So i Bought my HID's.... Now what Headlight Assembly????Help Please!

[Ghettobird52]

Hello all So i just recently Ordered a set of HID's from DDM Tuning (did research for awhile and everyone has goodthings to say on DDM even benzworld) got 6000k 55watt, sense this w202 stock has 55watt halogens. And after i ordered them i realize that i am going to need a new headlight assembly unless i want to be "that guy" that blinds everyone with the HID's. From what i read HID's need the Projector lens to focus correctly and have the famous "cut off line". So now heres my questions. I have been thinking of ordering this after market headlight assembly it says projectors and everything im just not sure if they are legit. I have seen these same exact lights on different websites (caraid, Ebay, amazon, tunerdepot, and others) and they are stating they are Spyder Auto Lights. here they are

1994 2000 Mercedes Benz W202 Black Projector Headlights Head Lights Pair Lamp | eBay

I have also been now reading that alot of these aftermarket lights have cheap projectors or projectors for Halogens???? How do i find this out or what should i do? Should i order these or others or should i just retrofit? OR do i even need a new housing can i be ok with the stock? Please help me as i dont want to be blinding any one! How hard is retro fiting?

All feedback is appreciated even if it is "BRO UR DUM DONT GET THOSE" rather be dumb that waste 300$ and be a idiot.

THANKS!

[Aquinob]

I used to work for Federal Mogul and they designed and manufactured OEM headlights for a few different makes of cars. I wasn't in the design or manufacturing end of the business, I was their IT manager, but I did pick up quite a bit of what it took for them to design what they called "forward lighting assemblies" that met all the various SAE and other government standards. Bottom line, you aren't going to get a finished product that would meet anybody's standards, especially when you are retrofitting a bulb in there that it was never intended to use.

The reflector assemblies were all designed around a specific bulb, mounted in an exact position relative to the filament of the bulb. You move the filament a couple of MM or fraction of an inch and the whole pattern is thrown off. You throw a bulb in there that doesnt even come close to what the lamp was designed for and where do you think you are?

At least you are thinking along the lines of not being "that guy" which is commendable. Too many people modify the lights because of the "cool" factor and as long as they can see a 1/4 mile ahead like it's daylight, they dont care how everybody else has to deal with the glare. And lets not forget that most of these retrofit lighting assemblies are coming straight from China where the manufacturing standards and tolerances are not even close to what is done in Europe or North America or Japan. And they will tell you that the lights meet all these SAE standards, but nobody has ever put even one sample to a test lab to verify and no one ever will because its voluntary.

Bottom line, leave your lights alone.

[Ghettobird52]

Thanks for the interesting yet educating response, yet it is too late for me to leave them alone ordered the HID's now im going full with it. So to my question it seems Retrofitting in your standards is off the list and just throwing in the bulb in the stock housing is off the list. Yet i am still un aware of these housings. no say spyder or anything thats what i want now. You are saying that dont buy it because china doesnt even do standards? yet what im really wondering is , is this a good projector lens in the head light assembly. I have heard of great retrofitting and great HID's on our w202 but yet you say keep it stock?? All im asking now is Go with a aftermarket housing or retrofit?

[Ghettobird52]

Did a lot of research on the headlight assemblies and contacted the manufacturer and I was happy to hear my warranty, and that it is HID ready. Went ahead and ordered a pair. Will be updating with a pic when I get them and then will put some pics up with them in !!!!

[Olly84]

Hey ghettobird, just wanted address your concerns about your HID setup as I have gone down this route before.

Initially I started out with a Phillips Ultinion 6000k HID bulbs with ballasts for my c230k. I kept the standard halogen headlamp assemblies and lenses. This is what they looked like:





They were very bright, but also threw off some crazy glare and did not light the road up very well. There were round hotspots on the road and the beam pattern was messed up and did not light up the periphery of the car very well. That's why after a few months of them I replaced them with a pair of high quality standard halogen bulbs again. Although the halogens were more yellow, I could see more of the road which was more important to me. I waited and found a set of oem Mercedes Benz w202 xenon assemblies from a wrecked C43 and then "retrofitted" them on to my car. And no, they are not projectors.

The original equipment Xenon assemblies specific for our W202 has a different headlamp lenses to give a correct beam pattern. Also, inside the assembly is a big piece of gray metal that acts as the glare shield. The internals of the Oem xenon headlamp assembly is very different from that of the halogen assembly.

This is what the proper xenon headlamps should look like. No glare and lights the road perfectly.







The lenses are bit darker because of the metal glare shield inside of the headlamp.

I hope this helps. Finding the oem xenon assemblies nowadays is virtually impossible and if you do find them, they are extremely expensive. The aftermarket DDM hid kit you got shouldn't be that bad, if you don't want to blind oncoming traffic, I guess you could just aim your lights down a little bit. It's a tricky process to get the aftermarket HIDs to look perfect. On one hand, you don't want to blind oncoming traffic, but if you aim too low, the lights won't project as far down the road.

Let me know if you have anymore questions

[uusukaa]

I'm one of those fools with a DDM 55w 6000K kit in my halogen housings. I lower the aim to "reduce" glare, but because light from the bulb will always reflect from the bottom of the reflector, upward glare simply cannot be avoided. I have these H7R bulbs from China that have tape on the bulb to reduce the amount of light to hit the bottom of the reflector. I haven't put them in yet but I hope to do so soon to see what difference those bulbs make.
Good job on the projectors. Hope they work well for you!

[Olly84]

Originally Posted by uusukaa

I'm one of those fools with a DDM 55w 6000K kit in my halogen housings. I lower the aim to "reduce" glare, but because light from the bulb will always reflect from the bottom of the reflector, upward glare simply cannot be avoided. I have these H7R bulbs from China that have tape on the bulb to reduce the amount of light to hit the bottom of the reflector. I haven't put them in yet but I hope to do so soon to see what difference those bulbs make.
Good job on the projectors. Hope they work well for you!

I've also heard about a new kind of aftermarket HID bulb that has a strip of gray on the actual bulb that reduces glare. It might be worth it to look into that Ghettobird. I think projectors assemblies in the W202 look garish and unattractive on a W202.

Perhaps you can try purchasing the bulbs that Uusukaa was talking about and then change just the headlamp lenses to the oem xenon lenses.

Also, take a look at this guy's website. There is a wealth of information and photos to go along how oem and aftermarket xenons look in different sorts of housings

http://kropf.net/w202/headlamps/

[Ghettobird52]

Yah i really didnt want to throw my hids in my stock lights thats why i ordered those projector lights. Im just going to try these out and see how they go!


Thanks Uusuka! i hope they work well! i have really been wanting new lights and finally there all on the way! (well sorta still processing haha) i will be updating and showing pictures of how it looks!!!

Also Uusuka (or olly if you can answer this) i seen your thread on motor mounts and i think i really really need to do mine! very bad shaking at idle and in park at times. I was wondering if you ever got to doing yours and if its DIY? i own a 88 pont firebird and did a whole lot of work on that thing and the way its done on old motors is you get a jack and put a piece of wood on it loosen bolts on 1 motor mount jack under the oil pan with piece of wood and go up enough to slip 1 side motor mount out, is this same way for kompressor motor? Let me know!

Also i see your in Norcal where at ?

[uusukaa]

I got mine done a while back and there was an reduction in cabin vibration after the job. As long as you know what you're doing, you can DIY the mount swap. I am not one of those people.
I roam around the South bay area, SJSU n all.

[Ghettobird52]

I quite sure its my motor mounts, but i recently replaced my air filter ( as i do i every 15000 miles) i put a K&N this time and it reduced the vibration alot at idle, still there and some times still violent and it vibrates when first taking off but not when at a constant rpm. any who on the motor mounts ahhh i live in Modesto, wish i was a little more west bound in your area haha but my whole family orignates from san jose, blossom hill/monterey Highway area more southern san jo.