Anyone installed HIDs successfully in GL450, If yes please share us the info. BTW any OEM package from MB?

 

i Heard that the light assembly comes with HID ballasts, Is it true?

 

i had them installed about 5 months ago, aftermarket of course, since the car my dealership had at the time didnt have them. They have been perfect, no issues at all. I dont have the specs on them off hand but I do remember they were H7's.

 

H7s are the correct bulb sizes (same as with the W211 E-class and many other non-HID MBs). The headlights on the GL are so much bigger and there is so much more room near the headlights that installing aftermarket HIDs is a piece of cake.

 

Please educate me, is this aftermarket kit includes the ballasts and wiring?. or else the GL450 comes with ballasts and just replacing the H7 bulbs is enough ?

How you installed? is the warrenty voids if i do this ? how much light improvement you got with this ? what color of light you got from H7s?

 

The xenon ballasts use an ignitor to start the xenon arc with high voltage and sustain a voltage above 12VDC after start up. They cannot be connected to H7 halogens. They will blow them for sure and the connector will not fit over the terminals. You probably have been confused or misinformed that the H7 headlights come with the same self-leveling motors as the xenons.

I asked the "knowledgable" salesman why the GL didn't come with the xenons, only $900 for the Lighting package for a 60K automobile! He said they did not require them as the lighting output was quite good and they are alredy "HIDs". Wow, what a salesman huh? HIDs = xenon technology. I am sure he meant to say they are adequate as they are "Projector" lamps. And yes, projector lamps are superior to reflector technology because the lighting beam is more precisely shaped and don't have any stray light. That is why xenon retrofits should only be used on projector lamps, the brighter light blinds oncoming cars if not focused properly. But the H7 projectors are not brighter, just more focused to the parts of the road that matter. Thats the sharp horizontal cut-off line you see when you pull up to the garage door. As for improvement with xenons, it is like night and day. Once you go xenon, you never go back. In fact I retrofitted MB projector xenons into my Honda Odyssey after I had to replace a Toyota Sienna that had factory xenons.

What makes the xenons better than halogens is the intensity of the light (luminosity). That is why they are called "HIDs", High Intensity Discharge. Its like the difference between a 1.5 volt disposable pen flashlight vs. a 6 D cell Maglight. Just much more light output over the same area - and the color of course is much whiter. Don't be caught up with all those "blue" bulb wannabes. They actually are tinted halogen bulbs that actually reduce light output just to give a bluish hue. The blue light you see from xenons is actually the bending of the light at the ends of the projector beam cutoff. That is why it appears to give off different colors from different angles.

As for retrofit kits for the MB, stay away from the cheapo kits you find on ebay and get only kits that use Philips ballasts or other OEM designs. Those copy cat ballasts have no durability. I have an H7 retrofit kit on my ML320 with Philips ballasts for over 6 years, no bulb or ballast issues ever. Of course retrofitting will not get you the adaptive lighting (turn directing) that the MB Llighting package gives you. I highly recommend that $900 package.

 

Thanks a lot for the educative info. we need some people like you in this forum to get some indepth info.

 

Actually it is not a piece of cake. The clip that holds the bulb in place does not have any room to put in anything else besides the metal thin stock light bulb and you cannot fit the plastic HID light bulb.

I gave up after 1 hour of trying.

 

You need the metal base bulbs or bend you clips.so they can fit. I would just buy the metal base bulbs since they are made better and you will have a better fit.

 

I gave up after 2 hours.

The metal clip needs to be retrofitted or replaced with a redesigned clip to hold the new bulb/wiring. Also, the design of the bulb varies, making it much more difficult to have it be seated correctly for a proper beam (with no shaking).

Frustrated, I brought the my kit (DDM 55w, 4600k bulbs, with ballast and error delete dongle) to a local stereo installer/window tint place. An extra $75 for professional installation - lifetime warranty.

All in all, it looks great. No errors. Doesn't look like I'm driving by candlelight anymore.

 

I had a xenon kit installed several years ago - best upgrade for the money. I've always had trouble getting the bulbs clipped in properly (with my CLK also) but experienced shops never have any issues. Their tech people just have a fingertip feel for it.

 

I bought the metal base with the cut in it last week. Lets see how much easier it goes in after I get it this week. Hopefully it will be better. I will update as soon as I get it and "try" to install it.

 

I bought M-Tech HIDS and everything worked. The pain was in removing the bumper to take the light housing out.

 

Why would you do that? Did you replace the projector?

Any bulbs are a pain including the stock h7 bulbs. The clip is very finicky.

 

How about an update???

Any updates on an easy solution to add HID? With no errors?

Also, the 2012 I have, has the LED strip lights in the bumper but they don't do the BRIGHT daytime running light mode that models with the lighting package have. How do you get them to go bright, is there a hack or jumper??

 

You run resistors. I've been running the HID retrofits for close to 10 years.

 

So, the question is, what's a good kit that will last and give NO ERRORS?

 

I'm using something like this. http://www.ebay.com/itm/CANBUS-TERMI...UeyHL4KodfCy-g

 

Hids for hi and low bean being installed today.

 

Why would you put them in your highbeams?

 

I wanted everything to match like on all newer Mercedes, high and low are 5,550 color temp. Also, I have many back roads and wants the highs as bright as can be.

 

Before
After

 

Thanks
Dimitris