XRAYAMG

hello all,

i'm a newbie. i just bought a slightly used 2005 E55 with 3200 miles on it. i love the car, but it did not have bi-xenons. when i bought the car, i thought it wouldn't be a big deal to retrofit them (i had before on one of my cars previously).

anyway, i've called several dealers here in atlanta and they want approx $7000 to $10000!!! they have to be nuts. they said they had to change out the entire wiring harness, and it wasn't just a "plug-n-play" for 2005 models.

is this because of regulations and laws for self-leveling and so forth? can the halogens be upgrade with the bi-xenons without changing the entire wiring harness? i'm assuming i won't have the self-leveling or adaptive features...but i don't care. i just can't stand the yellow lights.

has anyone upgraded his/her halogens on an 2005? what do i need to do to make this happen? what should be a reasonable cost? where can i get some bi-xenons at a good price? how hard is the intall?

thanks for your input.

chem0

Shouldnt a E55 come with bi-xenons as standard? how come this one wasnt?

Harris

Bi-xenons on US cars is an option.

BenzoBoi

I heard in order to keep the base price of the E55 low, they had to skimp out on alot of things...and xenons standard was one of them...Cheap *******s...

medici78

I'd like to know this as well. I am in the market for a pre-owned E55 right now and more than half of the cars I have inquired about were not equipped with them. It is a dealbreaker for me on this car, unless I find out they can be retrofitted for a reasonable price.

darylhuff

You can usually get Xenon retrofit kits from places like http://xenondepot.com/, but keep in mind that they are technicaly illegal for on-road use. I doubt you'll ever be pulled over for it since how would anyone know if the car came with them or not originally. I understand the reason they are illegal is that to be on a production car, Xenon lights must have a self-leveling mechanism to ensure that the lights don't shoot up into oncoming traffic. My E55 has Xenons and I can see the self-leveling mechanism work everytime I start the car with the lights on.

korveine

You might want to check with Steve from www.mbenznl.com as it seems he can retrofit bi-xenon for quite a bit less than the $7K-10K that the dealerships are quoting you.

Good luck and tell us what you end up going with!

scorchie

How would anyone know if the car came with them originally? Well, your headlight housing lists the type of bulbs approved for the housing, usually on the lens. This is the only bulb approved for use, and if you put a different bulb in, such as a retrofit kit from xenondepot.com, it will be immediately apparent. Countries and states where inspections are mandatory will often note this.

The reason they are illegal has nothing to do with the self leveling mechanism, This is not required in the US, so they are not illegal because of that. They are illegal because they are the wrong bulbs in a headlight housing, and probably scatter light everywhere it shouldn't be (like into the eyes of oncoming drivers).

You can see the self-leveling mechanism work on your E55 because it has it. It doesn't have it because it is required by law in the US; it has it because they left that feature in the car.

-s-

E55_POWER

My guess as to why the dealer is trying to r@pe you is because on the late 04 and 05s the lights go side to side as you turn your car and self leveling as you go up and down hills. I recall when I did that to my bimmer, there were sensors in the shocks or nearby all 4 wheels I think. I'm not quite sure where the sensors are when you turn your car side to side.

If you can live without self leveling, I'm sure there are plenty of kits out there. My guess is you only need bulbs, ballast and some form of resistor to basically fake out the car to think it is getting right voltage thus not triggering a "Malfunction"

medici78

Do the mbenznl kits have the self-leveling mechanism?

darylhuff

Interesting opinion, but not true. I've seen retrofits and they are not "immediately obvious". To the contrary they from the outside they look almost identical to a factory equiped xenon headlight. Of course if one looks under the hood a trained eye would probably notice extra wiring.
Again, interesting assertion, but not true. They make the replacement bulbs to be the same size and distance into the housing so they refract in exactly the same way as the original, non-xenon bulb.

I'm not for or against anyone doing this. I ordered my E55 with Xenons, but for those that didn't, please check the facts before making a decision to either do the retrofit or not. Talk to some places that actually specialize in xenon conversion kits and find out the truth for yourself.

Symbolic

Please see my past thread on this topic -- it should be helpful:

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/59565-method-upgrading-active-curve-illumination-curve-sensing-bi-xenon-headlights.html

scorchie

Sigh...you need to do some more research before you decide what is and is not true, because you are ignoring possibilities you have not considered.

1) I said it is immediately apparent, you said a trained eye would need to look under the hood. How does your statement invalidate mine? I never said it wasn't a trained eye. The fact is that the headlight has stated on the housing (usually the lens) the BULB TYPE it is designed for. If you turn the headlight on and an instant-on HID light comes out of a housing that has "H7" molded into it, that's imediately apparent especially to inspectors (which was my point you disregarded, they are a "trained eye").

2) That the halogen and HID bulbs place the light source in a similar position to original doesn't make a correct pattern. The reason for this is that the HID bulb and just about every halogen bulb in use can NEVER make the HID envelope and the halogen filament the same size and shape. Take a look at an HID bulb. The "capsule" you see in the middle is COMPLETELY illuminated when the bulb is on. Contrast that with an H7 bulb, which has a thin filament. Yes, those 2-3mm make a difference when you are talking about reflector that shoots a beam hundreds of feet. Compare that more with an H4 bulb, which has a filament that runs in a direction completely different than an HID bulb. There are bulbs under development to correct this; to my knowledge, not a single one has seen release yet, possibly because at this time the market would be too limited to make it financially viable.

All of my "assertions" are in fact true, and you may want to do further research on the subject (or even testing some of the patterns that these retrofit create in halogen housings yourself--have you? I have). This has all been fairly well documented (not on just the Internet... hahaha). It also has been covered here at mbworld quite a bit. As a newer user, you may want to go back and check what some of these other posts have stated.

I agree that someone who is considering this should check the "facts", and the facts should not be what a xenon retrofitter says, and should not be what two guys on the Internet say. They should be documented facts (although, you haven't refuted my statements at all except to say that they are "not true"... where's the backup?). People interested in further information on this subject from acknowledged experts should search on "Daniel Stern lighting".

-s-

Beowulf

You go, Dean! I wasn't impressed with aftermarket HID bulb and ballast upgrades to an originally-halogen-equipped E55. I should know. I'm the original owner of XRAYAMG's Pewter car, the person that started this thread. He PM'ed me to confirm my previous ownership and I gave him my contact info, offering to share info on bi-xenon upgrade sources, etc.

No idea what the situation is today given crazy exchange rates, but six months ago, Steve had the best factory retrofit prices and it would have been especially sweet to have him do the install on-site. Too bad his current itinerary doesn't include Atlanta, but there's at least one independent local source that I'm sure can do the retrofit for much less than XRAYAMG's dealer quote.

First option I requested on the replacement Brilliant Silver car was the 319 Lighting Package.

miroj

I like these type of posts a lot. I learn and also value the creative input based on research.

onesixeight

scorchie...

Do all US bound E55's come with the self leveling regardless if the car has xenons? For example, if someone retrofits xenons on a car with factory halogens, will lights level themselves? I can barely tell if my car with factory xenons level...the W211 aren't like BMWs where you can see the lights level on start up....

Thanks!

miroj

Its more common on the W220 with halogens to have self levelling.

Look at the light switch ..... if it has " 0 1 2 3 " written next to a wheel then its not got self levelling.

onesixeight

My company car (W220 S320) in Hong Kong has the leveling (0,1,2,3) roller switch. I've never seen one on any US cars...except for an EVO VIII MR that I drove a few weeks ago.

I think the leveling switch is a EU or outside of US thing...

I doubt that any of the US bound Benzs have auto-leveling halogens. But I'm wondering if the cars have the self-leveling hardware in the car, even if one doesn't order the xenon lighting package.

scorchie

I believe the US W211s also have self-leveling even without xenons, but Steve knows more about this than I do. Maybe he can chime in. I definitely know that even if the halogens do level, the system is completely different (and incompatible to) the xenon system. The halogens use the motor that is used on the halogen cars in the EU... which is manually controlled in the EU using the roller next to the headlight switch. But this manual control is apparently not allowed in the US (where it is mandated in the EU), so the US might get autoleveling of the halogen headlights. End result... bixenon retrofit in a US halogen car does not get autoleveling without additional stuff... the leveling controller, for one.

You CAN see the leveling action on startup with the W211s! First turn the headlights on before doing anything in the car. Then turn the car on and you will see the headlights move. The difference (well from my other cars with HIDs, including Mercedes) is that the W211 levels the headlights when the car is turned on whether the headlights are on or not, whereas other cars do it only the first time the headlights are turned on after starting the car.

-s-

MBenzNL

NOT in the US...US spec cars with halogen lights have NO levelling possibilities at all (ther then the adjustment bolt on top of the headlight).

W211 with halogens in the rest of the world have electrical levelling feature (where as the older MB models had vacuum levelling)...so retrofitting that onto a xenon headlight is pretty straight forward...

One never knows...Atlanta is a HUB...there is always a chance I will be there for a stop over...

greetingz,

onesixeight

Thanks Guys! That answers my questions!

medici78

Or any other kit, for that matter?

medici78

Just wanted to chime in that I did the retrofit on my car a couple days after taking delivery. The bi-xenons make a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!! Anyone who's car did not have them factory equipped should really consider doing it. Also, folks who are thinking twice on buying one that did not come equipped with them, should not worry as they are a plug-and-play deal. I had my local dealer service shop installed them and they were EXTREMELY sceptical when I showed up and didn't want to do it at first.I told them, I've done my research, and if it doesn't work I'm still gonna pay for the labor. I bet the tech himself was surprised halwhen they ended up working flawlessly and aimed to spec.