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Hey everyone, I’m new here so I figured I’d post a question and see who can help me out. I have a 2021 c43 and am missing the multibeam lights and red seat belts. I found a car on Facebook that was totaled and is selling parts. I plan on buying both but don’t want to code if I don’t have to. I know the seat belts are a direct swap (rear middle one is a slight pain) but I presume there won’t be any coding required as it’s also from a c43 so the electric tensioner would use the same force (it’s different for regular Mercedes vs AMG). Also, I know the wire harness for the headlights is different. Can I just buy the wire harness from the totaled car and swap it onto my car (with the lights obviously) without any dealer coding needed? I think this should work since it was already registered to a car and I’d be using the same wire harness, but then again I am just a consumer and don’t have any technician experience. Any input would be appreciated!
Don't want to scare you, but it won't be plug and play. I have the multibeams in my 2019...after a deer strike, the driver's front light was totally destroyed...and needed to be replaced. FU Bambi.
Here is my story....
The module in the headlamp is coded by VIN to the car. The body shop replaced the light (in this case, the entire unit-light, reflector, and the LED driver unit-$2500 !) but it still didn't work. The Body Shop then sent the car out to a local company that only does coding for german cars. I found this out when tracking the car with Mercedes Me and finding it four towns over from the body shop. I thought maybe someone was joyriding it after the second day and went to look. They never get an actual customer-they are to the trade only, and were VERY surprised when I walked into the shop to see my baby hooked up to a big computer. The shop was in the corner of an industrial park and not well marked-and I think all they did was code. The body shop mentioned the coding shop asked how I found my car . They were not happy to see a customer.....
I was told that the computer was connected to the Mother Ship in Germany to re code the car to see the headlamp. This is true, as when I got the car back, my reprogrammed full active headlamps were nerfed back to the archaic US DOT standards.
I wasn't done yet. Night falls, and the new headlamp works (again the US pattern and up down only....no beamforming) but is wildly mis aimed. At this point I look for a screwdriver but discover you cannot aim multibeams with a screwdriver. The Dealer, on an alignment rack, with a special machine from Hella, is needed to aim the lights, with the car hooked up to the dealer computer.
So, back to body shop, who sends car to The Dealer. Lights aimed, by Hella machine and requiring the dealer computer. (yeesh !). Yea insurance.....
Once that was done, I had to re-code with my Belarus Hacker Module the Rest of World settings to get the full active beamforming to work again.....and breathed a sigh of relief after this debacle when I saw those dancing squares masking other cars.
Honestly, unless you are willing to go all the way, and get the active beamforming enabled, it is not worth the effort to install the Multibeam LED lights. I have been modding USDOT spec lights my entire driving career....had many conversations with police when the H4 bulbs were rare and stood out (in the US)....and the Multibeams, in full ECE mode, are the best lights I've ever used, full stop, and that includes my H4/H1 setup with 100w driving lights on one of my cars. Once you get used to the beamforming, and magic squares of dark making sure you don't glare anyone while still lighting up the medians looking for that damned deer... it's hard to go back to UP-DOWN. Even in UP-DOWN, the multibeams are great, but without the beam forming, it's a lot of work for minimal gain.
I'd just spend some time aiming the standard LED lights to perfection. I've had them in loaners, and they are decent lights properly aimed, for USDOT legal.
edit - The module was from lowrdbenz on amazon. It hooks up to the OBD port and takes about 10 minutes. You have to give the vendor your VIN. It took about three weeks for the module to arrive from Europe. There is also a guy on Youtube who shows you how to active the ECE-Rest of World settings on the multibeam, but he has a laptop, the correct software, and clearly knows his way around the benz dealer program which is not intuitive....I can plug a module and follow instructions . It was a little under $500 but is one of the best mods I've ever made to any vehicle.
Like the above post.. Lights are not a direct swap in. Mercedes is not known to install wiring harness for mass car maybe sales. Meaning, on the rails, the cars are ordered per the dealership and the options wiring harness is installed. Example is if you didn't order Pre-Collision and you wanted to install the Glass Star with the module, you'd find that there is not wire just sitting there ready to hood up the module.
Don't want to scare you, but it won't be plug and play. I have the multibeams in my 2019...after a deer strike, the driver's front light was totally destroyed...and needed to be replaced. FU Bambi.
Here is my story....
The module in the headlamp is coded by VIN to the car. The body shop replaced the light (in this case, the entire unit-light, reflector, and the LED driver unit-$2500 !) but it still didn't work. The Body Shop then sent the car out to a local company that only does coding for german cars. I found this out when tracking the car with Mercedes Me and finding it four towns over from the body shop. I thought maybe someone was joyriding it after the second day and went to look. They never get an actual customer-they are to the trade only, and were VERY surprised when I walked into the shop to see my baby hooked up to a big computer. The shop was in the corner of an industrial park and not well marked-and I think all they did was code. The body shop mentioned the coding shop asked how I found my car . They were not happy to see a customer.....
I was told that the computer was connected to the Mother Ship in Germany to re code the car to see the headlamp. This is true, as when I got the car back, my reprogrammed full active headlamps were nerfed back to the archaic US DOT standards.
I wasn't done yet. Night falls, and the new headlamp works (again the US pattern and up down only....no beamforming) but is wildly mis aimed. At this point I look for a screwdriver but discover you cannot aim multibeams with a screwdriver. The Dealer, on an alignment rack, with a special machine from Hella, is needed to aim the lights, with the car hooked up to the dealer computer.
So, back to body shop, who sends car to The Dealer. Lights aimed, by Hella machine and requiring the dealer computer. (yeesh !). Yea insurance.....
Once that was done, I had to re-code with my Belarus Hacker Module the Rest of World settings to get the full active beamforming to work again.....and breathed a sigh of relief after this debacle when I saw those dancing squares masking other cars.
Honestly, unless you are willing to go all the way, and get the active beamforming enabled, it is not worth the effort to install the Multibeam LED lights. I have been modding USDOT spec lights my entire driving career....had many conversations with police when the H4 bulbs were rare and stood out (in the US)....and the Multibeams, in full ECE mode, are the best lights I've ever used, full stop, and that includes my H4/H1 setup with 100w driving lights on one of my cars. Once you get used to the beamforming, and magic squares of dark making sure you don't glare anyone while still lighting up the medians looking for that damned deer... it's hard to go back to UP-DOWN. Even in UP-DOWN, the multibeams are great, but without the beam forming, it's a lot of work for minimal gain.
I'd just spend some time aiming the standard LED lights to perfection. I've had them in loaners, and they are decent lights properly aimed, for USDOT legal.
edit - The module was from lowrdbenz on amazon. It hooks up to the OBD port and takes about 10 minutes. You have to give the vendor your VIN. It took about three weeks for the module to arrive from Europe. There is also a guy on Youtube who shows you how to active the ECE-Rest of World settings on the multibeam, but he has a laptop, the correct software, and clearly knows his way around the benz dealer program which is not intuitive....I can plug a module and follow instructions . It was a little under $500 but is one of the best mods I've ever made to any vehicle.
Did they also send you software to load on your computer? Do you know if that’s xentry or is it a third party one designed just for the lights? Not sure if I want to go through all the work of swapping a wire harness just to get turning lights. Think I might just have the dealer code in adaptive high beam assist being I have the driver assistance package (not sure why this wasn’t standard) and call it a day. Definitely want the seat belts though
Did they also send you software to load on your computer? Do you know if that’s xentry or is it a third party one designed just for the lights? Not sure if I want to go through all the work of swapping a wire harness just to get turning lights. Think I might just have the dealer code in adaptive high beam assist being I have the driver assistance package (not sure why this wasn’t standard) and call it a day. Definitely want the seat belts though
The module came in the international mail. It is a small OBD-2 plug with a memory card installed. I don't know what it did, whether it just changed some preferences, or actually loaded software. A dealer won't load any software not certified for the market...maybe if you went to Canada ? (they allow ECE -or- SAE standards). Dealer won't code the Adaptives in the US, as far as I know. You could get the dealer to code the multi beams, but to US DOT, and then get the modification module....but you'd have to get the multi beams in and stable first.
The module came in the international mail. It is a small OBD-2 plug with a memory card installed. I don't know what it did, whether it just changed some preferences, or actually loaded software. A dealer won't load any software not certified for the market...maybe if you went to Canada ? (they allow ECE -or- SAE standards). Dealer won't code the Adaptives in the US, as far as I know. You could get the dealer to code the multi beams, but to US DOT, and then get the modification module....but you'd have to get the multi beams in and stable first.
This is what I suspected. My car currently only uses the 2 windshield cameras for the lane keep assist system and pedestrian detection I think, but no adaptive high beam assist. I presume if I got the correct wire harness and plugged in the multi beam lights the little A symbol would show up in my dash. However, there’s a chance the dash might also have to be coded, an additional module which I don’t have might need to be installed, or they might not even turn on altogether, which I’ve seen happen in some videos. Don’t think it’s worth the risk. I’ll just be sure to get them on my next car. Only $900 for such good tech even without the EU features, don’t know why anyone wouldn’t order them.
In case you are wondering why I didn’t get them, it was due to Covid and I presume the chip shortage. I wanted to custom order but due to the MY2022 refresh, that was not possible. I was forced to take a car in inventory and the one I got was the highest spec I could find, albeit without a couple of features I wanted but didn’t really need. At least they’re LED and have fading on and off animations, the Jeep I had before this was halogen :’). I do wish the standard LED lights looked a little better though; now with most brands like Chevy and Nissan having reflectors, it makes my car not look as good as it could. Especially seeing my friends cars have them, I am undoubtedly jealous. I wish they kept the same style that the pre facelift lights had, meaning at least a low beam projector. I see on the new C class they have gone back to that design, so some people probably complained about how cheap the standard lights look
Any input on the seat belts though? I’ve seen that they need to be VIN matched as well so worst case I would just have to pay 250 for that to be done.
This is what I suspected. My car currently only uses the 2 windshield cameras for the lane keep assist system and pedestrian detection I think, but no adaptive high beam assist. I presume if I got the correct wire harness and plugged in the multi beam lights the little A symbol would show up in my dash. However, there’s a chance the dash might also have to be coded, an additional module which I don’t have might need to be installed, or they might not even turn on altogether, which I’ve seen happen in some videos. Don’t think it’s worth the risk. I’ll just be sure to get them on my next car. Only $900 for such good tech even without the EU features, don’t know why anyone wouldn’t order them.
In case you are wondering why I didn’t get them, it was due to Covid and I presume the chip shortage. I wanted to custom order but due to the MY2022 refresh, that was not possible. I was forced to take a car in inventory and the one I got was the highest spec I could find, albeit without a couple of features I wanted but didn’t really need. At least they’re LED and have fading on and off animations, the Jeep I had before this was halogen :’). I do wish the standard LED lights looked a little better though; now with most brands like Chevy and Nissan having reflectors, it makes my car not look as good as it could. Especially seeing my friends cars have them, I am undoubtedly jealous. I wish they kept the same style that the pre facelift lights had, meaning at least a low beam projector. I see on the new C class they have gone back to that design, so some people probably complained about how cheap the standard lights look
Any input on the seat belts though? I’ve seen that they need to be VIN matched as well so worst case I would just have to pay 250 for that to be done.
Sorry, no idea as to the belts. My understanding of the system is limited...I would like to find more information about how the adaptive actually works-it clearly looks for two lights close together and assumes they are a vehicle, and boxes the light OUT of that area, actively tracking the area...so a car coming toward you is masked, and the box of darkness moves with them. There are two places on my night drive home where you turn a corner and someone has driveway lights which look close together and the system masks it reading it as a vehicle. Adaptive won't light up with if there is a certain amount of ambient light, such as places with overhead lights at night-but it rarely makes errors, and is actually more sensitive than the as-delivered on/off system in the US market.
Bumping my old thread, finally pulled the plug on the seat belts and they look amazing!! Decided to reweb my OEM ones since I won’t have to deal with coding them to the car/pre tensioner not working. Safety restore in MA used a fabric that is SPOT ON to the OEM red (think it’s called Ferrari red). I do have an airbag light despite the battery being unplugged while the belts were sent out. Will get it cleared but everything works, pre tensioner (when buckling after starting car it tightens and if you get too close to a car it does as well just like it’s supposed to). Highly recommend them for $500 (for all 5), although include a letter specifying exactly what you want (they have different patterns, ex. The one I got which is one solid shade versus if you google “red seat belts” and you can see it has an alternating light red dark red pattern).
Don’t get me started on disassembling the left seat to access the middle belt, one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But it’s done and somehow all back together.
10-12-2022, 12:13 AM
. They were not happy to see a customer.....
