Sulaco

Finally took the plunge to freshen up the look of the 1994 E320 my wife drives.

Bought set of Euro style Depo headlights with adapters to US wiring and a set of Sylvania Silverstar headlights (had success with these on other MB's). I also bought a fleabay "S600 style" grille insert. It's kinda chincy and cheap, but I plan on tweaking it later--but I digress.

The headlights are installed with new bulbs and I think I have them wired up correctly, because they almost operate perfectly. Almost.

The low beam and high beams come on and operate correctly when I flip back and forth between them on the combo switch. But the low beams are VERY dim. Like, maybe 50% of what they should be.

2 odd things: when I engage high beams, they come to life and light up like silverstars should. When I turn on the fogs, same thing: the low beams suddenly JUMP to life (but the fog bulbs themselves are now very dim and barely even visible. I can only tell they are on by looking directly into the headlight itself).

So it looks like I have 2 problems: not getting enough power to the low beams alone, and not getting enough power to the fogs when they are engaged. But the power shoots way up if I engage high beams or fogs. I've experimented with swapping around the wires in the adapter thinking I had it wired wrong, but it appears I have it right.

The bulb failure indicator stays on, but it's been on for a while. I have NO bulbs out anywhere, but its on anyway. Is it detecting some kind of failure to the headlights?

I did suffer what could be summed up as a catastrophic power issue a year+ ago. Belt dressing caused serious overcharge of the alternator. Had to replace alternator and OVP just to get the car running again. Since then, my bulb indicator is always on and I have a serious stuttering idle issue as well. I think they might be related.

Any suggestions as to where I should start??

ptoro01

With the car off, your lights are pulling from the battery. Check bulbs with a voltmeter.

My guess is they are aimed wrong and you get the illusion of them being dim.

When you turn the fogs on, the main lights do blink, well, mine do anyhow.

The check bulb is concerning. I'd start there. Your idle issue is not related, there are plenty of possible reasons for rough idle, that's not one of them.

Also, if you remove the headlight switch, looks like an avocado, if it rattles, well you know...

Sulaco

Thanks, but I got to the bottom of it.

I was originally informed that the euro connectors on the back of the headlights simply had 1 extra prong on top for daytime light. I wired them up accordingly, assuming the other 4 were the same as the US 4-prong layout. Not correct.

In a nutshell, it was getting 5w to the headlights low-beam with some residual voltage spilling over into the high beams too. Found a thread elsewhere that identifies the prongs on the headlight and the wires in the plug and re-routed accordingly. Worked like a charm. Bright as can be now!

idontlikepeople

i sort of had this problem too but i used the old assembly and intuition to solve it

im glad you got it working!

JoeJErnst

I've done both. If you spend the time to do the polishing correctly they should be fine. Whichever route you take, I highly recommend visiting your local vinyl wrap shop and having them put a clear wrap on the headlights to keep the UV from doing it all over again.

teahead

You should provide a link to that thread in case someone else runs into this. Or a diagram/picture showing the prong arrangement???

THanks.

Don Nguyen

5 year old thread bump lol.

I put clear films on all of my head lights to help prevent oxidation/fading. If the material fades, it's easier/cheaper to change than the head lights themselves.