Hello. I have an 01 E320 with the standard headlights. I want to upgrade my lights to xenon's, but I dont want to put some cheap aftermarket system in it. I see alot on ebay that people sell the factory hella systems out of the mb assemblies. Are the assemblies for xeonon and non-xeonon's the same? Or are they the same assemblies with just different bulb options?

Also, will the assemblies out of a 96-99 eclass work in the facelifted 2000-2002 eclass's??

What are my best options? I dont want my headlamp failure light to come on either. I dont want to spend a fortune. Any ideas?

Thankyou

-Andy

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93 300D 2.5 Turbo, Black/Palomino 273K
09 E350 Black/Black 41K

No non-$$$$ way to do that job.
Will cost between $1600-2200!!!

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I installed a "plug and play" Phillips 8000K HID system in my 1999 E430. The light output is better than my E55 with the factory xenons. I have never been flashed by other drivers for blinding them or any that think my high beams may be on. The lighting pattern on the road is very nice through the stock lens and reflector. The cost for the kit was $425.

Super SEC,

Did your kit require any modifications to the headlamps or car itself??

Also, does it trigger the exterior light failure circuit??

Thanks,

Andy

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93 300D 2.5 Turbo, Black/Palomino 273K
09 E350 Black/Black 41K

You do not have to do any modifications to the headlamps. They are pretty much just plug and go. You do not even have to cut or crimp wires. It does not trigger my light failure circuit.

The W210 was Model Updated on 2000 Different HEADLIGHTS hood bumpers etc...And The Early 96/99 WONT work on a 2000/2002
W210

Please dont buy the (AFTERMARKIT) Xeons ..
Wrong lens wrong Housing/reflector..they Will look cool..Thats it!
The Mercedes OE Xeons have the correct Lens and Reflector
Buy The Real thing..Because When The Aftermarkit units fail..I Hope that they are still around when you need them...

I Would contact Steve @www.mbenz.nl Great Prices !!!
He has several sets New and Used and EURO Headlights!

I Have The EURO Headlights in my 2000 W210 wagon and They are Great!..a Lot stronger than The USA lights

The Front bumper MUST be removed to replace the headlights
then its plug and play

"Please dont buy the (AFTERMARKIT) Xeons ..
Wrong lens wrong Housing/reflector..they Will look cool..Thats it!
The Mercedes OE Xeons have the correct Lens and Reflector
Buy The Real thing..Because When The Aftermarkit units fail..I Hope that they are still around when you need them..."

Do you have a 210? I have two of them. One with factory xenon and one with aftermarket Phillips xenon in the factory halogen headlamp. I can tell you that the light output of the aftermarket Phillips xenon in the factory halogen lens and reflector is better than the factory xenon. FACT!

The factory Mercedes xenons are weak at best on the 210. I would do the aftermarket conversion 100 times over. I just replaced the ignitor on one of the factory equipped xenon headlamps in my E55 and the cost was close to what I paid for an entire aftermarket xenon kit for my E430. Had I purchased the ignitor at the dealership the cost would have been much more than my entire aftermarket xenon system. Besides, I don't think Phillips is exactly going to close up shop and stop producing the kits.

Go ahead an waste your money on the factory set-up. I will say that the lens on the factory xenon is more attractive than the one for the halogen lights but you can get a replacement Euro lens that will spruce the front-end up a bit. Save your money for the In-Pro lights that will soon be readily available. Put an aftermarket xenon kit in those and have something that looks phenominal and performs as well as they look.

To me a big advantage to the factory Xenon is the HRA (Headlamp Range Adjustment) which is part of the factory setup.
To answer a question the original poster had, no the headlamp assemblies are different between Halogen and Xenon headlights. You would also run into problems I believe in trying to swap between pre-facelift and post-facelift cars.
The Headlamp Range Adjustment is what the biggest difference is between Halogen and Xenon headlamps. There is a motor assembly in each one which responds to commands from a seperate HRA control module, which receives info from a pair of level sensors attached to the suspension. The motors react very rapidly to the sensor inputs, even hitting the brakes hard enough (nosediving) will bring an upward reaction from the motors to adjust the beam up, for example. The headlights are also compensated for weight in the car (passengers, fuel load, trunk load, etc) to keep the beam adjusted down the road properly.
I don't want to enter some argument on which is brighter or anything. My comment is that I like the HRA setup and I'd either get the factory setup or just forget it.

Gilly

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Gilly,

Id have to say I agree with you. Although, I also agree with super SEC that the prices for mercedes genuine products (for what you get) is outrageous.

From what I gathered from Gilly, if you dont have it from the factory, forget it. To receive a factory setup, you would have to somehow install those load sensors also. Sounds more of a pain than anything.

If I did want to do it, I probably still would go with the Phillips system that Super SEC had installed, just simply because it is a true xeonon system, plug and play, and nicely priced. I dont normally have large loads in the car so it remains level most of the time.

Thanks for all your opinions.

-Andy

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93 300D 2.5 Turbo, Black/Palomino 273K
09 E350 Black/Black 41K

This is really just my opinion. If you really have a Xenon fetish, yeah get HID, I wouldn't mess around with these "Blue bulbs" on other such non-HID bulbs. Again, this is my own opinion, but you're not fooling very many people with the blue bulbs, OK? And I don't think they work, clear bulbs work best for normal night driving, IMHO.

I really think the HID Xenon bulbs work great, and if I were ordering the car I'd want them, but to just add the HID system itself isn't worth it to me. You should try a night road-test of one with the factory setup, you'd see what I mean. Hard to describe I guess.


Gilly

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