My US headlight door just shattered into pieces after I accidentally aimed the power washer nozzle as I'm trying tio wash off the bugs and other road debris. It's already old and probably brittle anyway and some cracks are already visible before it happened. Now I'm trying to consider putting a euro headlight instead of a new US headlight door for 7" round sealed beam.

Question:
Right now, I am completely satisfied with my US-DOT sealed beam in terms of brightness, beam pattern and life expectancy. To those Euro users, from scale of 1-5, how would you rate your uro headlights in terms of brightness and beam patterns? How about in rain and in fog? What about the life expectancies of H$ bulbs?

Thanks!!

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'85 300D Turbo - CA Version

Get them, you'll be amazed at the difference. I think I got a kit for 50 bucks or so off FastLane. I'd really rate the DOT lamps a 1 and the euro lights a 5. They make cheap bulbs that are just as good as the 40 dollar bulbs. I have had the silverstar ones in my car for a good 2 years now.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I prefer the round lights, so all I can offer is I've switched to round Hellas, and like 'em.

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83 SD

84 CD

Hey Ara T., 50 bucks? Are you reffering to the rectangular euro light assembly or the round conversion from sealed to H4?

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'85 300D Turbo - CA Version

Im sorry, I was talking about the round headlights that look like the DOT sealed beams.

A must-have upgrade for the price. The square ones look better but the Taiwanese copies will run you 250 bucks for the pair on ebay and will not light up the road any better.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Yeah, that's what I thought, $50 is pretty cheap for the rectangular assemblies and I don't think Fastlane is selling those. But as I've mentioned, the thing that broke is the plastic door that covers around the sealed beam main head and fog lights. So, what I'm thinking is to replace the set-up with the rectangular euro light to get rid of this cover.

According to your statement, does it mean that you would rate the rectangular euro light, not even close to 1?

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'85 300D Turbo - CA Version

I love my euro lights, they are markedly better than DOT. I have the Hella units, with the full lens with the round beam, not square, but still H3/H4.

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'83 240D with 617.952 and 2.88
'01 VW Beetle TDI
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD
'89 Toyota 4x4, needs 2L-T
'78 280Z with L28ET - 12.86@110
Oil Burner Kartel #35

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...oD/bioclip.jpg

The rectangular euro light is just as good as the circle euro light, it's just more expensive.

It looks a lot better IMO because the W123 is a very square shaped car, and the square lights obviously follow that theme.

Just be careful of the ebay units, I bought a set of rectangular euro lights, they are a taiwanese brand sold by Katmac. They look good and everything but the adjusters used to move the light pattern up and down are way too tight and I need to take the whole thing apart and adjust a nut. At least that's what I think I need to do.

They're probably hit and miss.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

I would agree with araT in that they are difficult to adjust and I prefer the look, but I think they were pretty good quality for the money. I paid $190 on ebay and I think they light up the road a lot better than sealed beam. The only problem I had was with the connector. The pin layout didn't match the carside plug. I had to figure out which pin went with which lamp and then modified the carside plug. Not sure if the eurospec cars have a different plug pinout than the US cars, or if it's a mistake by the lamp manufacturer.

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'83 300D Turrrbo 295K miles

Check out the Euro-code Lamps made by Cibie and sold in California by Aardvark International. http://www.cibieusa.com/cibie_default.htm

These are well made lights and will hold an H4 bulb.

TimK

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EPA 609 & 608 HVAC Certified
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83' 300D Turbo - 300K + Miles
00' 1.9L TDI Beetle
85' 6.5L Turbo, GV-OD, GMC Suburban,
67' 2.5L Diesel NA - Land Rover Series IIA

Here's what you do if it's so cold your diesel fuel gels. Smear some on some toast and stay inside until it warms up outside.

Which ones for my 83 300D? Do they have good prices? How are Cibie compared to Hellas in price and performance?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I had the e-code Hella's on my car. They are the 7 in drop in that use the H4 bulb. They worked really well, but got cracked by rocks, so I replaced them with the rectangular Euro's. They do look better IMHO, and the light pattern is the same with the same brightness. The Euro's I have are Bosch OEM, not the new imported type.

The Euro's use a 6 pin plug, while the US used a 4 pin. In the Euro's one pin is a blank. I did re route the front parking lamps to the city lamps on the Euro's. Now the orange lens is used like MB intended, blinker only.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

I have rectangular euro lights on my 240D and the round U.S. lights on my 300D. I do think the light from the euros is a slightly better pattern. I'm actually unsure which look I like better, but I think I still like the round U.S. lights better on most days. Too me, the round lights look more "70s" and the square ones look more "80s," and I'm still trying to forget the 80s (disco, leisure suits, etc.). You can replace the U.S. light doors for about $100 each, the euro lights will cost significantly more.

I think most complaints with the US spec are due to old lights that may have diminished reflectors, and not properly aimed lights. I had complaints to until I spent 20 minutes one night making adjustments.

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Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

I'm not sure I've ever met someone who is happy with US spec sealed beams, unless they never drive at night. If you haven't driven a car with good, properly aimed ecodes you might not know what you are missing.
I bought a set of rectangular ecodes for my sister's 240D very soon after she bought it and we love them. She bought another set with the vacuum adjusters just for the fun factor.

If you like the look of the US round lights you can get drop-in 7" round H4 ecode headlights as mentioned above and replace your broken headlight door too. You will have to re-arrange the wiring in the plug that actually leads to the headlight, as I recall you just switch the high-beam and ground wires, but I may be wrong. Easy to check and do anyway. Total cost is probably
But I don't think that was what you were asking about.

If you like the look of the rounds, the early ecodes with the round reflectors are generally cheaper than the rectangular and are probably equivalent performance-wise. Not sure about the wiring, but probably the same as the rectangular ecodes.

I prefer the rectangular ecodes because I think they make the car look so much better. Cleaner lines, no strange round things on the front of a rather square car.
Quick picture of the lights themselves for no real reason:
http://www.neptune242.com/benz/lights1.jpg
Wiring them up was easy, though I made it complicated by deciding to keep the running light in the blinkers and adding the city light to that circuit as well. Just thought it was a good idea.
In the picture one of the lights is a Hella and the other is a Bosch. I've noticed slight differences in the design, but no major differences in the reflector or the light output/pattern.

Whatever lights you decide to go with;
1. Aim them properly.
2. Check them for voltage drop in the wiring and add relays if necessary.
Lots of good info on that and lights in general here:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

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1971 280 SEL
1981 Volvo 242Tic | 1980 Bertone Coupe