Heatwave

'07 W211 ... E350 Sport

Is there a consensus best aftermarket head light unit and fog light unit for this car? It has the H7 projector beam head lights and they ... for lack of a better term ... pretty much suck.

I'm interested in upgrading the headlights and the fog lights by replacing them with HID units, provided I can find good quality replacement units that are essentially plug-and-play items. I don't want to have to get into rewiring the headlights and fog lights ... just remove the complete units and plug in the replacements.

So ... are there replacement HID units that you can recommend? If so, please give a vendor name or a link.

Many thanks, Mates.

AZN Optics

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hello there

There are many HID manufacturers out there.... The best of the best are MTEC, but you're paying a hefty price of $3-400 for authentic. Although we don't manufacture HIDs (we specialize in LEDs), we had numerous requests for us to offer HIDs as part of our offering. We surveyed and tested many units out there before deciding to carry Morimoto units and offering to our customers as they have the best balance between performance, ease of install, reliability, and price. Although not the cheapest kit out there ($150), they are only slightly below MTEC in performance and blows away all the sub $100 offerings.

Let us know if we can help you out with an HID kit. Shoot us a PM or email us directly at aznoptics@gmail.com

NewShockerGuy

The problem with just adding a HID unit to factory halogen projectors is you are not going to have improved lighting. It will be brighter, YES. But it's not going to throw the light like an actual HID projector will. I know you said you don't want to re-wire the headlight but ultimately that's what should be done. It's not hard at all and you can get factory e55 bixenon's that are completely drop in for the headlight housings. Wiring is not difficult if you can solder.

Most aftermarket headlight housing AKA "the spyder crap" that you see on amazon or ebay will give you subpar optics. People think it's an upgrade, but it's not at all. It's a crappier projector than the hella h7. Mind you the hella h7 projector isn't a bad projector that's been made over the years. If you wanted more light you could get the h7 osram nightbreakers. I had those in our CLK and now they are in the w211 high beam spots. Very bright and a good bulb from a good manufacture.

If you want HID, you are best off with OEM components.

Another note is putting HIDs in fogs isn't recommended at all. One you will get glare and two they are too bright in fog light housings. You will create a ton of fore ground lighting which actually makes it worse for your long distance driving on perceiving light depth. Checkout HIDPlanet as there is a ton of information out there about it. Ideally if you want better and more light throw, doing a proper retro is the way to go.

-Nigel

EuroDriverSD

100% agree with Nigel. Do it right, do it once. Price difference isn't too dramatic and these headlights are about the easiest to retrofit with the bolt-on E55 bixenon projectors (bonus factory HID high beams with those projectors). Another alternative are the Morimoto EvoX-R projectors that also have the same mounting pattern and bolt right up on the housing.


Get some OEM ballasts (not necessarily MBZ as they won't be plug-and-play).


If retrofitting is out of the question, a Morimoto H7 kit is a decent 2nd place - some wiring still required and make sure you get the CANBUS adapters. If you still insist on an aftermarket plug-and-play solution, I would recommend the Depo HID version housings. Look for fishcake321 on ebay, they offer genuine Depos and they're legit. Caveat Emptor: Don't expect the same quality as OEM.


+1 on HID fogs being a waste of time - amber halogen bulbs will serve you much better if you're actually looking for performance vs looks.