you find LED bulbs compatible with Boxster halogen set ups. LEDs seem like the way to go.
There are a couple of guys who mod Boxster headlight to LED projectors... Jimmyworks, Nine8Six and particlewave to name a few. I'm intrigued by the workmanship that goes into their LED retrofits -- heating the cases in the oven to remove the clear lenses, reworking the internals to accept the projector bulbs and angel eyes and then rewiring everything.
IMO they look great, but I have yet to receive any kind of response from my emails to them, so I've more or less given up on retrofitted LEDs.
Here's what I'm talking about:

If your low beams were almost non existent then I'm guessing that your bulbs were probably burnt out and what you saw was the light from the parking lights inside the headlight housing. These are 5W bulbs. Very different from non-German cars.

The bulbs that you mention are 55W and would be the same wattage as the standard bulbs that come with the car. I believe all headlight bulbs for this application are halogen. They will not burn the lenses if they are identical to the OEM ones.

I used to run the whiter bulbs and liked them very much. No problems after 10 years of use.

--
MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

Quote
frogster
The bulbs that you mention are 55W and would be the same wattage as the standard bulbs that come with the car. I believe all headlight bulbs for this application are halogen. They will not burn the lenses if they are identical to the OEM ones.

frogster:
You are correct in that they are halogen and 55W, but they WILL burn the inside condenser lens. Just give it enough time and they will turn them brown.
Just about every 986 I see, that has over 50K miles, if it hasn't replaced the headlights, has the burnt headlight lens.
Halogens are just too hot for the plastic material they used for the lens.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Pedro, are the stock bulbs from the factory not halogen?

--
MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

... halogens and litronics (Xenon).
The filament in the H7s just burns too hot, even at the OEM 55w level.
Happy Boxstering
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

Pedro: You're right. Most of the 986s I see have at least a bit of discoloration near the top of the lenses. Do you know if there's a way to clean 'em up, short of cooking the whole magilla to get the clear plastic off?
Don't those LEDs look good though?

baba

~106K miles. Maybe I got lucky.

I just replaced the bulbs recently. Sylvania H7s.

Whoa... Hey, frogster< I remember your nick from years ago. Good to hear for you. And thanks for the info. Imma put those suckers in now. I mean, right now. See ya on the other side.

baba

I remember you too. I think there are still quite a few old timers here. Maybe we don't post as often as we used to though. It has been seven years since i sold my boxster. Feels like a lifetime. I still peek in here once in a while.

Back on topic, I didn't know that people were getting discoloration with the factory bulbs. That's not okay. I thought it was only happening when people put in higher wattage bulbs.

--
MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

While the xenon projector/bulb is fine, the reflective surround of the fog light is burned (from the halogen bulb). The previous owner of those lights used the fogs a lot. Those halogens burn hot!