mrbeverlyhills

Your headlights are discolored and you have tried polishes, you want to upgrade your 2001 w210 with Xenons to the best available but you will not be doing this yourself.

What can be bought and plugged in? Do 211 units go straight in? Depo? I will not be stripping out the guts of one and foraging for parts and bulbs, I just want a unit that goes in, gets aimed and burns out the eye sockets of oncoming traffic.
Any ideas?

Strigoi

Go to a body shop, have them sand/buff the lenses and cover them in clear.

CA_Tallguy

You don't have the factory xenons? I'm under the impression that factory xenon is probably going to be better than any cheap upgrade housing you put in with a hid/xenon kit. The quality of the aftermarket projector housings is so-so. At a glance, they look cool, but I think you can tell by looking at them up close that they are cheap-o. Or, maybe it's because I installed mine and I know they are cheap-o that I think that. In any case, it's going to be very, very difficult if not impossible to have better headlights than factory xenons on your car. As I said in the other thread, the "zam" method is the only thing I know of that comes close to quality -- but even that is a downgrade in a lot of ways.

I'm not sure what I'd choose if I could have either and is was simply a matter of preference. Now, if you have halogen headlights -- forget everything I just said and go for an upgrade!

After the "zam" method, the next best would probably be some sort of "plug and play" kit. I know there are on eBay but buying there can be hit and miss. ALSO NOTE!! Making this change can be a FIRE HAZARD and will throw lamp errors if done improperly (or if you get a shoddy unit from one of the random Chinese companies making these units). Try searching forums for buying tips... http://www.everythingbenz.com/merced...ingbenz.com%2F

To make your factory housings look better, it *is* possible to resurrect them to a degree. Get professional help to bring your headlights back to snuff. This discoloration and hazing happens to pretty much all cars these days so there are a lot of places that can help. If you've got a really good detailing guy ask him, or call around to one.

CA_Tallguy

You don't want this to happen to your car...
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1660625

mrbeverlyhills

OUCH!
I do have factory Xenons. Thanks for the tips, I will try the bodyshop buff and clearcoat.

CA_Tallguy

If you are in the los angeles area, here are some people advertising for the headlight restoration service on craigslist...

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sea...ght&srchType=T

mrbeverlyhills

Thanks Tallguy, great options, I'll post a before and after.

CharlyE500

I just paid someone onsite to do in my work parking lot for $25. Wet sand, and buff....... the lens looks sharp now !

desired_speeds

buy a 3m headlight restoration kit on amazon and have a go at the headlights yourself.

503C43 ////AMG

I did and it worked. No doubt a professional would of been able to get better results but the haze is gone.

mrbeverlyhills

No thanks. $25 at my location sounds 1000 times better.

CA_Tallguy

Awesome!! glad that worked out well!!

saintz

Even Walmart and most auto parts stores will do it for you now, at around $25.

If polishes didn't work for you, a Mr Clean Magic Eraser will do miracles and is pretty hard to screw up.

You can't just add the Depos if you have HIDs. You need to retrofit HID projectors into them. The projectors they come with are only suitable for halogen. So on a normal W210, you can add Depos easily. On an E55 (or if you have the HID upgrade) you need to do a lot more work.