Ben'z

The DEPO headlight, E55 projector, and Denso ballast were sitting there for more than half year, and finally I got chance to do it.

Thank to Raymond, (raymond g-), without his help I would not finish this. I followed the information Raymond emailed me. He also provide good answers when I have questions. I would like to share my experience how I did it.


Whoever want to do this, please take responsibility for yourself. I assume no liability for any incidental, consequential or other liability from the use of this information. All risks and damages, incidental or otherwise, arising from the use or misuse of the information contained herein are entirely the responsibility of the user. Although careful precaution has been taken in the preparation of this information, I assume no responsibility for omissions or errors.


Prepare:

I bought the following from Ebay:
1. Depo clear lens headlight,
2. Projector, E55, or RS6...
3. D2S bulbs
4. Ballast, Hella, or Denso

From Kragen:
1. Permatex windshield silicone, clear
2. Permatex RTV cilicone, clear

Many trips to Home Depot:
1. #8 lock washers, serrated design
2. Crimp on, female and male connector
3. Tap splices
4. Electrical isolate tape
5. Heat shrinking tube
6. Lighter
7. Spacer, screw, lock washer for Denso ballast installed under headlight

Tools:
See pictures

Also, HIDPLANET.com HID university is highly recommanded.

Ben'z

Procedure:

1. Remove bulbs, hose, and whatever you can remove from the Depo headlight.
2. Preheat oven to 300F (Raymond recommend 200-250F, but I can't remove the outer clear lens; then, I tried 300F.), I think it depend on the oven
3. Turn OFF the oven, otherwise... (we don't want to melt the headlight)
4. Place Depo headlight on cardboard, and put it into oven for 10 minutes (to soften the gray glue)
5. Take it out the oven
6. Use a wide flat blade screwdriver to open the front clear lens

Ben'z

1. Unscrew the four screws on the corners of Depo projector
2. Take it out

Ben'z

1. Cut the projector opening inside the headlight (for E55 projector to get out the shield, I tried many times to make it fit and not cut too much)
2. Cut about 3mm on the top two mounting places (the top two are higher than the lower two, if leave them along, the light will be upward.)
3. Cut at the edge of the back opening ( for wire go to the ballast and into headlight)
4. Drill holes to mount the Denso ballast, (if you use Hella ballast, you might not need to do this)
5. Use spacers and screws fix the ballast

Ben'z

Raymond recommend place E55 projector, cover the clear lens to the housing first; then, connect the wire. But, I resealed the clear out lens at the last step.

1. Use tap splices to connect bi-xenon motor with high beam wires
2. Cut the low beam H7 connector and ballast connectors
3. Replace these connectors with the male and female crimp on connectors (I use two female connectors on both sides of the positive wire, and put a 15A fuse between)
4. Place the E55 projector
5. Reuse Depo screws, carefully mount the projector

6. Carefully test the headlight by 12V DC

Ben'z

1. Put the silver cover back
2. Use the clear windshield silicone to glue the round shroud on the E55 projector

Be careful, do not touch the surface of the silver paint

3. Preheat the oven to 300F, or 200-250F
4. Turn off the oven
5. Place the headlight housing and clear outer lens in the oven to soften gray glue
6. Take it out the oven
7. Fit the clear lens to headlight, and hold them together for several minutes (Raymond placed them under mattress and put some body weight on it)
8. Place the clear windshield silicone between the gap of the headlight housing and clear lens.

9. Wait...

10. Reapply the RTV silicone

11. Wait...

Ben'z

1. Put everything back to the headlight
2. Carefully fit the headlight to the car.
3. Reconnect the connectors
4. Test the light, make sure both low and high beam work, as well as signal light.
5. Tighten the screws, adjust the headlight position (Depo headlight doesn't fit perfectly as the OEM headlight does.)
6. Adjust horizontal and vertical. (you might need to remove the whole headlight , open the back cover, and loosen the four screws to adjust the projector position)


Again, I do not encourage anyone to do this project. I also don't take any responsibility for anyone doing this headlight modification.

raymond g-

hey, Ben'z. that was an awsome write up! glad to hear that the retrofit
worked. I saved your instructions and photos as PDF and will use that
to refer to for future. I'm doing the same for RS6 projector now.

so, maybe you should do this on the side for folks and get paid for it, eh?

scalerider83

hello
i'm a newbie in this forum and as my first post i just want to know why have you done this?
is there any difference between the depo lens and the e55 lens? or is it just because you have to hold the d2s bulb?

i have a w210 with stock xenons and also bought the projector ones, they'll arrive next week i think. i would take all of the parts of my stock xenon (not the bulbs) to get xenon into the projectors. the fixation of the d2s bulb should work with the parts of the stock xenon.

mario

Ben'z

Hi, Raymond,

Thank you very much for all your help!

Do this on the side... and get paid...? Sounds good, unless people will waive my responsibility.

Again, thanks a lot!

Ben

Ben'z

Hi, Mario,

From people's experience, the lens from Depo Projector is not good quality. Lots of complain about the poor light output from Depo projector.

I don't have experience with Depo projector, just follow folks' opinion to save myself some time. This is my third headlight set. The first one was OEM halogen, and second was OEM Xenon. I drove the car last night, and I could rate these three headlight sets from my limited experience:
No. 1 E55 projector+Xenon
No. 2. OEM Xenon projector
No. 3. OEM halogen

I can see the Depo headlight has the same mounting point for the OEM Hella ballast from my second headlight. That's the benefit if you use OEM W210 Hella ballast, you can mount it directly without drilling holes.

I hope this will help.

Ben

Ben'z

I got PMs asking me how long did it take for this project.

The beginning is difficult... read lots of information on both MBworld and HIDplanet.com; also many trips going to Home Depot to get the right spacer, screws...

I would say the whole weekend, started from Friday to Sunday.
But, the second headlight is actually easier, it took me 3-5 hours.

Another question is about the steam inside headlight.
I just put them on the car yesterday, and has not got chance to wash car; and I live in LA, it doesn't rain much here. That's why I can't answer this question at this point. I will let you know if anything happens.

Ben

Ben'z

Some pics...

ghaffar23

How do you like them? I have a set of RS6 retro's myself. Yeah, it was a bit of a PITA at first because of the reading, but it's worth it. Great write-up! It makes the W210 look that much newer. It's like the face-lift that should've been.

zam2000

Benz

Nice job. Both of the lights were misaligned (side offset is too much), you will need to remove the headlight and aligned them so that they stay flush with the boddy.

This is not light aiming, its adjusting the two screws (top & side) so that the light fit nicely into the car fender & hood

Different headlight model, but you get an idea from pix bellow

Ben'z

Thanks, Huy!

I will do it tomorrow!

Ben'z

They are great!
I heard that RS6 projector is better!

Ickey

I think this is one of the best step by step (w/pictures), write up I've ever seen. Very well done!

I have the DEPO projectors installed with HID, however, I did not upgrade the projector lens. That's my next project. I will definitely refer back to this post for help.

Ben'z

Thanks!

And good luck!

Hi Fi

I am wondering why the light output of the Depo is less than the stock if it is the same H7 inside of the light?

raymond g-

.....the Depo projector bowl as well as the projector lens are terribly poor in their
design. The beam which is projected is poorly focused, is segmented (hot and
dim spots) and is poorly calibrated to the H7 bulb. Be clear that this is from a
manuf which lacks the means and finances needed to perform R&D such as OEM
so their cost cutting has resulted in a poorly made, though aesthetically
acceptable (outwared appearances) headlight.

So though the same bulb is used, the supporting (and surrounding) parts of the
projector, reflective bowl are....well, crap.

I bought the Depo headlamp and within 15 seconds of powering it on, knew it
was crap. I installed premium H7 bulbs, but it just became brighter, ill-focused
crap. Drove around for about 48 hrs and never got used to.....crap. So with
advice from Zam, much reading, and taking a deep breath, I performed the same
thing: disassembled the headlight and put it in the oven for an E55 retrofit.

here is a sample of a Depo beam, and which a proud owner installed an HID
look, H7 bulb.



even more sad....none of the other Asian manufs out there who produce
aftermarket, clear lens projectors make anything better. Depo is the "best."
Fortunately, in spite of their poor quality, the Depo headlight assembly is
otherwise, a near perfect candidate for RS6 and E55 retrofit...making these
two projectors a near drop-in project. It is possible to retrofit the Depo for
the 96-02 W210 in hours, rather than days, weeks, or months such as is the
case with most other HID retrofits in all of car land.

Big recognition to Zam2000 who may have been the first to have experimented
on this for our 210s and posted on MBWorld years ago, thus making it soooo
much easier for us to follow and take the plunge in trying this project out
ourselves.

ghaffar23

Wow...I didn't know the beam pattern was THAT bad...I didn't even power them on. I went straight to the retrofit...

Fares

Good work..
can u input more details about the cost of each item and from which seller u bought them and give an cost estimate of the project?

ohlord

the lenses or get new ones from germanstar.net and install 65 watt rally H7 bulbs with the H9 burner from www.danielsternlighting.com save yourself 6or 7 hundred bucks or more. Have better light and no hassles
euro spec selective yellow fogs round out the package.
ohlordhe's bowing west

scalerider83

hi
i have to say that this threat is really full of very important information. i have decided to buy new lens for my depos and then use my stock xenon-parts (ballasts, wires, philips colormatch bulbs). i've heard the stock ballasts are better than the cheap asian versions, the wires are better quality and the bulbs (philips colormatch with 3200 lm) are of course much better than all the other blue ones (philips ultinon 2400lm, no names with 6000k or 8000k...have less lm).
good job benz'z!