They took my Headlights

[cayo71]

So, here I'm, still recovering from the shock of seen my 2000 C4 blinded. After owning it for a month I got hitted, in my own building parking garage. They took em both. Local dealer gets 5 per day like mine.

I'll have my insurance replace the Litronics but I already made a decision and I'll remove them and install conventionals. So here is the question. After reinstalling the Litronics, can I easily take them out and install the conventional ones by just plug and play? I mean, do they share same connectors, brackets etc..?

Loren, maybe you can help me out here.

An other thing, local dealer quoted me $1260 each one. Why that much if the upgrades from Techquippment Catalog are $1600 both. Are they installing different ones than the ones that come in the upgrade kit? Mine came from factory installed not an upgrade.

And an other thing I'll be interested in conventional ones if anyone has a pair that took out to put the Litronics.

Thanks,

Ricardo.

[Loren]

Sorry, about your headlights. That sucks!

If your car is already wired for Litronics then everything should be plug 'n play with full functionality.

[cayo71]

Thanks Loren. Can I install conventional Headlights using same wiring and brackets?

Thanks!

[Tool Pants]

The lit retrofit kit is $1,100 from Suncoast in Porsche in Florida. You get both headlights, the control unit, and the wiring harness. All you would need from the kit is the headlights.

If you wan to put in hallogen then you can do that instead.

[cayo71]

Thanks Tool. Do you know where to get a good deal on the halogen? I'll get back the Litronics from the insurance but will replace them with Halogen to avoid this problem in the near future and keep the Lit. for when I sell the car.

Ricardo.

[Tool Pants]

I will tell you what I did and you can figure out what you need to do.

I have a 1997 Boxster that was backed up into last year and the headlights were damaged. I had the standard halogen amber headlight that the Boxster has used from 1997-2002. Us Boxster owners want the clear headlights used on the 1999-2001 996. The insurance company paid my body shop for all the repairs and included was $850 list for the standard amber headlights. I told the body shop not to replace the headlights, but to give me the money. A local Boxster owner had converted to lits so I borrowed his old halogens for a few months while I watched ebay for some 996 clear halogen headlights for a few months.

People on ebay would bid up the price of 996 clear headlights so much that I could buy them new for less, or buy lits for a few hundred more. Then a seller in New York was parting out a wrecked 1999 996 on ebay and had the clear halogen headlights. I get an email from ebay when a Porsche part is listed. He had a buy it now price of $300. I used buy it now because the way the seller set up the auction was if a bid was place then the $300 price would be gone, and the price would get jacked up. So 20 minutes after the lights were listed on ebay I bought them.

I confirmed with the the seller that they were clear, not amber, as the early 1999 996s also had amber. I used buy it now and got them for $300 and they are in my car now.

If these headlights were stolen, then the ebay seller stole the entire car. He was selling things like the clutch and brake pedals and the brake booster. A year later he is still parting out what is left of that 1999 wreck, but he only has things like the coolant pipes that run from the motor to the radiators. Plus, I know what to look for to determine if a light was stolen from a car.

[cayo71]

Thanks for the advice Tool.

Ricardo.

[Itzkirb]

That sucks! Sorry to hear about your bad news.

[CoreyNJ]

Try to get a set from a boxster on ebay, it will have the orange reflector but won't be mistaken for litronics by thieves. I have heard where people on 996's have had the std lights stolen because the thieves were dumb and didn't realise they weren't litronics. I think in 99 the 996 sans lits had orange reflectors too.

Also be thankful they didn't damage your fenders or bumper when they took the litronics out, I have heard of that one too.

I heard this was a problem in florida and in california, luckly they seem to only go after nissan maxima's here in NJ(knock on wood).

BTW you can have your headlights wired to the alarm in the car it shoud cost about 200 bucks.

Goodluck,

Corey

[cayo71]

Thanks for the support guys. If this happens to me again with the Halogen I'm selling the car. I love it but I was paranoid before and now even more.

Ricardo.

[1101mv]

I just had my Headlights stolen from my99 C4 last month in Boston. I parked the car in a parking garage so that I could go to Las Vagas for the weekend. When I returned I found my Porsche with no headlights and they also damaged the fenders, bumper, headlight trays, and hood. All in all $6200.00 in damage. I still have not gotten my car back from the body shop maybe next week. However there is noway I am going to put those ugly amber headlights in my car. I am going to alarm the lights. My alarm guy is going to put in a alarm that if someone trys to touch the headlights it will tell the person that the headlights are alarmed and that if they touch them they will be shocked. Will carry a highvoltage current that will make them jump backwards if they are touched. I know that it is a liability and I can get sued, but thats why I am going to put the car in my wifes name. ;)

[LVDell]

1101...great idea. What's that run?