Cintoman

Yeah, I don't know if a pre-facelift could be done or not. Reason being is that the 05's inside has a distinct spot on the black plastic where the little plastic light holder snaps into place. I wouldn't think the pre-05's would have this holder for the light. My thinking is that if they went thru the trouble of putting this light holder in place, why not put the light there? I could see if it was the other way around...the 01-04's had them, and then for 05-07, to save $$$, they took the light away, but the internal parts are still made with the holder there. Also the fact that the outer housing doesn't have a hole on the bottom for the light to shine thru. But a small drill could take care of that. Best thing would be e's suggestion to snap a pic of the internals on a pre-05 facelift mirror.


I don't see this as a major issue. Should work fine. The only difference I've seen in the 01-02's is that these years (maybe 03 and 04 as well) have a round black piece on the rear view mirror bracket that mounts to the ceiling. Almost looks like some kind of microphone or something, because I recall this round thing having some slanted open slits on it. Not sure what it does. But if you'd be willing to forgo whatever that is for an 05+ mirror that doesn't have it, I think it would work. I definitely think some detailed pre-05 pics would help if anyone wants to take some.


Eric, I think you might be onto something here. After I installed the one you made me, I was thinking that it would be pretty cool to have other colors. I still love the Amber, because it keeps it OEM-like, but I remember my buddy's A4 had this same thing, and since Audi interior lighting is red, his ambient light was red as well.

Which got me thinking why M-B put Amber in our cars. The pre-05 models had an amber/yellow color theme to the interior with the dash lighting being that color. And if these models had the ambient light on their mirrors, it would match. But the 05-07's dash lighting is white, which made me think they would put a medium brightness white bulb as the ambient color. But, at the same time, all model years have amber lighting for the center console buttons and switches. So maybe that's why they used amber.

Who's going to be first with picking a different color than amber?

Good sig possibilities to know which color you have. Mine already has "e1000 rear mirror ambient LED."

And just think...multiple color choices, multiple brightness, plus LED's have far longer life than incandescents. I smell a business opportunity here.

Cintoman

e1000

I think it's because amber light diffuses the best. White/blue can be harsh on the eyes and cause un-necessary fatigue. All the factory ambient lighting systems I've seen have been amber (MB, BMW). I personally like the amber the best. If they had put in any other color, I would have changed it to amber .

I don't know if I want to make it a business but I will make a couple of these for MBWorld people if they want them in my spare time.

nice sig!!!!!!

e1000

oh, and I'm working on a super top secret new LED mod. Details to come soon.

dbvolz

Group buy!

Glyn M Ruck

nlpamg

awesome! LED King Eric!

oh yeah, I'm adding this to the oem/aftermarket mod sticky

rubensans

Thanks a lot for this DIY.

MJ50

eric, how about footwell LEDs?

Glyn M Ruck

e1000 Enterprises

WaveyKat

how about Creating a LED that will actually work good in the "city lights" that is "White" in color and not "blue white" that will good

e1000

oh yeah I have that problem too. My solution was to change everything up front to 6000k HID.

acr2001

My list of awesome LED mods that need to be done:

- City lights that look W H I T E (yellow or blue are equally as bad)

- Replace puddle lights (in the doors) with multiple super bright LED mats which fit in the lens - they sell these on ebay.

- Replace trunk light with super bright led (also on ebay)

- Footwell LEDs (I too prefer amber) that go in the factory location (I'm pretty sure our footwell covers under the dash have a hole where a factory LED goes.)

e1000

1. The problem with the city lights is that the light bounces around quite a bit so even the slightest hint of blue gets magnified. Otherwise, the new SMD style LED's draw enough power not to trip the bulb out warnings. Actually, the really tall ones with 24(?) LED's draw too much current and will blink.

2. Is this hard? I'm pretty sure the interior bulbs don't set off any errors. Should be a matter of finding the right size LED and putting them in. I personally like the warmer glow of incandescants for interior bulbs, or amber LED's.

3. The trunk license plate lights....... Official statement at this time is that I can neither confirm, nor deny any speculation.

4. I've been thinking about this as my next lighting mod. (I have something else I'm working on right now) Should be easy as long as I can find a good place to tap into. The way I WANT to do it is to have really really dim LED's when the car is running and then when the door opens I want them to go brighter. We'll see.

acr2001

Sorry, I was running on too little sleep when I made that post. For 2 - that's easy I was just thinking out loud. As far as the trunk light and door puddle lights I meant the light inside the trunk, and the puddle lights under the doors when you open them. I agree about keeping the stock interior lights. LEDs are too cold and don't look good inside. But for puddle lights and the trunk I think it's worth the extra light and might look good in that use. For license plate lights I took the easy route and installed Hoen bulbs which I think do a pretty good job.

The footwell LEDs getting brighter with the doors open sounds even better than what I had in mind. I think with the stock footwell lighting mercedes uses a lens infront of the LED.

I can take pictures of the way it's setup in our E class if you want some ideas.

e1000

DOOOIT.

Cintoman

+1 here. I too have the Hoen's (6418/C5W) for my rear license plate lights. They're pretty white. Maybe not Lexus LED white, but still a vast improvement over the stocks. Haven't had any issues with them in nearly a year.

Cintoman

WaveyKat

i did change all to 6000k i have Philips D2S 6000k some ebay 9006 6000k and some ebay White LEDs and that Crap still dont match.

the LED is still too blue but is white when its not in the housing... am going to change the 9006 to some Philips Rebased 6000k.

acr2001

I'll see if I can get pics tomorrow!

Synergy001

nice write up

WaveyKat

So i just install the 05+ mirror in my 2K1 C320 took about 30 mins one of the wires from the Mirror was not able to be connect but the Ambient Light works i had to Remove the Spring and 2 little poles or "whatever they call it" from my 2001 Mirror and used it in the 2005 mirror that was the only issue

e1000

NICE! I believe the other connector is for the auto dimming driver's side mirror. Not 100% positive.

Did you have homelink before? It should work since all of the electronics are housed in your new mirror.

WaveyKat

yes my car has homelink which i never use.. i was looking at the Mirror and it looks like it has built-in Mic so am guessing that the extra wire is for the Mic but the connectors for the mic i had before is different.


the Auto dimming Still Works works plus my car is tinted so that doesnt make a difference.

acr2001

I think that makes sense. Your old mirror probably had a black thing not on the mirror itself, but on the trim like piece attached to the headliner. They replaced that with a milti microphone array which is now in the mirror. I'm guessing you don't use it so it doesn't matter. If you do have a need for the mic, there's probably a way to splice the new array in if you could get your hands on a wiring diagram for it. Even if that didn't work you could always wire up *one* of the microphones from the array to get something similar to the original setup.

Mu9enx

pn for the mirror wavey?

WaveyKat

Part number was "ebay" lol lol got it for like 30 bucks i changed mines cuz the one i had before would always Rattle from time to time so i got a new mirror and ambient light