As some of you know, I was hit up by SPYDER to help test out their new w204 headlight unit. We installed it yesterday at their facility and will be running endurance/quality testing over the next couple weeks for them.

This is in the R&D phase from what I understand and design can be changed if reasonable. I've already offered my style suggestions to them which I'll outline below later.

I've already made a few changes to the unit by installing my 5000K HID kit, and 5000K Wedge LEDs in the eyebrows. The sidemarkers are still my 8000K I had on before. I've also stealthed out the turn signals so there's no egg yolk effect.

Fitment: This was pretty much on spot. We installed it on the right side and kept stock on left and I ran fingers along the edge seams to see if there were any glaring variances. There wasn't and fit pretty well. Very good for aftermarket.

Installation: Not too difficult, but figure a couple hours. You can drop the bumper to remove the original headlight if you wish, but it's not necessary. Just remove the top plastic components to get access to the two screws on top, peel back the wheel well liner to get access to the one screw on bottom. Then pop off the sides of the bumper from the fender so you can flex it to the side to work the headlight off. I'd suggest using masking tape on the edges here to keep your paint from being scratched up.

Bulbs: Low beam uses H7, High beam uses H1, Eyebrows use 194 Wedge, and Turn signal uses 7507 Bayonet. I've already made the suggestion to them to keep stock bulb configuration for those who've already swapped out LEDs/HIDs (High Beam, Turn Signal). This should be a fairly easy change as it's just the connector and shouldn't cost any extra. Front turn signals they might want to keep 7507 however because only US and Canada uses the 3457 super wedge bulbs, while the rest of the world uses 7507. The color of the LED strip underneath appear to be 4300K, similar to standard Mercedes LED strips cross the fleet.

Color: They offer two variations of the housing unit. The one I have is black and they have a chrome version. I've made suggestions that they black out the turn signal section on the black version so you get a fully blacked out unit. I understand the reason behind doing what they did with the reflector to enhance the turn signal reflected area, but shouldn't be necessary and would give the black version a much cleaner look.

Stye: This isn't for everyone and I've already told them that my personal taste would be a cleaner design. It's not bad in person and I can see it growing on me, but I'd probably paint tint the bottom strip area or the eyebrow area to keep it less busy. I even had a wild idea of removing the eyebrows entirely and just keep headlight with LED strip which mimics the new facelifted w204 which also removed the eyebrows and have the LED strip underneath. I suggested dual projectors for the low beam and fogs which I absolutely love when done, but they want to keep costs for these units down and adding projectors there would increase price point too much in their view.

Quality: This will be TBD as I continue to run some testing.

What SPYDER wants is to see what feedback the community has and how you'd like to see it improved.

 

Looks great buddy!

 

Facelift? Would be awesome

 

I was actually about to order these to mod them in a similar way you did as well! I can see them growing on me too. The only problem I have is that cutoff is pretty nasty. I have plans to retrofit S2K projectors into these housing to make better light output and a cleaner cutoff.

Ill be waiting for your durability testing. Thanks for letting us see them!

 

Wow, im beginning to rethink my thoughts on these, they actually look alright!

 

They look better installed then I thought they would when i first saw them on eBay. I actually really like them. Are they plug and play? wondering how/if the DRLs work if all other lights are off as I wouldn't think there's voltage going to the headlight.

Unfortunately, I'm guessing that for people with OEM Xenons these would not fit? Do you know if they have any plans in the future for making ones that fit OEM xenons or if it would be modifiable?

 

Looks Awesome.......

 

yeah, I have some issues with the cut offs as well, but I want to play around with them tomorrow a bit to see if there's anything that can be done. These are completely plug and play. From what I can figure out, the LED strip is triggered to the eyebrow control.

 

I also have concerns about the eyebrow lights, it looks like it's cut off at the top edge so the light doesn't fill the entire brow. I'll have to play around with it a bit more tomorrow to verify this after just noticing this by the picture.

 

I would def buy a pair :-)

 

What kind of LED's does the strip use and reflector design, from your pics (not sure if its the flash or not) but they don't seem to be very bright during the day. I'm assuming these strips are designed as DRL's or are they just an extra set of parking lights?

 

I'm diggin them.I would buy a pair for sure.should look even better if you change a few things!

 

this looks great!!!! Would like to have a pair on my estate!!!

 

not bad, also wonder how theyd look matched up with some drls.....

 

yeah theyre not bad, better than i thought they would be. Me personally I would do blackout bulbs on the eyebrows, so just the LED would be on. then rewire them to be on all the time without the rest of the parking lights if the eyebrow is the trigger like u think it is. You could then use white vinyl over the eyebrow and sleek up the front of the car, I like the eyebrow covers Ive seen in pics, theyre great if you dont have DRLs, once you do they dont look good to me anymore

 

Also, SPYDER floated the idea of organizing a group buy so if you're interested, we can see if we can negotiate a lower price.

 

I'm still 50/50 on these. It may be because I painted my own housing . I would def like to see the group buy pricing on these.

 

I like them. I would be interested in a group buy if it happens.

 

I'm curious to see them with a more oem lighting color in the eyelids and even with a stock side marker since i'm not much of a fan of the blue looking lights. Also, it would be cool to see them on an '11 or a car with the LED strips in the fog area to see if it is too busy.

SPYDER, if you wanna send me a pair I'll take some pics w/the LED fog to get an idea there. also I don't have upgraded bulbs so it would be a more stock looking config

 

Im down for a group buy as well. I really want to retrofit S2K projectors into these and black the whole housing just to leave the LED strip at bottom while gaining superior lighting

 

I like them. Would consider if the price was right.

 

Completely agree on nixing the eyebrows. Way too busy with both the LED strip and brows on. I'd just leave them unconnected, though, vs masking them off with vinyl, which i think would look contrived/bad.

 

i want now!! btw, aznoptic i lost your number. can you PM me. i'm in ur area now.

 

instead of the eye bros they should had designed something like the 2012 headlight

 

They already took press photos with stock lighting for their SEMA ad.


Looked pretty ugly to me though with the very yellow halogens in contrast with the whiter LED strip. The eyelids are actually whiter than what the pictures suggest. These were just some quick shots and I didn't fine tune the white balance. As mentioned, they are my 5000K LEDs and the lower LED strip is 4300K which has a hint of yellow to it. It's the same rating as the OEM lower fog strip. I had talked to SPYDER about the overall look of these with those with LED strip fogs and we kind of agreed it'd be too busy, but these are more geared towards those with standard functional fogs who don't have any LED strip to begin with.

Yeah, I'm considering pulling the LEDs and using them as engine bay lighting, or just wire in resistors so they don't light up and don't throw errors. The way they're designed in the back, you have the left and right bulb wiring connected in series with plenty of slack so you could easily reroute them. I still think tinting them might help. At least they shrunk the size of the eyebrow so they're not so dominating in size and is sharper/sleeker.

Right now, it's obvious that you can split the headlight into 4 distinct visible sections...eyebrow, low/high, turn signal, and strip. I think breaking it down to 3 sections would do wonders with the overall business by blacking out the turn signal portion.