Saprissa

Agree 100%

Got them on my Sport Coupé in 2005 from MBenzNL
and got them on my Sport Sedan just recently also, from MBenzNL

XenonBenz

You don't have the option to buy LED taillights for your coupe. You might think differently if LED tails were an option for you.

Also, LED's offer more functionality than stock facelift taillights. LED's light up quicker, and are brighter, which adds a safety aspect.

Also, to many, LED's have a cool factor to them.

BadAssC230k

its not a mater of look or availability. its about quality. if you do some diggin through the thread, its been discussed that in a few cases the LED's short-out/pop do to poor quality, etc etc. good luck with your purchase.

Saprissa

cool or not, they burn out 5 times quicker than any regular light.
Even if they had them for the C-Coupe, I wouldn't even consider them.

Read back to 2003. People that went out of their way / crazy for LED lights, and installed them on their MB's found out the hard-way how much of pain in the @$$ they really are. Changing them out every 3-4 months gets old real quick.

Actually, the safety aspect is flawed. Yes, they are brighter, but they are actually more distracting to the driver behind you than they are practical. Bright flashes reduce short-distance visibility and impair your judgment of distance.

But, you guys can knock yourselves out with LED's. Just read the 45 or so threads on these forums dating back early on. Most have given up on the LED fad, or just putting up with the inconveniences solely for the "look".

GPI

These Depo lights look good. But, many people had problems with the LED lights made by Eagle Eyes. You might want to consider that. Some say that the headlights made by Depo are good and some say are poor.

ai388

does anyone have pics of it on their car?? i wonder how it looks like compared to the stock tails

kevblah

im sure it looks very similar...compare a s-class style taillight and a led s-class style taillight..

XenonBenz

Most people report that the LED's start burning out after 1 year with the Eagle Eyes. For the price of OEM 05+ taillights, you can buy 3 sets of LED taillights (I doubt I will keep this car 3 years). Once my Eagle Eyes burn out, I'm going to give the Depo brand a try.

I learned about the Depo headlights the hard way. I installed them, sold em in less than 2 weeks, and bought OEM Bi-Xenon's. The Depo's actually look great, however there is a design flaw. The reflector "bowl" inside the Depo's are installed backwards at the factory. This ruins the light pattern by causing hot spots, and the light is front heavy with very little light on the sides. To many people, it's acceptable. Since I live in Ohio with a lot of rural dark roads, the light pattern was unacceptable for me.

Check out the link below. This is from a VW forum, however the VW owners were able to "tweak" the Depo lights to fix the factory design flaw to fix the output of the light. Unfortunately, the Depo's for the C Class can't be fixed easily like the VW.

Depo Light Pattern on my W203

mig888

What I would do is buy the assembly, and modify the existing lighting fixtures onto it so you could use the stock bulb harnesses... non-LED, but at least it's a "facelift".. know what I mean?

What are these? $150?

XenonBenz

There's no point in modifying a Depo LED taillight to make it non-LED. Eagle Eyes makes a non-LED "facelift" taillight (S Class Style) for $120 shipped on eBay. If I wanted the normal C-Class style facelift, I would buy a set from Steve at MBenzNL.

These cost $233 shipped EMS from Hong Kong on eBay. Although the eBay ID says he's from Canada, he's not. I have ordered several items from this seller (Jakuo), and I have been very happy with the products. EMS shipping from Hong Kong has only taken about 3-4 days to Ohio.

On a side note, the Eagle Eyes LED tails don't use the OEM light "board". You just plug in all your bulbs directly into the taillight itself. The Depo brand looks like it still utilizes the OEM light "board".

I already bought and installed a set of Eagle Eyes LED tailights 2 weeks ago, otherwise I probably would have ordered these Depo's. I'm happy with the taillights. Hopefully I'll get more than a year of use out of them.

drexappeal

Not possible. Where do you put the top bulb for the brakelight? From the way these are designed, they'd have to have a LED board replacing the hole for the brake light bulb, which would make it impossible to use the OEM bulb board. If you take out the halogen brake bulb, then you'll have error messages all over the place.

XenonBenz

I'm pretty sure I am right about the Depo tails using the OEM light board. If you had a chance to see the picture below first, you would have seen exactly what I was talking about. If you look at the picture, it seems as though there is a "dummy" metal base part of a light bulb that plugs into the light board for the brake light(to prevent error on dash). Because there is no glass bulb and only the metal base, there is enough clearance for the board to fit on the back of the taillight.

drexappeal

I stand corrected...You're right. I didn't bother to look at how it was designed...very interesting! Nice way to do it and keep the OEM board.

I sold my OEM board with my taillights, so don't have that anymore, but that looks decent.

XenonBenz

Oooh.... another thought just popped into my head about these lights Drex.

Are the bulb boards from the 01-04 and the 04.5-07 exactly the same other than the 6 pin vs. 7 pin connector?

If they are, then this taillight would be universal for 01-07 C Classes. Otherwise, this tail is only good for 01-04 as advertised.

drexappeal

2001-2004.5 - same (6 pin)
2005-Present - same (7 pin)

bulb holders are different between 6 pin to 7 pin (I think, from what I remember)

LuxuryC240

This is an good thread, I find it interesting that they actually designed it with that dummy....however, like it was discussed before, if you really want the S class led tails, 120 bucks every year (or much more if you're lucky) is not too much to pay to have the updated look. Or, of course, you could go non-led s tails. However, to me, it seems these tails (the ones pictured on 1st post) are pointless, because i think most people upgrade for the s style look and not just the LEDs....I guess its what you prefer....anyways that just my .02 lol

I actually have 2 sets of the eagle eyes LED tails....the first one i got a screw broke when I was installing them, company wouldnt give me an exchange, so I ordered another pair...I couldnt wait so I used some gorilla glue on the screw and the thing is strong as anything I've seen, so I have a backup set whenever anything goes wrong with these...

RDSBENZ

Anybody able to find a fix or fix the beam patterns of the projectors on these DEPO healights yet?

XenonBenz

I haven't heard of a successful fix. Someone told me they took the lens off of the headlight, and was still unable to reach a few of the screws that hold the reflector "bowl" where it is. Here's a link to what some VW owners were able to do. Sucks that it doesn't work for ours.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1918243&page=1

I thought about fixing my Depo's, but it looked like you would have to cut open the headlight. I sold them in less than a week and bought some OEM Bi-Xenon's.

To those who don't know what's wrong with the Depo's, the reflector bowl is installed backwards. This is obvious as the position of the H7 bulb sits 180 degrees in the wrong direction. There is a tab in the base of the H7 bulb that is supposed to point up. The tab points down in the Depo, making the beam pattern horrible.

Notice the Hot Spots and lack of side lighting


Cutoff is sharp, but hotspots are extreme

JW-Benz

Well that sucks.. I just bought a pair of these off ebay with the hid's installed... I haven't put them on yet... I hope someone can find a solution.

Saprissa

i just read the word "DEPO"
and I laugh like a silly girl.

steve_bris

I swapped the whole projector out for bosch e46 e-codes.....the lights are awesome now. Only hiccup in the whole process was when I melted a headlight cause I left it to long in the oevn......hehe

yeuchau

that light output on that VW is awsome

WhatTheHulk

I did what xenonbenz suggested to me to do. If you cut the H7 bulbs and re-install in upside down the beam pattern is completely fixed. In addition, the cut off looks like it has been color modded. My friends tell me my headlights look like a deep blue/purple now. I'll post some pics when I can get my hands on a camera.

coolli2

How do you cut the light bulb?

kcheng86

pics please..im interested