Retrofit FL headlight on PFL
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Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2018
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W204 C63 AMG
Retrofit FL headlight on PFL
Hi, has anyone here got any knowledge on retrofitting the facelift headlights onto the pre facelift body? I know that the front bumper, hood and grill need to be changed in order to fit the lights but I am more interested to know the electrical side of it, e.g, with a good electrician, would it be a direct plug and play with no error codes if fitted correctly? I understand depo make the facelift lights also and would probably go with them. I’ve checked forums for more information but struggled to find answers to what I need to know really so any chime ins from personal experience or experts would be appreciated. Thanks!
Super Member
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 825
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From: Eufaula, Al/Georgetown, GA
W213 E63S Wagon, W204 C63 P30(RIP), WK1 Grand Cherokee SRT8(RIP)
Hi, has anyone here got any knowledge on retrofitting the facelift headlights onto the pre facelift body? I know that the front bumper, hood and grill need to be changed in order to fit the lights but I am more interested to know the electrical side of it, e.g, with a good electrician, would it be a direct plug and play with no error codes if fitted correctly? I understand depo make the facelift lights also and would probably go with them. I’ve checked forums for more information but struggled to find answers to what I need to know really so any chime ins from personal experience or experts would be appreciated. Thanks!
I will say that if your PFL vehicle is an OEM halogen lighting car it is FAR easier to retrofit than an OEM HID car.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 26
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W204 C63 AMG
Ultimately the answer is that it cannot be done with 12v work and knowledge UNLESS the FL and PFL vehicles were identically equipped, and i mean IDENTICALLY. Even then you will have some incompatibility issues as the PFL cars have parking 1 and 2 lights where as PFL cars don't and some of the FL cars have LED components and the PFL cars dont....all of these things you can "work around" with creative wiring and resistors to fool the systems but ultimately the best path is this: If you can find someone with the knowledge and also the hardware(Xentry with developer access) then you can reprogram the front SAMs so that they are not looking for certain conditions under certain scenarios or vice versa. In all honesty the easiest way to do the swap would be to have your car and the donor car side by side and clone the donor car's SAM programming and reflash your own SAMs to match, that way you can not only test for all functionality when you flash but you can check wiring pinouts at the harness connectors, etc....
I will say that if your PFL vehicle is an OEM halogen lighting car it is FAR easier to retrofit than an OEM HID car.
I will say that if your PFL vehicle is an OEM halogen lighting car it is FAR easier to retrofit than an OEM HID car.
Turns out. I’ve done some digging and gone to the industrial area and found an electrician specialising in Mercedes. Out here in the UAE changing shapes of Mercedes to newer years/ turning a non AMG into an AMG etc etc is a very big thing. Half of the c63’s I see on the road are originally c200/300s... anyway, I took my car to the guy here and lo-and-behold, he programs my rear depo lights which were previously having issues with the fog light /brake light being on constantly. It now looks like the original 2012+ rear lights at a small cost of around $50. No errors either. Speaking further to this guy, he says it will cost about $150 to program the front lights to work flawlessly just as the original ones would do. Total cost for the parts, painting, fitting and programming will come to around $1700. This guy seems to know his stuff and has done numerous Mercs over time and has shown me examples so probably going to go down this route. No donor Sam needed, no new modules needed. A direct plug and play once he has programmed it. He’s got some Mercedes program all in German which he has learnt how to use etc but seems like a good guy!
