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I have an 07 E350 with build codes 615 (Bi-Xenon active curvelight) and 619 (cornering illumination). I bought the car as a low mileage/highly optioned creampuff and I'm using it as my daily driver.
My headlights are fairly clear but a bit foggy looking, and I'm thinking about replacing the entire outer lens. I've read a bit about baking them to remove then re-sealing with silicone. I may at the same time change out the original bulbs to 5000K.
Most of the posts here have to do with upgrading to xenon but there's precious little about OEM, so I'm left with the following questions:
Is the mechanism for the active curvelight contained in the headlight housing? If I'm going to take the whole headlight housing out of the car I want to make sure I don't screw something up.
Is it necessary to remove the bumper cover to take out the headlight housing?
Does anyone have a recommended source for the headlight lens other than the Ebay sellers? I'm also wondering if there's any difference between the outer lens for halogen and xenon. Can anyone, ahem, illuminate me?
I've just finished touching up all my stone marks with a Dr. Color Chip kit (awesome) and a fresh set of lenses would be sweet!
I cant answer anything about the active headlights mechanism other then there is a box/relay on the underside of the headlight itself. Yes you do have to remove the bumper to get the headlights out, and any lense that is Polycarbonate compared to Arcylic is a big upgrade in clarity. Ebay was the only place that I found sellers that specifically sold headlights or Lenses that were Polycarbonate. The funny part was it was cheaper to buy the whole headlight then it was just the lense, so I had to bake two sets of headlights.
Should be, I bought one of the sets that came with a 10 year warranty on the Lense that way I was sure. Or I just bought into marketing. Either way they were a lot nicer then my factory ones. Here is the best photo of a before and after I have.
If your headlight looks like the one above, try polishing it before you remove/replace anything. It's easy and cheap and these plastic covers are known to be prone to oxidation over time.
I've done the lens replacement on my xenons. As mentioned before the bumper must come off (not really hard). All the mechanisms are contained in the housing, you will not damage anything. I got a fairly new set with projectors, baked it to 160F removed the lenses, then baked the xenons and removed the lenses, clip-on the new lenses onto it while still warm and done. I have tried the headlight cleaning restoration "miracle" compounds 3 or 4 times and they never got me good clarity.
I've done the lens replacement on my xenons. As mentioned before the bumper must come off (not really hard). All the mechanisms are contained in the housing, you will not damage anything. I got a fairly new set with projectors, baked it to 160F removed the lenses, then baked the xenons and removed the lenses, clip-on the new lenses onto it while still warm and done. I have tried the headlight cleaning restoration "miracle" compounds 3 or 4 times and they never got me good clarity.
Not sure I follow you here, did you do oven baking twice; once for fading plastic covers and the other time for the projectors? I'll be doing mine as soon as the weather improves!
I've done the lens replacement on my xenons. As mentioned before the bumper must come off (not really hard). All the mechanisms are contained in the housing, you will not damage anything. I got a fairly new set with projectors, baked it to 160F removed the lenses, then baked the xenons and removed the lenses, clip-on the new lenses onto it while still warm and done. I have tried the headlight cleaning restoration "miracle" compounds 3 or 4 times and they never got me good clarity.
Exactly those clean kits are never as perfect as new. Plus I already had everything out, not much extra time to swap out the lenses.
Here's in detail. A year ago or so I couldn't find new lenses only so at some point I found projector headlights with lenses in very good condition. By that time I tried 3 or 4 headlight cleaning snake oil products to mediocre results. Before I even took the bumper off I had the projector headlights in the oven at 140F to do a dry run. The lenses came off easy with no problem. Got the bumper and my bixenons out and one by one I had them in the oven, remove the old lens and put the new one while the bead still hot.
The oven process is to soften the black sealant, whether it's for the original or replacement, you don't want to crack the lens. Maybe I should have added some fresh sealant but so far they work fine with no condensation. I see there are chinese lens suppliers on eBay now and I would try those now although they say it's for the facelift model and they don't know if it will fit the 03-05.
One more thing, do the oven bit when your wife is not home to maintain your conjugal happiness.
Here's in detail. A year ago or so I couldn't find new lenses only so at some point I found projector headlights with lenses in very good condition. By that time I tried 3 or 4 headlight cleaning snake oil products to mediocre results. Before I even took the bumper off I had the projector headlights in the oven at 140F to do a dry run. The lenses came off easy with no problem. Got the bumper and my bixenons out and one by one I had them in the oven, remove the old lens and put the new one while the bead still hot.
The oven process is to soften the black sealant, whether it's for the original or replacement, you don't want to crack the lens. Maybe I should have added some fresh sealant but so far they work fine with no condensation. I see there are chinese lens suppliers on eBay now and I would try those now although they say it's for the facelift model and they don't know if it will fit the 03-05.
One more thing, do the oven bit when your wife is not home to maintain your conjugal happiness.
Going along with the conjugal happiness theme, I have a question that could positively contribute toward that goal
My Bi-xenon motors are shot, but I got those 2 new ones and I'm wondering if they could be installed without having to remove bumper
I am going to go with probably not because if the factory setup is close to the EVOX-R setup you have to take apart the projector itself. To do that you need to take off the headlight and the headlight lens.
But one can't take off the headlights without removing bumper, right? Also from what I've seen so far, the motor's plug is buried inside headlight assembly, more reason to remove bumper and open things up for better access!
Last edited by Stuttgarten; 01-31-2017 at 11:47 PM.
Yep, it's impossible to remove the headlights without removing the bumper.
It's not hard and there are many how to's/youtube video showing exactly what needs to be done. Of all the cars we've had MB seems to be one of the easier ones to remove. They don't use those stupid plastic clips that end up breaking when you pull/pop the bumper off. Everything is held on by normal metal bolts. The ONLY thing that might be a pita at first for you is removing the front fender liners and on the side of the bumper is a slide clip that needs to be removed. Normally a flat head screw driver is all that is needed once the rear bolt is removed from the clip, and might take a little effort if there is any grit/dirt as that likes to make it harder to remove the side metal clip. My advice once you get the two side clips off, wash and clean the crap off of them and when you go to install them back it should slide on with minimal effort. Honestly first time doing it should take you 45mins to an hour if you have the proper tools. After removing the bumper the first time it will be much faster. I can remove the bumper in about 20 minutes now, super easy.
You will then need to bake your headlights and remove/install motors. It's not difficult, we have several threads on here as well showing how to bake headlights and what it looks like inside. Be aware that the internal wiring of the headlight might be brittle and cracked. For some reason MB/Hella uses ****ty wiring in the headlight that the insulation loves to just crack off. Fix according if this applies to you.
Hello! Where did you get those new motors? I am looking for those to replace failed one on my car
I got these in Dec '15 from a company in China which I ran into as I was doing a search. Here is their website, http://www.oemxenonshop.com/ I got the 2 motors plus headlight assembly clear plastic lenses for $280 shipped to the US. They claim their products are all original OEM, but I know motors they sent me are knock-offs, but they're are working just fine.
Hey guys...I know this is an old topic but I'm only now gearing up for the project. I wanted to wait for the weather to cool off a bit here in southern FL.
For those of you with OEM bixenon lights, what type of bulbs do yours take? My car is a 2007 E350 with OEM bixenon lights and I get conflicting information on whether the proper bulbs are d1s or d2s. I saw somewhere that the d2s is the older style, but that doesn't seem to make sense. Why would a manufacturer make its initial bulbs in d2 and then later introduce d1?
Anyway, that's my question. In reading all the OEM xenon threads it looks to me like d2s was on the early xenon cars, but I see no one referring to my year range.
I figure while I'm changing the lenses I might as well update the bulbs. They're probably a bit dim now since they're original. I may also do the parking lights and fogs if I can figure out what the proper halogen or LED conversion bulbs would be.
01-13-2017, 05:49 PM
