Pekkle

I noticed the 2005 E500 has Bi-Xenon lights, why is my 2007 E550 has only single xenon and the high beam is the good old halogen light?

Diesel Benz

I'm assuming you have misinterpreted the Bi-xenon construction. It still has a single xenon burner which is used for low and high beam. An additional halogen bulb is used for high beams only. It must be the same on your car.

Pekkle

hehe you are confusing me.. So does it mean my car actually have Bi-Xenon? I remember seeing my friends 06 SLK, it really does have Bi-Xenon, it looks high and bright when put in high beam, while when I engage my high beam, all I saw was my xenon light plus the yellow halogen high beam. so I was assuming it was not Bi-Xenon. am I wrong?

Polar Bear

If it is Xenon equipped, it is Bi-Xenon. I was a little confused when I got my car too, but think of the W211 Xenon equipped cars as having Bi-Xenon PLUS an extra set of Halogens thrown in.

The Xenon bulb does change its beam pattern when on high-beam, and the center Halogens lights flood the same area, so it makes it look yellow. I have often wondered if there is a way to disable the inside ones to see what the difference would be.

Polar Bear

Just an update - to satisfy my curiosity, I disconnected the Halogen high-beam lights and drove at night with only the Xenons. While the lighting is good on high beam, the Halogens do make a great difference.

Also, as expected, the IC throws high beam bulb right and high beam bulb left failure messages.

Pekkle

Polar Bear, thanks for the test, so we do have Bi-Xenon, it's just that it make it that much brighter when added with the halogen high beams. Standing it the front of the car is really hard to see any difference xenon beams from low to high.

Sorry, since I bought the car used, a lot of the information is lost. Does our xenon lights turn when we turn our wheels (can't remember the term they use for that feature)? or only the fog lights will turn on as we turn the wheels?

Polar Bear

Yes, they do. You have to be moving, though. You can't just turn the wheels at a standstill and expect the beam pattern to move. It is called Bi-Xenon with Active Curve and its adjustment is dependent upon vehicle speed.

The fog light feature is a new 2007+ feature. Also, I think your lights turn up to 15° and I think the 2006 back will only turn up to 12°.

The Bi-Xenon works by having a shutter over the light's path. The shutter moves using a magnetic mechanism out of the way when the lights are put on high beam, revealing more light. You should see the top of the beam pattern raise (or if you are standing in front of the car at night you should see the light get significantly brighter from the xenon bulbs). They fail-safe default to low beam for safety reasons. If the Bi-Xenon shutter is not working, usually you will get an error in the DIC and they will default to low beam.

You can also hear the magnetic shutter move if you stand in front of the car with the engine off and toggle between high and low beam. It will be a clicking sound, and is very audible.

pinebaron

Several of us have changed the yellow halogens (high beam bulbs in bi-xenon equipped vehicles) with colormatch 4500k white light halogen bulbs. Different people seem to have different opinions about the final results. I love mine with the color match bulbs from Hoen.

DubVBenz

Could someone point me in the direction of a thread explaining the details (make/model and before/after pics)? I'd like to do the same for mine.

Nevermind, found the thread and the website that sells them:

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...igh-beams.html
http://www.hoen-usa.com/lowhigh.htm

Unfortunately, it seems they only offer the 70W variant. Anyone tried these with standard wiring? I'd prefer to get the 55's pinebaron used, but I'm not sure where to purchase.

Edit again:

Found them under the foglight section: http://www.hoen-usa.com/fog.htm, I'm assuming those are the same. Should I go with the 55Ws (H7 xenonmatch ) that are listed for Fog lights, or the 70W variant (Hoën Titanium)?