Spartan

The other night, I was driving on a road with no road lights and I definatly could of used stronger lights. The high beams are fine but I could not put them on because it was a two way road and no barrier between them.

So....

I thought it would be a good idea to replace the low beam bulbs with something reasonably more powerful. HOWEVER, two problems came to mind. One was the amount of power the wiring can handle. Second was the amount of heat generated by the more powerful light.

Soooo...

Has anyone tried to change their bulbs to something like the GE Nighthawks or Sylvania Xtra Vision? I looked in the handbook and couldn't find the wattage of my high or low beams. Does anyone know what it is?

X72

Here are some resources for you to help you make a better decision.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/home.html
http://www.autolamps-online.com/index.htm
http://www.suvlights.com/

Spartan, I suggest you get your vision checked to make sure there is nothing that is correctible. Also, slow down on those dark 2 lane roads. Just because a lot of people travel at 75 mph or faster at night on those roads does not make it advisable. At those speeds, there is no way you will have enough time to react to anything blocking the roadway.

William
2003 E 320

KosherBenz

I was thinking about gettign the sylvania silverstars.

JWS3

very easy to install kits- You'll have lo beam HID lights for aroun $400. Go with the 4300K versions. Cheaper and better light, just more white than blue. Sme people pay more for less, but more "blue" light using 6000K bulbs. Go fugure.

X72

A potential drawback of an aftermarket HID kit is that you must deactivate the DRL in this particular situation where the DRL is the same as the low beam.

The Sylvania Silverstars are reported to have a very short life. The Osram Silverstars are a different, and in my opinion, better bulb. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...good/good.html

It all depends on what your priorities are.
William
2003 E320

CE750

the only way to do Xenon is OEM.. it's not cheap, but it works great, and is safer for on coming traffic as the projector is designed for xenon and not halogen.

X72

I forgot the most obvious thing. Take your car in to the dealership and complain about the lack of low beam range. Since the car is less than a year old, they will probably adjust the low beams as high as possible for free.

Agree with CE750 on using factory HID. But before you go that expensive route, try optimizing what you have. The Halogen lights are really quite good. Try fitting the Phillips Vision Plus or the Osram Silverstars after you get your lights aimed. If money is no object and you want the best, then definitely go for the factory HID lamps

Please let us know how it works out for you.

William
2003 E320

Spartan

I have no problem adjusting them myself. As for HID, I thought about it before I got this car but I felt it was too expensive at $1500.. What bothered me even MORE was that replacement bulbs are $200. I later found out that aftermarket bulbs are more like $50. Too late now.

With another 30% more on the low beams, it should be more then enough for the city and the occasional country drive. The high beams are just fine. I am going to try the Phillips Vision Plus or the Osram Silverstars.

Gonna do some research........after all, that is what the web is for!

~~~~~~~~~~~

I finally found the specs on the light bulbs.

Low Beam--H7--55w

High Beam--H7--55w

Fog--HB4--51w

BTW, back in the PreCambrian age, I use to own a BMW Alpina 2002. I had a couple of 7 inch aftermarket lights that would turn night into blazing daylight. I think they were called Super Oscars or something like that.

raymond g-

I ran with Oscar and Super Oscar in my rallye days. Retina shutdown
time when those puppies were on. A couple of months back, I fitted in
E55 bixenon projectors, ballasts and Phillips D2s bulbs into my Depo headlight
housing. That retrofit ran me $500. "High" beam bix is great on the street
but not as satisfying as Super Oscars....which could guide lost aircraft to
landing, it seemed.

Silverstars are barely noticeable in their improvement, especially when compared
to very good halogens. USA DOT limits output at 55 watts anyway so
absent anything mind blowing in lighting technology, you're still having to
settle for limitations of filament bulbs which are all going to be about the
same. Their color might fool you into thinking you have the cat's meow, but
it's just a sugar pill, at best. DOT regs stand in the way of anything better.

Maybe you can forego your fog lights and fit in driving lights.

Spartan

[QUOTE=raymond g-]I ran with Oscar and Super Oscar in my rallye days. Retina shutdown
time when those puppies were on. A couple of months back, I fitted in
E55 bixenon projectors, ballasts and Phillips D2s bulbs into my Depo headlight
housing. That retrofit ran me $500. "High" beam bix is great on the street
but not as satisfying as Super Oscars....which could guide lost aircraft to
landing, it seemed.

QUOTE]



Come to think of it, I miss my little Bimmer...

Dem puppies were something alright. Turn them on and pray that no driver ever saw them head on or the next book that he was going to read would be in braille.

After searching the net and reading some "BS" I am going to try the Phillips Vision Plus. For 40 bucks it can not hurt.

SAguirre

I find it most interesting that everyone is talking about Xenon retrofits after daylight savings time is over I wonder why?

I personally decided to fork over some money and I had the OEM 2003 Xenon, headlights mounted in my 2004 E. I have had them for a year AND THEY ARE WORTH EVERY PENNY. I can not stress this enough!

Now I plan to have Steve (from MBNL) retrofit the standard adjustment wheel for the height that is standard in Europe. I don't have the rear suspension sensor to have the motors automatically adjust, but the manual height control will do just fine. I had this in my MBs that I had when I lived in Germany and I always wondered why they never put them in US cars . Even my friend’s Fiat Punto had this feature!

I would NOT retrofit any of these aftermarket lights you are mentioning on your W211! If you do, then you have to make sure that you change the Star Diagnostic setting to Xenon. Otherwise you will loose the daylight driving lights and have an error reading every time you turn the lights on. These Xenon bulbs only draw 35W and since this is much less than the 55W of a H7 bulb, the computer will think something is up. Also, your high beams will be the same as before and inferior since you will NOT have the shutter that lifts up and makes the projection beam of the BI-Xenons much bigger when the two center brights turn on.

Bi-Xenons turn on both the inside H7 regular bulbs and then takes the "Z" pattern off from the low beams which are Xenon. The light output is huge! If someone comes against me with their high beams on, I just have to blink my high beams once and they get the point. Also, these low beams are SO bright that I can hardly tell if I turn on the fog lights.

If you spent the money on a nice car, go the extra mile and get great headlights, they are worth it and should be a standard feature.

Steve

JWS3

you might use aftermarket. I was somewhat impressed with xenondepot.com Nearly plug & play and with a real cutoff. Check with them and see if there are any applications for your car.
Jim

CE750

much like what I did, except I put '04 E500 lights into my '05... they were a steal from Zam who got a set of two, and needed to off load the other set. I also have a spare set of Osram bulbs incase mine burn out as I run them in daytime mode... but I am told they last 5000+ hours.

W211 Ryda

If you still want to run halogen bulbs instead of installing an OEM HID system, I would highly recommend Hoen bulbs...particularly their Höen xenonmatch series. Half the price of most PIAA bulbs but same quality if not greater.

http://www.hoen-usa.com/index.htm