zam2000

New style headlight: $430 (AutoDynamic)
Hella Projector: $130 (eBay)
Matsu****a ballast + Osram 4300K Bulb: $200 (eBay)
The End result: PRICELESS !!!

Btw, Hearing my gf whining about keep spending $$ on car: SPEECHLESS

For those w/ new style headlight, while doing to the installation, I found out that if you could move the shield of the projector up just a little bit, you would eliminate the horrific hot spot. You will have to drill the (screw) hole on the shield a little bigger to be able to move it up.

Will take some pictures and post soon. For those who have installed the new style headlight, if you can, start w/ the Hella or Valeo Lens upgrade. You will be very happy with the end result (significantly brighter & even light distribution)

For those who want to do Xenon upgrade, look for Matsu****a (Panasonic) ballast. It's much harder to find one (and probably cost a little more), but it boot much faster & more reliable than competitor (it ranks higher than Hella and Bosch ballast on HidForum). And avoid Asian xenon bulbs, stick w/ German ones.

Thread about HID Ballast & comparision

Check out above link for Ballast.

MB AMG

I'm interested in doing a xenon conversion myself.

raymond g-

Now *that's* xactly the direction I'm heading right now, thanks for the link! I installed the Autodynamic units last night and was not impressed with their performance. So any of you out there thinking that it's the cat's meow, fuggetaboutit. It look very good in the day, but the beam it throws at night is a yawner: couple of hot cone beams per assembly, some filler in between, and anemic intensity. Heck, even the stock M-B gave better lighting. Worth noting that as I drove the E320 with the clear units, I noticed that about half dozen folks turn and give it a long look over and smile. So it's not w/o value, just a good start of a project still unfolding.

After reading zam2000's comments , I wondered if I might be wrong in expecting too much from this drop-in part. Yup, I was. All my vehicles, be they sports cars, m/cycles, trucks, etc all have had high wattage H4 and H2s dropped in. So I really expect a good, useful light source when cruising through winding back roads in the Pacific Northwet. Autodynamic units will not do the job unless you continue with the HID parts.

So now off I go to HIDFORUM and learn about GenIIIs, switchable ballasts and who knows what else money can buy. I may have to cash in a few savings bonds or something this week. :-)

MBWorld1

Raymond G:

I have the new projectors and I felt the same as you did when I first installed my lights. But after alot of info from ZAM2000, I think there are a few things that you can do to make them look better at night.

1) Change the bulbs. I changed my bulb to Philips Blue Vision Ultra that I got from Zam, he said it is not availble in the US but you can order it from Europe.
It is the closest thing you can get to Xenon in a halogen. Looks great.

2) Change the Lens. This may or may not be needed depending on your personal view of the light pattern on the ground. As you probably know by now, there are 4 distinctive bright spots on the ground that move with the car. If this is acceptable to you, then you dont have to change the lens, if not, you can buy new ribbed lens and change them out to make the light blend and remove those patterns.

3) Xenon upgrade.
As Zam has mentioned, he has done something that is pretty innovative. I saw them at the SoCal meet on Saturday and they did look good except, I didn't see them at night. So, Hopefully he will post picks soon and we will all be able to tell just how well they look.

Either way, it is an improvement that is worth the trouble.

Whitey

Actually Philips Crystal Visions will give you a better "HID effect". They're even better, being 5000K and crystal cased, than the Blue Visions which are still slightly yellowish I understand. Stemags just got some and may know where to get Philips bulbs in the US from.

zam2000

My sister borrwed my good digital camera, the one I have left doesn't have much manual setting. I'll get them back soon and post some pictures.

I can't disagree that the Depo lens does produce somewhat inferior light. To make the matter worse, they supply a so-so generic Philips bulbs w/ the set. FYI, I compare that the light that bulb create against the Vision Plus, and the Vision Plus is about at least 30% brighter !!! If you want to boot up the light, put in a pair of Philips Blue Vision (for white light), or Vision Plus (yellow light), and you will be somewhat happier with both the the look of the light at day time, and its brightness when night comes !!!. FYI, both Blue Visions and Visions Plus are ECE, so they are much higher quality & brigher. Since they are not DOT, they are not sold in (well known) store in the US. You can order them from European websites. Avoid all sort of blue paint cheap crap Asian bulbs, they will ruin your light housing, wire, or both. PIAA is just some sort of overpriced hype, so it's up to you. Osram and Narva make good bulbs too, but get the ECE one.

Here is where I ordered my H7 Blue Vision bulbs

Like said, to completely eliminate the hot spot and light fragment, you gotta go to the root of the problem: the <b> Lens !! </b>. Well, the projector consist of the lens, reflector, and housing, but the lens is all matter. Go with either Hella or Valeo. The only problem is that only the 90mm one will fit, and they're hight sought after & pricey. I got lucky w/ getting a good deal on a new set of W211 light w/ broken tab (eBay) and ripped out the projector from it (eBay). Check eBay or Hid forum for deal on it. If you manage to get a Hella projector and the Vision Plus, it'll definitely be better than the OEM one (light quality & brightness), and in another league compared to the Depo.

Last but not least, the Xenon upgrade (btw, don't bother to upgrade to xenon w/o upgrading the lens first). Simply put, the light produced by Xenon is simply amazing: bright, evenly distributed, and cool to your eyes. One thing you must consider before jumping into xenon: the even distribution of light. The Halogen light produce instensive amount of light right in front of the car, but beyond that, not much light. Light produced by Xenon is more evenly: bright in front of the car as much as far away from the car. Because of this effect, in well lit streets or roads (lot of street light or from traffic), some people may even think (or have impression) that the halogen is brighter, since they see a bright area right in front of the car (while the street light negate most of the adanvace of xenon in further range). However, when you go into dark street, where the only light produced is from car headlight, it is very obvious is the xenon is way superior compared to halogen, I would say at least 100% brighter !!. So there you got it, if you live in area where road are dark, xenon is worth upgrading. For big or crown place with well lit roads (like southern california), lens & bulbs upgrade is enough (the only place where you can take advance of the xenon is the on/off-ram or injunction, where it light up an entire area. I got a good deal on the xenon set, so it's probably worth it. For most people, I think the lens & bulbs upgrade are enough. And the cost & hassle of xenon upgrade is not at best added-value.

Btw, w/ the halogen bulbs, it takes less than five minutes for the entire housing to get warm, or even hot (so lot of energy is consumed for heat, instead of light), with Xenon light, you can run it for 2 hours straight, and there's no heat whatsoever, not even a bit warmer.

I will post picture tomorrow night FYI. If anyone in souther CA want to check it out before perform upgrading, pm me.

<b> Make sure that you seal your light housing with silicon, quite a few people have experienced water condensation after car wash </b>

ruffrob

Quote:

Change the bulbs. I changed my bulb to Philips Blue Vision Ultra that I got from Zam, he said it is not availble in the US but you can order it from Europe.
It is the closest thing you can get to Xenon in a halogen. Looks great.


I got the Phillips Bulbs from this site:http://www.outmotoring.com/,they're in Grove City Ohio

To Zam2000: Excellent write-up,you've covered the topic extensively,including the last statement,which,unfortunately, I need to do to keep the water out...