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Hi the headlamp on my C250 is not that bright and the throw is kind of short. I think my car has the Halogen headlamps, when in high beam that should be the low beam. Can change this to brighter bulbs? Thanks
Hi the headlamp on my C250 is not that bright and the throw is kind of short. I think my car has the Halogen headlamps, when in high beam that should be the low beam. Can change this to brighter bulbs? Thanks
Hey @thegolffather , yes you can. I upgraded my bulbs to HID’s when I had the halogen lamps. I have since upgraded the entire housing to projector housings with LED running lights.
True, the halogen headlights are horrible, I will say they are dangerous since i couldnt see the road in front of me in good weather nevermind in the rain. I tried Silverstar Ultra halogen bulbs and made no difference. And my headlight housings were also replaced to get rid of the old scratched hazy looking lenses and still made no difference.
I installed an HID kit in the low beams and problem solved.
Hi the headlamp on my C250 is not that bright and the throw is kind of short. I think my car has the Halogen headlamps, when in high beam that should be the low beam. Can change this to brighter bulbs? Thanks
It’s just a brighter H7 bulb. Since it burns hotter, you’ll be replacing them every 2 years, though. If you can get the HID kit for the facelift car with reflector headlamps, that may be a better option.
Thank you everyone, I am trying to avoid coding etc. because I do not have a scanner yet. Is the HID kit plug and play? or do I have to splice wires etc. and is it completely reversible? For simplicity depending on how hard it is to access the bulbs that could also be an option.
I installed the Innovited HID can-bus kit pictured above, with 4300K bulbs. I got it because it has good reviews and wasnt that expensive as some of the premium kits like Morimoto. Its been working fine for 3+ years now.
Its totally plug-n-play. No splicing wires, no coding. Just plug it into the cars existing harness. My car has the projector low beam so the hid bulb works great.
I keep a set of the halogen bulbs in my trunk just in case something happens with the kit of bulb while im driving at night. Can just unplug the hid kit and put the halogen bulb back in back to stock.
I had to make a small cut in the headlght dust cover so the wires can pass thru, but was simple to do.
The only issue i ran in to was the hid bulbs that came with the hid kit were casting a large shadow on the road. I read is has to due with the way the hid bulb filiment is installed in the regular hid bulbs, to fix it I bought a different set of Morimoto bulbs that has the filiment on the opposite side. I dont know if others had this issue.
I do not think I would like to buy an HID kit since the cars future with me is undecided but I would like to replace the headlamps to better bulbs any ideas?
I do not think I would like to buy an HID kit since the cars future with me is undecided but I would like to replace the headlamps to better bulbs any ideas?
@thegolffather - the HID kit I linked in my previous reply is plug and play. You just have to mount the ballasts. I can show you where I mounted mine if you go that route.
Sylvania makes a good halogen bulb I used on my w204 c300. I believe it’s the Sylvania silver star ultra. It’s their “best” level halogenbulb they make. I had good experience with that on my previous w204.
BUT - for like an extra 15-20 bucks you can get an HID kit that is much better than halogen. Even if you sell the car I’d say it’s a positive upgrade.
For years now I have been installing HID kits in all my vehicles headlights and wouldnt bother with anything else. I cant speak on LED bulbs since i've never tried them before.
When i bought my W204 oddly enough it came with Silver Star Ultra H7 bulbs in the low beams and I couldnt see nothing down the road at night. I searched if there was any brighter bulbs and came across a website claiming Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs being brighter so i bought and tried them out, still couldnt see anything it was no different in my opinion. I switched those bulbs to my fog lights and got the HID kit for the low beams. Swapping out the HID kit back to halogen is simple, just replace the bulbs and unplug the kit. The HID kit will work for any vehicle so if you get rid of the car you can easily install it in a different car, just have to buy the specific bulbs if they are different.
Many posts about the halogen headlamps on the W204 being terrible.
The higher intensity 50-55W halogens just run hotter, so they are brighter for a short while, but they diffuse onto the envelope in about a year and are actually worse. Then there is the caveat of “up to xx% brighter” which is a CYA dodge so you can’t complain.
There isn’t a good solution except to get an HID kit that plays nice with the CANBUS. Or to get brighter LED lamps.
The problem is that LEDs and maybe HID kits may not center the light source correctly in the reflector. If you live in a state, province, or country that the checks the headlight aiming, you can get a fail if the dispersion is too wide with the new bulbs. If you don’t, get the HID kit.
I just fit the ballasts where they fit with the limited room behind the headlights. Passenger side I zip tied it down on a bracket, driver I zip tied it to the ac line. I just did it quick when first installing and was going to clean it up but never bothered and has been like this for years now. I'm actually surprised the ballasts have lasted this long.
@TimC300 i suggest moving your ballast and mounting them properly as they heat up and can start melting things they touch while bumping around driving.
Thank you everyone @antboii can you share with me a photo of where you mounted the ballast? Thanks
@thegolffather - I took a quick video to show where and how I mounted the ballasts.
DEFINITELY use the mounting brackets for the ballasts and do not use zip ties. The ballasts heat up while they are in use and can melt things they touch.
I've had them installed like that for around 3yrs now with no issues.
I finally remembered to see how hot the ballasts do get. Drove about an hour and got home and left the car running lights on while I took some temp measurements. Measured both ballasts and the blue boxes in the kit. And its the middle of summer and hot out.
Highest I got was 106 F. For comparison my computer monitor thats been on all day shows 98 F.
I dont remember any of my previous vehicles hid ballasts getting that hot and those were cheaper kinds. I do remember having metal resistors I installed for switchback led turn signals and those things got raging hot, def burn fingers if touched.
@thegolffather - the HID kit I linked in my previous reply is plug and play. You just have to mount the ballasts. I can show you where I mounted mine if you go that route.
Sylvania makes a good halogen bulb I used on my w204 c300. I believe it’s the Sylvania silver star ultra. It’s their “best” level halogenbulb they make. I had good experience with that on my previous w204.
BUT - for like an extra 15-20 bucks you can get an HID kit that is much better than halogen. Even if you sell the car I’d say it’s a positive upgrade.
ant
hey which do you recommend the 4300k, 5000k, etc ?
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