rshah31

Hey everybody, it's a pleasure to join this forum.

To those of you who have upgraded your factory halogen low beams to HID/xenons with a plug and play kit - are you happy? How is the beam pattern and cut off? I have read mixed things while searching through the forums. Is your overall light output increased compared to the factory halogens?

Thanks!

J__

i have a 2012 and upgraded to a 'plug and play' hid kit. Got 6000k 'chinese brand' Enlight kit, initially didn't get capacitators as the lights didn't throw an error, but I found the light temp to be way too blue without them and it had a slight flicker in color temp that became a nuisance. After installing capacitators, the light became a pure white and no clicker what so ever.

The halogen beam cutoff on these cars are amazingly clean, one of the best halogen beam cutoffs I've ever seen. Obviously not as 'sharp' as a projector, but I found no issues of stray light blinding drivers.

I got the 35W HIDs and the light output is incredible! I wanted 55W at first but ended up deciding against it as I didn't want to test the idea of overheating the oem wiring.

If I'd have to choose again, I'd probably go with a 5000k hid for a slightly yellowish light to look more OEM than the pure white the 6000k's give me.

Crippled

55 watt hid will run the same heat as the OEM h7 55watt, ionfact i have noticed mine to run cooler than with the halogen bulb, when i tested my 50watt hid bukbs and ballasts they were warm to the touch on the housings vs the halogens were much much warmer to the touch

Knightmare69

It would help if you specified if you were talking about the old version or facelift model. While not optimal, at least the old version halogens had projectors which not only focused the light but reduced most possible glare issues the reflector would have. I know we have members who swear that their facelift models with plug and play kits don't blind drivers and I'm sure the new reflector designs are great but I'm sure there are still glare spots, probably just minimized as technology and design gets better.

chewychiu

I have a plug and play hid kit 6000k 55w and i'm loving it. No regrets. Very bright.

rshah31

Great to hear that you are having a good experience even with reflectors. My biggest concern is that since the lights (whether pre-facelift projectors or post-facelift reflectors) are designed for halogen optics, that there would be too many flat spots, uneven cut offs, etc.

You are right, I should have specified that I am talking about the pre-facelift model with projectors.

Knightmare69

I'm glad to hear that you're aware of these issues. I'm one of the guilty that runs a pnp kit in my pre-face lift projectors. At first I seemed to be throwing light in unusually high and awkward places and even adjusting them myself I was unsatisfied. In the end I went to the dealer and had them adjust them accordingly and with the proper machinery. The cut off isn't as great as say a TSX or S2000 lens but it's quite usable.

J__

The light output on my is very even. Only if you are pulled up close to a wall that you can see the 2 slight hotspots, but on the road, the output is super smooth. Cut off has the noticeable __/ __/ too.

For some reason my HID in reflectors are much brighter than oem projector hids. My headlights are so much brighter than my dad's OEM HIDs on his new Eclass

I'd say go for it, you will definitely NOT regret about the brightness and light pattern.

J__

here's a photo of the cutoff. pretty sharp

finger360

Hey check out this thread, I posted a video and a picture showing the cutoff with my HID Kit.

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

Here is the cutoff picture.