ShinyHypnotoad

Bi-xenon retro with FX-R projector (if it fits) otherwise, do clear lens like you did!

Drag0na5h

I added some extra info in another thread that I find would be very helpful in adding to my own thread... Please don't mind the referencing I'm doing towards other members since it was in the context of the other thread and not this post...

I'll share my thoughts that I PM'd you about here so that others can see the alternative route that LemonSqueezy is suggesting. My thread that I swapped facelift internal bezels, reflector bowls and shrouds into some pre-facelift housings walks through the process, but don't expect a DIY because it's just a summary of thoughts. I also swapped some ZKW-R clear lenses onto the projectors which helped the light output tremendously. My pictures don't show the true difference, but my trust does... so trust me.



Anyways here is my thread.

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...11-budget.html

Some extra notes that I personally PM'd you, but would like to share:

I cannot confirm that the 07-09 bi-xenon projectors are a "direct fit" in your pre-facelift non-bi-xenon housings. The facelift lamps I bought were halogen with electronic leveling, but from my research the bi-xenon e55 projectors are a direct bolt on. When I did my retrofit/facelift update the halogen 07-09 projector bolted on directly, but the signal reflector bowl needed some modification to work in my 06 housings. I had to trim some of the positioning tabs on the back so it would recess at the proper depth. In addition the signal bulb socket twists on to hold the reflector bowl in place. On the 07-09 housings the signal reflector bowl snaps in place, but because it no longer could snap in place in the pre-facelift housings, I used the bulb socket to hold it in place, along with the trimmed tabs and a piece of double sided tape to prevent it from rotating and slipping off. As you can see the pre-facelift signal reflector bowl is integrated with the projector shroud, but on the facelift ones the reflector bowl is a separate piece.

Pre-Facelift


Facelift


Also note, the projector bolts to a plastic surround bracket that is attached to all the motors. Since I saw the same plastic surround bracket used on my 06 as the 07-09 housings I parted from, I would be very surprised if it was not the same in your bi-xenon housings.

Above is a front view of the plastic surround bracket I'm talking about that the projector bolts onto via 4 torque screws. Also above it is the signal reflector bowl that I had to modify to fit in my 06 housings. Below is a side view of the same shot.



I also have the same passenger-side flicker that AMGAffalterbach mentioned about, but it only happens ever so often, usually at a full stop. I haven't bothered to fix this issue since I too bought a second set of ballast that I assumed was the issue, but mistakenly paid for nothing in return. However I will note that this flicker occurred more often when I was running a 35W ballast in the low beams than it does now with 55W ballast. Also note that both ballast were digital ballast. Not sure if analog ballast would alleviate the issue more if not completely.

Drag0na5h

Please let me know if the FX-R's fit in the housings because I love the FX-R projectors. I had them in my first retrofit on my little Honda. Here are some pics:









If they don't fit, I'm sure you'll still be happy with just the clear ZKW-R lenses. I sure am! Sure am!

Craftysince86

dang that parts gator sells parts super cheap! would you happen to know how often they get w211 in?

Drag0na5h

Yeah they definitely have some things that are a steal. I don't know how often, but I check at least once a week to see what pops up. My buddy wrecked his G35 coupe and sold it to them. They had parts up on the website after two weeks. So the turn around is quick.

ShinyHypnotoad

I have the FX-R's in my MKV Jetta retro. I'll post pictures as soon as I find them! The newer ones from TRS are even better!

edit: Found. Just of one projector on, but they are amazing!

Drag0na5h

I got my FX-R's like 3~4 years ago so it was probably first gen. Love the blue cutoff line though. I was so amazed at the light output the first night of driving with those in my Honda. Never drove a car with projector HIDs before, but now it's normal. I feel the same excitement when I happen to drive a car with halogen reflector headlights... except it's a sad excitement.

ShinyHypnotoad

Mine were first gen aswell, I got mine when they first came out. Did you hear about the S2k-Rs? I heard they will be coming out soon, if they do I might grab a pair of W211 headlamps and try to fit them in there!

Do you happen to frequent HIDplanet.com any?

Also, how come you only did the clear lens mod and not stick a whole new projector in there?

Drag0na5h

I had read about the S2K-Rs the other day, but it must've been an old post because they were mad that they had new versions of the EVO-XRs but still didn't come out with S2K-Rs yet. I only come across HIDplanet via google searches that link me to a thread. The reason I only did a clear lens mod is because I didn't want to go all out with D2S bulbs for the simple fact that I wanted to keep the wiring stock. Since we intended to trade it in eventually I didn't want to make it difficult to revert back to stock halogen lighting.

ShinyHypnotoad

With a second pair of headlamps you could! You just swap it out with the nonmodded ones and youre back to normal! Thats my plan after I stick xenons into the current housing; find a headlamp somewhere and retrofit better projectors into them.

Keep this thread alive as you do more stuff!


Btw how did you get your honda retrofit so level?

Drag0na5h

I did have a second pair of non modded ones (my stock ones prefacelift) because I bought a set off the forum and modded those as I had time to without downtime on the car and without having to do a weekend rush job. I was also doing the E55 front end swap at that time so I planned to have the bumper and headlight swaps done the same day which worked out really well. Plus I bought a third set which were the 07-09 facelift ones that I nitpicked from ebay. Didn't care if it had broken tabs as long as the internals were still okay. I recently sold my stock pair of headlights on the forum, so I'm stuck with leaving these on. There's also talks that by the end of this year we will be trading in this E for a newer vehicle. So I don't anticipate doing much more with the car unfortunately, but as the title of my thread states "...BUDGET" and I'm WAAAAAAAAAAY OVER! Haha.

As for my Honda retrofit I did everything via the EYEBALL test. Luckily the reflector bowl had level horizontal lines so I used that to square up the projector. It worked out with maybe 1 degree variance between the two projectors. The key was to butt the reflector up with the butt of the projector (so they were back to back) then I could eyeball a true squared profile for the cutout and mounting hole locations. I can't imagine how much plastic and chrome dust I inhaled when doing the retro, mask and all. Here's a further shot away of the cutoff:

65aircooled

I got your PM, thanks a bunch.
I checked the housings and there are some differences, like the ballast mount and such underneath is def different. I think I can make them work so I'll give them a shot and see what happens, if they don't work out there in not a lot of money at stake.

Drag0na5h

Good deal, take lots of progress pictures and post them in your thread. It'll be helpful for those who wish to do the same in the future.

Drag0na5h

I put together some before and after shots of my car stock to E55 front bumper and grill with 07-09 facelift headlights. I have to say there was improvement indeed.

First some simple stock on stock modding:





Now the E55 + Facelift Headlights

LemonSqueezy

Definitely looking awesome, especially for budget mods

Drag0na5h

Thanks man. Although I still envy those with any 07-09 front end because I love the prominence of the newer bigger front grille. Maybe one day I'll be able to rock one.

Drag0na5h

It was junk day tonight so I took some pics of the 07-09 headlight housings with lens, projector and chrome shroud removed before throwing them out. Also took some pictures of the halogen projectors from the same housings. To give anyone who's wanting to do a retro an idea of the guts.















Back side:



And here's a shot of the beam output from just the clear lens mod with 55w 5000K HID bulbs:

Drag0na5h

Got a second set of folding prefacelift non-oem mirrors + oem switch for cheap so decided this time I'll install them. Was thinking of doing folding facelift mirrors, but the OEM route and non-oem route were going to be a hefty sacrifice. Total spent this time around $150. Had a few hours to spare on an unusual cloudy, windy and later rainy summer California day to do the install. Since my stock mirrors were old and rotting, I made removal a snap by unhooking the tensioner spring within the housing. That allowed me to pivot the mirror assembly effortlessly clear away from the three T15 security screws. Once taken off and trashed, I reused the security screws to install the aftermarket mirrors. After installing both sides, I proceeded to swap the mirror switch with a new oem one with the power folding button. Pretty much plug and play. Had to remove the door panel first, but after removing 6 hex nuts on the back of the mirror and seat adjustment switches, you can do the swap easily. As for now the mirrors are manual fold only (with the car power on), but maybe one of these days I'll have it programmed to fold in and out via lock and unlock from the remote. Anyhow here are some photos of the finished product. First is the driver side door control panel. The plug missing is the plug slot intended for the mirror switch.



Here are images of the mirrors out and folded in.







Here's a video of them in action from the drivers seat.

http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/1987supranorcal/media/F49CD9E2-D28B-428B-AC56-96592FC6CE21.mp4.html

LemonSqueezy

Dang $150. Did you already have the motors to power fold? I'd be interested if the motors for the facelift mirrors weren't $1000 new.. Also you have to use Star/DAS Xentry to have it auto fold/unfold on lock/unlock.

Drag0na5h

Yeah long story short, I ended up with a free driver-side motor assembly and I made some gains juggling my old sets. Just had to get a passenger-side motor assembly and the switch to finish off the mod. Yeah the face-lift motors are expensive, but they're OEM at least. Maybe if I strike it rich I can spend the $$$ for folding face-lifts. Face-lifts alone look really great IMO. Yeah if I run into someone nearby who can do Star/DAS Xentry I'll definitely have it done.

beejAMG

VERY NICE!!! I would love to do that with my car if I could! GREAT JOB MATE!!!

Drag0na5h

It's actually very simple to acquire the parts, now that I know where to look. You can do this conversion for around $550 USD with brand new parts. Again the only thing OEM is the switch, but only time will tell how great/or not the aftermarket assemblies are. And you just reuse your stock mirror covers. Oh and these do support the puddle lamp under the mirror covers, so you won't lose that feature. I however still need to find a way to wire it up.

beejAMG

can you tell me where you got the parts from? do keep us posted especially when you get to do the auto fold/unfold feature.

LemonSqueezy

I wonder if this could be done with the w212 mirrors with the arrow style led's

Drag0na5h

The mirror assemblies I got off ebay. Roughly 200 USD each. I like that they sell them individually in case I need to replace just one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Left-New-Mirror-Power-Folding-Heated-E-Class-Primered-In-housing-Signal-Light-LH-/310722906478?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item485887496e&vxp=mtr
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Right-New-Mirror-Heated-Power-Folding-E-Class-Primered-In-housing-Signal-Light-/310733673866?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item48592b958a&vxp=mtr
Here is a pair from Taiwan (since the first two don't ship anywhere besides U.S. and Canada:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/03-06-Mercedes-W211-E-W203-C-Auto-Folding-Electric-Heating-Side-Mirrors-Memory-/171257729255?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27dfc190e7&vxp=mtr
The switch I ordered from www.mbpartsworld.com (I have to thank turbo97se for that info).



http://www.mbpartsworld.com/productS...key_category=0

As a side note, they sell aftermarket facelift power folding/heated mirrors. They ship from Taiwan not the U.S., only sold as a pair, and have to be painted so that's why I didn't go that route since all that is and could be costly to replace.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-W211-E-W203-C-Auto-Folding-Electric-Heating-Side-Mirrors-W-Memory-mcm7-/131208218101?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e8c9e85f5&vxp=mtr
As for the mirrors, they work well so far. Fold in and out with a touch of a button anytime the car is on. So yes, you can fold the mirrors in and blaze through the toll booth with mad clearance on both sides! I'd say with them folded in they stick out just as wide as the front fender.