Hjartarson

Great thread, your garage looks awesome !

tthoang1

That is a sweet garage! Nice work on the write up too.

Yacht Master

Bump for Bekkers

I see that my long time part source is now a sponsor here at MBWorld.
My Bixenon lamps were purchased at bekkers and I recomend them.

http://www.bekkers.com/Merchant2/mer...=mhlighteclass

ilovegirls

sorry for the question but does bi xenon mean low/ hig beam?

HAHA BYE

whats the difference between those and stock??

The Law

I'm almost embarassed to ask the quesotion but how can you tell the difference? What are the practical benefits of this change out? Mine is an '06... does that matter?

HAHA BYE

thats what Im saying...I dont see one damn difference? or is it for the cars that didnt come with xenon lights? or did they all? do these have turning capabilities (like while you turn they preemptively turn the light to give you better sight?)

raymond g-

all projectors have a shield covering the bottom half of the lens. this
prevents the high intensity beam from angling upwards and blinding
other drivers.

projectors which have fixed shield have HID on low beam only. high beam
lighting is supplemented by H7 halogen.

projector with moveable shields pivots the shield downward when high beam
is invoked, thus revealing the full intensity of the HID beam in much broader
angle/fashion.

with the 210/211 design, the HID high beam is still enhanced (arguably) by the
H7 halogen in the next bucket.

this is an old drawing. it isn't accurate when depicting the halogen LOW and
it leaves out HID reflector and HID non-bix. but the principle is very similar
to halogen low/high

Yacht Master

Standard lights on W211 AMGs are halogen, they look identical to the BiXenon when mounted in the car. The back side and the bottom are very different between the two, you can see the trim motor on the back and the ballasts underneath on the BiXenon lamps. If you have head light washers this indicates that you have the Bi Xenon headlamps. Many dealers will not do this upgrade or if they do they charge $7K. The Head lamps that have active cornering do look different and have a larger bezel and a larger gap around the main projector.

Frame #10
"This warning sticker fooled me, it is over the headlamps on both sides, I took it to mean the head lamps had 25000 volts. WRONG, just plain old 12V halogen."

The retrofit worked so well I took it to the next level with 50 watt HID high beams, 700 yards of daylight, I'll try and find the link.

EDIT:
Here it is,
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=hid

HAHA BYE

I see, thanks!

raymond g-

boy, I sure misread the question. i shouldn't be reading when at work, I guess.
having to read fast and look over my shoulder has a way of unbalancing my
comprehension.

timannnn

Just wanted to post on this forum and say thank you to yacht master for the incredible write up for the bi-xenon headlight install.

I have another option that's in between installing the factory bi-xenon headlamps and the "rebased" h7 hid kits into the halogen headlights (which I had already tried). I didn't want to spend over 1k for the factory headlamps so I found a different way that's about a third the cost (if bought from ebay).

Basically you take either the factory bi-xenon projectors (not the complete headlamp just the projector inside) and bolt them into the factory halogen headlamps. If any of you wired your "rebased" h7 hid kits with the capacitor already than you are already halfway there.

After I installed my h7 rebased kit I was not impressed with the light output the stock halogen projectors were emitting. If I was parked to any factory xenon car theirs were always brighter. And yes this was the ebay kit (take your pick of any $100 kit). Not to mention that the factory halogen projectors emit extra light at the top of the glass on the projector to illuminate street signs. When you put 3 times the light into the stock halogen projector with the xenon kit you get way too much glare for oncoming drivers. Now some people may not care about the extra light blinding other drivers but it bugs the c**p out of me when other people do this.

The process to do this is pretty easy imo. Basically you find either audi bi-xenon projectors or mercedes e55 projectors (not active xenon where light moves when you turn corners). The ones I have are audi's. The audi bolt pattern is slightly different than the factory halogen projectors but only by two holes. There are only 4 small screws holding the projector inside the headlight. That's it. The bottom two holes are identical but the top two are not. But it bolts to a plastic housing inside the headlight. Two small self tapping screws later and done. The projector was in. In fact on ebay right now there are e55 projectors that will fit the halogen housings perfectly. The funny thing is the halogen housing is exactly the same as the xenon. In fact when you look on the bottom of the haogen housing there are the screw bosses where the ballasts mount to and also the holes where all the wiring goes through.

Numbered Steps:

1. Buy just the D2S (bulb type) bi-xenon projectors off ebay (or anywhere of your choosing). You can run either audi (mine were off of an A6) or e class (e55). I only remommend these two as I am not sure what else will fit.

2. Buy HID kit for d2s bulb type. Can be philips ballasts or any of your choosing as long as they are d2s compatible. I had philips as they supply most of the high end car manufacturers. There are some sellers on ebay selling the audi projectors and bulbs and ballasts as one kit.

3. Bumper removal. Just follow this thread. It's not that hard as I did it by myself. Yacht master did an awesome job and his instruction is exact.

4. Take headlights off (also follow yacht master's instruction). Now here is the tricky part but not hard at all. You have to take the clear lens of the headlight off. The trick is to take the bulbs out of the headlight. Remove the rubber surrounding the headlight "circles" and then take off the silver clips. Preheat your kitchen oven to 150 degrees. Put the complete headlight into the oven and bake for 8 minutes. This softens the silicone and alows you to pry the clear lens from the black housing. When you are prying the lens off I would recommend having an exacto knife to cut through the silicone as it makes it easier to take the clear lens off. Also be careful not to get any of the silicone on the chrome housing.

5. Once you have the clear lens off try not to get too many fingerprints on the chrome as the chrome scratches very easily. Grab the round chrome ring that is on the glass projector housing and just pull off. You might have to wiggle back and forth but it just slides off.

6. Look inside the headlight (where headlight bulb inserts) and you will see the 4 t-20 torx screws holding the projector to the inside of the housing. Simply remove the 4 screws and the projector will pull out of the housing.

7. Take the new bi xenon projector and install it into the housing. If you are using the audi projector you will need slightly longer screws as the projector has a thicker flange than the stock halogen projector.

8. Install the chrome ring onto the round glass portion on the front of the projector (the one you removed in step 5). Make sure you put it on correctly. The flat portion goes towards the top.

9. Now you can put the clear lens back onto the headlight. What I did was put the lens back on with all the metal mounting tabs and then put it back into the oven for 8 minutes to soften the silicone again. Once it's done just gently squish the clear lens into the black housing and it's sealed again. No need to add any extra silicone as there was a ton on mine.

10. Now all that's left is wiring up the ballasts. On mine I mounted the philips ballast to the bottom of the headlight just like the factory. I also did the capacitor trick (it's in the w211 forum under hid sticky). The wiring is the same as installing an aftermarket "rebased" kit. For the bi xenon portion (getting the xenon high beams to work) I simply tapped into the factory high beam wiring (made it look factory too) to turn the solenoids on when hitting the high beams. It doesn't draw that much current so it will not throw any bulb error codes. At least on mine it doesn't. Now when I switch on the high beams I have the bi-xenon high beams and the factory 55 watt high beams. Let's just say "let there be light". It is extremely bright.

11. Now just reverse the steps for mounting the headlights and the bumper. Just make sure and double check the lights before re-installing.

I get no error codes and did not have to visit the dealership for the xenon present switch.

Now I am copletely satisfied with the result. I think the hella brand audi xenon projectors are a little brighter than the factory mercedes IMO. The cutoff for the lights is dot approved as they came out of audi. I didn't even have to readjust mine as the beam and aim was perfect.

Total time involved is around 4 hours and that was doing it by myself.

Here are the audi projectors that I am using. Click here.

And here is the stock e55 projector. Click here.

E55_GT3wheels

I did exactly what was mentioned in the above post on my W210 E55. I used the audi projectors with ulstram bulbs. It was actually retrofitted by Xam on this forum. He is awesome and did a great job. I must say that those lights looked much better than the stock W211 bixenons. The output looked just as good and due to the audi projector, the color was so much nicer! I love the audi projectors. Much nicer color IMO. Here are some pics of the depo lights with retrofitted audi projectors in my now sold W210 E55.

Now I went this route with the W210 since the stock xenons on that car were NOT projectors and I wanted new/clear projector look. My only option was depot housing and replacing the projectors as a retrofit. With the W211, my car has stock bixenons but if it did not, I prob would also just go with the stock units as YatchMAster did. Its much less hassle. Although if you know how to do the retrofit, and some know how to very easily, I would go the retrofit route and use audi projectors. ok enough babbling.

E55Pilot

It's the Bulb that determines the color, not the projector lens

E55_GT3wheels

I know the bulb determines the color for the most part but the projector has some to do with it also. The same color temp bulb (4200) yielded a much nicer color in the audi projectors. Those projectors are just nicer and why the audis xenons look nicer. they also use 4200K stock bulbs - but they are more blue/purple vs stock mercedes due to the projector lens.

E55Pilot

actually, No. the bulb and the ballast determines the color not the projector.

Vader55

+1 If you want a high quality bulb with great color get a phillips ultinon.

E55_GT3wheels

I have seen both mercedes and audi projectors side by side. The projectors are not the same as far as the lens/coloring. I am 99% sure the projector matters and adds to the color diff (not just the bulb/ballast).

Here is some proof:

"So the million dollar question is now: Why do BMW & Audi lights appear blue when they use a white bulb?

Well, this coloration is the result of the light projectors; the lenses: it's transparency, it's curvature, the tiny grooves etched into it; the projector assembly, the shield, and the reflector bowl."

Taken from the below:

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f1adbcd

Vader55

Here is some info:

Bosch 3" Bi-xenon projector should fit right in. This is the same projector used in OEM SL, CL, S, C (yep), SLR, and most BMW & Audi. Yes, lot of them use the same projector, ballast, and bulb. If you can get a pair of the ECE one, then you get yourself even better light output.

Also, people often go w/ 6000-8000K bulb color for that purple look. Ever drive behind a BMW or Audi at night ? Light color is totally white, only when you look at it approaching that you see that purple hue flicker. The purple is created by optical effect on the lens. All OEM xenon use 4300K xenon bulb, for best light output, and the projector lens help to give them that purple look. The aftermarket junk can't never get you that, so they up the Kelvin temperature of the bulb (6000-10000K), to make the light go purple all the time, hurt the eyes while driving a lot, and reduce useful light output significantly, especially when it rains or snow. These aftermarket xenon bulb is more or less spell out "cheap aftermarket upgrade. Again, go with OEM ballast and 4300K bulb if you can, they last much longer & produce better light

bighman

[QUOTE=jamusa I understand that while the lamp will work perfect,the lamp will not make that self adjustment upon sart up. [/QUOTE]

So will the Xenon lamps work without setting Xenon present or version coding? I'm planning the install later this month....you mention not starting the car up.. just wondering?

intellilogic

Wow, lots of chatter, I stopped reading. Anyhow... do you actually have beast eyes lights in there, or is that just a photo edit? I've considered some beast eye's.

JoelE55

great write up guys...

whytry

Very nice write up....

WHTEVO

Great write up. Saved for use later

If anyone has some Bi-Zenon headlamps for sale that fit a 04' E55, PM me with price.

Aaron

chawkins2001

subscribing for DIY front clip removal, thanks buddy.