Jay4

First, I'd like to say that "I'm glad forum exists, and I was happy to find it."

I just bought my first Mercedes (a 1998 C280 sport). I was wondering if any of you could offer some suggestions on replacing my high and low beams with somthing brighter and more white than the original bulbs. Short of an HID conversion, that is. Which bulbs are the whitest, and what is the highest wattage that I can safely use with factory harnesses?

GDawgC220

Hey there,
welcome! Best advice, stay with stock wattage (55/60w). Some people have no prob using higher wattage bulbs and some have problems with wires melting. I myself had 90/100w bulbs in there for about 6 months. I would check every month or so to see if the wiring was fine. Around the 6 month mark, one of the wires had melted onto the base of the bulb and the base was starting to "brown", so I decided to get back to stock wattage.

I ordered "Phillips Vision Pluses". They are not available in the U.S. as they do not meet the D.O.T. requirements, but are sold on the internet. You can't tell the difference from the outside if they're legal or not :p (www.powerbulbs.com) is where i got them from. $33/pair USD For me, the light that hits the road is white.

Others have tried "Sylvania Silverstars". Some members get results that are white light and some stay the same (kind of yellowish stock lights). Those run about $40/pair and can be bought at most local auto stores.

Those would be the easy/cheap way out to get better lighting without spending much. If you want to go all out, get OEM Xenon's from Bekkers (www.bekkers.com). I forget how much they run, but I think it's around $1200? Check it out on their site, but the results are great.

Good luck!

sph17

97-2000 W202 uses H-7 bulbs for LOw Beams and H-1 for both High beams and Fog Lights. It is important to use the proper wattage bulbs, so that you do not melt the wires or plastic by using higer wattage bulbs that draw more amps, and heats up the wires and possibly causes a fire. Offroad bulbs are available in 100 watts that can cause mented/burnt wires.

That said, Sylvainia SilverStar bulbs do a better job than standard bulbs, but arn't fasntastic. If you want to spend $1,000 or so, you can get a set of European xenon headlights at www.beckkers.com. There are other sources for getting xenon retro-fit kists for about $600 for bulbs and ballasts to put into yor existing housings.

Good luck.

GDawgC220

Oh yea, sorry about that, forgot that they changed the headlight configuration in 97+. So yea, you need two different sets of bulbs.

sph17

The 94-96 usedan H-4 bulb. The standard H-4 bulb is a 60/55. at 13.5 volts they draw 4.44 amps each on low beam (watts/volts=amps). A 100 watt Hig Beam bulb draws 7.4 amps. Now if your voltage drops (turn lights on before starting car) to 12 volts each lamp draws 8.33 amps. I don't remember how my 96 W-202 (same lights) was fused, but I think each light got it's own fuse (for a total of 4 fuses). Now if you only have a 8 amp fuse for your high beams, you could blow a fuse if your voltage drops, or if you have corrosion on a contact so the resisitance goes up. In addition to that, my impression is that MB is only putting wireing that meats the minimum requirements of the application, so that the wireing to the low and high beams is only as thick as it needs to be to support a 4.44 amp draw of a 60 watt bulb. Thinner wire gets hot when extra current runs through it, increasing resisitance and going into a visious cycle where a fire in your wireing could occur. The H7 bulb is a 60 watt bulb that draws 4.44 ams.

That being said, I ran 60/100 rally bulbs in older W123 without ever having a problem. But my eye-balling of the wireing in the European Headlight units I obtained to put the bulbs in, and the wireing in the wireing harness of the US spec W-123 is much thicker than in the W-202.

I felt comfotable running the 60/100 in the older MB as I felt the wireing supported it. I would not feel comfortable running the same bulbs in the W-202. You have to make the decision for your self.

BTW, I think the headlight units with the H-4 bulbs is much superior to the "new and improved" lighting on the 97-2000 models. I was more than happy with stock bulbs in my 96. I was not happy with the stock H7 bulbs in my 97, and even with SilverStars I put in, I think the 96 headlights were better.

Good luck.

<sph17>

fast mayte

i have eba'ys koba (spell check) since july 03. they are white, very very little blue in it but they look good at night. i'll check the wiring on them, last time i checked (dec) the wires looked ok. no melting or browning. they are definatly brighter than stock. they were cheap. under 20 shipped

topdaytrader

if you want the best, get MotionR 6000k. I use them on my M3 & Porsches for over 2 years w/o any problems. They also offer lifetime replacement warranty.