Hella Ecode headlight beam pattern pics on my daughters 240D
 

Just installed the new Hella Ecode lights on my daughters 83 240D. A hugh difference in the low beam driving pattern. The high beam pattern is also much better. She had Wagner Halogen H6024 sealed beams before. The pictures below are

1- Wagner low beams.
2- Wagner high beams
3- Hella Ecode low beams
4- Hella Ecode high beams
5- A side by side comparison of the difference

Here is where I got the Hella lights.

http://www.rallylights.com/hella/7in.asp

Her lamp kit is H6024m the "Two Lamps with 60/55w Hella Premium Xenon +100% H4 Bulbs"

My sons car will get the 100/80 watt kit.

Our wagon will get the same as my daughters.

Dave

I edited the post to add picture number 5, a side by side comparison.
This may help convince the "significant other" why you need to spend another $100 on that "old car"

The pictures below show the new Ecode lights on the road

1- Ecode low beam, roadway.
2- Ecode high beam, roadway.
3- Ecode low beam driveway.
4- Ecode high beam driveway.

Dave

Really makes a differance!
I have a 4 headlamp system and aircraft landing lights, pencil beam, for the highbeams. The opposite happened of what I thought would happen. It slowed me down on high speed night driving, because of what I could see! All the deer and other small animals along the roadway, that I didn't see before!

You did one of the best things you could have done for your families safety by improving the headlamps. You even have them properly aimed! Aiming correctly will save your life!!!

This is the real bling bling....:D

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

How easy?
 

dmorrison,

How easy was the install? Did you need to upgrade the wiring?

My daughters and the 300TD are standard 60/55 watt bulbs. So no wire harness change. My son's lamps will be 100/80 watt. So a larger alternator, wires and relays will be required.

Installation takes 5 minutes. Install the bulbs into the lamps. Install the rubber backing boot over the lamp/bulb opening. Remove the headlight surround by removing the 3 large plastic nuts and pulling off the surround. Loosen the 3 bolts ( Phillips screwdriver) holding the headlight retaining ring. Swap out the lamps. Plug the existing harness into the new bulbs. Reinstall the lamps and surrounds and you done. Our headlights did not require any adjustment.

One minor little item I forgot about. To use Ecode lights you have to cut out the back of the inner headlight assembly. I had already done this on my daughters and sons car but not the 300TD. A jig saw and a file will do the job fine. Your cutting off just the rear flat section of the alluminum. I had done this for other lights that were cheap and I thought had a terrible light pattern. Doing the 300TD I may just use a hole saw that is large enough for the connector to fit through. 1 1/2 inches may do the trick. See the attached pictures the left one is the 300TD. The right one the 240D. A little out of focus.:eek:

Dave

I enjoy the documented projects that you do from time to time. Very nice pictorial difference in the two lighting choices. Seems kind of dumb for the rest of us to not do it. Cost isn't prohibitive either......
Thanks!

wow.. what an improvement.. i am investing in these soon as i can

I never had to cut the back part of the headlights when I switched to E-code lights. Won't doing this allow water to get in the engine compartment through that hole?

While we're on the topic of E-codes, does anybody have a good suggestion for headlight lens protectors? I lost my right headlight because of road debris, knocked a good pin-sized hole through the glass. A new set of Hellas from the same site Dave got his are on its way.

Reviewing the photos, I would agree. Cutting the inner headlight assembly is not necessary for the Hella Ecodes. It was necessary for the other lights we had. Thanks for pointing that out. I would not worry about water getting in the engine compartment. Plenty already does from below and through the radiator area.

I know you can get a plastic film that helps protect the glass lens. I need to find a source.

Dave

Thanx....
 

Just wanted to say Thanx........I have been considering switching to E-Codes......living out here in the boonies keeps you interested in the furry critters who lurk out there in the night.....as well as the occasional boulder or tree......

......but being a tad frugal, I am waiting for one of my headlights to quit first.....:D

SB

Considering how cheap these are, how easy they are to install, and how much more satisfaction they add to driving your car there is no reason EVERYONE should not install these. You don't have to buy the 50 dollar Silverstar bulbs either to see the improvement.

I bought my E-codes for my 300D last winter.. and let me tell you.. it's a world of difference. Friends nearby with regular sealed beams for their W123's all comment on how much better they can see with my car.

Most likely, buying the E-codes was the best purchase I ever did for that car. I'd get the 100W's, but the 60/55's work fine. I'm pretty sure mine are aimed properly. __/__/ should be the pattern, right? The right "backwards L" should touch where the left beam curves upwards, correct?

3M makes a type of thin vinyl like cover that goes right over the glass..

Its one of the best upgrades you can do especially for those of us with "older eyes". I use Phlips Plus 30s they seem to do about as good a job as the 100/80s I ran till finding out about the hazards of running over wattage bulbs.

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

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

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. :idea2:

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.

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

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.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/142368-another-review-autopal-e-code-headlights.html?highlight=Autopal
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 :D

What about something like this?:confused:
Oh, and what exactly are "city lights"?

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

Dim-Dip Lamps/ city light
 

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

Yay!
 

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......:wacko: )

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.

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

w123 w124
 

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.:grim::behead:

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

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. :D ;) 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...

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.

e-code
 

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

My headlights are the square H6054 200mm ones on the W126....

I figured a relay setup would work, probably what I'd do. and I'd leave the MB fogs alone, that way I at least have some lights if something happened to the relay setup.... I bet the alternator would be fine with the higher bulbs....a 65A alternator can put out over 600 watts at higher rpms....250 or so with lights, radio....fan etc...shouldn't be too much. It holds 13.7 volts even with my rear defroster on high, all lights (fogs too), blower on high, etc...I have a volt gauge so I'd know if it was too much.

Dave,

Is this set up legal (DOT approved) in CA?? :confused:

There are DOT approved Hella units, which throw a part of the light beam upwards to illuminate overhead signs that are not lit, and I think they also have the alignment pins on the glass.

So for Hella, you have two options: full European H4 or DOT approved H4

100000x yes. Although the hot spot brightness of the DOT 7" round is ok the light distrubition is not. Even a stock wattage lamp will be a dramatic improvement.

-Jason

To add to this, E-codes on the left, Vision Plus (DOT legal) on the right

http://www.rallylights.com/Hella_7_inch_Round_H4_%20Headlamps.aspx

Replaced my Wagner sealed beams with the Hella H4 E-codes yesterday. It was very easy to do and, as others have said, the H4s are a huge improvement. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade.

I need to replace a blown Wagner seal halogen beam. Called a friend who owns a high end shop about switching to a Hella H4 55/60 ecode.

His view is that because they do not seal well against the slush and silt of daily driving, the reflectivity diminishes fairly quickly with time and the advantage is lost.

What is the collective experience here?

thanks,

- Neil

I don't want to be rude, but high-end shop for what? Garden tractors? :D

Ok now I've had my little rant, I assume you mean you want to replace the round sealed beams with round H4 lights. I have never heard about any sealing issue with these.

Your friend may be talking about large, square Hella or Bosch "euro" lights that replace the NA-spec headlamp-foglamp assembly completely. These can develop seal issues over age, but old age.

In any event, I would take a dirty H4 over a sparkling new sealed beam any day. No one, and I mean no one, who has ever switched to H4s ever looked back.

Those headlights have a replaceable bulb from the back, of course. They include a boot that fits over the plug, no issues here in over ten years.

They also have different bulbs.

Zacharias;

You are correct, my intent is to replace my round Wagner H3 bulbs.

FYI, I see that Hella sells a 55/60 sealed bulb and the H4 "conversion" is 55/60 watts too. From what I've been able to find, the Hella H4 candlepower > Hella seal beam candlepower. The Hella H4 estimated life < Hella seal beam life.

Do you know of a specific Hella H4 part number that is plug and play? I'm not interested in upgrading the wiring or my alternator.

Our host sells a "conversion" unit that is $60/bulb that are aimed at the Porsche crowd. Someone has suggested Hella 002 395 801. What do you use/recommend?

TooManyMBZ;

I can't read your part numbers. Which bulb do you use/recommend?

Thanks!

- Neil

Amazon.com: HELLA 002395991 7" H4 Type Single High/Low Beam Headlamp: Automotive

There is no need to upgrade wiring, install relays or upgrade your alternator for a basic H4 upgrade like this. I bought these... I note they now don't say they come with a bulb. Mine did.

Some people who live in the boonies run motorcycle-spec bulbs, which (IIRC) are 80/100, in those applications you need to install relays to protect the wiring.

x2!

Had a nice chat with Ray the Wire Guy. Thanks to the List for recommending Ray's outfit. .Ordered a pair of these plus Hella Zenon + 50% bulbs.

H6024 Hella 7" Round E-code Hi-Lo Conversion Headlamp Kit. | Rally Lights

FYI he also builds 12-gauge wiring harnesses for those of you who feel the need to step up to 80/100 watt bulbs.

- Neil