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92 400E Headlight Replacement

20K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  nsunshine032 
#1 ·
I am looking to replace my water damaged, sun faded, cracked, and ugly headlights. I would like to find a pair similar to this

but I have the older style wipers that face outward not inward.

I am having a hell of a time finding a pair that has this style glass and is made for the 92 400E. I ordered one pair and found out halfway through installation that they would not work because the wiper motor and wiper blade bar position were moved when Mercedes transitioned to inward facing blades. Also my car has electric high beam and low beams not numatic(air). The electric hookups are square. I am at a loss and need some help.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
This is a much traveled topic, using the search function for euro headlights will get you eveything you are looking for, (but since I'm a noob myself, I'll give you the nickel tour). I just finished making the conversion on my 92 300CE and it went rather smoothly because I had researched everything and had all the correct parts before I started.

Depending on how much of a purist you are and want to keep your 400E, (OEM Parts or not), there are a few ways to go. I wanted to keep Boshe or Heller units, but there are aftermarket units that look similar and are readily available. The factory Euro parts are expensive, but I was lucky to find a new/slightly used Boshe pair right from this forum. They fit perfectly and will allow for future installation of the euro style wipers if I ever decide to do that.

I decided against the wipers at all because I don't intend to drive my beautiful CE in weather where they might ever be used. I can't think of any road condition they would be useful for except wet salty roads, and my 92 CE had never seen a salty road before now and never will, hence wipers are usless anyway. Besides that, I think they are ugly anyway, so for me no wipers and while the headlights were being swapped out I also swapped in a new set of filler plates that go below the headlights.

The filler plates come in 3 basic styles for all w124's 86 thru 93;

1. Blank plate with no holes at all, for W124's that had no wipers, (optiontional & not purchased).

2. Standard American style with holes for American wiper system- god are they ugly, (personal point of view, but I'm sure some out there that thinks they are nice)

3. Euro Style filler plates to match the Euro headlight and wipers - much nicer and I would have gone this way myself if I could have found euro wipers cheaper than they are.

Another option I've read here on the forum is to install the american wipers on the euro headlights, but to do this you obviously need to buy the Euro filler plate that has the holes moved to match the new mounting location for the wiper shaft.

There is an internet retailer "Katman" that has everything for option #1

Katmac Imports: W124 (86-93 300E 400E) European Headlamps

His headlights are not oem, but they are affordable and he also gives you everything you need to wire them up, including the new euro wire plugs, with directions for converting from the 4 pin to the 6 pin. I didn't go this way, as I found the same info here in the forums, but you simply remove the color coded wires and pins from the square plugs and transfer them into the correct holes of the 6 pin plugs which you still need to buy. I got my 6 pin plugs off ebay, $6 plus shipping, oem parts, worked perfectly.

When you change over to the euro style headlights, unless you reuse the old filler plate with the holes in the wrong spot, your going to have to buy either the blank plate, or the euro plate. Either way, when you get them, they need to be painted to match your car color. Sounds hard if you've not done spray painting before, but it's very easy, you just need patience and you will need to buy spray cans to match your color. Any auto paint supply shop can get this for you, but I just went on line and bought over the internet using the factory paint code, you buy the base color and a clear finish that needs to be rubbed out for final shine. I think the paint cost me under $50 delivered to my door and I spent one weekend applying many many thin coats and it came out perfect, you would have a very hard time noticing any difference, particularly under the headlights.

I bought my spay cans here, PaintScratch Touch-Up Paint (rs), Spray Cans, Spray Paint, Paint Pens, Car Paint, Automotive Paint you just need to find the factory paint code, it's printed on a sticker by your radiator for one..

So, here's the deal,

1. Do your research and homework first before you start the project, most important.

2. Decide what the finished product should look like for your tastes, Factory looking euro headlights or other projector types, wipers or no wipers.

3. Purchase all parts ahead of time, particularly the new filler plates and paint, as they should be ready to install before you do anything else.

Also you made a reference to a vacuum operated beams, the beams on euro lights are adjustable up and down by this system, but that's another whole story that's not needed now for anything, for you it sounds like you have OEM euro lights, the good ones, just buy the 6 pin connectors and new blank filler plates for now and install them. I bet you will not miss the wipers at all, looks much cleaner without them.

Just search this forum and you will find many other eferences to euro headlights and how too, your close, almost there...good luck

ps: if you haven't tried to install them yet you will find 3 screws that basically hold the head light in place, 2 on the outside & one on the inside. The outside ones are easy to see and remove, the inside ones on the other hand are a bear, drivers side you can remove the fresh air intake tube, (easy to do) and get clearance to the inside screw, but the passenger side you need to be very patient getting that one out and back in, nothing to remove to help, and you can hardly get your fingers in there to work. I ended up with a small 8mm open wench and a pair of needlenose pliers. that was the only truely hard pard, everything else came apart and went back together very easily.

Here are two pictures, the first I took right out of this forum to show a daylight full view of the look without wipers, and the 2nd is my 300ce install taken in a dark garage.. notice the filler plates below the euro headlights have no holes and are painted to match the car.

Here is a link to a PDF that should help, I used it for my install, worked perfect.

http://www.w-124.info/w124/W124HeadLight.pdf

and here is an eBay link to the 6 pin connectors you need, same place I got mine

eBay Motors: Mercedes Euro Headlight Plugs W123 W124 W201 W126 300D (item 250331841587 end time Dec-01-08 22:08:13 PST)

Also, if just do a "W124 euro headlight" search on eBay, you'll get a page of items that are worth looking at, it will give you an idea of whats out there to buy for your 400E.

I see that Katman is out of stock of the blank filler plates right now, they are simply a part you can order at any M/B dealer anyway, probably $12 a piece or so.

If you haven't seen this anywhere else, 94-95 W124 american style wiper motors, arms and blades would work with your setup, same as the euro wipers 86-93 will. Assuming you wanted to spend another $400 plus... (the blank filler plates made sence to me when I saw the prices for the euro wiper motors).

I also had another visual aid that described the left side - right side headlight wiring better, but you really dont need it, one side is solid color wires, and the other is stiped, instead of solid yellow, the other side may be yellow with a black stripe, you get the idea I hope... also you will see a reference in places about a "City Light", which is a euro version of the american parking light. It's a small bulb in the headlight lense assembly that needs to be wired if you use it. I haven't done mine yet, but I will, it needs to add a new pin and wire into the empty #5 pin position in the new connector I think, and this wire is spliced into the parking light wire from the corner lights. When I do make this change on mine, I'm going to disconnect the wires going to the existing parking lights and reroute it to the new city lights. That way the cornor light will only function as a blinker. But like the vacuum beam aimer, this isn't needed at all at this time, add it later on if you want. One last comment about the beam aimer, it requires a new light switch inside the car, it has a dial connected to vacuum line which allows you to aim the light up or down in case you get a heavy load in the back seat etc.. sounds like more overkill to me.. I'm never going to hook it up.

Good luck...
 

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#8 ·
Ok I just have one question!



OK! This post really helped me out with my conversion, so let me bring it back from the dead for I have an unanswered question from hours upon hours of searching.

In my 1993 400E I put euro HID headlights in, and they work perfectly! I got the Euro wiper plate from katmac.com and painted it ~$60. I got the w124 Euro wiper arms and blades from katmac.com also ~$130 kinda expensive. But for the life of me I cannot find the motors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read somewhere that you can use the 1994-1995 motors instead of looking for the Euro motors. I bought a pair of motors on eBay for $100 and realized that the right motor had a three pin harness and my old one had a four pin. So I put it in anyway just to see what would happen and the entire right side of my car shorted out (you can laugh because I definitely did!). I took it out and put the old ones back in and it went back to normal.

Now I see that there are four pin motors also for the 1994-1995 years as well so I went and got one of those. I got that installed but I had a mechanic by my house do it but I don't think he knew what he was doing. He said they didn't work but I didn't remind him to keep the headlights on and turn on the water pump.

So my question is, will they work before I spend another hour trying to put these motors in only to no avail? And if not, is there an easier way to find Euro headlight wipers? I'd really like to know because I can't find this information anywhere! Thanks!
 
#5 ·
Ok, thanks for the lengthy response. Lots of helpful info there. I just have a few questions. My car is the black one on the bottom of my original post. As you can see, they are the outward facing "American" wipers and headlights. I have a pair of euro headlights I bought brand new. Assuming I get the 6 pin connectors off ebay, remove the wipers and replace the filler plates , will I need anything else for them to work in my car? What about the vacuum operated beams, will I need them hooked up to use high beams? my car doesn't have any air hoses leading to the headlights. I am at a loss.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Your Almost there




You need only get the 6 pin connectors, blank filler plates and paint and your good to go, and if you did mount the american wiper motors on the new euro lights, yes, take them off and put them back with the original lights. The euro lights will be mounted without wiper motors, and without vacuum line hookups.

The vacuum operated beam adjuster will do nothing at all and is not needed in anyway unless you purchase the euro light switch along with new vacuum hose to splice into an existing vacuum line run and the headlights. I have seen the tutorial on doing this, it looks easy enough also. If the euro wiper motors, switches and other related parts were cheap enough I'd do it. I just can't justify spending that much money on something for show, because I'd never need to use them anyway.

Functially and electrically, the vacuum operated beam aimer, (not hooked up), has no effect on the lights at all, just forget about them. The only thing effected by not hooking them up is that you can't obviously make the manual adjustments up & down while you are driving the car.

Your head lights will still be stable and stay in the position you adjust them too. Looking at the back of the units you will see three plastic shafts for making the up-down, left-right, and fog light adjustments. the adjustments are easy, finger tension screws, no tools needed.

Just order your filler plates, paint, & connectors. Take a day or two to do a nice paint job on the filler plates, and when you have everything ready, a week-end morning is all you'll need to swap them out.

Here are a couple of pictues of the inside screws that hold the units in place. If you can see them well enough it should help you understand what you need to do with these two screws.

You will need to be very paitient with the inside screw on the passenger side, I got lucky as when I attached the outside screws first on the new unit, the single inside screw lined up perfectlly and I was able to hold the screw in place lightly with a pair of needle nose pliers while it got it started with the open end wrench..tricky

The drivers side didn't line up right but at least you can get you hand in that side with the vent removed. The light unit fit on the drivers side was very tight, and every time I tried to get the unit in place and lined up, the metal screw clip would pop off for that inside screw. Remove the light, replace the clip and try again...took me a dozen trys to get it right... but it was still easier than the passenger side..
 

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#7 · (Edited)
Link to Switch install for leveling system

I finally located the link to one of the installation guides for the euro headlight switch controlled headlight aiming adjustment.

This guy from the M/B Club did a complete conversion in a big way, including upgrading the wattage of the bulbs, requiring relays, H/D wires etc. He left the euro wipers off also, saying they cost over $600 to install.

But of interest to you may me the last section, describing the method to actually hook up the switch controlled leveling system if you chose too some day. It's a great article, he even includes the M/B part numbers for you, also includes the blank filler plate part numbes.

Here's his paragraph concerning the filler plates, (trim panels).

"If your car has headlight wipers, the horizontal painted metal trim panels below the lights have holes in them. You can order new, primed panels without holes, part numbers 124 889 05 63 and 124 889 06 63. Have them painted to match or order a spray can of paint in factory color from Tower Paint (800/779-6520) and do it yourself. (The spray can paint is more susceptible to rock chips than properly applied body shop paint, which costs little more.)"

Just order one each of the above trim panel part numbes from your M/B dealer if you can't find them anywhere else.

Maybe someday if I have nothing else to do and I'm in the right mood I may try the leveling switch myself, looks cheap enough, just a new switch panel, the vacuum switch itself, and some hose & connectors...

Good luck with your light project, it's very satisfying to complete, not only do the looks of the car greatly improve, but the actuall lighting performance is improved also.

Driveway Mechanic

The one thing I didn't mention before is that my euro headlights don't have the yellow reflector built into them like the american version does. If yours are the same and you want to keep yellow fog lights, you'll need to get amber H3 bulbs, I just reused the white ones I allready had and I'm trying them out for a while. Not sure if I want the fog lights go back to yellow or not, I like the way they look as white, but haven't had the chance to test them in fog yet.
 
#9 ·
Ok I'll take a stab, I havn't tried this myself, but I may at some point. But my old boss has and he tells me that the 94 and 95 USA model wiper motors work the same way as euro's. When I get a chance I'll contact him to ask about the wiring..

I had another link where someone put euro wiper motors on also, I'll see if I can find it..

Not sure about where you drive your car, but I'm in upsate NY where SALT is used on the roads from Dec thru March... The only need for a headlight wiper would be to get the salt residue off while driving... do you drive in salt with your 124, many do I guess?

I won't, hence no true need for a headlight wiper in the first place. For me it would just be eye candy that will never be used. But taking that thought further, I like the looks of my coupe much more without the wipers anyway.... personal choice I guess
 
#11 ·
Thanks ohollenbeck! Let me know when you find out. I think it would be great information for everyone. Here are the part numbers for the motors that I plan to install:

Right/Passenger motor: 124 820 10 42

Left/Driver motor: 124 820 09 42

Hopefully everything will go smoothly but we will see!
 
#12 ·
Hmmmm.... Is it possible to swap out the lights, panels, wiper arms, and motors from a 94-95 to a 93 and older car (Federal spec only - forget euro for this example)? It would seem that this would be the easiest way to keep the wipers intact and get a "full" headlamp look. I had a 95 E420 (RIP) and just picked up a 93 400E. I liked the looks of the E420 headlamps. I do indeed use my wipers as I drive my car year round and salt is used in quanitity here in Chicago. Any ideas as to the swappability?

Thanks,

Aaron
 
#13 ·
I think you can certainly do the swap as described, but the pre-facelift hood & grill on your 93 may not look so hot with the face-lift 94-95 lights. Add the 94-95 hood & grill and then the headlights you describe will look great. But it seems like the expense of wipers is really climbin...lol

Whatever you do, your still back to the wiring problem, which may be easy and cheap to solve with a little investigative work...

Still haven't got the wiring info myself, hopefully I'll make contact tommorrow..
 
#17 ·
Solved!

Ok I know it has been a while since I asked this question, but I finally got around to installing the wiper motors that I had. And they work perfectly! It took a couple of hours because I was being really careful, but the motors work great!

Now I have to find out why the there is no water coming out. My guess is the water pump but I don't feel like spending the money right now. Thanks everyone for the info that helped me finish my little project!

-Daniel
 
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