Installing Depo Euro headlights
 

Is there any rewiring required when doing this or is it a simple remove the old lights and install the new ones?

If your W201 is like the W126/123/124 you'll need to get a 6 pin connector housing, and move the pins from your current 4 pin housing into it. Easy job. If you want the city light in the fixture to work you have to add one wire between the turn signal and the headlamp, or for true euro lighting you move the wire from the turn signal plug to the headlamp plug.

Euro city lights + us parking lamps:

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...1&d=1299854986

-J

i have the DEPO's on my 126, iirc, i got a set of taillight 6 pin sockets from a JY and followed a DIY i found here on the site to swap my present 126 wiring into the the 6pin sockets i took from the donor car and all worked well.

I'm not the best at rewiring, but I guess if its a simple take-from-one-plug-and-put-into-the-other-plug, then I should be fine. Are there any additional wires needed?

No rewiring is needed. Its just a plug swap.

I always liked the look of doing it this way. It just seems a lot cleaner :)

i ordered the depo lights to,they have to be reconnected with a seperate wire harness ,mines a 124 body so the harness goes from 5 pin to 6 in,all you need to do is follow a manual match up different colors and you plug the new harness into the factory harness,then the new harnes goes onto the 6 pin or however many you have on your new depo light,the factory harness wont fit due to the change in pin configurations,mine has 6 pins due to the fact that the headlights come with day time running lights.i dont remember what colors you need to match up,but if you contact the company they will tell you what colors match the others.

I always liked the amber parking lamps, so I hooked up both :-)

I used these led bulbs for the city lights. But for your depots, I believe they use a different bulb style.

Also I like the french look, so I swapped out the chrome fog reflectors with yellow fog reflectors. Not a direct swap, requires modifications. The 1st & 2nd pic shows the before & after the mod for the yellow fog reflector.

Do you have the writeup for that!?

I want that OEM look!

on my 190E. Plug and play. Only thing- I had to get new amber corner light bulbs because the ones that came with the depots either had one less or one too many pins. Can't remember which

Well on my 126 I just swapped the glass fog dome for the yellow fog look. No mods needed really, just bent some small tabs to remove and bend back after install. BUT the 126 has just the dome glass tinted. The US and Depo Euro have plain chrome reflectors.

I took a LOT of pics, BUT unfortunately my PC even with raid setup crashed miserably two months ago. With my backup, I still loss 4months worth of pics & this was one of them.

But I do still have the spare yellow reflector which I used to experiment on before I did two more for my headlights.

Give me a bit of time, I can use that to do a simple DIY, more explanation than actual step/step...bc even that spare reflector already have the mods.

Tools you'll need is a dremel & long nose pliers.


It's not the same, the chrome reflectors only get a slight yellow tint when you look at it at an angle. Straight on, hardly/no yellow tint at all.
It's almost like, just using H3 yellow 2500K bulbs.

Here is mini DIY as promised.

NOTE: some pics shown are quick photoshop pics from/of the finished product.
You'll need a dremel with steel cutting blade & long nose pliers.

pic1 - make template of the chrome reflector.
pic2 - template of chrome reflector.

pic3 - use dremel & cut/remove the "4" tabs indicated by red arrows.

pic4 - 4 tabs removed, all you see is the lip around the reflector.

pic5 - center smaller yellow reflector over template.
- use marker, mark the "6" cut lines on the lip.
- black out the "2" notch areas to be removed later.

pic6 - "6" cut line shown, use dremel to cut.

pic7 - use long nose pliers, bend the "2" blacked out pieces of the lip down flat & use dremel to cut/remove completely.
- than use long nose pliers, bend down flat the "4" white pieces of the lip.

pic8 - final result. touch up with paint to prevent future rusting.
- repeat process for the other end.

pic9 - overlay on template to verify.

pic10 - installed in headlights.

Wow, thats a lot of work compared to the W126 fog swap. But worth it. I really need my fog lights.

Do you have to heat the assembly to open the housing? oven?

Nice work Fred! VERY creatively done.

No heat/oven required.

There are 4 locking tabs on top & bottom. Just pry (CAREFULLY) with flat head screw driver slightly to release, the complete lens assembly will come out.

Thanks Patrick. It was either french euros or no euros at all. ;)

Are the Depo or european Bosch all set up with clear fogs? My us light have the yellow shields as oem. Should I assume the euro or Bosch are all without the yellow shields?

Thanks.

I'm not sure but you can take the shields off if you don't like it.

Like Ismalley said, you can remove the yellow dome shield.
This yellow reflector might be a "direct fit" (no mods required) for your us headlights (not 100% sure).

" This mod is ONLY for euro Bosch headlights "

Euro Hella headlights have different mounting bracket, not sure about Depos.

Only euros from France have the yellow reflectors from factory.

wow,you know when i was installing my fog light bulbs into my depo units, i dont recall even seeing a reflector,all i saw was a black plastic teepee shaped thing in front of the bulb.how odd,now that i think of it how will they reflect and work correctly if they dont have built in reflectors,i guess i will just wait and find out when i install them,i bought 55 watt blue fog light bulbs.i figure i wont be using the fog lights to often,i know the color is illegal well i think its for offroad use only.if i purchased white bulbs im sure they would just add to the brightness of the headlights being to bright asnd most likley getting harrased from the police,we will see what the blue fog lamps look like.

also,does anyone know what the giant white round plastic thing is behind the headlight assembly,it has a vacum tube attached to it and there is a nipple on the headlight unit near the electrical pin configuration,im not sure why its there or what it connects to,anyone know? this is on the new depo light units

For headlight "height" adjust via vacuum switch.

These aren't euros but......
 

Interesting how the lights create a sharp distinct line and these are my stock bosch lights, but my low beams or high beams don't. Is it just the casing?

Anyone know where these yellow reflectors are coming from?

They're in the OEM lights.

Well, the OEM fog lights have the yellow "bubble" or whatever it is around the bulb, but the reflector is still silver, isn't it? Where are these yellow reflectors coming from? The ones that require modification to fit the W124 housing?

You're right. A few posts above a member posted that only the French models have the yellow reflector. You can make the US reflectors work, and they will show yellow through the lenses, just not as intensely as the French reflectors.

Try searching on ebay.fr for the French reflectors.

A simpler but perhaps not as long lasting solution would be to spray or brush paint the lens of the fog reflector with tamaiya(sp?) or similar translucent yellow model paint.

Una solución más simple, pero quizás no tan duradera, sería rociar o pintar con brocha la lente del reflector de niebla con tamaiya (sp?) O pintura modelo amarilla translúcida similar.

Eso no es legal porque, teóricamente, modificarías las especificaciones de la homologación, pero a la hora de pasar la ITV no creo que se dediquen a desmontar los faros para comprobar si los reflectores son amarillos de serie o los has lacado tu, Hay que usar laca para bombillas, la venden también en spray. En otro foro hay quien dice que lo ha hecho y no le han dicho nada en la ITV, Yo estoy por probar, aunque si no te quieres complicar la vida, usa lamparas amarillas, eso es legal