Porsche Cayenne improvements

My wife's most recent daily driver is a 2008 Porsche Cayenne Turbo with HIDs

The headlights were pretty cloudy when we got it so we had those polished and covered in PPF to prevent future clouding.

I noticed the headlamps are different colors from left to right and at some point I'd like to go through and upgrade all the bulbs in the housing.

Edited:

Here is my current shopping list:

Bi-xenon D1S Osram Nightbreaker Laser or Philips +100
GE Xenon or Phlips X-TremeVision H7 High Beam
Cornering Light H11 Philips X-tremeVision
Honda 34903-SF1-A01 bulbs for reverse lamp (installed and confirmed the only improvement for reverse lights that does not set an error light)
[h=1][/h]Feel free to critique and advise.

that beautiful suv deserves FLIR pathfinder

alpg88 said:

that beautiful suv deserves FLIR pathfinder

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I agree haha! Seem to be pretty simple to retrofit.

Any input on my bulb selection?

Mr. Stern believes the GE Xenon H7 is the best choice but considering the price he prefers the Philips X-treme. The longevity of the Racing Vision keeps them off his list of recommendations. I wonder how they would fare in the high beams?

Mr. Merk said:

I wonder how they would fare in the high beams?

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I would assume you do.

High beams don't get used very nearly enough; it's hard to put a lot of hours on high beams without just really trying. The Racing Vision looks like it's got lots of blue banding on it; ostensibly it should color only light outside of the beam, but this means more blue light in glare zones.

Alaric Darconville said:

I would assume you do.

High beams don't get used very nearly enough; it's hard to put a lot of hours on high beams without just really trying. The Racing Vision looks like it's got lots of blue banding on it; ostensibly it should color only light outside of the beam, but this means more blue light in glare zones.

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What would Alaric do?

Are you in Oklahoma? Do you have anyone local with an aiming machine?

Mr. Merk said:

What would Alaric do?

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I'd go with whatever is cheaper between the GE and the Philips X-Treme unless the GE were fairly close in price. In some ways, it's splitting hairs.

Are you in Oklahoma? Do you have anyone local with an aiming machine?

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I'm in Oklahoma, but haven't located anyone with an aiming machine (Janzen Toyota, in Stillwater, got rid of theirs nearly 25 years ago for some reason). Legend has it, VW dealers are required to have them. The only dealers in Oklahoma, as far as I know, are in Tulsa and OKC.

Mr. Merk said:

The longevity of the Racing Vision keeps them off his list of recommendation

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The excessive blue on the glass keeps them off mine.

-Virgil- said:

The excessive blue on the glass keeps them off mine.

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Fair enough!

Would the 796 bulb be ok to use in the reverse lamps?

Yes, the 796 will safely brighten-up the reversing lamps.

Installed the 796 bulbs. They work fine but I'm getting the "Check reversing lights" message. I'm very surprised by this. Any idea why?

Because the car's expecting to see two bulbs each drawing about 1.8A, and now it's seeing two bulbs each drawing about 2.7A.

-Virgil- said:

Because the car's expecting to see two bulbs each drawing about 1.8A, and now it's seeing two bulbs each drawing about 2.7A.

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Bummer, I was really hoping an incandescent bulb wouldn't cause the message. The bulbs are easy to change but lots and lots of tiny screws involved.

Mr. Merk said:

Bummer, I was really hoping an incandescent bulb wouldn't cause the message. The bulbs are easy to change but lots and lots of tiny screws involved.

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You could try just putting the 796 in one side, so it looks less like a closed short to the supervisor circuitry. I'd go with the right side since it's the more-distant fixture (although by not much) giving you more light where you're slightly disadvantaged seeing back there. Also, since most of the time you reverse out of a spot while turning right, that gives more warning to traffic approaching from the right rear.

Test that the warning light stays off before you screw everything back together.

You could learn to live with the warning light and just do bulb checks more often.

I discovered yesterday that the system shuts off the 796 bulbs after about 1 sec of being in reverse. I guess I'll be reinstalling just standard 1156 bulbs.

Mr. Merk said:

I discovered yesterday that the system shuts off the 796 bulbs after about 1 sec of being in reverse.

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Pretty aggressive supervisory system.

I guess I'll be reinstalling just standard 1156 bulbs.

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The genuine (Stanley-made) Honda Part #34903-SF1-A01 would be an incremental upgrade and is much less likely to freak the supervisory system out. Expect to pay a bit, currently I see $11.32 each at Amazon. Depends on how much you want to mess with it from here.

Yes, the Honda bulb Alaric lists is a good fallback. At 565 lumens it's not as bright as the 796 (779 lumens) but brighter than the P21W (402 lumens), and the odds are it won't trigger the car's unusually sensitive bulb-nanny.

-Virgil- said:

Yes, the Honda bulb Alaric lists is a good fallback. At 565 lumens it's not as bright as the 796 (779 lumens) but brighter than the P21W (402 lumens), and the odds are it won't trigger the car's unusually sensitive bulb-nanny.

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Ordered....might as well try at this point.

I'm also planning to run the 65w H7 from Daniel Stern in the high-beams once they become available.

Yesterday I installed the Honda Part #34903-SF1-A01 in the reverse lamps. As soon as I engaged reverse, the warning went away. I drove it to work this morning and the message has not reappeared.

From what I have gathered this bulb is the only "upgrade" for the 955-957 Cayenne reverse lamps that does not trigger a warning.

Now the only thing I need to figure out is why ALL the lights on the driver side of the vehicle are noticeably dimmer than the passenger side, including the OEM LED lamps. Any pointers on where to start looking?