alexg500

Alright, I dont have it yet - but, I purposely waited for a 2003 G to see if Xenons would be added. As well all know - NO. So what options exist???

I emailed Hella and they do make kits to add Xenons, but nothing for the G - they referred me to HID4LESS.com.

HID....com was very knowledgable, and said they can do it, but it seemed to me (perception on my part) that it felt to makeshift - although they do use some of the same OEM parts that BMW and Mercedes use.

Next option...Sylvania Silverstars H4 or 9003. They are bulb replacments. Sylvania tells me they are tested and should not fry my harnesses, etc. They did mention the expected life for the bulb is about 1 year of average driving. This would be the easist option and cheapest (approx $50). These bulbs are 4000 kelvin while true xenons are 4100 kelvin. I also checked - PIAA makes them too.

My? - does anyone have experience with these. I know that a lot of companies make these and there are problems, but since these are from Sylvania (reputable) - I thought these would be OK.

Thoughts? Experiences????

Thanks,
Alex

jimmyg

I just got a set of Philips H4 VisionPlus bulbs to replace the stock Philips H4 Premiums that came in my 2002 G500 and I noticed an improvement. I also adjusted the angle of the headlamps slightly upward and that made a nice improvement in range with the new bulbs without blinding on-coming traffic.

If you want Xenons, you can check with both BRABUS or ORC (http://www.orc.de). I would discourage it though. There is little chance of MB adding Xenon's to the current G-class design. If they do come out with a replacement in 2005/6, it will probably have a new front end design which will incorporate Xenons.

I got my bulbs from PowerBulbs.com since they are not available in the US yet. They have a slighly whiter color and reflect really well on road signs and on the road itself. Installing them took five minutes and its documented in the manual (page 328 I think). They were cheap as well...less than $40 delivered from the UK in less than 7 days to CA.

-Jimmy

alexg500

Thanks for the info Jimmy.

I just checked out the powerbulbs.com site and the Philips Europe site. I was looking for specs - which I could not find. It is obvious that the bulbs do give great performance in terms of range, but do they give a "white" appearance???

03-G500

jimmy,

i put the vision bulbs in too. i agree they are great.

did you upgrade the foglight bulbs?

jimmyg

Alex: the color is more of a blue-ish white. If you want a more "Xenon" look, these do provide that compared to the slightly yellow-ish hue of the stock H4's. For comparison, turn on your headlights and your fog lights. Notice how the fog lights have a slightly more blueish white tint...that's the color of these VisionPlus bulbs. More info here:
http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/...s_vp_feat.html

The BlueVision line from Philips will give you bulbs that look a little more like Xenon, but they will probably not perform as well as the stock H4 Premiums you have now.

I kept the fog-lights stock because I don't use them often and they already appeared to perform quite well. Philips now offers VisionPlus H3 fog lights...but I didn't bother getting them.

alexg500

Thanks again for the additional info - greatly appreciated.

I will be sure to compare the light (fogs vs headlights) when I actually get the truck - estimated end of November.

For now, I think I will go with the Sylvanias since they do tell me that the performance in terms of vision is 20% greater than the stock bulbs and they will have 95% of the whiteness of a true HID Xenon.

Glad to hear your bulbs are working out for you.