When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
There is a large dark spot in the center of my low beams. Im trying to adjust the beams so the dark spot is gone.
When i turn the adjustment screw on the back of the headlight nothing happens. The verticle adjustment on the top works great.
How do you adjust these headlights horizontally? What is the adjustment screw on the back for?
Show me where the dark spot is, draw in blue color from my headlight beam spream photo below.
Mine is also ILS, but the supposedly most intelligent one. Code 640/641 Dynamic Headlamp. USA does not get this version, but the beam spread should be the same.
[QUOTE=S-Prihadi;9273446]Show me where the dark spot is, draw in blue color from my headlight beam spream photo below.
Mine is also ILS, but the supposedly most intelligent one. Code 640/641 Dynamic Headlamp. USA does not get this version, but the beam spread should be the same.
High Beam
Low Beam
This is how the low beam looks. It almost looks intentional but I'm not sure. It has a dark U shape directly in the middle of the road. When the high beam is on the dark spot is gone.
I have the US car but I programmed the headlights to full ECE ILS so it's the same as the Euro cars.
I don't have the fancy machine to adjust the headlights. Im just doing it on a wall in a parking lot.
This white plastic board is 3 meters away from the car, both headlights low beam
Original photo below.........
.
Get a scanner capable of commanding headlight movement, like Baby Launch Elite or Xentry clone.
Play with all movement, see if it can do or is limited by some reason.
===========
On a Left Hand drive car like USA, the right low beam has a bit more distant reach than the left headligh due to the incoming traffic is from the left of the car.
The opposite is true for my right hand drive car.
Mercedes low beam ILS beam brightness is very lame for me. Are you seeing the lame-ness because you compared to your other cars and thought your W212 have a black hole in the middle ?
Let me explain the lame-ness.
My low beam on white/grey concrete road with decent public light
On black tarmac near sundown and public light is poor. Is this the BLACK HOLE you speak of ?
This is how each zone of the low beam "led-bulb" spread their beam on the road.
THE INNER ONE - STATIC. It is passive/static because this does not steer, its like wide angle background light.
Ti
ACTIVE ONE, this one can steer and this one is the HIGH BEAM too....my simply moving up. Hence high beam is very small spotty beam only, the wide angle beam does not get any brighter.
Both passive/static and active LED modules combined...as Low Beam
This white plastic board is 3 meters away from the car, both headlights low beam
Original photo below.........
.
Get a scanner capable of commanding headlight movement, like Baby Launch Elite or Xentry clone.
Play with all movement, see if it can do or is limited by some reason.
===========
On a Left Hand drive car like USA, the right low beam has a bit more distant reach than the left headligh due to the incoming traffic is from the left of the car.
The opposite is true for my right hand drive car.
Mercedes low beam ILS beam brightness is very lame for me. Are you seeing the lame-ness because you compared to your other cars and thought your W212 have a black hole in the middle ?
Let me explain the lame-ness.
My low beam on white/grey concrete road with decent public light
On black tarmac near sundown and public light is poor. Is this the BLACK HOLE you speak of ?
This is how each zone of the low beam "led-bulb" spread their beam on the road.
THE INNER ONE - STATIC. It is passive/static because this does not steer, its like wide angle background light.
Ti
ACTIVE ONE, this one can steer and this one is the HIGH BEAM too....my simply moving up. Hence high beam is very small spotty beam only, the wide angle beam does not get any brighter.
Both passive/static and active LED modules combined...as Low Beam
That looks pretty close to mine. Maybe its just supposed to be that way. My headlights are working properly. Its just odd to have a sharp U shape in the road. It does seem to cut the light off below cars in front of me.
i have found that ILS works way better when the low beams are adjusted super low. Visibility with low beams suck but ILS compensates for it.
That looks pretty close to mine. Maybe its just supposed to be that way. My headlights are working properly. Its just odd to have a sharp U shape in the road. It does seem to cut the light off below cars in front of me.
i have found that ILS works way better when the low beams are adjusted super low. Visibility with low beams suck but ILS compensates for it.
Yes, our W212 ILS code 640/641 sucks, even for high beam it sucks.
There is proper standard on how the beam spread is supposed to be, when and if using the electronic target eyes at official MB dealer.
As for brightness per square meters at X, Y and Z zone, that is dependent on car designer as there is maximum room for it actually by law. European headlight regulations, primarily governed by UNECE standards.
E1 = Germany approval. 17.5 is the brightness power of this headlight assy, one unit only.
2nd Hella Link. I think below codes are a bit too old, Xenon only as latest and greatest
So W212 most advance headlight, our dynamic LED code 640/641 is only 17.5 x 2 or 35 out of 100 allowance how lame...right ?
From the 1st Hella link :
Marking illuminance reference numbers
High beam
7.5; 10; 12.5; 17.5; 20; 25; 27.5; 30; 37.5; 40; 45; 50 per headlamp (in Germany max. four simultaneously switched-on high-beam headlamps are permitted, and the reference number 100 or 480 lx is the maximum value that must not be exceeded)
Germany will write seventeen point five as 17,5 ( same as my country actually ). Their one thousand dollars is written as $1.000,00 , USA will write $1,000.00
My single Lazer Elite LED BAR of 18" or 530mm long, as extra high beam. This is European Legal auxillary high beam, made in UK.
Is only 45 and for visual safety as high beam brightness and beam spread, it is 400% better than BOTH my ILS dynamic LED Piece-Of-Sheit headlights.
This British LED bar reflector & optics is insanely good, worth the premium price. It is approx 130 watts compared to approx 35 watts x 2 or 70 watts for MB total headlight power consumption.
Last edited by S-Prihadi; Mar 20, 2026 at 05:47 AM.
Yes, our W212 ILS code 640/641 sucks, even for high beam it sucks.
There is proper standard on how the beam spread is supposed to be, when and if using the electronic target eyes at official MB dealer.
As for brightness per square meters at X, Y and Z zone, that is dependent on car designer as there is maximum room for it actually by law. European headlight regulations, primarily governed by UNECE standards.
E1 = Germany approval. 17.5 is the brightness power of this headlight assy, one unit only.
2nd Hella Link. I think below codes are a bit too old, Xenon only as latest and greatest
So W212 most advance headlight, our dynamic LED code 640/641 is only 17.5 x 2 or 35 out of 100 allowance how lame...right ?
From the 1st Hella link :
Marking illuminance reference numbers
High beam
7.5; 10; 12.5; 17.5; 20; 25; 27.5; 30; 37.5; 40; 45; 50 per headlamp (in Germany max. four simultaneously switched-on high-beam headlamps are permitted, and the reference number 100 or 480 lx is the maximum value that must not be exceeded)
Germany will write seventeen point five as 17,5 ( same as my country actually ). Their one thousand dollars is written as $1.000,00 , USA will write $1,000.00
My single Lazer Elite LED BAR of 18" or 530mm long, as extra high beam. This is European Legal auxillary high beam, made in UK.
Is only 45 and for visual safety as high beam brightness and beam spread, it is 400% better than BOTH my ILS dynamic LED Piece-Of-Sheit headlights.
This British LED bar reflector & optics is insanely good, worth the premium price. It is approx 130 watts compared to approx 35 watts x 2 or 70 watts for MB total headlight power consumption.
So is there a way to code the headlight for full brightness? I would totally do that with Vediamo if there was a way.
So is there a way to code the headlight for full brightness? I would totally do that with Vediamo if there was a way.
There is nothing to code to make it brighter....I don't think so. Swallpw the pain pill of having Code 640/641 headlight. My cheapo Toyota in Bali has better low beam, much better.
As far as I read on ILS code 640/641 specs, there is no actual mention of dimming down ( lower brightness ) the headlight, it is only about aiming low beam a bit higher at FREEWAY SPEED.
Do remember that our headlight is now integrated with front fog light "capability" but no the extra bulb for it.
Meaning the available 17.5 brightness level is spread around into X Y Z zones and not extra light energy.
How would I go about properly adjusting these headlights without the special machine thing?
I can't seem to get it to the proper level for ILS to work correctly. If you adjust the low beam too high, ILS doesn't do ****. If you adjust it too low, it puts the shadow in the wrong spots.
when following a car, it's putting the black shadow square to the right of the car instead of centered on the car. So it's only putting a shadow on the right half of the car in front of me.
I believe this is caused by improper adjustment of the headlights. Any tips?
How would I go about properly adjusting these headlights without the special machine thing?
I can't seem to get it to the proper level for ILS to work correctly. If you adjust the low beam too high, ILS doesn't do ****. If you adjust it too low, it puts the shadow in the wrong spots.
when following a car, it's putting the black shadow square to the right of the car instead of centered on the car. So it's only putting a shadow on the right half of the car in front of me.
I believe this is caused by improper adjustment of the headlights. Any tips?
Well since you have parking garage wall as screen to shoot your headlight to, use minimum 3 meters distance ......... all you need to so is to follow my beam pattern, but do know that LEFT HAND DRIVE car, its LEFT headlight is of lower beam height than the RIGHT side headlight.
You know these two "bulb" region has its own beam spread, so experiment with the 2 available adjustment.
I hope your Left-Right adjusment gears are not broken.
Your both headlights must have beam pattern like mine, close to mine or see youtube for other ILS Code 640/641 headlight adjustment, I seen some.
Both passive/static and active LED modules combined...as Low Beam
Kill one headlight and block 1 "bulb" region at a time
INNER "bulb" region, the static-passive one
Outer "bulb" region, the active one, while on Low Beam
If you still can achieve proper beam spread, I suggest get a white board like mine, its cheap and big and slowly place it close to the headlight and move back slowly to spread the beam.
See how is the headlight beam spread from close up 50cm to 300cm, anything wrong or different between Left and Right headlight ?
Get a decent scanner to play with actuation of the headlight in terms of movement. It can do a few movements up-down and left right, like how when it first get powered up.
Maybe mechanically something stuck inside...who knows.
Good luck...........
Last edited by S-Prihadi; Mar 24, 2026 at 02:01 AM.
Reason: typo
how lame...right ?
