Bora20

You have to get the dealer to reprogram the computer so that it has HID lights. The computer is now looking for a 55 watt low beam light, since the HIDs are only 35 watts, the computer sees a problem.

Someone else on here had a problem with that with there sedan, but they come with HIDs from the factory. The Coupe does not, as you already know.

Oh, and just to add to the above posting, we have the factory HID lights. Also remeber that in the package you get headlight washers, the lights, and headlight levelling. The levelling should be on all cars, ever driven towards a new pickup with some weight in the back. I can never see.

And I definately need 3 times the output of halogens. Night time is the best time to get out on the road. Windows down, stars out, soccer moms safely at home with there kids and minivans. We had a Subaru before with real HIDs light from Japan, awesome slidding around in the snow at night.

Merry Christmas.

Silver Bullet

Thanks for the info. Will the service dept. know what to program and would they be willing to do this since this is an after-market product? Also, I called the local Benz parts dept. and they do not show Xenon's for the coupe yet in their system, only for the sedans. Are they both compatible? Does anyone know?

vinmanc32

but since they dont offer for the coupe yet, you have to go with the aftermarket accessories. I am fairly certain that you will see them offered on the next year version of the coupe since the demand has been overwhelming. Just make sure that you dont void your warranty with whatever you do now. They only need one excuse for them to either not service you, or charge you an arm and a leg for what used to be included service (until you void the warranty). Good luck.. Merry Xmas

young

my only qualm is that the shops don't seem to imply that the c sedan lights are compatible w/ the coupe lights. i mean, when i called them, they said that they don't have them; they did not say i could just get the sedan versions. anyway, i would like to get hids at some point and i've put the money away for it

vadim

Not sure if this is a rumor, but I read somewhere that HID will be available as an option for the C Coupe in Europe in June, 2002, and that dealers will start taking orders for it in January, 2002 (?). Again, I've got no credible info on this, but my gut feeling is they will be added to the option list some time in 2002.

Bud

The headlights on the c sedan and coupe are not the same (the coupe lights have a more backward slant the sedan) and maybe that's why you can't just throw the sedan HIDs into the coupe.

Silver Bullet

Silver Bullet's going to get Xenon's one way or another. If the factory HID bulbs are the same size as the halogen's on the coupe and with some slight tweaking from the service dept. on the MB computer system, it may work (fingers-crossed)!

cw203

I got reply from www.autolamps-online.com regarding problems which surface when installing HID kit:

The blinking problems are caused by the cheaper kits and no prper wiring
harness.


The problem with the on board computer can only be see once the kit is
fitted to the car. Sometimes there is a problem and sometimes not. It is
because you take away the resistance in the filament so the computer thinks
the filament has broken. This is easily fixed by putting a resistor back in
the circuit if this happens.

Bora20

But where would you put the resistor? The computer measures the resistance of the filament, which is between the power line and the ground line.

With a HID setup, there is no filament (this you already know) so no resistance. To achieve resistance, you would have to splice in a resistor, lets say 100 ohms, before the bulb, between the power line and the ground line.

This should work in theory, as electricity always follows the path of least resistance. When the lights are switched on, the electricity should flow through the bulb, because there is no resistance.

But wait, I am willing to bet my HIDs that when the xenon bulb first fires up, which requires upwards of 20,000 volts, that there is a hell of alot of resistance.

Lets say it takes 20,000 volts and over 10 amps to light the xenon bulb. This of course is made from the ballast and starter. Using Ohms law, to light the bulb, the ballast and starter would have to overcome about 2000 ohms of resistance. This is not much of a resistor, but I bet is more than a regular halogen filament. So with this in mind, the electron flow (electricity) would flow through the path of least resistance, the small resistor you put between the power and ground lines.

So back to my first question, where do you put the resistor?

dngan

I am about buy a set of H7 6000k HID from autolamps-online, but they told me that the on board computer will register failed lamp as there is not the resistance of the filament when your computer checks.

Autolamps told me the following solution to the problem "The easiest solution is to circumanavigate the low beam filament with this wiring diagram attached. You can either wire a relay into the resistor or wire it into your high beam halogen , either way its just 2 or 3 wire tap connections"

The attached diagram is autolamps suggestion to fix this problem.

But my local bodyshop is not sure if this will fix the problem althought the HID will still work (with the failed lamp indicator lite on).

Has anyone tried to install a HID retrofit on the C-coupe ?
Do you guys think I should order the HID kit with the possibility of the problem occuring ?

dngan

Here is the attached diagram to fix the failed lamp indicator problem.

Do you think it will work ?

http://www.sfu.ca/~dngan/images/fix.jpg

young

well, since today is such a nice sunny day, and the family is away (somwhere in canada...), and tomorrow's forecast is for rain... i just decided to install the kit!

summary: they're in and working. it wasn't totally easy and i ****ed up once, but it worked... (pardon my french)

Hids4less Stage 1 kit w/ type 2 ballast/igniter

<strike>with the engine off, but the key in ON(?) position, the hids work fine and i was able to test it.</strike> also, if the lights are already on, you can turn the engine on and drive - the hids do not turn off but you get the check light error message. (davidta, so if you need to drive around for a while before you find a dealer to change your setting, you can do that.)

you don't have to take off the wheel fender cover, but i did on the driver's side just so i could see what i was doing. the passenger side, i did it w/out taking off the wheel/cover.

here's the yellow hids on the left... the stage 1 kit needs burn in time before they become totally white so they turn on white but gradually turn yellowish, and eventually will become white. the manual says 100hours! but the guy at hids4less said 20 hours...

searchword hidskits

young

here is the whole kit laid out... (the carrot juice is not included )

the bulbs come in the tube. rest is packed in a box w/ shredded paper and bubble sheet. one of my bulb's insulator bar was cracked in the middle. hids4less tech said it makes no difference.

i had the following tools:
blue electrical tape
scissors and sharp knife
drill driver w/ 1/2" drill bit (you could probably just use the knife)
i wore rubber gloves but you could get away w/ just not touching the bulbs.

if you want to take of the wheel well, you need a 10mm socket - one bolt is in deep so you need a extender or something.

young

here's the oem clip/bulb unit... the clip just comes off by lifting the sides. easy. i marked one side w/ a sharpie pen to make sure i had proper orientation. the marked side turned out to be the side where the red wire in the kit goes to. (i tried both sides to get the right polarity).

the red dot is for clarity.

young

here's the clip off. the red dot is the side for the red wire of the kit (the positive?)

note the flange on the clip (left side - close to red dot) that will be problematic w/ the HIDs bulb.

young

here's the clip on the HID bulb... i had to cut the plastic flange on the bulb housing to make it fit. now that i think about it, i probably should have flattened the metal flange on the clip! DOH! anyway, either way, you need to do a small mod. however, b/c of the way the bulb is, the clip is not centered. it made putting it back in a little difficult. if anyone has a suggestion here, i'd be happy to hear it.

young

here's the cap w/ the drilled holes for the wiring. i used my knife to make it a little wider. after i threaded the wiring in, i used electrical tape to cover it up.

young

here's the location of the ballast/igniter on the wheel well. i cleaned it w/ simple green thoroughly... i'm still a little nervous about having it attached w/ just the velcro glue, but renncpe said his is fine and he's had his for a while. there are holes in the ballast for screw-down connections, but it's probably unnecessary.

also, note that i used the electrical tape to cover any connections that i could see...

young

here's the ballast/igniter on the passenger side

Carter

very nice, how long did it take you to install it? was it difficult? looks great though

young

it took about 2.5 hours total.

but note that i took off one wheel and wheel cover... the wheel cover took a while b/c i didn't know what the heck i was doing. :p putting it back on was harder... of course, now that i've done it, it really isn't hard...

the driver's side took the most time b/c i was taking my time, thinking, vacillating, etc. the passenger side probably took 15-20 minutes at most... since i knew what i was doing by then.

i was also trying to document things so that slowed it down.

problems i ran into:

1. the clip doesn't fit w/out some modification on the HIDs bulb housing. and it's not centered so it was difficult to put the bulb in securely. (if anyone has any suggestions, i'd like to hear it)

2. when i tried to pull the bulb out, i accidentally pulled out the connection! the insulator bar bent as it was pulled out... needless to say, i was cursing up a storm and i called hids4less. it looked like the tip of the bulb broke off (but it's supposed to be like that. whew!) and when i test the bulb, it was yellowish! fortuneately, the hids4less guy said it was normal for now - something about salts burning off... as described above. so i calmed down, sat down for 1/2 hour. and went back at it.

3. type 2 ballast means more wiring, another piece to connect, blah blah blah. it's good the rest of you got the type 1.

4. after i finished, i spilled diet coke on myself...

5. didn't get to wash the cars. did i mention that it's supposed to rain tomorrow?


i'm waiting until it gets dark to see if i need to adjust the aiming at all.

btw, stage 2 kits do not have the yellowish burn-in period. so only the people who got stage 1 will notice that.

greg230

hmmm, you already recieved yours???

i recieved an enigmatic VM from mtc lighting confirming my order for a stage 2 hid kit for 595 after shipping. that was friday, i will call em back monday and see whats going down.

young.... i will buy you some carrot juice if you install my stage 2s.... do we have a deal

young

you should receive your kit sometime next week. i think the type 1 ballasts held things up for most people. tommy and i got type 2 so we got ours already.

if you call them, get a tracking number if you'd like.

carrot juice? i'm no bugs bunny! i'd need at least a case of harder stuff... like Red Bull (gives me wings)!

seriously though, i couldn't deal w/ the pressure of installing a kit on another person's car... i'd help you if you did it yourself though.

greg230

1. why did mtc call me to confirm my order??? seems odd.

2. been too busy to call for tracking numbers, but will do this week

3. done deal on the hard stuff.

4. we can install them together... i will be there purely in an administrative role i dont think i even own a roll of electrical tape?!?!?

young

weird... definitely check and make sure they are sending you the right kit.

heheh, 2 administrators? who's gonna install the kit? i can see it now. we'll lay the kit on a white towel. we'll converse about the pieces... drink some red bull. talk about possibly taking the wheels off.

i know tommy wanted to come over to help/watch me install the kit. but he went to las vegas for vacation. maybe he'll install the kits!