element913

Hi All,

After buying my car and having never test driven it at night, I had assumed it had HID lights since it had projectors (since my last car had bi-xenon HID's), but unfortunately I got screwed and it didn't.

After some research, and seeing some people having issues with oem bi-xenon lights when the leveling sensors aren't present (no airmatic), I decided to go ahead and retrofit the projectors on my existing lights.

I got some Evo-X-R projectors from theretrofitsource and swapped them in. I had some morimoto 35w ballasts from the same company lying around from my previous car.

Whole process took a long time, probably 10-12 hours, but I was very careful, and I did a lot of other stuff (wired in the HID ballasts, bi-xenon solenoid, etc..). If I had spent the extra 10 minutes to jack up/down the car, I probably would have saved myself an hour while struggling in strange positions. Sadly I didn't have a jack at my disposal that day.

After removing the headlights, I baked them at 140-160 degrees, for about 25 minutes each. The oven I used didn't actually have a setting for that temp, so I stuck a thermometer in there and made sure it didn't go over 160 degrees. After I removed the light with some oven mitts, I pulled off the lens while my dad cut the semi-goopy beads of sealant with a razor blade. A second person for that part helps a lot, I ended up getting just a little bit of the stuff on an unseen part of the chrome, and it took the chrome right off when removing it.

The shroud needs to come off before you can remove the projector, its very easy and just slides off with a little effort. I have included a picture of the back of the shroud, so you can get an idea how it attaches to the projector.

After removing the lens and shroud, the projector swap is very easy, there are 4 small torx screws that hold the projector. I decided to take out the chrome trim/reflector piece so that I didn't somehow inadvertently scratch the chrome while changing out the projector, but it wasn't completely necessary. There is a single torx screw that holds on the chrome reflector (on the bottom).

After putting in the new projector, I just attached the lens, threw it back in the oven at 140-160 for 25 minutes, and when it came out I smushed the lens back on and put on the clamps.

I never had an HID retrofit using my halogen projectors, so I'm not sure how good/bad that was, based on what people had said, and some images I saw, I just bit the bullet and did a retrofit. I am too used to the nice lighting my C32 had with bi-xenons, I couldn't wait to get rid of the halogens.


Here are some photos:

element913

Here is a picture of the beam pattern after they were installed. I forgot to take one of the high-beam, but I can do that upon request.

Tschuss_Bill

Nicely done. A lot of folks are slapping in cheap re-based bulb kits and skipping the bi-xenon. I've done conversions on a couple other cars, plan on doing this projector retrofit to my 05 CDI soon.

Did you use a harness with relays? error cancelers?

element913

Thanks, I used the factory wiring (figured it could handle it since HID is a factory option), I did wire some 10A inline fuses in before each ballast, to prevent any factory wiring from getting fried.

I had Xenon=Present set at a local indy shop for $40, I have read that the error canceling capacitor's get very hot, and figured why add another point of failure.

For the bi-xenon part, I just wired the solenoid in parallel with the high beam, works as expected.

Haven't had any problems yet . Loving my CDI, averaging about 33mpg, highest mileage so far of 36.5 on a 1 hour drive to the beach, best car in the world!

Tschuss_Bill

I don't think that it is safe to assume that the factory HID wiring setup is the same as the halogen setup, just because HID's were an option. A lot of folks are setting these up that way (without relays etc). Glad to hear it's working out.

Question, After you had the Xenon present set at the indy, what is illuminated when you have the high beams on, just the HID's or both the HID's and the old inboard high beam?

element913

I suppose if the harness for bi-xenon had a different part number than the harness for halogen it would be wise to use a new harness using relays and proper gauge wiring, but I didn't see that in any of the posts I read prior to the undertaking. When I retrofitted my C32 amg with bi-xenon's I also just attached up the original harness and it was fine.

Both the original high-beams and the projector bi-xenon are on when I put the high-beams on. This was factory behavior on my c32 so I just assumed that's how it should be.

The city lights didn't match up after installing HID lights, so I changed them out for some PIAA Extreme White 168 bulbs. I had tried some 5000k LED 5w5 bulbs prior to that but they were way too blue. I use 4300k osram bulbs, since everything I've read says that 4300k produces the most usable light (not big on the whole blue light thing). The PIAA bulbs are not an exact match, but are pretty close, and much closer than the 5000k LED bulbs were.

Also installed some clear corners, car is starting to look pretty classy .

Jmorlan

I am in the works of doing this exact retrofit at the moment.
Same projectors and some 5k morimoto 3fives, maybe 5fived haven't decided yet.
Mine is an 03 E500.

Did the lights have the "permaseal" and a PITA to get the lense off, or pretty simple?
Also, please tell me you found a trick to get the lights out without bumper removal?

I'm interested in any other tips you have for the retrofit itself.
Mostly I'm just hesitant about messing up the light housings on disassembly/reassembly.
Was any new sealant applied when they were put back together?

Tschuss_Bill

Wiring etc is fine. No need to change gauge on a W211.

I bought projectors, bulbs, ballasts, canbus error cancelers and a piggy back harness to wire in the bixenon solenoid from the high beam bulb connector.

The guys at retrofit source give knowledgeable advice.

55W go that route if you want to replace bulbs with more frequency.

Tschuss_Bill

Getting the lense off is not an issue really. Make sure the oven is hot enough. Monitor oven temp. if the lense does not come off easy then not hot enough. I recall optimum temp is 175f for 15 mins.

When complete, I heated lense and body again and refitted. No other adhesives added. No fogging since retrofit was completed.

When you separate the lense from the assembly, the adhesive should stay put. If it's stringy, then not hot enough.

Jmorlan

How did you go about light removal? Did you remove the front bumper or find some other way to get the lights out?

Tschuss_Bill

Here's a good DIY

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w211...nt-bumper.html

Take your time getting the headlamps removed, it's not a 'quickie'. I peeled the bumper cover off one side at a time that way I didn't have to futz with getting the entire bumper back on. Best way if you don't have another pair of hands.

NewShockerGuy

This is an old thread I know but I am trying to figure out exactly how to make everything work.


I have an 09' 350 with factory halogens (yuck). I bought an OEM bi-xenon and took it apart. See pictures below. It's quite different than our CLK because this one has active curve and of course my car doesn't have that...soo wiring them isn't that big of a deal however.


Do you have pictures of how you mounted the ballasts and ignitors since the EvoX-Rs use a D2S bulb while the factory bi-xenon uses the D1S bulb, which is completely different.


Did you mount the ballast internally or externally. I want this looking as factory as possible. I would stick with the factory bi-xenon but I can not get the shutter to roll (since it's round) open when high beams are activated...normally the shutter is only a +/ground wire, where on the active curve it's 4 wires.


Looking for any guidance that you might have on this. I think I will be happier with the EvoX-R projectors but I am wondering how to wire them internally for the ballast since normally the ballasts is mounted on the bottom of the headlight and then connected internally to the plug.



EDIT: I have some stuff in the works now after researching for the last 8 hours...lol
When I get everything, if all goes as planned I will update with pictures and processes on what I did to help future people.

Thanks,
-Nigel

Tschuss_Bill

You'll love these when you're done with the project!

There a few different ways to do this. Here is my suggestion.

1. Ballasts go on the outside. Easily secured, mounted with standard length wiring.
2. I used AMP ended ballasts. Get AMP ended light DS2 connectors.
3. Drill a hole in the circular plastic plate. The hole size should accommodate a rubber grommet to seal the AMP line.
4. Next is decide if you want the amp connections inside or outside the assembly. Disassemble the AMP connectors on either the Lamp connector side or the ballast side, depending on that choice. Run those ends through the hole and grommet. Reassemble the AMP ends.
5. Lastly you'll need to do something similar for the high beam control connection. Wire the high beam control through a hole in the same round plastic cover with appropriate sized grommet, solder the connector on after the wire is slid through the cover etc.

AMP connector disassembly: check out youtube for this. Have some spares!