$tallion

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/1214313765.html


for my 202 brothas let me know if this is worth it cats outa atlanta

xvvvz

I wonder how long they will last. You never know with these. Since you are perusing Atlanta, there used to be a guy trying to sell OEM HIDs from a C43 for a long time. That might be the better way to go over the long term.

I have been tempted to upgrade to Silverstars or similar quite a few times until I figured out how much it would cost for low beam, high beam and fog light bulbs. I think it would look odd without all three being the same color. Cha-ching $$$ though!

$tallion

hid kits which are cheap arent always desireable
I would like to put hid kit on my c280 someone with experience here throw it at me

ob1kenobi

very easy to install. It will probably take at least 35-40 mins for those that haven't done it before. I can say it's plug n play to best describe it.
Cost: $160
8000K and made in Germany.

Here's a picture after it was done. I didn't have to re-aim the headlight bec. it
was already low enough.

rfoo

that's a pretty expensive kit for a single beam. Usually single beam just cost around $60 and have good warranty. I've been using mine for 5 years never had a problem.

ob1kenobi

But your source is probably from China or Taiwan. I can also get those here
but they only provide 3 months warranty - which to me sounds bad.

rfoo

Yeah, the guy is from hongkong but gave me 18 months for it. Good thing about your kit is that if anything goes bad it's easy to return the item since the buyer is also from the U.S.

LawRens

I see different temperatures! I'm assuming that's a cold start low beam.

ZedStyle

hid's in halogen housings? weak.

ob1kenobi

can you elaborate?

Weak in what aspect?

Facelifted W202 all use the same housing with HIDs.
As a matter of fact 2000+ E55 use the same halogen housing and put in
HIDs in it.

ZedStyle

no, non-projector hid housings have different fluting on the lenses that diffuse the light in different ways. HID and halogen cannot use the same lenses without distorting the light pattern. same thing with later-model W140 lenses. look closely at the lens on a non-HID lens and an HID lens and you will see what i mean.
not trying to divert the conversation or anything, just putting in my $0.02...

ob1kenobi

Ok. Thanks for the eye-opening information (literally)

Never really considered that aspect when I did conversion. Perhaps I'll
start shopping for an oem housing for HIDs.


back on topic. (apologies to the OP)

ZedStyle

This may or may not help...

notice the different fluting in the lenses:

w202 xenon lens:


w202 halogen lens:


HID in w202 halogen housing (left) and hid in w202 hid housing (right)


you can see the hid housing generates a sharper cutoff and less glare at the top of the beam. it's evident up close to the wall, and is only magnified the
further you get, such as with oncoming traffic or behind other cars at night, so from the standpoint of someone that is affected by someone else's decision to put HID's in halogen housings, i hope this makes people think about it first..!!

BenzManNow

just purchased a sweet '00 C230 sedan with 20K original, documented miles. Halogens up front - but looking to upgrade to HID's. Been reading on the forums and learning a lot....especially about the "evils" of installing HID kits into Halogen assemblies (I promise, I won't do that - but was going to until I read up on this here in the forums).

So, my question is this: Where does one find the proper HID lens kits for these cars? I'm presuming I'll have to try to find used as brand new from the $tealership would require a second (and possibly third) mortgage.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

B M N