daniel123588

I had some quetions regarding those that DO NOT have the factory HID system and have put in an aftermarket HID set up. This is for an W204 08
C350 WITHOUT PII package.

1. On the headlight bulb harness of the stock low beam bulb (H7) there are a total of three wires on the harness. two of the wires going connect to one and a single wire on the other connetion. Which is the negative and which is the positive?

2. Many people that run aftermarket HID set ups just run the factory headlight harness through a harness w/a capacitor, than to the ballast than to the bulb. My question is since igniting the HID bulb takes a lot of voltage to ignite, the entire voltage is being drawn from the factory harness, with nobody running a protection relay to draw voltage from the battery, has anybody had fried wires or damage? does the capacitor hold enough voltage to be safe from fried wires?

3. Regarding questions two. I know the capacitor is like a small back up battery that holds voltage to be used when needed but it doesnt provide protection like a relay right?

4. I read many many posts about the bulb failure light that comes up without having a capacitor due to the HID running at at lower wattage 35w vs 55w i believe. My HID kit has an in built relay so that the igniting of the HID bulbs wont be directly from the wiring but rather pull voltage from the battery upon start up to protect the factory wiring from over draw BUT it only uses 2 spade connections (positive and negative) from only ONE side of the headlight harnesses (so either left side or right side) thus leaving the headlight bulb failure warning and lights automaticaly turning off. The harness also does have a capacitor built in to avoid flickering. This might be a stupid question if i split the spade connections to make a total of four spade connections (2 positive and 2 negative) so that i can plug into each headlight harness, would that make harnesses run at 110watts, i know it will still run at 12v just at different ohm i believe? Hope that made sense.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. My HID kit is to arrive pretty soon and im just doing all my research to hopefully have a smooth install. Please dont tell me to not do this HID mod because THIS projector lens is meant for halogens and not HID's. Ive seen a picture of a C350 non HID against the wall about 25 ft and the beam cut off was nearly perfect with not much glare but of course its hard to tell without seeing it in person. In any case, advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Saks_C350_Sport

If you aren't knowledgable enough to differentiate the polarity on the wires, you probably shouldn't be tinkiering with your headlights.......... Spend the money and let a PROFESSIONAL technician do the work for you.

daniel123588

To saks 350, im just trying to get everything ready for install. i do have knowledge of working on cars and bikes but not on mercedes vehicles. Im just currently at work and havnt had time to use a test meter to check anything.Thanks for your advice anyway.

tanktube67

The two wires connected together should be the ground, if you connect the polarity backwards you will burnout the capacitors, my advice to you is connect the HID lights once there are working, connect the capacitors.

daniel123588

Thank you tank tube. Heres a HID kit thats from harbor motorsport that comes with 2 harnesses with capacitors built in to prevent flickering along with the bulb error code. This system is easily plug and play but is it safe for the initial start up of the HID bulb, i believe upon igniting is about 85v-100 or something like that. All that current would be pulled directly from the factory harness but does the capacitor hold enough voltage to protect that?

by the way, the kit pictured is not the one i have but just wanted to show what i mean.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...8/hidsetup.jpg

daniel123588

Digital HID set came in today, i also finished installing today. My Kit came with a relay to protect drawing too much current from the factory headlight harnesses upon igniting of the bulb but i just got rid of that and just went with the set up in the previous post picture. Just bought two capacitors and install went smooth. output is very nice and very very little glare. anyway thats all.

tanktube67

Good job

raymond g-

would be interested in seeing the beam quality of this kit. can you post pics
of the beam against a wall....as well as one of the light on the pavement about
20' in front of the car? tnx

Saks_C350_Sport

How did you put the plastic covers back over the rear of the headlamp assembly ????

tanktube67

You have 2 options

1. Drill a hole about 1/2" size and purchase a grommet or used supplied grommet (some kits)

2. Cut a groove big enough to pass the wiring throughout with out cutting the seal o-ring.

daniel123588

drilled a hole on the rear cover and kit came with a rubber grommet to prevent condensation. The beam cut off is not too bad against a wall at about 25 ft or so but whenever i took a picture with the camera it doesnt come out right. i dont know how to take a picture with digital camera to prevent all the shine in the photo but in person its so much better. If i post a picture than everybody is going to be like "Look at all that glare!", "those projectors arent meant for HID" and so forth. maybe ill post some pics if i can get a good picture.

tanktube67

Just to give you and idea, a black light bulb is 20000K (Kelvin) and OEM HID bulb is 4300K the higher the number the less the light travels

daniel123588

Heres some pics of each side. i havnt took pictures of both sides finished. IF you look at the headlight pictures with the HID and without the HID it seems theres lots of glare because the camera seems to catch a lot of the light. Ill also post pics of the beam cut off if i have time later. The pictures seem to have lots of glare but its really not that bad at all.

daniel123588

Heres some pix.The camera still catches lots of glare and the lights are much more white in person, it is nowhere near that blue color as the picture shows.

2nd pic is upon start up

3rd pic

4th pic beam cutoff, there is slight glare as you can see, not that bad though.

5th pic


7th pic is of my 07 R1 with the same brand digital HID kit, these projectors are bad *** and cut off is perfect.lights are white and nowhere near blue like the picture. its just the camera that makes it look that way.


8th pic beam cutt off, this is the bike not car.


Bikes headlights do not have driver side headlight to be lower like cars. its just flat all the way across. Hope this pics help. Again, the camera catches a lot of the glare which is not really there along with the color that throws it off.

Saks_C350_Sport

NIMMB

Not In MY Mercedes Benz !!!!!!!!!!!

daniel123588

in every forum theres always people that always just have to add dumb comments. "NIMMB" wow did you come up with that all by yourself. These forums are meant to help those enthusiast that want to modify their cars and that are seeking advice along with ideas. Anyway i just posted pics to show the beam cut off since someone that posted earlier asked. In person theres hardly any glare at all. if you shine your lights against a wall even with the stock H7 halogen you will still have that very slight glare right above the beam cut off. Anyway, if anybody has any questions feel free to ask. Going to get the bulbs for the parking lights pretty soon along with the license plate bulbs and the turn signal bulbs. Just waiting for those to come in.

raymond g-

I don't think it's a dumb comment. Dissenting opinions should be taken at face
value. Why shouldn't someone opine that the lower quality not be acceptable
for their car? That is also 'help.' Some folks are of the belief that only by
agreeing is one helpful....that pandering to each other's egos is the answer.
it's disengenuous to ask that 'any feedback is greatly appreciated' and then
tell folks who have, to **** up a rope.

Though the photos are far from OEM in beam precision, as well as illegal, the
examples shown in the photos are admittedly better than many others I have
seen and made from HID kits. Hard to be sure as photos can be skewed in
their presentation depending on exposure settings. You did mention that
there may be lots more glare than that shown in the photos - is still still true?

If the pavement your car was on (in the photos) level, and you've backed
off the requisite 2 dozen feet or so, I'd recommend that you dip the beam
a little, as they appear to be level or rising.

tnx for the shots. I'll save these as examples from/of your kit in OEM fixtures.

mac911

I have the factory ones, if it didn't come on the car, I wouldn't have bothered, for many reasons.

I don't disagree with those who convert it though. If they can do a good job of it, I applaud them.

What I think the biggest complain should be: Mercedes-Benz needs to start putting these on every Mercedes-Benz standard!

daniel123588

ok ok i take my comment back, it just felt a bit unnecessary for saks to make that comment in my opinion with no feedback. As far as being illegal,Of all the cars that i had put HID's in i have never gotten pulled over nor have any of the shops that issued saftey checks even knew it was aftermarket HID's (94 LS400, 94 Q45, 07 IS350). Inthe near future i may consider to retrofit some TSX projectors or maybe my R1 projectors jk but seriously many have retrofitted TSX projectors as they give one of the best light beam cut off but thats something that i havnt attempted before, something i need to look more into. as of now though lighting is much more better than stock and i mentioned that the glare ISNT as bad as in the picture, the camera seems to catch more light than there really is. Would help too if i knew how to fully use the digital camera settings but i dont. ok thats all.

raymond g-

ah...my bad. poor reading comprehension when hungry.

mromar

I have got the DDM kit today. The male connector receptacles from the kit are Blue and Black. But the factory connector (this is the connector that plugs onto H7 OEM Bulb) has two female receptacle connector and has three black wires divided between the two sides. I cannot figure out which side is the negative or positive. Additionally DDM kit has Blue and Black male receptacles.

Now I dont know how to use the voltameter. Can anyone help please.

tanktube67

pm send