Sean76NYC

Greg seriously? Seriously man? Nobody is stating they have a problem with how much Benz charges for HID's! Its the issue of Mercedes having them available in they're cars! Yes i see tons of cars in NYC driving around with stock HID's, but a nice brand new pretty Benz cant have them because of some BS shortage? You believe that crap about a shortage? Walk into BMW and look to get an X5 and see if they have any with HID's? They will have a ton available, same in Audi camp! This is what Benz does to get rid of all they're early models. And honestly its my last dance with them.

In every post and thread you comment on you speak as if you have major insight of what is causing this fiasco! Want the truth bud? Greed is causing it...plain and simple. Like my friend from Porsche said, a multi zillion dollar company like Benz can do whatever they want, there is no shortage, this is just them playing the numbers game. A year from now everysingle person who wants HID's will be able to get them for the $1,200 that Benz charges. This is just to discount the truck right now to get as many into the hands of the general public who dont care about what lites they're truck has.

metidogeno

...to show members of this forum of my 2012 ML with aftermarket HIDs. I will have my wife pull the car into the garage to trigger the Auto On feature. Then, if you feel convinced, PM or email me so I can link you guys to the seller. I do not want to violate this forum's rules of posting his email address publicly since I am not here to advertise sales, but just to assist our forum's members with similar dilemmas which is one of the main purposes of such a wonderful site!

Thanks,
Gene

tigerbalm

I ordered some super white halogens from Supreme power parts before I saw these LED's http://store.ijdmtoy.com/H7-LED-Bulb...-lights-4m.htm. looks tempting. but will give the halogens a shot first since I already bought them. I'll take some pics once I receive them but if someone does try these LED's let us know how it looks.

jtorrebl

I can guarantee you that these would look terrible. There is no Focal pOint for the light to focus the projection onto the ground.

GregW / Oregon

Also, heat management is crtical with LEDs and those don't look well-designed from that aspect.

metidogeno

I agree with jtorrebl,

I have NEVER seen LED headlamp bulbs function even remotely close to the lumens as OEM headlamp bulbs. Just look at the numerous license plate LED lights, LED parking lights, LED turn signals, etc. IMO, LEDS are great for simple illumination or for DRL, but not for headlight replacements- especially LED retrofitted bulbs. I’ve seen enthusiasts use them in the fogs or hi-beams, but strictly for aesthetic purposes to match the color of their other bulbs, not for functionality. Also, your MB will trigger OBC errors/warning if they are not canbus equipped but I think the safety issue of not able to see the road at night would supercede this! Even those super bright LED OEM reverse lights I’ve seen on the higher-end Cadilacs are blinding to look at directly, but they do not project as much light as a halogen would(similar to those super bright LEDs used for emergency lights that newer law enforcement vehicles have).

I know LED headlamps are in the near future with carefully engineered reflectors but I seriously doubt any aftermarket LEDs will come even halfway close to the lumens of a headlamp halogen.

Good luck…

tigerbalm

Well, receive the halogen's and those super white 55w halogen does look ok but the light output is dim compare to stock. It is due to the blue tint on the bulb, maybe a 80 or 100w might work, but instead of buying another set of halogen, checked out jtorrebl's HID setup. Went and followed his ebay order totaling around $50. Hopefully all parts arrive next week and setup is smooth as his.

jtorrebl

get these hids if you want the true 4300K color. all the other sellers had bad blue bulbs advertised as 4300K

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-HID-Bulbs-...item3cb50658f2

metidogeno

I'm not sure if the OBC will throw errors due to the higher wattage, eventhough I'm quite confident that it will since my hid kit initially gave me issues. To see my setup, look at the thread "HID kit w/ video."

Anyways, just like you said, the actual lumens in your 55w halogen super whites is going to be lower due to the blue tint which works like a light filter, similar to window tint to achieve the desired color. Lets just say that the higher wattage does work, it will most likely melt the headlamp housing and/or wiring harness/connectors.

IN regards to "jtorrebl" HID setup for $50, I was going to go that route but if you click on his username, then "Visitor messages" there is another member who copied his setup but had issues. I'm not downplaying his setup, but I didn't see a solution posted within his setup.

Just an FYI.

jtorrebl

Mine still working. And I was one of the first 5 guys in this forum to get their ml's

metidogeno

@jtorrebl,

What about the one member that had trouble with your setup? What was wrong with his/her's?

GregW / Oregon

Hmmm...not sure how he's supposed to know?

jtorrebl

I don't what was his exact problem.
I just know my set up works for me .

tigerbalm

Ordered and received all parts referenced by jtorrebl's setup last week from ebay but did not have time to put in until tonight and it works, no errors !!!. all for ~$50 including no error led wedge bulb day time light under the high beam. this is all thanks jtorrebl.
Only thing is once in a while at initial light on, the right front will flicker very slightly for about 3 sec , not sure if I have a bad ballast, bulb, or connection. Not sure if jtorrebl have the same experience?
But after the 3 sec, it stays on and looks perfect! If anyone want to try, look up jtorrebl's post or I can share what I ordered.

jtorrebl

i get a flickr on the same right passenger bulb after the bulb has been on for while. not consitently but regularly. tried messing with the connection and it still occurs. at least we have a good light output! i thought my ballast was bad but now you're the third person with this passenger side problem.
My bulb doesn't flicker off but wobbles.

metidogeno

@tigerbalm and jtorrebl,

With my setup "hid kit w/video" I learned that our 3rd gen ML's OBC is much more intricate than its predecessor. When troubleshooting my hid kits, my early trials first seemed to work flawlessly, but sometimes blinks the passenger side 2-3x every 3-4 minutes or so(while I was driving) as indicated in my thread. I couldn’t live with this and opted for a more expensive kit that solved the problem with a money back guarantee.
IMPORTANT: Yes, my newer kit only blinks 10% of the time during “start up” only, meaning that when the hid kit is “turned on” by the Auto ON setting or from manually turning them on…again only 10% of the time when the hid kit is turned on. After this initial blinking, the hid kit and bulbs remain ON without any additional blinking. I drive for an hour at night almost every weekend, without any issues, other than 10% of the time when the ballasts are powered on.

With jtorrebl and tigerbalm setup, I experienced the sporadic on and off blinking issue every 3-4 minutes on the passenger side while I was driving, with my earlier kits.

I also noticed that with my most recent HID kit, the brightness of the bulbs is consistently strong. With my earlier kits, upon start-up(turning on), I would notice the light output would dim within a fraction of a second. To check your HID kit, simply turn the lights off and on manually and see if you notice a fluctuation in light output (against a wall in the garage). In other words, they would remain bright for ¼ of a second, then slightly dim(maybe 10-20% reduced lumens), but still brighter than OEM halogen bulbs.
These are just some of my thoughts since I noticed that the OBC on our 3rd gen appears to “learn” voltage/wattage/amperage fluctuations more closely and if these fluctuations reach a certain threshold, our HID kits respond in a strange manner. That is why I suggest for those with HID kits, to give it some time before they post their comments.

-Eugene

metidogeno

@jtorrebl: I know exactly what you mean by the bulb "wobbling." With my prior kits that I was troubleshooting, the arc in the passenger side would fluctuate; meaning that I would notice the light beam wobble or fluctuate slightly. I guess another way to visualize it is that there appears to be a "bubble" within the arc that is moving around, which is noticeable on the road and on my inner garage wall.

I even swapped ballasts, bulbs, but it's always the passenger side that likes to throw fits.

With my latest kit, I don't have any "arc" or "wobbling" issues.

jbondox

see if it freaks if you throw it in reverse and hold the brake pedal down for a minute. It wont be long before I have a new SAM to tear apart, but believe the problem is with the design of the SAM itself

jtorrebl

I've had kit since October when we got the car. I just dont post much about it. But have had them broken in for a while. How much and where did you buy the kit you have?

leandrowlat

With all those HID replacement, Xenons and trial and fix issues, I am just not satisfied with the outcome and results being posted here. Being an ML350 owner, I also want to improve my lights bit better than the stock without any problem. Sorry for this but can I just simply replace my stock halogen with a better bulb that has no flicker, automode, reverse and error cancellation issues? In short, just the best bulb replacement in the market for 2012 ML350 is all I need. Thanks

tigerbalm

Just want to give an update on my setup since Feb 2012. Its been working very well with out the blinking on off for more then a year. I did get a ballast replacement within the 1st month due to the blinking issue and i thought maybe replacing it may help. And it did not cost me anything, I e-mail back the ebayer and informed him of the issue and he immediately sent me another ballast with no charge and I did not have to ship the other ballast back. I also ordered a error cancelation cable, try to trouble shoot the one off on off when starting car and thought maybe it will help but end up not even needing it and not use it. Just lived with it. But all of a sudden after a month or two everything was perfect. So not sure if the computer just needed time to adjust for a few month or maybe after I brought the car in for regular maint. service the MB tech did something but its been working perfectly for over a year now. I know there's a bunch of unknowns and maybe it is really a hit or miss setup. But for $50, it worked out well for me.

Jb66

The HID kits are not DOT legal, but try the PIAA Extreme White lights.

zoomx2ian

Anyone tried to enable HID option from factory that supposed to reduce wattage to 35W. That should eliminate flicker and all other sort of issues. Anyone buy xtreme hid kit from http://www.kbcarstuff.com/Xtreme-HID-Kits-s/9954.htm

Bluemedgroup

Followed your advice. Definitely an improvement over stock, and probably the easiest route without having to deal with HID ballast etc. Kind of tricky to figure out how to install the lightbulbs as I had no clue it was actually in the tire wells. Once that was figured out (25 frustrating minutes later), only took about 4 minutes per side.

Strafzettel

I remember 20 years ago when headlights had to be adjusted manually, we had that one month every fall where customers would get their headlights adjusted for free as a customer service (MB shop in Germany). We put a device in front of the lamp which showed where the light was shining and it had guidelines showing where the light should go so we adjust in a way that the lights don't shine too far to the other lane or too high. And there was always that one customer that didn't care if he was blinding other people or not, he told us to adjust his lights higher so he could see better.
This whole discussion about after market xenon lights totally reminds me of that because after market xenon lights are proven not to be safe but people don't care.