Rudeney

I installed the Depo quad projector headlights today (the ones sold by fishcake321 on eBay - bought from Chrono12 here on the forum). They came with an HID kit for the low-beams, but I installed an HID kit on the high beams as well, and LED "city light" bulbs to match. The install went amazingly well with no problems, taking about two hours. The only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the color match between the two HOD kits (the kit I used for the high beams came from a different seller). They are both supposedey 6000K, but the high beam kit looks more yellow:

Redc230-K

Mannn i want to make this switch but im extremely hesitant in changing out the oem lights. Plus i feel like the inner design is a bit better. What is your opinion? And i know youve written a post on the drl replacement but do u have the link of where you bought the drls from? And how is the color? Do they match the low beams? How is it losing the functionality of the cornering function?

midnight AMG

looks great man! just need 6000K side marker lights and you all set =) I got minfrom azn optics which are the same ones I used for the city lights

Rudeney

I had plain old halogens so I didn't have corner illumination to begin with. I was going to buy a set of OEM bi-xenons, but even the, adding self-leveling and cornering would have been cost-prohibitive. If you have OEM bi-xenons, I'd stick with those - they are probably much better made than these from Taiwan.

The color on the low beams and the LED DRLs matches very well. I bought the DRLs on eBay, and I don't recall the seller. Mainly, I was looking for the 8-LED instead of the cheaper 5-LED. I see several of them there now. They are cheap Chinese junk, though and water has gotten into them which doesn't affect the LEDs, but it has tarnished the chrome. My next mod will be to buy the OEM DRLs from the A207 E-Class and retrofit them.

Eh, I don't mind the yellow side marker lights. I did change to a clear lens, but I don't mind the lighting. In fact, I was going to leave the city lights in the headlights as halogens, but after turning them on in a trial fit, they put out almost zero light. They don't illuminate the entire high-beam reflector like the OEM lights; they are just a small round lens. I had ordered the LEDs "just in case" so I decided to use those. I'm happy with the overall results, except that the high beam bulbs seem to be too yellow. I might eventually order a whole new set of bulbs from the same dealer to make sure I get good color match.

Oh, and I haven't had a chance to drive at night yet, so I can't attest to the illumination characteristics, but I'll take a photo when I do.

eddieo45

does that 2 hours count the changing of the bulbs? IIRC, it's like building a ship in a bottle!

gaazmon

looks great. just the look of the projector headlamps even during the day makes a huge difference on the look of the car versus the regular halogen ones.

Rudeney

It might have been closer to 2.5 hours with cleanup, and then I spent some time trying to adjust the aim. Oh, and= I had a problem - the left high beam wasn't working after install (I test before replacing the bumper so I had to do some diagnostics. Given the HIS setup, that could have been a complex issue. Luckily, my first step was to test with a halogen bulb, which didn't work, so I checked the wiring harness and found that a pin the headlight's connector had gotten pushed in, so I pulled it back in place with needle-nose pliers.

I put the bulbs in on the workbench before installing the headlights, so that made it easier. The H7 bulbs are not that hard to deal with, even in the car, you just have to know how the clips work and be able to do it by feel instead of sight. The city lights are a different story. On these Depo headlights, the city lights come out through the high-beam port and they are plugged into the end of a plastic tube. I just used long pliers to gently pull the tube out, replaced the bulbs, then put the tube back into its slot. This would be a slight challenge with them installed int he car as that tube is about three inches long and you have to ring a hole at the end, so yes, like a ship in a bottle. :-)

Glyn M Ruck

Remember as the HID burners wear they decay to the blue end of the spectrum so the colour might improve.

Otherwise fit Philips Ultinons thoughout & colour will match. I rate them the best Xenon lamp.

Rudeney

Thanks, Glyn. So, since the high-beams are more yellow, but the low-beams will be used moe, maybe I should switch them.

nemtulea

wow,that looks really nice...

Glyn M Ruck

Yes if they are interchangeable. There might also be some lens effect taking place. I don't know how well Depo's focus on the arc itself. Just slightly off focus can change colour. Centre of arc more yellow & brighter within human eye sensitivity. Either end of arc more blue & less light effectively. Sun through atmosphere is about 5800 Kelvin so 6000K is a good colour temperature to select for maximum perceived brightness.

megacrazy

Looks good. Can you take some pics of the beam pattern at night? Interested to see how they compare to stock.

Rudeney

Dang, I just went out for dinner and didn't even think about it! This was my first night drive, and I am VERY happy with the beam pattern it's the typical "___/----". The high beams are, well, unbelievable. I even don't mind the yellower color of them. It does take a minute for the highs to warm up to full blast, but once they do, it's more light than I've ever had in a vehicle. I did notice one of the LED city lights is acting flakey so I'll have to look into that, but otherwise, I'm very happy. And I'll get some photo next time!

Glyn M Ruck

Pleased you are happy. Yes BiX are amazing. There are two things that are an absolute deal breaker for me on a Benz. Bix & Parktronic. Once you have lived with them you can't go without them. I have had them on 3 Benz vehicles in a row now & you can't step back.

Frankly I would worry more about performance of the lights than their colour. We have many happy Depo customers on the forum. They seem to be an excellent price/quality compromise over the genuine BiX. BiX are well priced as an option when spec'ing a new car but the retrofit with auto leveling gets very expensive.

Rudeney

I know what you mean, Glyn. I've had BiX on all of our cars over the last 10+ years. On my W163 ML I retrofitted with OEM headlights because the original cost for the option was over $4K - you had to buy the $3K sport appearance package plus another $1500 for HID's, which weren't even BiX that year - just diffused-lens HID low beams with halogen high beams. ALl our other cars cam factory with Bix, except the C240 I bought for the kid, and I'll probably put some Depos on it when I replace the bumper that her boyfriend planted onto a pickup truck's trailer hitch receiver. :-(

This quad setup is even better then Bix, because it's even more lumens with 4 bulbs going instead of just two (traditional BiX systems just use two bulbs and shutters to control the upper cut-off). The trade-off is that the high beams take a few seconds to warm up, so the flash-to-pass feature isn't very useful. I have heard that you shouldn't turn HIDs on and off quickly like that, which is why most cars with factory HIDs use a separate halogen bulb for the flash feature when the low beams are off. An exception was my wife's previous car, a Nissan Murano. It had no halogen bulbs - just a pair of BiX and it used them for flashing.

One thing I have noticed with these aftermarket HID kits is that they do seem to take longer to warm up. I think it's because they don't use a dedicated igniter like factory systems. My wife's Jeep takes zero time to warm up - those lights come on at full brightness and color instantly.

I did remove the LED city light bulbs last night since one was flickering. Also, I though they looked just a bit "ricey". They would be better if they looked like the setup on the new W212/A207 where the light filled the housing, but Depos don't do that - the city lights are just a small round spot. Oh, and since these lights don't have auto leveling, I seem to get a lot more reaction to bounce and vibration that's very noticeable at the top of the cut-off.

Glyn M Ruck

Yes ~ I can imagine how bright the quad setup would be. Nice!

Yes the built in factory ignitor does get the lamp up to full brightness very quickly after striking the arc.

BTW ~ do these lights have the auto leveling mechanism in them should you wish to fit auto leveling? If so you might want to find a better way of locking that mechanism if unused. Or is the dipping shutter a little unstable?

I've heard all the stories about flashing BiX. I leave my lights on auto so they switch on & off considerably more than manual mode. I have never had to replace a Xenon burner & my old C240 is approaching 10 years old with a friend & is still running it's originals.

omega48er

BRO! looks nice, i been sitting on my black quad projectors for over a year and will be installing them next weekend =]

Rudeney

Nope, no auto-leveling. There is this curious large white knob (see the photo below, borrowed from Nsxtacy168):



This knob rotated about 70 degrees and just seems to lock and unlock the internal suspension. I wondered if it was a "dead knob" in place of what could be a leveling motor. The shutter is adjustable for LH vs. RH drive beam patterns via an internal lever. I just figure for $400, you get what you get and there will be some trade-offs in quality.

Rudeney

Took some photos of the lights in a friend's driveway tonight:

Glyn M Ruck

That's great. They have decent cut off & spread & you could not ask for more light.

Good mod!

mguerrero

so, installed the quad projector's from depo aaaaaaaannndd, they won't turn on! I get the error code on the dash that the low and high beams are out ... does this mean I have to have the dealer turn on the xenon function in the computer since my car came with halogen's??

GezaBMX

Those "SLR" style double projectors look super nice on the CLK. Is there any fiddling with these Depo lights or are they pretty much plug and play?
I know that if I fit the factory HID lights I need to get them "turned on" by a dealer but is this also required for the Depo lamps?

omega48er

Yes, they are plug and play. And no you do not need to get the factory his turned on

raphman

So I have these on my C55 (since we share the W209 front end). Has anyone figured out a way to adjust high beam height? My low beams are dialed in perfectly, but my driver's side high beam is aimed hella high. The passenger side is fine.

Rudeney

I have the same problem. I don't see any way to independently adjust the high-beams. The internal part that gimbals seems to be one solid piece, containing both beams.