SnazzyLabs

So, my C300 has halogen lights. Believe me, I didn't choose them—they chose me—and I hate them but I'm stuck with them for a few years (don't dare to replace the whole headlamp while I'm still under warranty). That said, the stock halogen bulbs are horrrrrible. So I decided I'd buy the Morimoto Elite HID H7 kit. AZN Optics, The Retrofit Source, and many other sites sell them.

The kit works fine—great actually—with one ENORMOUS exception: I can't use it on my C300. Why? The HID bulb is too long. It actually touches the low-beam hood and so I can't get it to mount. What confuses me is that many websites sell it claiming 100% plug-and-play compatibility with the W205 C300.

So I have 3 questions:

1. Am I just really thick and missing something obvious?
2. Are there shorter HID H7 bulbs available that would work instead of the (preferable) Morimoto?
3. Have you installed this kit successfully? If so, how did you become a wizard?

Shadwell

Unsure re those but i'd just replace with philips xtreme power or Osram nightbreaker and be done with it..

Mr. J

You can't just drop HID bulbs into halogen reflector housings. It will glare like crazy, and blind oncoming vehicles if it actually fits.

You have 3 options: upgrade the halogen bulbs to top of the line halogen (sylvania silverstar, phillips utravision, or similar) or perform an HID reftrofit with Morimoto mini projector housing on your existing reflectors, or buy a new set of projector housings that work with HID bulbs and replace the halogen reflector housings with the new projector ones.

Please do not go the cheap *** route. It endangers other road users and it looks like ricer crap.

maxbraketorque

The whole thing about blinding oncoming traffic with HID conversions is not generally true or is not properly explained. I have a 2009 Honda Civic with original halogen reflector low beam lights that I converted to HID over 4 years ago, and while the HIDs are impressively brighter, they do not cause any issues with oncoming traffic. I commute in that car 7 hrs/week with almost all of it at night, and I never get brighted by oncoming traffic. The key attribute that prevents blinding is the use of a hood in front of the low beam bulb so that the installed light cannot project light directly forward.

The W205 C300 halogen reflector assembly also utilizes a low beam hood, so my guess is that low beam HID conversions would work just fine with respect to non-blinding light pattern, however as the OP mentions, the hood is apparently not quite far enough forward, and appears to interfere with installing the HID bulb. I'd like to know if the OP ever got this resolved.

Merc205

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...c300-w205.html

I did the conversion, no problems at all. No upcomming blinking cars.

maxbraketorque

Thanks. Did you need a "lightbulb out" fix module?

Merc205

You mean the canbus cancelers ?? These are within the starter module.
All works flawlessly .

maxbraketorque

I don't think its the CANBUS canceler that I'm referring to. Morimoto sells an optional add-on box to eliminate "bulb out" warnings:

http://www.aznoptics.com/index.php?m...products_id=76

Or did you go with a different brand HID kit?

Merc205

Yes it is the canbus canceler, it does not show anything when a lamp is broken. I have a different set.

AZN Optics

The canbus canceller is the extra separate box from Morimoto. We package it together in our Morimoto bundle as we try to make it easy for the customer having the kit pre-configured for MB specs.

Merc205

Yes like many other sets its a separate module and nothing special. Morimoto is a bit overhyped brand like Pilot.
I bought my third ( 3 cars ) set at navaudio in de netherlands and the brand is Kingco/Einzelmann. Quality is exelent and fits great. No errors or install problems.

maxbraketorque

ok. Thanks much.

S4MadMan

I purchased the Morimoto 5,000K set-up from Michael @ AZN Optics about 6 months ago and they are first-rate. I did not have any installation problems though I do recommend a professional if you are not very familiar with type of work. Both HID bulbs cleared the reflector housings and the CANBUS relay works flawlessly. Michael was extremely helpful as I had many questions and significant experience with retrofitting HIDs on a number of other cars. Additionally, I have owned a few cars in the past with OEM HIDs and have upgraded them to 50 watt ballasts.

The Morimoto set-up from AZN Optics is quality stuff. I have purchased a number of $30-$100 "top-rated" HIDs and the materials used, fit and finish, are not comparable to Morimoto. This is not to say these less expensive HIDs didn't work well, most of them did, but the overall quality was not there; you can tell a difference.

Drawbacks? Just one really, you have to drill a larger hole in the back of the plastic cap to get the wires to pass through.

Glare? There's some but I have yet to be flashed. Additionally, after I installed the HIDs, I optimized the beam pattern (lowered both the driver and passenger side lights a little, you can see in the images below) to minimize glare.

Anyway, here are some images of what the 5,000K set-up looks like. I tried to get the white balance and brightness as close to what I see at night. These Morimotos really work well on these C300 reflectors. They put out more useful light than most OEM HID set-ups I have seen (based on visual comparison).

Hope this helps.

From the driver's side, beam is lowered a bit more on this side to minimize glare:


The passenger side:


Wall shot of beam pattern:

Phaheem

Wow! This looks great, your write up and pics have convinced me to do the HID setup in my car too. I've purchased two Morimoto kits and they really are top-quality, but I've bought mine from The Retrofit Source.

I'm also very impressed with the beam pattern and light distribution, considering the halogen housings.

Do you have any pics of the front of your car with the headlights on? Curious how it looks and blends with the LED DRLs.

DapperStyle

First no disrespect to anyone that goes this route of putting HIDs in reflector housings but I see this written time and time again: "I have not been flashed by anyone so there is no glare issues"

Every single day I see more than 20 cars with HIDs in reflector housings all over NYC, mostly on Japanese cars like Honda's and Toyota's. They are always blinding and annoying but I never flash my brights at them. Why don't I?

Because at the end of the day what difference does it make? That person is not suddenly going to realize their headlights are an annoying hazard and do a PROPER retrofit with projectors and they certainly aren't going to put the halogen bulbs back in so why waste the time/energy even flashing my brights?

Don't just assume because no one has flashed their brights at you that it isn't blinding them in some way. I have even seen someone with HID style bulbs in their turn signals (which were white not red or amber) and it was extremely blinding and annoying but there's nothing I can or will do about it except to quickly forget about it and go about my night.

If there is anyone I can truly pick a bone with it's MB for being lazy and cheap and not standardizing LED headlights on their vehicles. It would raise the quality/standard of the entire brand all at once but they are being $h1theads about it.

S4MadMan

@Dapperstyle: I stated there is a bit of glare but it's not that bad.

I spend much more time and energy on lighting than the average person and try to minimize glare, even on OEM HID equipped vehicles, by checking the angle of the light...weekly.

S4MadMan

I don't have any but can take some at night.

As for the blend, it depends on the angle. If to the side, you can see the LEDs, if straight on from a far distance to say 50', you just see the HIDs. As you get closer, you can see the two lights distinctively.

DapperStyle

I read your post, you are certainly putting more effort in than 99% of the others that do this on other vehicles which I can appreciate. I agree some car's reflectors are worse than others with regards to doing this.