asc

I can't find anything conclusive on this. My car has item 640, and was allegedly built after folks allegedly say ILS+ became legal in the US. And yet, it's not in the options at all. If it's legal, the dealer can turn it on, right? If not, I guess we're left with the vendors we all know about here. But before I go that route, I figured I'd check here once more, as the most recent threads mentioning this are pretty old now. Apologies if this is conclusively answered somewhere and I just missed it. Thanks!

bobblehead

It's illegal per se because it has not passed from any safety testing and certifications. MB dealers may not want to retroactively turn on any functions due to possible liabilities issue as they may have to get the approval from MBUSA as starter.

Certainly, there are shops or even coders out there doing the coding in the past many years on the W213 for a few hundred $.

But in Canada, I recall all W213 from 2021 model years (or maybe even 2020 model year ??) already have this activated from the factory.

asc

Thanks, and I agree if it's not expressly legal, then it's illegal. At the same time, there are posts saying that it's legal, including on this forum. Admittedly, however, those posts are from or involve vendors who have an incentive to say things that aren't necessarily precise.

bobblehead

If you normally drive on really dark and un-lit roads, then you can consider doing it. But mind you, the full matrix function does not work well in the city in most situations.

asc

Yup, and I do drive on dark rural roads all the time. The more I can see deer and raccoons and pedestrians in dark clothes, the better!

bobblehead

so, the full function activation can be very useful for you then. Give it some thoughts then.

superswiss

The full EU implementation of the headlight functionality is still not legal in the US. The devil is in the details. The US adopted yet a different standard for this. For example the amount of light that's allowed to be put out is different between the USA and Europe. Last I heard is that the car manufacturers are evaluating what they can offer in the USA under the new regulations. To be honest the latest implementation of the automatic high beams with the multi beam LEDs is pretty good. It's no longer a simple on/off.. Instead it turns the high beams on in segments depending on whether there's oncoming traffic or not. Basically it shortens and lengthens the beam depending on the situation. In rural areas with little traffic, I'm not sure you'll notice much of a difference between the full EU implementation vs the current US implementation. The lights won't be brighter per se. The difference is that with the EU implementation if there's oncoming traffic it will only darken the area of the oncoming vehicles, but still keep the side of the road lit, so that can make a difference if you have a lot of oncoming traffic, but otherwise on mostly empty roads both implementations will fully illuminate what's ahead of you.

asc

Thanks! Is this something my car should already have just based on factory settings and OTA updates? Or does it need to be updated at the dealer or through a vendor? At this point I really only notice the auto on/off, I'm not really noticing anything more nuanced than that.

superswiss

With the 2023 your car should have it, as long as you have the multi beam headlights. The multi beam headlights can be recognized visually by the blue accentuation inside of them. They have different designs in the different models, but they all have blue on the side of the main beam assembly and usually somewhere inside of them you'll see multi beam written on the housing. My 2019 C63 has them and they do the aforementioned light dance. When the high beams turn on it's like a light curtain that opens up. They don't turn on all at once, instead it looks like a light carpet being rolled out in front of the car. If it detects oncoming traffic relatively late like around a bend, then it turns them off fully all at once, but if the oncoming traffic is seen ahead of time, then I can observe it make the high beams shorter and shorter as the oncoming vehicle approaches. Your mileage in the W213 may vary.

taphil

Fully enabled ILS+ is a lot better than the gimped ILS. Worth it to get coded.

Illegal? You think the police are gonna pull you over cuz your lights do fancy tricks that don't blind oncoming traffic?

Nbxjskamg

It is LEGAL, as of 2022. DOT passed it.
but MB won't retro activate it.
you need to talk to guys at RJ automotive.

I have mine on at all time.
Also shows cool startup animation.

superswiss

Not true. What the DOT passed doesn't make the current implementation legal as I said. Read the fine print.