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Before I go any further let me say they look AWESOME! a lot brighter then what I had and they work great for my low beams but for some reason my high beams don't throw far AT ALL!
@AZN Optics has been great with working with me and trying to find out the issue. From what we can tell the bulb and HID system itself works just fine but for some reason the high beams just aren't throwing must distance.
I do have factory housings and I have posted a video of me driving at night below and I was hoping somebody could give me some insight into what needs to be changed and/or adjusted.
Simply put, the HID bulbs cannot properly mimic a halogen light source. Projectors get away with it because of the hard cutoff but you get improper light distribution (typically more foreground light than you would get with a proper HID projector). The closest you will get to halogens are LEDs, but you will need to spend a good chunk of change for reliable high output ones.
Retrofit to a proper bi-xenon HID projector and you won't need to worry about high-beam output.
In addition, HID are inappropriate for high beams because they are slow to come to full brightness. Not what you want for flashers. Mercedes did not install HID in high beams of its HID units … rather, they installed movable shields over the low beams, hence the term bizenon.
Another option if you want to open the headlights up (pretty easy) is to add LED projectors for the high beams. I used the Morimoto mini HB: https://www.morimotohid.com/morimoto...tor?quantity=1 after the reflective coating on the stock high beam bowls started peeling in a couple of places. They are an easy install since it has a threaded shaft that is compatible with stock hole for the bulb. The combination of EVO-XR projectors replacing the stock projectors and the Morimoto high beams puts a bunch of light down the road on high beam since the EVO projectors have the movable shield like the stock projectors. The color temperature isn't an exact match for my HID bulbs, but is much closer than the stock halogen bulbs and doesn't result in mismatched light output.
Another option if you want to open the headlights up (pretty easy) is to add LED projectors for the high beams. I used the Morimoto mini HB: https://www.morimotohid.com/morimoto...tor?quantity=1 after the reflective coating on the stock high beam bowls started peeling in a couple of places. They are an easy install since it has a threaded shaft that is compatible with stock hole for the bulb. The combination of EVO-XR projectors replacing the stock projectors and the Morimoto high beams puts a bunch of light down the road on high beam since the EVO projectors have the movable shield like the stock projectors. The color temperature isn't an exact match for my HID bulbs, but is much closer than the stock halogen bulbs and doesn't result in mismatched light output.
I like this...how much would something like this cost?
does anybody have directions or a guide to opening up the housing? do you have to take the off the car to do so?
Another option if you want to open the headlights up (pretty easy) is to add LED projectors for the high beams. I used the Morimoto mini HB: https://www.morimotohid.com/morimoto...tor?quantity=1 after the reflective coating on the stock high beam bowls started peeling in a couple of places. They are an easy install since it has a threaded shaft that is compatible with stock hole for the bulb. The combination of EVO-XR projectors replacing the stock projectors and the Morimoto high beams puts a bunch of light down the road on high beam since the EVO projectors have the movable shield like the stock projectors. The color temperature isn't an exact match for my HID bulbs, but is much closer than the stock halogen bulbs and doesn't result in mismatched light output.
I like this...how much would something like this cost?
does anybody have directions or a guide to opening up the housing? do you have to take the off the car to do so?
Yes, you will need to take them off the car. You're going to be baking them in an oven to get the butyl seal soft enough to release. If you're going to bake it open to replace the high beams, you should replace the low beams too. I have a thread on how to retrofit the W251/X164/W164 low beams here: https://mbworld.org/forums/r-class-w...-retrofit.html Yours will be a little simpler as you don't have any of the curve following stuff.
If you can do the work yourself, the cost primarily depends on the components you choose to install.
$123 for the high beam projectors
$200 for the Morimoto Mini D2S 5.0 with E55 retro-quik brackets or $134 for the EvoX-R. Alternatively, you can go LED for $400 + $70 for the E55 brackets.
$35 for D2H HeartRay bulbs, which should allow you to reuse your ballasts.
You will get much better low beams and high beams if you go the full retrofit route.
Tsumi has the details covered and there are several threads dealing with some of the details. Searching for "projector" will bring up a bunch of them. To open the lights, you put the headlights into an oven (I did 230F for ~10 min) to heat the butyl and the covers can be pried off without much effort. You can reheat for a few minutes if the butyl starts to cool off before you get the entire cover off.
Two things I'd add:
1. I'd recommend using Philips or Osram D2H bulbs. More expensive, but you get what you pay for with HID bulbs. If I were doing mine now, I'd consider using the Morimoto MLED 2.0 bi-LED projectors: https://lightwerkz.net/collections/l...-m-led-2-0-lhd for the low beam projector which would eliminate the need for any HID bulb.
2. Make sure to pick up some butyl to reseal. Morimoto RetroRubber works well and is easy to use. It is a box of butyl "rope" - stretch it a little to thin it out before putting it into the channel you're sealing.
Should also mention that Lightwerkz runs 15-20% off sales pretty much every holiday. If you seriously plan on doing this wait until Labor Day weekend to see what sales pop up.
08-18-2022, 07:54 PM
