Litronic retrofit question

[steve20186]

Car is a '99 C2

Previous owner did the Litronic retrofit so the auto-leveling feature is not active. When I hit the highbeams, seem to not be illuminating the far off road as they should so I'm now concerned that the mechanism that adjusts the projector lens is aimed down and consequently narrowed the difference between the hi/low beam pattern. Any ideas how I can check this? I tried powering pairs of the 4 terminals where the connector goes, but didn't have any luck.

Anybody been down this road before?

Edited July 2, 2013 by steve20186

[Loren]

Auto-leveling requires sensors in the front and back of the car - that are on welded brackets. So it is a factory only option.

Did the previous owner install the control modules for the headlights or just the headlights themselves. You need the control modules to rotate the low beam up to combine with the high beam for "high beams".

Sounds like an adjustment issue. I would remove the headlight and make sure the mounting plate is not cracked or broken.

[steve20186]

I had the passenger side out last night and everything looked intact. The 4 wire plug where the auto-leveling comes in clearly goes to a small cylindrical motor with black, blue, red, yellow wires. I'm thinking is probably a combination of wires that enerigize the motor. So are you saying that even with the earlier Litronics - the projector eye of the low beam would move up to enhance the high beam? I thought that the aiming movement was only to revent the low-beam from blinding oncoming traffic when the sensors determine a change in the ride height.

[Loren]

Self leveling (which you do not have sensors for) does adjust for hills and oncoming traffic to a degree.

I think you issue is more of a standard adjustment and finding out if the Litronics control box (one for each headlight ) was installed or not, If it was not installed then the high beams will not be as bright as they are supposed to be.

In the Litronics system the low beam is the Xenon bulb and the high beam is an Halogen bulb. When in high beam mode the control box rotates the lens to add the Xenon output to the Halogen output to get a brighter high beam.

[Richard Hamilton]

IIRC the proper Litronic retrofit kit had a small control module with it. Maybe check out the fitting instructions in the TSB section to see if that gives any clues about setting up the system.

[steve20186]

The TSB does specify a control unit. Unfortunately it seems that my retrofit wasn't done to factory specs.

[Richard Hamilton]

Seems it is still available, but.......................$377! I don't know exactly what id does, but somewhat expensive to find out.

[Loren]

Or perhaps a salvage yard for a control unit.

The wiring instructions are in the TSB. I have done it a few times (including my own car) and it does work.

[steve20186]

I found one for a decent price from a seller in the UK with this part number 996.618.051.10 in the eBay pic you can see the Bosch number is 0 307 870 007. I found another RENNTECH thread on this subject and a user posted this picture which seems to cross to the Bosch number exactly, but the last digit of the Porsche # is 5 instead of 0 so I'm a little concerned that being from the UK that it may have some RHD flavor to it.

[Loren]

In the parts list they show no difference in the control unit - one for all markets.

They were originally sold as a kit (000 044 900 38) that kit includes a wiring harness - so you will need that too.

[Richard Hamilton]

As Loren says, the last two digits are just a revision number.

Check the 996 numbers, as there seems to be a difference in the 3rd group of numbers. 151 and 051. 151 being the retrofit item, and 051 being the standard module.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Richard Hamilton

[steve20186]

As Loren says, the last two digits are just a revision number.Check the 996 numbers, as there seems to be a difference in the 3rd group of numbers. 151 and 051. 151 being the retrofit item, and 051 being the standard module.

Wow...good catch! I missed that.

[steve20186]

So I ended up scoring a new one on eBay for $100. It was a "Make Offer" listing and I offered $100 for the heck of it. :thumbup:

Now I just have to chase down the harness.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180767473532?item=180767473532&viewitem=&sspagename=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:3160&vxp=mtr

[NIKAS]

There used to be a lot of these floating around on Ebay for 996 Mark 1. Many Boxster owners had upgraded to litronics on their lease cars and reverted back to stock at end of lease. Scrap yard might be a better place to look now.

[steve20186]

I found a new wire harness in OEM Porsche packaging for a reasonable price on eBay. It seems that you can splice in the wires in lieu of the terminals listed in the kit, so at this point I believe I have all I need to wire my lights the way they should have been done in the first place.

[Duffy3074]

I'm busy doing this at the moment and have had it working on the bench.

The front and rear sensors bolt straight on without any issues, the only hassle is running the 3 wires from there to the ECU in the front.

The system, externally, just needs a switched 12v feed, an earth and 2 signals from the lights, one for dipped beam coming on and one for main beam.

Very straightforward

:-)

[steve20186]

My car had a "3/4ths" retrofit done - both headlights, but no fancy relay and harness. The proper retrofit kit comes with headlights, relay, wiring harness and some misc. parts and connectors. In the retrofit kit, the relays only purpose is to manage the angle of the Xenon eyeball - up to assist the Halogen high beam, then back down for low beam. It doesn't come with the leveling parts or functionality. I was under the impression that what you are doing is much more complicated.

Edited July 9, 2013 by steve20186

[Duffy3074]

There's a small loom that needs to be made up, the only tricky part is the plugs for the ECU and the headlamp motor control for the headlamps and the levelling sensors. I managed to get the plugs from a breaker for the ECU and lamps, the sensor plugs are the same as Mercedes used for an under hood stepper motor on the 'C' class saloon, ergo readily avialable in breakers yards here.

I've already had it working properly on the bench (the system does nothing until both headlamps and sensors are plugged in and it's given a 12 volt feed, an earth and then 2 x 12v feeds to simulate dipped beam and then main beam coming on) after that it self levels and then if you move one of the sensors, the lamps go up and down as they should.

Quiet straightforward and it gives the full functionality of the original factory fit litronics rather than the limited functionality of the proper retrofit.

[JFP in PA]

There's a small loom that needs to be made up, the only tricky part is the plugs for the ECU and the headlamp motor control for the headlamps and the levelling sensors. I managed to get the plugs from a breaker for the ECU and lamps, the sensor plugs are the same as Mercedes used for an under hood stepper motor on the 'C' class saloon, ergo readily avialable in breakers yards here.

I've already had it working properly on the bench (the system does nothing until both headlamps and sensors are plugged in and it's given a 12 volt feed, an earth and then 2 x 12v feeds to simulate dipped beam and then main beam coming on) after that it self levels and then if you move one of the sensors, the lamps go up and down as they should.

Quiet straightforward and it gives the full functionality of the original factory fit litronics rather than the limited functionality of the proper retrofit.

Right up to where you connect it to the DME and get the DME to accept the retrofit.................

[Duffy3074]

If the system works on it's own as a 'stand alone' why should the DME present any problem?

The og/bu wire goes to pin 3 on the diagnostic socket and should be seen easily enough by durametric.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Duffy3074

[JFP in PA]

If the system works on it's own as a 'stand alone' why should the DME present any problem?

The og/bu wire goes to pin 3 on the diagnostic socket and should be seen easily enough by durametric.

Because the DME has to be programmed to accept the leveling system, just hooking everything up will cause it to throw codes. Several people have been down this road before...............

[steve20186]

I have the these highlighted parts specified in the Porsche TSB for the retrofit kit.

I won't have any DME troubles will I?

[Duffy3074]

So if I don't connect to the DME, what will I lose other than the diagnostic functions exactly?

The system works on it's own, if I manually set the litronics through the adjusters, they will still self level and go up and down driven by the sensors.

Still better than the basic retrofit

[JFP in PA]

I have the these highlighted parts specified in the Porsche TSB for the retrofit kit.

I won't have any DME troubles will I?

No you will not; the retrofit kit gives you the ability to have the low beam HID lights swing up and fill in the high beams, but you do not get the auto leveling or diagnostic function's of the factory setup.

[JFP in PA]

So if I don't connect to the DME, what will I lose other than the diagnostic functions exactly?

The system works on it's own, if I manually set the litronics through the adjusters, they will still self level and go up and down driven by the sensors.

Still better than the basic retrofit

It is my understanding that the DME supplies both the diagnostics function, and controls how much the lights move and when they move according to input signals from the suspension sensors. I have no idea how the lights are going to behave if you bypass the DME.