Will I lose my highs if I get xenon lights for my '87 300E?There is the single halogen light which has lo/hi and the foglight on each side.Ideally, I want to have a xenon for the lo, a halogen for the hi , and keep my foglamps. I know that the 500E had the fogs on the front bumper, and single halogen lo/hi and daytime running light on each side.Perhaps a 500E arrangement for my 300E?Basically what I am asking is if I can retain full functionality of the old arrangement (lows, highs, and fogs) with xenon low's.Thanks.

Good question. The following site says that you will loose the high beams unless you modify the headlight housing to use BOTH the old halogen and the new Xenon bulb. This doesn't sound like a great idea to me, as the reflectors are designed for a bulb to be in a certain spot - moving the bulb will change the headlight pattern. They recommend installing them in the auxilliary lights if you want to keep your high beams intact, but then you would just have a bright aux light, and I would rather buy a set of Hella Xenon driving lights to add on than have blue fog lamps. Finally, they note that none of the Xenon conversion kits are street legal. If you modify the housing to take both bulbs, and the police make you change back, you could wind up having to buy new stock headlight housings. You have to ask what your goal is: More usable light, or a blue look. If it is just more usable light, get the Euro headlights, run a larger diameter wiring harness with relays to make sure the bulbs get max current, and install the "High Peformance" Phillips or Hella bulbs in stock wattage, or maybe even consider a slight over-wattage. If it is just a blue look and you don't care about the high beams, go with the xenons without modifying the bulb sockets. My $0.02 worth , and please let us know how things work out on this project. It sounds fun!

http://www.xenonshop.com/faq.html#nine

Also good discussions about bulbs at

http://catalog.com/susq/hella.htm

http://lighting.mbz.org/

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

You're better off getting e-code lights for your car. It is more effective.

JCE, I appreciate your research. Where do you think I could install the Hella xenon driving lights on the car if I want to keep the highs?I don't want to make the car TOO busy looking.

I have been thinking that the location under the bumper where the fog lights are on 500Es wouldn't look too bad. It would depend on which ones I bought. The Hella European page has a site that shows the light output from their various Xenon driving lights at

http://www.hella.com/maineng/lev1b/lev2ba/lev3bab/lev4babd/index.htm

The micro Xenoens would be the least clutter on the car, but the best light would come from the ones that make the car look like a Rallye car! (Lets see, 2 micro xenons shining out from behind the grill, invisible during day time, hmmmm )

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E