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Intelligent LED lights -- convert from US "dumb" hi/low mode to Euro smart mode?
Does anyone know how to switch the US-spec lights into the Euro mode? Visually the US & Euro headlights appear to be identical assemblies, so I'm assuming it's just a software setting.
I had Euro-spec lights on my older Benzs and put them on a friend's Passat and love the extra brightness and hard cut-off. I'd imagine the full intelligent lighting would be even more interesting.
First, US laws are archaic. US-spec headlamps are to meet 1964 standards. Here's the actual rule:
April 1964 is 50+ years ago now. The field of lighting has changed dramatically in the past 5 years, let alone 5 decades. If you were to go through the SAE standards cited, the real concern for having distinct, switchable high & low beams is so that idiots don't leave the high beams on 24/7, blinding other drivers. It's also why the rules insist that only high or only low beams may be illuminated at one time.
Keep in mind the US also dragged **** before with headlights. It wasn't until 1985 that US-spec cars were allowed to do away with dim, poor quality sealed beam headlights, whereas the rest of the world had been enjoying high quality halogens since the mid 70s.
These intelligent lighting systems address all of those issues, producing a superior quality and field of light all while producing less glare to oncoming drivers than current conventional headlights do. They just do it in a way that no one had ever imagined 50 years ago. Prima facie, these systems aren't legal in the US. BUT if you look at the SAE handbooks, these systems are exactly within the spirit of the law and if anything are exactly what the SAE writers were hoping to accomplish.
US emissions standards are equally backwards, which is why diesel cars are somewhat rare here and why you can't get the auxiliary heater in your US-spec Benz. The US gov't drones would rather you fire up a large V6/V8 engine to heat up the car than fire up a small gasoline-powered furnace, because the furnace doesn't burn as clean as the engine. Never mind that the furnace is vastly more efficient (and thus, cleaner per BTU delivered to the cabin) than using the car's massive engine for heat.
I'd also like to point out that every single air conditioning system in my company's buildings are "illegal" by Florida building codes, yet were designed specifically to work best specifically for our environment by their manufacturers. I even have manufacturer's engineering reports and letters certifying these are best for Florida, yet they're definitely banned by our building code. What's wrong with them? According to ASHRAE standards, they remove TOO MUCH humidity. That may be a problem in the Northeast US or desert southwest, but I can assure you it's not a problem here. Lower humidity levels mean greater human comfort, thus we can run the buildings warmer (and use less electricity) if we pull more humidity out. We were able to go from 72F to 77F. We've saved 40% on our cooling bills because of it.
Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's the best, environmentally-friendly, or safest way to do things.
Last edited by BeachBunny; Nov 10, 2014 at 11:06 PM.
If it's anything like the other regional differences in the cars, it's going to be a software setting/checkbox rather than full-on different software. The code is most likely already in the car; the car just needs to be told to use it.
I had my BMW 535 coded to activate the European system. With the LED headlights it is the best lighting system I've ever had. I wish M-B would do it so we could have it on my wife's (2014) E350 wagon. The best it can do is auto high beams.
MUCH more impressive and seamless when it's allowed to work as designed.
I have access to an older edition of WIS, but from what I can make out of it (I'm not too familiar with it, a local mechanic's been letting me play on it at his shop on weekends) the physical headlamps themselves appear to be the same. Just software determining how the shading of the multiple LEDs happens.
Despite the lame US DOT restrictions that prevent USA (and Canada) from enjoying ILS, the full-LED headlights are still quite good in dumbed-down NAFTA form and should be a significant improvement vs your current M45.
@YYZ-E55: We'll see on that one. I'm hoping so. The M45's headlights are quite good, except for the maintenance costs. The lenses on my M45 need to be polished...again... and it costs $400 to change a bulb. Bulb's only $120 @ the dealer, which is about what they run at the auto parts stores here. BUT it takes 3-4 hours to change due to how much of the car you have to disassemble. At a minimum: Wheel well cover, front bumper cover, bumper, grille, and then you have to remove whatever's behind the light as well. I thought the dealer was kidding when they said it's a $400 / 4 hour job, so I figured I'd just do it instead. I pulled out my laptop at the dealership and opened up the Infiniti shop manual for the car....and gladly handed over $400 to change a damn light bulb. Some 10 months later the other side blows out. Dealer felt bad for me and only charged me $325 for that one. When they're working, they're quite good. The high-beams are some of the brightest and highest I've ever used. The high beams are very narrow (horizontally) but the vertical reach on them lights overhead trees. I also like being able to manually adjust the height of them from the dashboard, very useful in heavy fog.
@pamiboy: Yep, they sure do. From the 2014 UK E-Class brochure:
@hyperion667: Looks like your car does as well:
For those who've not seen them, the UK brochures are very much worth reading. They're much less into the emotional crap you'll see in the US brochures and far more into explaining the technology and details of the car. They both run about 80 pages each, vs. the ~20 page US brochures.
Interested in seeing anyone get this done. May have to contact MBenzNL once I get the car as well.
For the record, Euro headlamp assemblies are a different assembly than the US due to the US having the idiotic orange reflectors and orange corner LED while Europe does not. But whether or not the actual low/high beam assemblies are different is something I'm not sure of.
MY15 USA 222 headlamp w/dynamic LED + headlamp control unit. No CU market wide shows Intelligent Light System (ILS - code 622).
MY15 USA 212 headlamp unit w/dynamic LED not equipped with CU, CU for dynamic LED is available for other markets but ILS is shown for bi-xenon only.
MY15 USA 219 headlamp w/dynamic LED unit (different part # from 212) + CU. CU to other markets does show ILS.
Looks as though CU “may” provide additional function for 212 equal to that of 222 but not full ILS if actually compatible with U.S. version headlamp – may be as simple as CU install + recoding. Hopefully Steve (MBenzNL) can provide some insight.
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