Thought it's kinda dead in the W163, so just to post up some pic to freshen up this forum.

Car was parked and facing a incline driveway, so can't really show the beam pattern, but it's a 5000K kit.



NO !! It's not that ricer blue color....





*warning - save the lecture of "blinding on coming traffic" "screw up beam pattern" "adjust height of beam" "non projector housing" "non oem xenon" "ricer blue bulbs" etc. I know full well of most of these and read enough of it on the internet. If you don't like it, save your time and browse elsewhere. Thanks !

 

What brand are yours?..I am looking into doing a lighting upgrade on my W163..your beams sure do look much brighter than stock halogens..

I am currently running Sylvania Silverlights...and they are somewhat better than stock, but I wish I could do something even better.

 

The HID kit that I got is flicker free, start up right away every time !
It appears to be a bit green-ish blue when it first start up, but it's absolutely 5000K once it's warmed... caues it's kinda pure-white but with way more lumens ! It's very bright at night !

The kit I got is from a local guy Vancouver BC guy, he advertise that it doesn't flicker, and it probably have a built in capacitor in the ballast too ! So I got this installed !

 

cant really tell how they look... I recently upgraded my OEM xenons to a 55W kit... looks much better. Just curious... on the non OEM xenon headlights do you have a space for the ballast in the headlight as well?

 

well, the stock xenon probably came with the ballast attached to the headlight housing. This is just an aftermarket HID kit that I add afterwards, so installing the ballast, i removed the headlight housing and found a nice place behind the housing. Same things i did for the GLK as well.

 

I deal with HID all day long, we actually had a customer from MBworld come in to our shop for HID.
what we didnt know was that, he needed a flicker free, so we undercahrged him on the phone..

The fliker free, is basically a harness for that is special for mercedes. its like a a bunch of wires with resistors in them..
there more expensive.

I got 8000k done and it would only look great if you had the projector and clear lens, because it would have looked rice..
6000k and 5000k was a GREAT choice bwco. it looks nice..
becaues your housing is frosted, 5000k/6000k would only look good in thoses head lights and its MUCH brighter in range than 8000k on frosted headlights..

Because my headlights are projectors and clear, they basically angle the light so you can see the cut off line. all the light is projected to a specific area, so i actually dont lose as much lighting then a 6kk.
my friend has 6000k on his 02ml with projectors, and its not as bright as mine(looked stock)

im glad you got the flicker free, and 5000k, cause now you wont have to worry about turning ur headlights on before startin the car in the morining..

my installed angled the HID fogs too high, so it basically blinds the other guys haha
im acutally okay with it cause it gives a farther range.

 

^ I had the HID kit installed on the ML for over a week and it's perfect, not one single flicker, not during early morning start, not during drive, no nothing happened.. it's so stable !
Also, this kit doesn't come with additional harness nor resistor nor capacitor... the flicker-free thingy was built in the ballast !
see how white the 5000K is...

 

that is soooooooooo bright for close range, how is it on the hwy or road..
my hid are projectors, so it sucks on close range, but one im on the UBC highway at night pitch dark, the range is quite far and my fogs cover up my close range..

I like that brightness alot, you can see every thing on the groud like a spot light..
mine is not as bright as yours..

Also here is something you might consider if your into thoses stuff, i just got these for my car =]
CF Shift frame (my stock is plstic)


CF Door pillars =]




read the feedback on them for the ML, looks like alot of MLs are loving it.

About the flicker thing,
I sell HId, and the guy we get it from made a special wire or harness or somthing so it doesnt flick, each harness is for specific type of brand.

My car flicks, ONLY IF I DONT TURN THE LIGHT ON IN THE MORNING/(due to the daytime sensor) so everytime in the morning, i have to turn my lights on before starting the car.

but at night time its no problem, i just put it to drive.

 

STi JL, thanks for showing me those pieces, but I do have some CF fabric laying around, I will do some overlay this summer along with my other cars... but the ML would be my "mess-around" project car..... I don't wanna screw up on my other cars...
but thanks anyways !

by the way, which store are you from?

 

ok man... sorry if it seems like Im calling you out a lot but seriously you need to read up and learn about what you post, because what you're posting is GARBAGE... 8000k is not brighter then a 5 or 6000k... after about 5300K the human eye can no longer see the extra light output... and translates it to color... 5000k is prolly the best way to go as the bulb offers the most out put before you get in to color changing...

I had purchased 8000k bulbs way back when HIDs were still fairly rare and I can say that while I liked the blue look for a little while, I out grew it very quickly and started noticing that my eyes would get tired much faster... why? because the blue strains the human eye. I went to Philips Ultinons, which are ARGUABLY the best Xenon bulb out. They are not sold in the US as they are marketed as a 6000k but really deliver 5800k

For future reference a 6000k Bulb gives off about 20% light then an OEM 4300k bulb...

Flicker free? You realize ALL HID kits are flicker free... if they flicker something is wrong with your hardware or your install... the extra harness that comes with your "flicker free" kit is either a resistor or a capacitor... it is used to keep the light out warning from appearing on benzes... your other option is to have xenon set to present in Star.

If you are having issues because of your DRL... you may want to rewire the headlight and power the HID kit off of a different signal wire so they only turn on when you want the actual kit on... what the DRL does is throw half the power to the bulb, so that it lights only half as bright... what does that mean for you? it means your ballast doesnt get enough power to fully ignite itself... so it keeps trying to ignite over and over and over... when you switch to your headlights it throws 100% of the power to the bulb hence why it ignites no problem then... I would do one of two things... rewire the headlight so its always on, this can be done by powering the HID kit from the battery and using a relay to signal when the headlights should turn on... The easy way would be to have your DRL disabled but if memory serves me correctly it is the law there to have DRL always on in canada?

 

yup, it's a law to have DRL here in canada for cars starting in model year 1994

 

If it were me in your situation, I would rewire the headlights either with the relay(as I mentioned) or wiring up your DRLs to a different bulb on the projector headlights

 

I know what you mean man, no worries.
I know 8k is not as brigght as 5k...I dont remember what i was saying. But i know for a fact that what you said was true.

I probably meant that 8000k on projector is the probably the same brightness then a 6000k on frosted.

Anyways,. i dont remmber what i said, but i know your right.
mine are not bright bright, they are not as clear as 5000k for sure.
and i know for a fact that its brighter than my friends 6000k with projectors. because we compared it.. maybe he lights needs to be adjusted.

 

nah, i'm fine with the light output now with frosted lens + 5000K HID.
I'm still weary about the ebay projector headlights, while i don't wanna pay 2g for the oem projectors.

 

OEM bixenons are 2k... oem projectors are 350... they are actual OEM headlamps... not all but there are a couple sellers who sell OEM projectors for around 350 shipped

 

Thats what I was thinking. I had OEM projectors on my ML and found ballast/lights that were plug and play. They are 35w 6000k and the lighting is pretty damn good. Now if I can get my m coupe's TSX retrofitted projectors to be as bright I would be a happy man

 

mind sharing where for the projector housing? u mean just the projector itself or the entire headlight assembly housing? I would definately spend 350 on that if it's that cheap... it's a good bang for the bucks....

 

You have a TSX retrofit on your M and you're not happy? I was thinking about doing the TFX in my M3...

 

dont know the seller's name, just look on ebay, there is one user who has pictures of lights on OEM MB boxes... they are the real deal. The Full headlamp!!! One of the guys on AMGpower.com got them

 

It has more to do with the slim line lights/ballasts than the projectors I should say. Junk