I've been researching the different kits through forum posts on this forum and it looks like the best conversion kit (not headlight upgrade) is the "McCulloch Xenon 8000K HID Conversion" through ebay
I few quick questions, has anyone here installed this, how easy is it, should I get a shop to do it? Anyone have pictures with this installed? And did Mercedes have xenon headlights in 2001 (before the headlight update, I want to see what xenons look like in the foggy style housing close and far away)
I had to make the same decision you do. I searched this forum and mbworld...org. I finally came to the conclusion that the HID conversion kit from Xtec is the way to go. I bought it from Chris at understeer....com.
They work great, plug and play, took me about an hour to put everything in. The hardest part is to find a place to put the ballast, and to secure it good enough.
I found this article last night, its pretty interesting.
h*t*t*p://faqlight.carpassion.info/headlamp-harness.h*t*m*l
(just remove all the stars)
I got the 6000K H7 kit, very nice colour, white with a blue touch to it. You can also buy the OEM bi xenon headlights from performance products, they sell it for $675 I think. I still have the foggy style headlights (reflector) on my ML, but I ordered projectors that will arrive next week.
I tried to make pictures in the dark, but they didnt turn out really good, its kinda hard to do.
Yes .. go with the Xtecs and you wont regret it the McCrappocs will crap out on you much sooner than any other brands. I have had the Xtecs for 8 months and I havnt had a single problem! Good luck with it.
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hmm, is that HIDS not a good brand? I have been looking to do this since i bought my new headlights. Let me know what you guys think. MLOFF can you post pics of your install?
With Performance Products offering the true Bi-Xenon headlamps as such a good deal, I would strongly recommend going that route rather than the retrofit kits. The latter will glare and produce incorrect beam patterns which will be detrimental not only to the driver but also to oncoming drivers!
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Questions for Drew (or anybody) regarding xenon conversion:
(1) If I have M-B (Hella) projector bi-xenons, can I replace the halogen "flash-to-pass" bulb with a xenon conversion bulb?
(2) If so, will it work, even if I also perform Drew's procedure to "marry" the flash-to-pass light with the bi-xenon high beam?
(3) Regardless whether I convert the halogen flash-to-pass bulb to xenon, if I perform Drew's procedure to marry the flash-to-pass to the high beam, will the flash-to-pass feature then still be functional?
Questions for Drew (or anybody) regarding xenon conversion:
(1) If I have M-B (Hella) projector bi-xenons, can I replace the halogen "flash-to-pass" bulb with a xenon conversion bulb?
Yes, but there would be no point. The halogen bulb is there because the Xenon bulb cannot fire up/warm up in time for the quick flash that you would use it for. HID bulbs require about 5-10 seconds to warm up to full intensity and in fact turning them on/off rapidly will wear them (and the ballast) out prematurely.
Quote:
(2) If so, will it work, even if I also perform Drew's procedure to "marry" the flash-to-pass light with the bi-xenon high beam?
Yes, technically speaking, but not technically speaking.
Quote:
(3) Regardless whether I convert the halogen flash-to-pass bulb to xenon, if I perform Drew's procedure to marry the flash-to-pass to the high beam, will the flash-to-pass feature then still be functional?
Again yes, techically speaking, but you would have no practical reason to do so. Additonally there is way more than enough light with the Bi-Xenon high beam pattern + halogen high beam.
With Performance Products offering the true Bi-Xenon headlamps as such a good deal, I would strongly recommend going that route rather than the retrofit kits. The latter will glare and produce incorrect beam patterns which will be detrimental not only to the driver but also to oncoming drivers!
I've compared my beam pattern in my retro-fit to the "real" factory HID's on a another ML and the beam pattern was identical. I hear many people saying the beam pattern is not the same and that there would be glare etc.. this is absolutely not true in my case. If you get the D2S bulbs and put them in the projectors that the halogens come in you wont have a problem with beam patterns period! Getting D2R bulbs though is another story...
Thanks for the prompt response and good advice, Drew. I think I'll go ahead with the procedure to marry the halogen to the high beam, but I'll pass on converting the flash-to-pass halogen to xenon, for the reasons that you have pointed out. I just want to be sure that if I marry the halogen to the xenon high beam I am not disabling the flash-to-pass function of the halogen. I understand that I am not. Thanks again.
The only thing I am concerned about using the retrofit HID kit from Xtec and other brands is that it could burn up my harness sooner or later.
As I said earlier, I found this website h*t*t*p://faqlight.carpassion.info/headlamp-harness.h*t*m*l
and they explain why it's better to use relay harnesses, that suck the power directly from the battery, rather than from the stock harness.
HID's need much more power in the first couple of seconds after they been turned on, and thats wht eventually kill your stock harness.
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