e1000

Frank is right. The whole inner housing angles upwards and downwards.

Glyn M Ruck

Frank is spot on. Had a look at mine today. I did not notice this when we did my realignment because you do all the alignment with the Star & beam catch box on the lows - great - I've learned something. Thanks e & Frank

Benzben

Thanks, Glyn. Are the sensor connections fairly obvious? Or is there something in particular that I should be looking for? I don't want to go in there and just start pulling random things out that look like they might be connected to the housing.

I'm taking it in on Monday. If Glyn's suggestion doesn't work (or if I end up doing more harm than good), then we'll see what the dealer has to say.

Glyn M Ruck

The sensors have arms on them. You disconnect the arm from the sway bar bracket in the front & from a long bent rod at the rear that connects the sensor arm to the lower swing arm. Then you take that sensor arm & rotate it from one extreme to the other on both sensors with the system powered up & reconnect them. The Tech at my dealer showed me this. He did not understand why it works but I think it must reset something in the microprocessor. I've seen it done on a customers car at the dealer & it worked. I can't guarantee anything but it can't do any harm. But could waste your time. I think it's worth a bash. Without a STAR you can't see what the sensors are outputting.

See rear sensor on Frank's car. I don't have a pic of the front one. Must take one

Glyn M Ruck

Here - see my clumsy arrow for rear. Front sensor connects to RHS of front sway bar. Hey - I notice you are talking about the housing which makes me think you are looking at the back of the lights. The sensors are on the front & rear suspension.

johnand

+1 Tried it on mine last night before I left for home.

Is it me, or are the OEM Bi-Xenon's more complicated then they need to be

Glyn M Ruck

John, it is complicated but that's what's required to meet the European road law. It's either this or no BiX in Europe. I must say I think the yaw sensor is a little over the top , but the fact that it's already there for the ESP I suppose they may as well use the signal. I'm not defending Benz - I think they do overcomplicate issues but in this case I think they have little option. It must have taken some $4 haircut a long while to work out the algorithm for the processor.

johnand

I do want to post my complete observation of exactly how the leveling system works, but my brain is fried today, so I'll try and post later. I am still a little confused about some of the info posted here and want some clarification.

Glyn M Ruck

What worries you John. The system mechanics or the processing of data from the sensors & the averaged data influence on the final headlight position transmitted to the actuators? I must go to bed - this forum is addictive!

Glyn M Ruck

Here is the wiring diagram

This does not specifically show the yaw sensor connection but that is next to X62/8 in the rear - mounted (in my car at least) below the ESP module. My Service Manager has shown me the circuit diagram in the Master WS Manual they use & the yaw sensor in, European compliant installations at least, is in circuit.

The microprocessor is in the front SAM that takes the multiple sensor feed & interpolates it using an algorithm & then controls the actuators in the lights through 12 degrees I understand.

BlkBenz8

I want to change to bi xenon 8k hids.
What do you guys think about these??
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...BSI%26otn%3D12

Glyn M Ruck

They look very nice & I would not be surprised if they come out of the OE factory. I still like the standard look but these are quite tasteful

Benzben

Took it to the dealer this afternoon. The official verdict on my problem: Bad sensor. Here's what the invoice says:

"Faulty connection at sway bar lever sensor test drive, function check bi-xenon headlamps, check codes and evaluate, individual component test, electrical test headlamp motors, 12 volts to motors, electrical test frt level sensor, found loose connector on sensor, replace connector on sway bar level sensor and clear codes."

Everything was covered under the CPO (thankfully). Part number listed as 210-540-36-81 ("Plug Housing"). My SA said it costs $6. Amazing that a $6 part can basically render my car a very large, nice-looking paperweight during the twilight hours. At least I got a free car wash for my trouble.

Thanks for your assistance guys.

TemjinX2

there just depo head lights. They are a exact replica of the oem head lights but lens on the projector isn't as good. The light output isn't so great. Others have said if you swap out the lens with a hid lens the output improves quite a bit.

Just do a search for depo and you can see the output pics.

Deutsche_ Amg

do you know how to change the lens and where to buy the lens ive looked on ebay but i dont know which one to buy, i literaly have the depo headlights in front of me and i know how to take the front cover appart thanks to the previous forum regarding that.

Deutsche_ Amg

do you know how to change the lens and where to buy the lens ive looked on ebay but i dont know which one to buy, i literaly have the depo headlights in front of me and i know how to take the front cover appart thanks to the previous forum regarding that.

TemjinX2

i believe you can just buy e55 projectors and swap the lens. You should actually be able to swap the whole projector. you should PM raymondg-. I believe he did the lens swap.

TemjinX2

he talks about it on this thread

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...bout-depo.html

there also pics of my hid tsx projector retrofit using eagle eye headlights on my sig.

Glyn M Ruck

Hey Benzben - this is good news - I'm pleased for you that the saga is over. I know when they did my castor bushes & left my front sensor disconnected so I had shutters down it was hopeless. I could not see where I was going at night on dip. 6 buck component!!! typical

Cintoman

I was wondering if this same thing happened to me as well because back several months ago, I
brought my car into the dealership (I have the CPO) for a creaking sound when going over speed bumps. They ended up replacing my anti-sway bar, some bushings, and also my driver's side lower control arm. Creaking was gone, and I believe my oem BIX were lowering and raising normally when starting the car. However, this past Friday, while driving home from a friend's house late at night, I noticed a severe drop in my low beam lighting pattern. The cutoff was really low; I estimate no more than about 12 feet (~4 meters) in front of my bumper. I'll have to take measurements tonight to get the exact distant where the cutoff line is. I had to pretty much use my high-beams for the majority of my drive home.

The next day, I had my wife start my car while I checked out the headlights. And sure enough, they're doing the same thing the OP mentioned....it looks like the projector is down all the way, because it doesn't move down. Then, when it tries to move up, it just shakes/vibrates very little bit. Definitely no movement like I used to see when turning on the lights.

So now it's back to the dealership for this issue, as well as a problem I'm having with the heater blower making a chirping sound when it's running, which, from reading a post here, seems to be a problem with the motor bearings.

Man, this car could have turned out to be pretty expensive, if it weren't for the CPO I have that's good until then end of August 2011.


Cintoman

nickgailloux

Hey guys,

So as I mentioned earlier, my car is doing the same thing (poor throw distance of about 20ft) since I had the car at the dealer to have a bushing changed. I brought it back to the dealer and they were useless, they hooked it up and claimed that according to STAR, everything looked fine.

When I turn the bi-xenons on manually, then turn the key to the final position before crank, I can see that the headlights are doing the same vibration described by others. I can see the beam cutoff on my garage wall vibrating within about 1/2 inch.

The bad news is my car is now out of warranty. I still think the dealer is responsible for this but convincing them of that is useless.

I plan to jack the car up and try adjusting the sensors on the front and rear suspension like Glyn suggested. Does anyone have a pic of the front sensor, or can you at least tell me if its on the driver or passenger side?

Thanks for your help guys.

Glyn M Ruck

Here:

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...0sensor-1-.pdf

nickgailloux

Thanks Glyn... thats awesome. I'll try ranging both sensors through to their limits and see what happens.

Glyn M Ruck

Good luck. All the microprocessor circuits on these cars seem to require cycling from time to time to re-establish parameters. e.g. active mirrors.

You unfortunately might still need a Star & a lightbox to set them accurately. Cycling them & reattaching to original position - esp on front sway - should get you back to the default setting they came with ex factory.

nickgailloux

Glyn -- I plan on only doing the front sensor and then seeing where that gets me, since thats where the dealership was working, I think that sensor has to be the most likely to have an issue. Is that ok or should I do both sensors before turning the lights on. Also, does it matter what position I have the key/lights set to when I do it? I'd imagine I should be doing this with the lights on?