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Agree about the stock GLK lights. Do you have any photos of the Philips kit, prior to installation? Phillips is a reputable company with much more to lose than small shops importing OEM stuff from Asia, so it's possible they invested more in engineering a solution. I'd be interested in the design details to see how they compensated for the points I mentioned. Please share!
Thanks for the links. It looks like the Phillips kits are better-integrated than many. Photos on 3rd party sites show machined spacers and light masks that confine the HID bulb output to patterns that mimic the halogen bulb they're replacing. That would make all the difference.
The Phillips site had a fitment guide but it did not include the GLK specifically, though it had G and GL class.
If you have time, a photo of the lights shining on a blank wall from about 20' would be really helpful!
A blank wall is worthless for any evaluation or aiming, you have to at least be in a parking lot. I found factory aiming terrible, it was nearly horizontal, blinding people and not putting any concentrated light where I need it, to see pot holes! I ended up aiming the Hid
all the way down and it works well. The first are stock and horizontal, the second are the Hid, the passenger side bulb was not all the way down at this point. I'm a photographer and adjusted the camera to show what I saw in perceived brightness. So this is the real improvement you will get.
Thanks for posting the pictures. There's definitely more light right in front of the vehicle. For me, that's important but equally important is the ability to pick out items in the distance without using high-beams. Traffic levels in SoCal are such that there is always oncoming traffic. In the halogen photo, it looks like the lights are illuminating something reflective, directly centered at the end of the alley. In the second, there is nothing visible. Looks like there is more light scattered up, onto the underside of the overhanging roofs, too. But it's also evident the vehicle wasn't in the same position for both, so maybe not a good comparison.
Can you specify precisely which Phillips kit you used?
Tigerdog,
But having a hot spot right in front of you shouldn't be important at all and will only do you a disservice at night.
It is simply human nature that at night a person will tend to focus their attention on the brightest spot, And if that spot is just a few meters in front of your bumper, you would have to be going mighty slowly to avoid hitting something that you see at the last second in that hot spot. Seeing distance "within legal limits" is the most important parameter for night driving. So if you are only driving at 35MPH looking for potholes. The close hot spot is for you. If you drive any faster though.
Tigerdog,
But having a hot spot right in front of you shouldn't be important at all and will only do you a disservice at night.
Great, positive discussion in this forum! I agree with this sentiment and it's precisely why I don't like the HID photo above. The mucking great pool of light right in front of the car is only useful at very slow speeds and it's bright enough to potentially cause my pupil to contract, making it even more difficult to see items at the edge of the beam, where I need to be looking at normal speeds. Even surface streets have 40-55 mph speed limits around here.
I'm fortunate to have a couple of cars with great lights - a 1996 Z3, whose low beams put out a surprisingly good pattern and reach, and a 1991 Lotus Elan into which I put a set of some of the last Cibie CSR quad headlamps. The CSRs are in a class by themselves and spoil me for anything else.
Thanks tigerdog,
I speak from having done a lot a research when I was adding lights to my 18 Wheeler & the resulting experience using them. My particular experience was that I drove that 18 wheeler with two FedEx trailers attached from Rapid City, SD to Sheridan, Wy 5 nights a week for ten years. That's 1.3 million accident free night driving miles.
1.3M miles in a dual-trailer rig, then a 7 on weekends? Talk about driving extremes! We seem to agree that light in the distance is more important than a pool of light directly in front of the vehicle... bringing us back to the original question: what's the best way to improve our GLK?
Tigerdog,
But having a hot spot right in front of you shouldn't be important at all and will only do you a disservice at night.
It is simply human nature that at night a person will tend to focus their attention on the brightest spot, And if that spot is just a few meters in front of your bumper, you would have to be going mighty slowly to avoid hitting something that you see at the last second in that hot spot. Seeing distance "within legal limits" is the most important parameter for night driving. So if you are only driving at 35MPH looking for potholes. The close hot spot is for you. If you drive any faster though.
Osram Germany appears to make an H15 replacement in their "cool blue intense" range. Claims a 20% light output increase, though still 55W15W. Has a very light blue tint on the bulb, so not my favorite but it's the only H15 I've found from a reputable manufacturer. Not available on any US site I could find, I ordered a pair from Amazon.de. We'll see how they work.
Osram Germany appears to make an H15 replacement in their "cool blue intense" range. Claims a 20% light output increase, though still 55W15W. Has a very light blue tint on the bulb, so not my favorite but it's the only H15 I've found from a reputable manufacturer. Not available on any US site I could find, I ordered a pair from Amazon.de. We'll see how they work.
For years I tried the "brighter" bulbs, Piaa, Flosser, Sylvania Osram , and it just wasn't worth it. First off they are not noticeably brighter if you really need light. Second, none of them lasted. Every year a bulb failed. Factory bulbs last years, these bulbs are all the same in design, a thinner hotter burning filament that is brighter, but doesn't last like factory units. If you want reliable light that's bright, and known to last, get HID. Leds are heat sensitive and not perfected for aftermarket. HID are perfected.
Keep in mind that "PhilipsXenon" is NOT the well-known Philips N.V. headquarted in the Netherlands. It looks like this company is putting together kits with genuine Philips N.V. components but it also looks likes like they are cleverly trying to lead people to believe they are Philips N.V. or part of Philips N.V. in an effort lend legitimacy to their kits. Not saying these kits are good or bad but they're not "put together" or being sold by Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Originally Posted by tigerdog
Thanks for the links. It looks like the Phillips kits are better-integrated than many. Photos on 3rd party sites show machined spacers and light masks that confine the HID bulb output to patterns that mimic the halogen bulb they're replacing. That would make all the difference.
The Phillips site had a fitment guide but it did not include the GLK specifically, though it had G and GL class.
If you have time, a photo of the lights shining on a blank wall from about 20' would be really helpful!
Keep in mind that "PhilipsXenon" is NOT the well-known Philips N.V. headquarted in the Netherlands. It looks like this company is putting together kits with genuine Philips N.V. components but it also looks likes like they are cleverly trying to lead people to believe they are Philips N.V. or part of Philips N.V. in an effort lend legitimacy to their kits. Not saying these kits are good or bad but they're not "put together" or being sold by Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Your right, but something is fishy. i called Phillips, they said they can't sell kits in the US, it's illegal. Seeing the depth of this site and what they offer, I will bet this is Philips, it's just set up differently.
Yes, I'm aware of the fact that Philips (one "L") does not produce HID kits. That's why I made my post. I've also seen companies calling themselves Phillips ("two "L's"), trying to lead people to believe they're the huge company Philips.
In the past, and maybe still now, vehicles produced with HID lighting, for the U.S. market, had to have an auto-leveling system so as the rear of the vehicle is weighted down (and the front end come up) the headlights are shifted down to keep light pattern where it belongs. This is not something you could realistically put in a kit, especially for a wide range of vehicles. The real Philips is a massive company and I don't see them involving themselves, covertly, in this market. I do believe they're happy to sell their HID components in large quantities as it is not illegal.
Originally Posted by Mmr1
Your right, but something is fishy. i called Phillips, they said they can't sell kits in the US, it's illegal. Seeing the depth of this site and what they offer, I will bet this is Philips, it's just set up differently.
Is it possible to just swap in the upgraded lights from MB? I know OEM prices wouldn't be cheap, but it seems the whole upgraded lighting thing is so complicated. Can I just sell my girlfriend, and use that money to pick up a new set of lights/housing...or would they not be compatible?
Is it possible to just swap in the upgraded lights from MB? I know OEM prices wouldn't be cheap, but it seems the whole upgraded lighting thing is so complicated. Can I just sell my girlfriend, and use that money to pick up a new set of lights/housing...or would they not be compatible?
I'm not sure where you are located but buying and selling people is frowned upon in these parts.
It was late, and after a long day of working on the house. Just a bad joke about how the costs of anything from a MB dealership is the exact opposite of cheap.
I'm still curious, though. I'd be willing to pay good money if I could swap them out. The part about levelers on the car is what makes me think it might not be too easy to do.
Is it possible to just swap in the upgraded lights from MB? I know OEM prices wouldn't be cheap, but it seems the whole upgraded lighting thing is so complicated. Can I just sell my girlfriend, and use that money to pick up a new set of lights/housing...or would they not be compatible?
Replacing everything with factory is complicated, putting in an upgrade kit is simple. I paid 70$ labor and the Phillips kit was about 200, 270 total. I bet factory parts, and instal will be 2-3000. The only thing I recommend and did myself was aim both lights fully down. I've checked the light from the front, it's not to Hightower blind oncoming traffic, I have never been "flashed" for to bright a light. 4300K is non blinding factory color. I'd stay near 43-46 Kelvin. Going to 6000k you risk blinding people with bluer light. I don't know why but the blue spectrum makes stock fixtures blind incoming traffic, high Kelvin of near 6000k scatters light
$270 is a lot better than 2k, obviously. My issue with an 'upgrade kit' is that I haven't even noticed 2 people that seem set on the same solution.
I actually wasn't even too worried about swapping things, till I replaced the low beams. I bought whatever light the parts store said was the best, and they are nice. Then I realized that the high beams are still on this weird low 'marker light' type setup while I drive. So now I have the white LED driving lights, the off white low beams, and the yellow high beams. If I could swap out the high beams I'd be happy, but they want $99 EACH to get replacements, and I never even use my highs. I just want the front end of the car to have the same color across the board.
I had Mercedes pro aftermarket guys tell me the kit wouldn't work it would just blind people. Well , yes, with factory horizontal aiming, yes my lights were aimed just about horizontally, which is totally worthless, and couldn't light a pothole. The kit is Phillips made, just not Philips sold, since there is a legal issue of their overbrightness. I simply aimed the lights all the way down, now I really don't need high beams and can see a penny on the road. I'll find a photo of lights on and post it. But 4300k seems to match well with the led daytime lights. You could get a high beam bulb of maybe 4300 so it's not yellow. Halogens range from 2700-3100K,
LED HI/DRL and Low beam , had the suv 1 month no one hi-beamed me yet for blinding people .
I found out that my lights were aimed completely horizontally, I had no real effective light to illuminate pot holes, which is what I needed in Chicago. And I'm sure I was blinding oncoming traffic. With the HID and aiming the lights fully down I can really see now. Consider looking into how they are aimed, it might help you as well if they are aimed out to far.
LED HI/DRL and Low beam , had the suv 1 month no one hi-beamed me yet for blinding people.
I can't seem to find any replacement hi/drl bulbs that have any sort of decent rating. That philips site doesn't even list a bulb for that spot. Where did you find yours?
I can't seem to find any replacement hi/drl bulbs that have any sort of decent rating. That philips site doesn't even list a bulb for that spot. Where did you find yours?
I sell them at my shop in Las Vegas , I can ship them to you I have a good paypal account.
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