mitaka

I am going to be installing after-market HID kit. I used this same kit in my former R class Mercedes. Problem is that the H7 wiring harness has only black wires. In my R class I had a brown wire indicating (-) negative/ ground but in the E Class no such distinction. Any ideas? I do not have ay current trancing devices...

aquinob

Just curious, who makes this conversion kit, what is included?

MrProxenon

if the ballasts youre using are aftermarket ( non oem ) you can try both way , there is nothing get damage . Dont worry i work with them for 10 years !


Cheers!

mitaka

Good to know thanks. I realized I can figure out the polarity with multi-meter too. Here is my set up. It is plug and play. I used it for 2 years in my R Class and I had no problems at all. No errors either (on the R Class) Will post again after installation...

MrProxenon

It will pass errors on W212 as well , also you can insert it all in headlight assy . Open the hi beam cap insert ballasts over there and conect it thru the low beam cap . Also you meet some isues when fixing the bulbs into metal socket . And remember wire return of the xenon bulb must be allways fixed down at 6 hrs , its very imortant ! Good luck !

Airmousam

Are the housings in the halogen equipped w212 cars conducive to a good performing hid retrofit? I know some are not and spray light everywhere....been thinking of doing this upgrade too. Thx

MrProxenon

i think i got your question , but please be more specific so i can offer you a proper reply

Airmousam

How close will an hid retrofit perform in a halogen housing compared to stock hid setup? Thx

MrProxenon

You will have 100 % more light on low beam with a good kit

but you will not have following :
-xenon hi beam
-auto leveling sistem depending on braking and accelerating
-bending light in curves
-adapting forwarding ligths depending on speed , your healights are actually raising

Thats particulary for w212 ...

mitaka

What do you mean by the return wire fixed down 6 hrs???

MrProxenon

Look picture attached , the brown or white wire of hid bulb , must be on downside after installing . Putting it on the upper side it will stop about 25% of light output . This is available for all cars wich have projectors

aquinob

Since you seem to know about this kit. Who makes it? Does it use the existing reflector assembly that is used for halogens (OEM) or does the Mercedes HID (factory) use a different design for its reflector?

Airmousam

Thanks, I actually traded my 350 in for a 550 today, has HID

MrProxenon

I dont speack of a particulary kit , and yes it s bulb will get into existing halogen reflector projector lens .The results will be a 100 % gain with a proper kit

Factory Xenon has a diferent projector lens

aquinob

That's what I figured. A couple of thoughts then.


For starters, from everything I have read and from personal experience working in a company that designed and manufactured automotive lighting, none of the retrofit conversion kits that purport to change your standard halogen lights into HID lights are considered legal for use in the US and Canada. If you look at any of the sites selling the lights, you won't see any verbiage of them meeting SAE or DOT standards. And if they don't meet US federal standards (FMVSS 108) then they are considered defective equipment and the owner could be ticketed. People that install them probably don't get pulled over too often, but its probably not much fun for drivers coming in the other direction either. So if you are thinking about a conversion kit that uses existing reflector housings then do take a looksee here: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html



The other thing that strikes me strange about this type of conversion is why would somebody who has bought a high end German car with state of the art engineering and high quality, expensive parts choose to install Chinese electrical components that may or may not play nice with the rest of the cars electronics? When I look for parts for my benz, I will use German parts first, then Euro or American made parts. Generally it would be a cold day in Hell, if I were to put Chinese parts in it. They are out there, usually the cheapest ones to be had and will probably take a larger share of the market, but I won't be spending my cash on them.


People can do whatever they want with their cars, I may not think it adds much, but it's a free country. What I do take exception to are mods that make it harder for me and everyone else on the road to see at night or those that create safety and handling issues just for the sake of appearance.

MrProxenon

ok i understand your point , but in the end half of BMW s BENZ and AUdis camed equiped with halogens (worldwide) so its natural for that owners to desire a hid kit . You can improove your vision at night by 100% and still be safe your car has projectors instead free form reflectors .This way the light will not be spread upwards . Its known that .

And if you wanna make an upgrade of hid kit , look closer on the market, there are serious sellers selling oem equipment , that can be retrofitted into halogen housings . Also you can insert all equipment inside cars headlamp housing ...so nothing will be seen under the hood , Choosing an OEM color like 4300 k will proove as a smart ideea . Remember xenons don t have to be blueish allways . They can be a litlle cold color compared to halogen , stil not annoying anyone and not taking tickets .

My experience is exactlly 10 years with many many sales dont want to declare here

schorert1

Still the fact remains that the bulbs are NOT the same dimensions as the stock halogens, so the beam pattern is different. what you perceive(and market) as 100% more light can therefore safely be considered as spraying light everywhere, you even admit this. virtually all HID conversion threads contain people complaining about flicker, error, lights going out...so who exactly are you impressing with your $50k car with lights that blink or go out altogether?

The Halogen lights in the benz, like most modern halogens, are excellent. So the installation of these illegal HID systems is aesthetic (as they provide almost none of the functionality of the ILS), so you're simply posing the way any kid in a honda civic with the bright blue xenons spraying everywhere.

aquinob

You are selling these things, why else would you go by a handle of MrProxenon. Read the link I supplied by Daniel Stern. Just because you can fit the bulb inside the housing, does not make it work. It's still not LEGAL. 100 percent more light? Really?

mitaka

Wow this is turning into a pretty heated discussion. I just completed the conversion and the results are amazing. The improvement of night vision is like night and day... literally. I disagree with the statement that MB puts excellent halogen lamps. OEM halogens in MB SUVs are so dim that in my opinion they are dangerous. I have to say the E class is a bit better, but not much. I own a Volvo with halogen lamps and I was always annoyed at how bad MB night vision is compared to my Volvo. When I purchased the car this was the only E550 around and could not get OEM HID in it.

Conversion was relatively easy except the driver side is a real pain. It is very hard gaining access to the low beam bulb. I went through the wheel by prying open the plastic wheel cover. Still a real pain securing the driver side bulb in place. Upon completion I used my friends CLS 550 with OEM HID for reference. CLS 550 has mighty bright lights let me tell you. Mine appeared even brighter by let's say 15-20%. We couldn't tell if it were color temperature difference in the bulbs or perhaps since my kit is 55W vs the stock 35W. I think the CLS runs 35W. (Not exactly sure) We were getting ready to adjust (point down) my projectors to match the CLS. We did not need to do that. The beam level and reflection was just about the same. My friend said no blinding as we passed each other uphill down hill. The light has a lot more horizontal spread. I noticed a sidewalk along the road would be nicely illuminated now while before the sidewalks would be in complete darkness. If there is any light spreading with my current set up it is horizontal and wide spread but definitely not blinding. Almost like a pair of additional fog lights.

The car finally has the look of a luxury high performance automobile. The difference in color temperature between the dim yellow looking halogen bulbs and the bottom LEDs was weird not very appealing to me from day one. Now with LED's in place of the parking lights and the HID conversion kit the car finally looks like a 70K automobile.

mitaka

hmm good to know about the elctrode wire thanks

MrProxenon

Lets face it as i said before . Not all cars come equiped with it . Me for example , 4 years ago i coud buy my dream car W212 . Saw it with roof , automatik , bluethooth silver color low mileage ....but no xenons . Off course i bought it . Other car with xenons available was at that time with 10.000 usd extra cost due to other options i coud not affort ....so here is what i have to say

1) Didnt said its legal 100%

2) not all xenons are blueish , check mine theyr oem color philips 85122 bulbs 4300k color , good taste , no offensive ...

3) no glare no light spreading because of the projector wich makes cutoff very defined . indeed xenons on car with headlight reflectors is nightmare , but this not the case .

4) installing whole kit with wires and ballasts inside headlamps make it look good and stealth

4) and yes it works , a good quality xenon bulb is 3200-3400 lumens compared to halogen H7 wich is 1500 lumens

MrProxenon

None of the above problems shoud appear with a good xenon kit installed on a W212 , just that car will not have ILS functions , light patern will be the same as halogen , even more it will light more on the sideways .

offcourse installing a hid xenon kit on a diferent car troubles coud appear ....not the case of a w212 . And as i mentioned in the earlyer post , depends of color light , using a 4300k natural color is the smartest ideea


Cheers!

rediesel

I did an HID upgrade on my W211, and it worked great (Morimoto with canbus adapters). These cars have projector setups so the beam is properly controlled, unlike sticking HID in reflector housings and blinding everyone. You don't get true HID high beams, but on my W211 the HID low beam was on with the high beam, so there was more light output with the highs on after the upgrade as well. That said even after the upgrade it still didn't come close to the lighting on my C63 and E550 with lighting package.

Make sure you get quality parts and not a $30 kit and it will be a significant improvement.

MrProxenon

Actually at some cars you can upgrade to oem xenon optics , like projectors swap . Bolt on directlly , and you ll get the hi beam xenon factory like with shutter actuator .


attached will see some oem examples like BOSCH and Valeo


I do this here for a long time

mitaka

I got an extra set of anyone is interested private message me. It's a premium HID kit I bougjt for almost 200 willing to let it go for much less.