benzmodz

The old lamps with bumper removed. You are also removing the frontal splash cover inside the wheel arch. To do this make the wheels full lock left and then right so you have room to work and loosen the panel. Clips and screws. This then clears room to work on the fog lamp, temp sensor and also t20 screw on the bumper clip. Tape up the alignment points on the body too and mark the position of the old lamps before with a felt pen marker. The body sides of the car were taped up too because this is a place where you can scratch the body with the bumper going on and off.



Lamps removed and vacuum disconnected. To stop hissing sound inside car you must buy a vacuum plug for both external lines or just buy one for inside the door sill where you will split the violet line and insert the plug. This is at the drivers side kick panel held in by 2 clips and 1 screw. Tie back the unused violet lines in the engine bay.



The new lamp



Transfer the old offset measurements from the old lamp to the new lamp. There are 3 on each lamp. With all of these positions marked the new alignment will be extremely close to the old one and the body gaps should be neat and very close to OEM. You are looking for bottom of tab to top of bolt



Looking good so far !



Why not add some clear fogs, blue parking lights and clear 2005 blinker inserts at the same time. Alignment was done with the old lights as reference and out on the street using parked cars. It will be checked at a pro shop later.

Coding was done XENON = PRESENT in EIS.



Verdict = SWEET !

razorfish228

Looks awesome. Thanks for the write up. I wish there was one for the sedan when i am ready to do the install. But I guess it will be very similar except for the bumper removal.

Now I guess you can install some HID fogs to match everything.

benzmodz

The sedan write up is the same. The grille isnt even in the way Doing the bumper once is a lifetime lesson. After that the main secret is to use lots of tape, mark everything, transfer settings over and assemble. The vacuum line trick is pretty cool. Most people dont do it and it makes a hisssss inside the car.

vacuum line plug = A 124 805 02 44

You can use 2 outside or one inside. I install it inside.

Jkw

Nicely Done.

allen_7

May be a dumb question...........Why doesn't the new bi-xenon lights need the vaccum line?

gaiex

I bougth those when I installed my bIX but I couldn't install them in my vacuum lines!!!
they don't fit in the line, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure what!!!

Do you have any pics of the plugs installed???
thanks

benzmodz

The auto levelling function is part of the BiXenon system. There is a front and rear ride level sensor on the sway / suspension arm. These talk to the drivers side headlamp which figures out what the ride level is.

Halogens have a ride level adjustment near the mirror adjustment pad and Xenons dont.

benzmodz

I wasnt sure if the same plug fits in the engine bay. My friend uses a cover plug made of rubber. The Mercedes one is like a golf tee made of red plastic.

In the cable tray inside the drivers kick panel area there are vacuum lines gray and violet and white. You break the violet join and plug the red pin into the open connector.

white_w203

bi-xenons make a big difference. looks great.

bwco

Nice lamp, where did u get those? How much ? I've been searching for a set of these for the coupe for so long...

gaiex

Any pic please???

benzmodz

Sorry. I will post more pics in the future.

Outland

Post some of this vac line issue. I did my Bix refit a couple of years ago, I don't remember there being any vac lines to plug, nor is there a hissing sound inside the car, or outside for that matter.

Is this an australian market thing only? Vac lines to suck the headlights into the car, so they don't fall off into space when youre driving upside down on the bottom of the planet?

benzmodz

The vac lines only exist if you had halogens to begin with. You sound like you went from Xenon to BiXenon which is a straight swap.

The hissing inside the car is only audible if you still have hearing. I would guess that some people may never hear it over the music, revving and tyre noise but I can hear it quite clearly.

The violet lines are hard to miss.

benzmodz

You can ask MBENZNL (steve@mbenznl.com) for the said items. If you live in or near Australia you may want to look at UK spec.

It is a really bad idea to use Euro / USA spec lamps in Australia or other RHD countries. I get asked to help members install USA lamps in Australia and I flatly refuse because the light illumination pattern offends oncoming motorists when it is the wrong specification.

The lights are designed to be used so that pedestrians and parked cars get more off-side illumination than on-side opposing traffic. When this is reversed it causes a major problem.

USA / Euro lamps (LHD) are more easily bought for a good price. Unfortunately, Australia spec (RHD) are generally full price.

Outland

Nope. No Violet Lines, and the car was Halogen originally. I think the autoleveling feature is not on the American spec cars...unless its Bix from the factory. No hissing sounds anywhere. Lots of Supercharger whine, but that's the price of more boost.

Quite a difference in appearance, isn't it? Its brighter, to be sure, but I'm honest and admit I got em cause they looked cool.

benzmodz

So you dont have a wheel marked "0 1 2 3" on your light switch ?

I must admit that Steve is the master of US cars. I have never travelled in a USA Benz.

Moviela

Nope, no little wheel on US spec light switch assemblies. FMVSS108 which details safety standards does not allow driver adjustable headlamps. The US pattern is flat, whereas in most of the rest of the world, the beam is shaped to iluminate the curb side of the road. The US specs also require automatic leveling of Bixenon lamps, and there must be a headlight cleaning system. Halogen lamps cannot be moved, and no cleaning system is necessary.

benzmodz

It is amazing what subtle things the USA demands. Well at least I realise now that generic information seldom applies to the USA.

MBenzNL

...and there are soooooo0000oooo many more differences between US spec and ROW cars...and still I get surprised by some of those differences (the 2006 IC programming in the US sucks bigtime as it is done from factory for example)

greetingz,

benzmodz

Many thanks to Chuck for sending me a real life photo of his super-Coupe.

gmabm

I retrofitted by RHD C-Coupe with Bi-xenon and am getting a hissing sound inside the car too.

I did not install any vacuum plug but by just turning the halogen leveling wheel downwards (cant remember its 0 or 3 now) will simply stop the sound already.

gmabm

I cant get the red A 124 805 02 44 plug fitted anywhere... seems too big for the purple vacuum line too.

U got any luck?

advans

coupe bi-x my favorite

benzmodz

Behind the drivers kick panel in the cable tray there is a line which is purple coupled with grey. Split the lines and install the plug in the relevant connector.