Quattrodude

Good day all - I tried searching and reading through many threads - and am surprised no one has every brought this up or its just an issue with my car?

So I have OEM HID headlights with Active curve (and night vision - not sure that makes any difference)
Its a simple issue I think - When I flash my high beams or push the stalk forward - the eye-lids on the HIDs flip up as expected...
But the inner high beams do not come up...Yes I have confirmed - they are valid light housings with H11 bulbs\ wiring in there...Looks like just no power to them when activating the highs.

I was wondering if it had something to do with US regulations on how many lights you could have? but really all I have is the HIDs and the LED hockey sticks?
I would love to have those inners for extra light at night...

Does anyone know if this is a programming issue that can be fixed?
The Mercedes dealer say that is how the car is programmed (after 2-3 techs looked) and said there is nothing wrong?

Thanks to all in advance for any help!
(And happy holidays too)
JP

AZN Optics

Inner high beams activate if your low beams are off. Those are halogens so don't have the warming up cycle xenon's have.

Quattrodude

Nope - they do not come on in anyway - and I don't get what you are saying? why would high beams activate when the lows are not on?

And I did check and try them too beyond 35mph too - still nothing.

I had read that Canada programming would allow for more that 4 "white" lights vs the US would not -

I found this out on my older E55 - where the I could have the Fogs and low beams on - but when I flicked to the high beams the inner highs would come on and the HIDs would also stay on but drop the fog lights...

AZN Optics

Here's why... you have bixenons with shutter control typically for your high beams when your low beams are on. So when you activate the high beams when the low beams are on, there's no warm up cycle as your HIDs are already on... they're just shifting the aim to high. Now when your lights are off and you need to say flash someone in front of you... your bi-xenons aren't equipped to handle that well as the HIDs have not been warmed up and rapid on-off gas ignition puts stress on the HIDs. This is why you have an extra halogen high beam on the inner housing above the parking/city bulb. When the low beams are completely off and you quick flash, it should be your halogen bulbs that do not have warm up xenon gas ignition cycle that turns on to perform this function.

Quattrodude

Right - I get that - I fully understand warm up etc of HIDs etc...
What I'm saying is that the inner halogens never come on...
Regardless of if I hold the stalk back to push it - regardless of if low beams or on or off...
(at the end of the day if I get the Highs working - my goal was to put in LED's for instant on in their vs Halogen H11s)

I guess what you are maybe saying - more is that maybe there is something wrong I need to dig deeper?
Is there a fuse just for the high beams? Ill go look this evening...

I just thought it was odd that 3 techs looking too thought they should work...
Maybe someone else reading with HIDs and inside halogens could confirm they get both when activating their high beams?

Thanks

AZN Optics

Yeah, what I was describing was how they should work. If it's not activating in that use case, then you probably have simetsome wrong (fuse, wiring, bulb, etc).

Lolxa

I'm pretty sure the inner bulbs are actually infrared bulbs for the night vision. I have also the night vision package. My inner bulbs don't turn on.

Quattrodude

Thanks very much Lolxa,
That's what I was looking for...hard to find another E with night vision...good to know its not just my car.
I agree - after more research I think they are infrared housings and not high beams.

Happy holidays!

Arrie

What are the inner high beams?

I have a 2010 E550, which I believe is pretty much the same as 2011 E550. In the front I have the Bi-xenon lights with the hockey stick DRLs. Then the kind of diamond shaped light inside from the main head light is the parking light.

When I flash the lights with no head lights on the main head lights turn on immediately and even the shutter opens for the high beam display. There is no delay for the light to come on at all.

Again, what is the inner high beam?

AZN Optics

Might be mistaken, but I always heard Night View Assist Plus was an option and for those that don't have that, the bulb serves the the described manner?

Quattrodude

I bit the bullet and bought a wrecked housing for cheap and confirmed - as below you can see there is a full housing for the high beams but yes there is an infrared glass shield in front.. Fired up the bulb and you pretty much cannot see anything - with the naked eye.

Guess I-m just stuck with HIDs for high beams.. No inner ones for me.


Thanks for all that responded.
(ops posted to the wrong thread....)
Cheers and happy holidays!
JP

Ungarisch

the inner projector is not for lighting. It's an infrared emitter for use with the NightView Assist, night vision camera option. It emits invisible wavelength of light that humans cannot see, but the IR camera up in the window (which has its IR filter removed like the back-up cam) does pick up infrared and thus you have night vision of your whole surroundings even though your headlights only light a narrow strip of road.