So Santa must have heard me *****ing about the lights in my 92 400E cuz I got a HID Xenon light kit for x-mas! Its pretty simple plug and play,and also seems well made the only problem seems to be I need to connect to the battery and the battery is in the trunk? Is there some where under the hood I can pick up + & -

Are you changing the both light assemblies as well? If you are hoping to get better lighting by adding HID bulbs in the factory lens assembly I think you will be dissapointed. The US DOT lamps were poor at projecting light as it is. There is nothing that I hate more than being blinded at night by one of these "HID kits" that someone has added to their car.

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1989 300CE

I would make sure you are not using the OE US DOT lights....Depo Euros that I run in both my cars are an incredible upgrade in both looks + lighting performance for ~$160.

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2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

They were a gift, so as long as they are better then stock I'm happy

ps2cho did you need to run wires to the trunk for the battery

I am a huge fan of the hid upgrade. I had mine converted about a year ago and they are the best. On a three lane street driving in the middle I can illuminate both lanes to the left and right of me and beyond, and I get at least 50 plus yards in front. the lights are aimed about 30° down from a direct horizontal stand, but I took out the metal defector that sits in front of the light behind the lens for more output, its great

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1990 190E 3.0L

Word to the wise, the conversion kits are illegal esp with the Standard light housing.

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

are they really illegal? how would you even be in a position to be asked to lift up your hood for a cop to check? I was once asked to roll up my windows because an officer suspected me of having dark tint on my front windows, which I do, but I just refused to do it and since I wasn't breaking any law other than being stopped for a license plate light being out there wasn't much he could do. I guess if ur suspected of having drugs or guns hidden under ur hood they can ask to search, but I doubt they would be able to ask u to lift ur hood to prove ur lights are illegal unless u have those weird 12000k or whatever the number is to turn the lights purple or blue.

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1990 190E 3.0L

they can tell, the Light dispersal pattern Blinds people and you can get stopped for it apparently. someone posted a link about it here I forget where

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html is the link I have.

But honestly, I see so many clear-light illegal conversions (front and rear), blue lights, smoked lenses, lense covers et al that never get the attention or a ticket around here that I doubt you'll get noticed in most smaller cities. It does give them a reason to pull you over if they want, then suspicion can get them further, middle of the night and a nervous officer is not what I like.

Buy some good Euro lights (also illegal in the US BTW) and you'll get much better light output, better pattern, better in rain/fog/snow due to the sharp cutoff, and you'll be happy. HID conversions are almost always messy and I wish I had a pellet gun for every one I see coming the other way.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

Uneducated on this you are. No insult, you just dont have the facts.

HID upgrades do not necessarily cause glare. The important thing to do is make sure they headlights are aimed right. MANY people see HID kits in cars where the owner also replaced the headlight assemblies at the same time as a sweeping upgrade. And they did not aim them right. This is mainly an aiming issue more than anything.

The only way to produce "glare" is if the kit is not aligned right. By that I mean the light output source (the arc) is not in the specified location of the standard halogen lamp that is in spec. When this happened the light is out of focus. This is not a common issues, the vast majority are aligned right but those super cheap kits have a higher risk of poor production/alignment.

Its simple really. Light is light and if its emitted from the same location it will react the same way when hitting the reflectors, glass, etc. But if the light is not in the same position, it will be out of focus. Its that simple. If you think that ALL hid kits cause glare then you are likely old and already have poor vision and probably even think silver stars are HID upon seeing them, and those certainly will be in focus!

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

I think the lens and the assembly has a lot to do with the projection of the light. I see a lot of cars with aftermarket HID kits and most are extremely blinding at night. The light just doesn't seem to project very well. It is almost as if the light is being blocked by the lens instead of being dispersed forward evenly. A car equipped from the factory with HID or a good conversion is a worlds difference apart.

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1989 300CE

i think not having enough light see at night is illegal too. i have hids(plug n plays) and i will never ever ever go back to halogen lamps again. the light disperson, glare, and aim is exactly the same is it was before except theres more light ..thats all.

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

School taught me that "yaght" is spelled "yacht", that is education also.

The fact is, an HID capsule has a larger light source than the filament in a quartz-halogen bulb. I know, years of work in office lighting (including using ray-tracing software to design optics (lenses and reflectors) around the light source) and being in on the early designs of HID lights as an Engineer & supplier of reflectors to Visteon probably also isn't enough, ... but the halogen to HID lights and designs are significantly different and do not transfer over.

However, since US lights have a reputation for such dismal light patterns where the high-beam is controlled, and the low-beam is basically an out-of-focus beam where the filament is high and to the left of the focal point throwing a blob of light down and to the right, ... I digress, putting HID bulbs in this arrangement pretty much means a brighter blob of light low and to the right (with brighter glare). Thus the move to European-spec lights, with proper optics, and with well-distributed light. It's not just how bright the light is, it's where the light goes.

With proper optics, IE Euro lights, the low-beam typically has a sharp cutoff of light at the top, formed with the optics of the reflector & lense and based on exact positioning of the light source (filament or capsule). When the shape and size of this light source changes from a small filament to a larger capsule, so does the shape of the light output, and only the light generated in the original designed location is controlled properly, light outside of that location strays. The same thing holds true for the low-beam and fog-beam lamp designs with a mask to produce the upper cutoff.

Those without optics design education, training, and experience might or might not understand this, but I've seen millions of dollars thrown at re-designing a light to accomodate the incoming HID options on cars, because the lights designed for filament-bulbs would not pass DOT (or European requirements depending on the market).

Yes "not having enough light is illegal too", if you have non-standard, dirty, rusted, damaged, or aftermarket-smoked lights they too are illegal. Any alteration from the factory light must be tested and approved by DOT (which will also be molded into the lense) to be highway legal in the US.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

I 100% guarantee the light distribution is not the same as the halogen lamp. Didn't your car come with H7 powered lamps anyway? Those put out quite a bit of light.

Even going from a standard output halogen lamp to a "high performance" halogen lamp will change the light distribution. There is special equipement used to measure this... I wish I had access to it.

Do what I did in this thread: In a dark area, turn off all auto correction and auto exposure settings on your camera. Illuminate a flat wall with one lamp, take a picture, then carefully switch the lamp in the fixture to the other type and take another picture. This will allow for the best comparison possible with "consumer" grade equipement. I would be interested to see the comparison in output between the retrofit HID light and a quality halogen lamp.

-J

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.