Hella Ecode headlight beam pattern pics on my daughters 240D - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

dmorrison · #16 12-27-2006, 12:49 PM

My Father-in-law was here for Xmas. 83 years old and he drove down from New York with my son (23 years old). Should of had an adult with them

. Son called, "boy the fog is really bad here". Are you driving? young, good eyes etc. No grandpa is.

He still is very alert and a good driver. But after knowing him since I was 16, I have seen him age.
I digress. His lights on his 2003 Mercury Marquis were not good. I had to polish the lenses and installed Sylvania Silverstar bulbs. He did not want me to "bother" since, " As long as I have a white line I'm OK". Dad, not all the roads have good white lines!!!!!!!. So I fixed his lights. Even with polishing them and the Silverstar bulbs, that car just does not have very good lights for a 2003.

He just left at 4:30 this morning to go to Florida, the New Yorkers southern home.

Dave

dmorrison · #17 12-27-2006, 01:28 PM

Well I've been looking at protective film. Here are some suppliers. Notice it comes in various thicknesses. 8 mil to 40 mil.

Best price per square inch. 40 mil thick AND the manufacture. You can buy it by whatever measurement you want. I'll probably buy from them.

http://www.xpel.com/products/bulk.asp

Auto sport has a generic size. 2 sheets of 19" X 8" at 40 mil thick for 44.95 + 9.50 S&H. Xpel for the same thing is $33.50

http://www.autosportcatalog.com/index.cfm?fa=p&pid=332&sc=7542

Griots has some good quality stuff but a little expensive. And only 23 mil thick.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/search.jsp?searchtext=headlight

Clear Guard is not quite as thick

http://www.clear-guard.com/bulkmaterial.asp

Dave

pastmaster · #18 12-27-2006, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OMEGAMAN

my friend had aircraft headlights in a Galaxy they would light the road in daytime. Are they 12 volt? Where do you get them?

Omegaman,
Speed and Old Style Auto Parts Shops can get them and go out to the local airport, as they are for Cessna's and Piper's, etc. They are 12V, but also 24V. These lamps are sealed-beam in their design. Pencil or Flood Beams, you want Pencil for long range lighting.
GE and Wagner make them and cost me about $15. ea., 25 years ago! I looked on Ebay and they are the same price today! Large selection.

They have different connectors from autolamps. No problem, I made a pigtail with the blade terminal plugging into the cars female connector and put a loop terminal that connects with a screw-clamp, to the landing light. It takes 2 per lamp. One thing to be careful of is to make sure of the rating of your headlamp switch in the car, as 100watts without a relay may make the switch overheat and fail. Use relays for these powerful lamps. My old BMW 733i has all this engineered from the factory, HD wiring, relays and fuses, switches etc. I would think MB, has too?
It was set up for the European E-Code system and with Hella H4 Hi-Low Beam lamps, 55w/100w and the Landing lights 100w, you can see and be seen.
You have to use some sense when driving with powerful lights like these as you can blind on-coming traffic and following cars too closely with the High Beams lit. I also have Bosch Touring Model Foglamps, I bought at Kmart for $30. or under, on sale a long time ago. They make a good fill-in light for curves and corners, and fog too. It had everything! Wire connectors, mounting hardware and the black plastic protective covers that read Bosch Touring and I still can get parts from Bosch for them! Get some protective plastic film for your lights! I have lost 2 or 3 lamps due to rocks and they were covered!
There you have it.

WD8CDH · #19 12-28-2006, 11:35 AM

Do the Hella E-codes have a flat lens face or a dome lens face? The Cibie's have a dome face that looks like stock sealed beams but some of the Hella's that I have seen were flat.

dmorrison · #20 12-28-2006, 12:31 PM

Hellas are flat. The 240D is on it's way to College Station for a wedding. When my daughter returns I'll take pictures of it. It's hard to notice unless your looking specifically at the headlights for shape.

Being flat, installing the protective film should be easier.

Dave

dieseldiehard · #21 12-29-2006, 12:16 AM

Euros are the ONLY way to go, including on the 124 chassis BTW.
I hate to steal the thread and bring up another brand of headlight but I have Hellas on one car, Carellos on another and Autopals on yet another (123/123/115 chassis). The Carellos are my favorites but I actually think that Autropals have the best lighting pattern of all of them. And they are very low priced lamps. But good quality.
Another review of Autopal E-code headlights
I used to have a 24V landing light in my XKE (long gone) it was a 26.5 Volt 2500 Watt bulb and came out of a B36 when they scrapped them out at Amon Carter field. Sacre Bleu! I could make cars pull over when I lit it up. I had a second 12V battery that was in series for operating or parallel for charging. Best feature was the light was retractible in the center opening of the "E-type" so I could hide it in case police got after me

JimmyL · #22 12-29-2006, 12:56 AM

What about something like this?

Oh, and what exactly are "city lights"?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7-H6024-6014-H4-EURO-CONVERSION-HEADLIGHTS-KIT_W0QQitemZ230071623323QQihZ013QQcategoryZ33710QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

pmari · #23 12-29-2006, 02:26 AM

Dim-Dip Lamps (UK Only)
UK regulations briefly required vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1987 to be equipped with a dim-dip device[20] or special running lamps, except such vehicles as comply fully with ECE Regulation 48 regarding installation of lighting equipment. A dim-dip device operates the low beam headlamps (called "dipped beam" in the UK) at between 10% and 20% of normal low-beam intensity. The running lamps permitted as an alternative to dim-dip were required to emit at least 200 candela straight ahead, and no more than 800 candela in any direction. In practise, most vehicles were equipped with the dim-dip option rather than the running lamps.

The dim-dip systems were not intended for daytime use as DRLs. Rather, they operated if the engine was running and the driver switched on the parking lamps (called "sidelights" in the UK). Dim-dip was intended to provide a nighttime "town beam" with intensity between that of parking lamps (commonly used by British drivers in city traffic after dark) and dipped/low beams, because the former were considered insufficiently intense to provide improved conspicuity in conditions requiring it, while the latter were considered too glaring for safe use in built-up areas. The UK was the only country to use such dim-dip systems.[21]

In 1988, the European Commission successfully prosecuted the UK government in the European Court of Justice, arguing that the UK requirement for dim-dip was illegal under EC directives prohibiting member states from enacting vehicle lighting requirements not contained in pan-European EC directives. As a result, the UK requirement for dim-dip was quashed. Nevertheless, dim-dip was (and is) still permitted, and while such systems are not presently as common as they once were, dim-dip functionality was fitted on many new cars well into the 1990s

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyL

Oh, and what exactly are "city lights"?

grommet · #24 03-26-2007, 11:14 AM

Hello all - This is my first time posting here. Yesterday, I traded my husbands' vehicle (at his urging, of course) for my dream car. A beautiful red 1975 240d. I have wanted a 240d for 2 years and have finally received this awesome gift. (OK, how female of me, I cried while driving it on my way home......

)

The gentleman who I traded with does work on many vehicles and specializes in older British cars - Austin Healys (sp?), minis, TRs, etc.

My car has many "glitches" but there are some issues that are safety related. I will be doing alot of the work myself. I am fortunate enough that the trader lent me a MB engine manual (pretty daunting) and another MB car manual.

* no low beams
* had to take out the fuse for the wipers b/c they wouldn't stop and of course, now the horn doesn't either
* no heat.....made for a brisk ride this a.m. while driving my hubby to work
* no e brake....
There are others but these are what I'm most concerned with. I've been going over the manuals and the trader has offered to let me use his hoist and tools and have his spare parts - have I died and gone to heaven?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

I very much enjoy reading all the posts on this forum.

dmorrison · #25 05-03-2007, 06:50 PM

To add to this post. I did install the Ecode lights in to the 300TD and I did not have to change anything in the buckets. No cutting or anything. The Hella Ecodes just slipped right in.

Dave

europower · #26 08-28-2007, 01:32 AM

Where do i get some ecode lights?
I need serious improvements in my lightning,i live in the country and my lights currently suck very bad.
w124 and w123 needed.

toomany MBZ · #27 08-28-2007, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grommet

Hello all - This is my first time posting here. Yesterday, I traded my husbands' vehicle (at his urging, of course) for my dream car. A beautiful red 1975 240d. I have wanted a 240d for 2 years and have finally received this awesome gift. (OK, how female of me, I cried while driving it on my way home......

)

The gentleman who I traded with does work on many vehicles and specializes in older British cars - Austin Healys (sp?), minis, TRs, etc.

My car has many "glitches" but there are some issues that are safety related. I will be doing alot of the work myself. I am fortunate enough that the trader lent me a MB engine manual (pretty daunting) and another MB car manual.

* no low beams New headlights?
* had to take out the fuse for the wipers b/c they wouldn't stop Switch? and of course, now the horn doesn't either
* no heat.....made for a brisk ride this a.m. while driving my hubby to work Can of worms, I'm afraid.
* no e brake.... Cable?
There are others but these are what I'm most concerned with. I've been going over the manuals and the trader has offered to let me use his hoist and tools and have his spare parts - have I died and gone to heaven? Perhaps!

Any suggestions gratefully received.

I very much enjoy reading all the posts on this forum.

Welcome, welcome do you know what chassis that is? Could you post a pic? A bit old for me to help, I think.

pawoSD · #28 09-20-2007, 12:04 PM

So the consensus is that these E-Code lamps work well? I am considering buying a set to replace the Phillips Ultra-Blue's I put on my car about a year ago....they're better than what I had, but still far from amazing in terms of what CAN be had.

I'd like good lights as I drive at night about 65-70% of my driving.

The H6054 e-code replacements with 100/80watt Premium Xenon lights are only $105....

80 from 55watt is not that big of a difference so I doubt the alternator needs any changes, but can the existing wiring handle it? Thats an extra 6-7 amps or 60-70watts overall....

I know I modded my brake light system from 42 watt (two standard lamps) to 84watts and a LED bar (about 4-5watts) so close to 90 watts...and it has 0 probs on the existing wiring.

Would relays and such be needed? Or should I go with the lesser 55/60 bulbs. I'd really like the brightest possible...

WD8CDH · #29 09-20-2007, 01:53 PM

I had a chance to compare Cibie E-Codes to MB euros. The E-Codes were quite noticably better. Replace the fogs with E-Code high beams and you really throw some light on high.

I don't like using higher power bulbs on 7" lights because of the increase glare to other drivers. If someone made a 60/100W bulb, I'd use it.

Jeremy5848 · #30 09-20-2007, 02:24 PM

I have e-code H4 (55/60W) 7" main headlights and H1 (55W) 5" high beams in place of the foglights on my '85 (W123 car) and I rewired the switch so the new 'driving lights' will come on with high beam. Four high beams put out a lot of light even with the lower wattage bulbs!

I would recommend a relay for the higher wattage lamps. Mercedes spec'd the wire sizes in the harness for the 55/60W lamps and, although the wire will probably stand the higher current, there will be some voltage drop and you won't get all of the 80 or 100 Watts that you're paying for. A heavy (4 gauge?) fused lead directly from the battery to a relay would be the best way to power the higher wattage bulbs. The existing wires can switch the relay.

The stock alternator may not be able to keep up with the demand -- you would want to do some tests to see how long you can have the brighter bulbs on line without pulling the battery down. One option might be to use the 100W bulbs only in the foglight position. That way, you could switch them on only when you really needed more light. The 5" reflector will not be as efficient as the 7" main headlights but that's just one of life's compromises. Extensive use of brighter bulbs in all four sockets would call for a larger alternator, IMHO.

Jeremy