JTMarlinCeo

Greetings Fellow Mbw Members,

I'm a brand spankin new member to MBWOrld with a few questions for all of you enthusiasts. Im a brand new owner of a 05 e320 sedan and i love her to death. Anyhow the package i purchased came with the standard head lamps'the ugly yellowish ones' and recently i was driving on the freeway and saw a clean 03 c320 with bright blue/bright purple XENON bulbs for the headlamps,daylights,foglights.license plate lights and side marker on the sideview mirrors.

* Where can i get these bulbs at?
* What size bulbs do i need to look into?
* What brand and wattage is the best to go with?
* And finally are these bulbs safe to be installed?

I live in the bay area, so any members that can give input and info that live in the bay area as well please feel free to give me some advice. Thanks guys and it's a pleasure to finally be a member of mbw forum.

khaug

Factory Xenon (High-Intensity Discharge) lights are entirely different from standard Halogen lamps, and create their light through an electrical discharge rather than heating a filament. They require a high-voltage power supply and must have levelling equipment to comply with DOT requirements. In addition, the MB oem biXenon lights swivel to illuminate the road in the direction the car is turning. They can be retrofitted - see the recent post on this forum on this subject: https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w211/85929-just-upgraded-halogen-bixenon-wow.html
It will involve BIG bucks.

There are various Halogen filament-type bulbs on the market which claim to replicate the bluish color of Xenon bulbs. Some of these contain a trace of Xenon gas so they can claim to be "Xenon" bulbs. Others are simply bulbs with a blue coating, higher wattage rating or combinations thereof. On forums I read, these bulbs have generated many complaints regarding poor light output and short lifespan. The Sylvania Silverstar bulbs appear to be the best of the bunch, although people have stated they, too, have a short lifespan. If I were doing what I think you want to, these are the bulbs I'd probably use.

Lastly, there are aftermarket kits to install true HID Xenon lights. I don't know if these are available for MBs. They are expensive and the results folks report seem to vary from "poor" to "great". The kits I've seen don't include the levelling equipment that manufacturers have to include.

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with your project.

Yonask

Hey JTMarlinCeo, I have a Pair of Brand New OEM W211 Bi-Xenon Headlights for Sale. Never Used $1500 Let me know if your interested

JTMarlinCeo

So do you guys think i should just go with the aftermarket xenon bulbs for my lamps? If so can anybody reccomend a specific Brand and model? Size of the bulbs? Thanks.

BoSoxFan

There have been lots and lots of posts and threads on this subject on various forums. Do a search and you will get a wealth of information. Check with Scorchie and Steve (MBenzNL). They should be able to do a Bi-Xenon retrofit for you if that is what you want.

JTMarlinCeo

Thanks Bosoxfan And Everybody Else With Their Input.

BoSoxFan

Sure, Scorchie is in the Bay Area and I understand that Steve is planning a trip to CA in November. Since I already have bi-xenons, I haven't followed it that closely but I am sure that Steve has a bi-xenon retrofit for W211's in his bag of tricks.

scorchie

Yeah, Steve did active cornering on my car! But he says it can't be done on a car that came with halogens, just the standard bixenons.

He does have several sets of W211 bixenons though, both active and not.

-s-

BoSoxFan

FWIW, in my opinion the active cornering is something of a gimmick. I don't even notice them most of the time. The xenons are a different story. This is my second car with them and I would never buy another car without them if I can help it.