ajpogi24

2017 Mercedes-AMG GLC43 in designio Diamond White:







Adding some updates:

Weather Tech Rear Cargo Liner:



Philips Diamond Vision H7 halogen bulbs to get rid of the yellow old school H7stockers:





Philips Diamond Vision on the left, stockers on the right..big difference in light output:

speedeye

No sunroof. No buttons above the light switch. Besides Designo paint, what factory options did you get? Custom order or dealer stock?

We have 4800 miles on our GLC43, and we are very satisfied. Enjoy!

ajpogi24

I did not order the panoramic roof, for less issues on maintenance, less weight on the car, other option i ordered is the leather seats with red stitching. Yeah no extra buttons above the light switch knob. I have almost 500 miles on it and enjoying moderate driving until i hit 1000 miles.

boosted43

Do you not have the LED lights? I don't understand why people buy 60-70k cars and not get the upgraded lights. But hey if you don't care for it I guess what does it matter nice car nonetheless.

Rant over.

ajpogi24

No LED headlights on my GLC, i did not like how they styled the LED headlights.

vikeor

No options what so ever... And HALOGENS?!?!?!?! Common.....

Killswitch747

Congrats.

ajpogi24

Just arrived today:

Garmin Map Pilot SD memory card!

Ddmccormack

Did you change the H7 bulbs yourself, and if so what was the degree of difficulty? Also, can you share price please....

Thanks!

decorily

common.......👎

WhiteMerce

The light of Philip Diamond Vision looks so much better than the yellowish stock bulbs. Great find!

ajpogi24

The H7 bulb install was not that difficult, you just need to turn the wheel on either side to access the service panel on the front fender liner. Using a flat head screw driver, once removed you can see the back side of the headlamp assembly, turn the back cover ccw, you can now disconnect the H7 harness, pull out the stock bulb then re assemble in reverse steps. Bulb costs $35 from amazon prime shipped to me here in SoCal.

Driver's Side H7 "Halogen(common)" bulb install: Wheel turned full to the right. Passenger side install is the same procedure just turn the wheel to the left.



Headlamp bulb access Panel on fender liner:


In turning the plastic locks you can either one method to use:

Stubby Flat head screwdriver



Or: A quarter dollar coin and turn clockwise (to the right) until it reach the tab limit.



Unlocked position view from the engine bay:



Gently pry it open:



Headlamp back cover:



Twist counter-clockwise to remove cover:



Pull the harness away from the bulb:





Pull the old bulb with a needle nose pliers, it will be thight to pull out due to spring loaded ring, give it a little nudge and it will come out.



Note the tab on the base of the bulb faces up when installed:



Install the new H7 bulb by pushing it back in and replace the cover:



Access panel locked position view from the engine bay:







Enjoy your new "halogen" bulb.

ajpogi24

More goodies came in today:

For my DIY projects when using my jack/lift, ordered this polyurethane jack point inserts:





And these PIAA night-tech H7 halogen "common" will go to my high beam bulb:

B2FiNiTY

nice pictures and write ups. very helpful.

can't believe you didn't get the LED! wow.

Ddmccormack

Have ordered my H7s for low beams, arrive tomorrow. Will be interested to see if the high beam bulb switchout is more tricky, as this seams pretty straightforward.

Thanks again

Hapa88

I'm extremely surprised you didn't do a HID retrofit kit for your headlight bulbs. HID retrofits are superior in both light output (about double the lumens), color, and overall spectral output, at almost exactly the same cost. They'll probably last longer too.

The Philips bulbs are horrible in that you start with a better halogen bulb than the stock one and then they put a blue coating over the glass that effectively filters out all the other colors. While you may think there's more light due to the color shift, you're actually left with less lumen output and a narrower range of spectral output that actually hits the road.

Read this for more in depth explanation:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...e/bad/bad.html

I highly recommend that you ditch the blue filtered halogen bulbs and go with a HID kit instead (properly aimed and retrofitted, of course).

ArcticWhiteZ51

Wouldn't MB throw the "warranty denied" claim if one were to do such a retrofit? Seems risky although been there myself, I played and then paid.

Ddmccormack

well, the problem is with the 'properlu aimed' part. The HIDs require a totally different enclosure/aiming via the headlamp enclosure...I did this on an Acura and next few years nothing but high beam flashes at me as i couldn't control the higher and left vectors of the HID light beam.

Hapa88

I haven't seen anything risky about it. If you get a HID wiring harness (an additional $7) in addition to the kit you eliminate any issues that could arise with the electrical. I highly recommend doing the wiring harnesses.

Hapa88

Did you reaim them using the headlight adjustment screws? Or did you just install the kit and left the aim as is?
I think most people just install them and forget them. There is an additional step that needs to be taken to reaim the beam (usually down) to compensate for the additional light output.

I've installed retrofit HID kits on a number of halogen, reflector based housings and once I had them reaimed using the adjustment screws, I had no issues with other people high beaming back.

Ddmccormack

Issue is not with 'aiming', per se, but rather with the housing. This is a common issue with retrofits. Housings, and aiming baffles in the housings, are different, by necessity, with halogens vs HIDs. So the HIDs retrofits are fine, just not as tight a pattern than they would exhibit if in HID housings. Result is a bit of an orb of bright that needs to be focused less wide and less tall.

ajpogi24

It's been raining here in SoCal lately...time to gear up my floormats, just arrived:

Ddmccormack

Be interested to know how easy or hard the high beam bulb replacement goes...

Axel B

Great write up.....I have to say I'm pretty shocked at how marginal the lighting is on the GLC43 for it being a high performance vehicle....not even Xenon (HIDs) as standard equipment. I'm going to order some new lamps ASAP.

On another subject, I was looking at the polar white GLC43 at Penske LA the only other one on the West Coast w/o a Pano Roof but, they weren't dealing on either model so, went with the best deal I could find and took the Pano Roof even though it's something I could easily live without. I almost did a special order GLC43 if I had....I might just have "accidentally" left the seat belts red on it.

Hapa88

Kind of. The beam pattern for the Halogen and HID are basically the exact same. The reason they're the same is because the light radiates from the exact same place from the bulb. The housings aren't perfect in controlling all stray light beams. But because the HID bulb is so much brighter, the stray light beams become much more apparent. This is what people call glare. Some housings do better than others at controlling it. There's really only one way to find out and that's just to get one.

Here's a kit for $30 shipped (I recommend 4300k or 5000k. Anything else will have too much glare):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0128ZC1I8...ing=UTF8&psc=1

Highly recommend getting this wiring harness in addition for electrical safety purposes:
https://www.amazon.com/Innovited-Uni...wiring+harness