Marknovack

I have an S212, 2012 E250 CDI. Mercedes has no lens stock. Ebay has lenses from China listed in stock. Great price. Does anyone have experience in ordering those? I'll take 2 pair if they are available. Or does anybody know of another source for the lenses?

Thank you,
Mark

pierrejoliat

Mark, are they cracked? I would suggest trying a lens cleaner first, some are good ,some not so good research first! Then you can search this forum for the how to's under headlight lens replacement, from what I read it's pretty complicated, time consuming, and hard to do correctly. Certainly less than new one's though

Marknovack

No, not cracked but pitted from 200kph drives. I can polish well. Did my wife's 25 year old Toyota. But they will be substantially thinner to remove the high speed driving pits. I'll start with a good sanding and polishing while I search for good replacements. In the meantime, GLS is arriving with a pair of stabilizer links today. The originals are sad looking and turn between two fingers, wheels on ground. No clunking at all, just loose. 66 euro for the Lemforder and I paid 12 too much. One company with more than one website with slightly different pricing. Weird. At Mercedes, 140 euro with tax. My first mechanical DIY on this car! Easy job for starters.

cetialpha5

Well you can also get them from Aliexpress. But I think the best rated headlamp restoration kit is the Sylvania one.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255800967105271.html

EuroDriverSD

I bought those ebay lenses for my W204 but did not install them - I opted to buy replacement factory headlight assemblies. They look good, but my experience with aftermarket headlights (even the best like Depo but especially the Chinese ones) don't last very long - they begin to haze or yellow within a year. In one case, the plastic lens became so brittle that the surface looked like it was going to start crumbling.

Another point to consider is whether your headlights are sealed with butyl or permaseal. If they're permasealed, you are going to have an extremely hard time removing the original lenses. It's doable but not easy by any means. It's up to you if it's worth your effort.

Whether you end up polishing your existing lenses or replacing them, I recommend you apply protection film on them. Xpel used to make great film but it seems they no longer provide pre-cut kits for many vehicles. There are other alternatives, and many vinyl wrap shops offer the service. I have been using it for years and all my headlights still look brand new.

If you buy a pre-cut kit online, stock up on your patience if you plan to install it yourself.

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

Marknovack

Well, I polished one side and it turned out beautifully. A couple of the pits were too deep but that is normal. Changed stabilizer links yesterday with Lemforder. Great first job aside from cleaning. Easy to do. 66 euro at home versus 255 euro at Mercedes. The ride seems vastly improved. Psychological or real? I'll do the other headlamp today and hope that Mercedes will manufacture a new batch of lenses someday. Tuesday she goes to Mercedes for a new exhaust flex pipe assembly and cracked wheel arch liner and that will put it in perfect condition. Year 12 is expensive but worth it. Its still a looker.