If I'm getting my car re-coded - Benzworld.org - Mercedes-Benz Discussion Forum

DJYoshi · 01-08-2009, 09:44 AM

If I'm getting my car re-coded to xenon = present... what HID Kit would be the best way to go? I've been reading/hearing horror stories of shorted ballasts...fried relay boxes. flicking (which recoding should handle).

The MTec kits sound awesome...but they're really supposed to be the way to go if you're not recoding in star. any suggestions?

**Buellwinkle** · 01-08-2009, 10:22 AM

The "way to go" would be to put in all MB parts for the bi-xenon. I'm not sure MTEC is any better than any of the other chinese made kit. Hate to say it but one Chinese brand looks the same as any other Chinese brand to me.

I look at it this way, HID's are all designed to use 35w. You can make your car accept this by setting xenon=present (55w halogens will still work fine) or you can add 20w of load to the headlights, thats 20w of additional heat, 20w of additional draw, $200 of additional draw on wallet, frankly, I don't see the benefit. I've had one of the least expensive kits on my car for a few years, no problems other than a bulb went out. At today's prices, it was cheaper to buy a new kit than mess with bulbs, besides, the kits use different type connectors on the bulbs, who knows if I would get one compatible with existing ballasts. The new kit I got to use for spares uses the slim ballasts and they work just fine but don't know if the $80 I spent was worth it, the $50 kit with the larger ballast would have probably worked equally as well. Now I'm going with a $40 kit as mentioned above, let you know how it goes. BTW, from a wholesale point of view, these kits were running $30 in quantity in China, so I can buy a bunch, solder on resistors call it BuellwinkleTEC, say it's assembled in the U.S. and charge $300 and some people will buy it, you gotta love EBAY. Heck, your German assembled MB has Chinese made parts in it.

DJYoshi · 01-08-2009, 12:22 PM

great points Winkle. by chance..do you know what kit you've used the past few years? I just don't want to be a**ed out with the problem of blowing something out and facing repair fees that would be crazy. I would go with MB Bi-x's, but $2000 installed is steep for a car that I drive 15 weeks of the year now. not being cheap about it...just being a little frugal and cutting corners to get the look. I've looked into doing that whole depo switch out but even they want $700 + install...at that price..i might as well go oem.
i definitely want to do kits in both the fog and headlights.
but yeah...gotta love ebay. i just wanted the best cheapest way hahaha.

**Buellwinkle** · 01-08-2009, 07:20 PM

$2,000 installed, wow, that's pretty good, the BIXenon lights go for $1,600 each at the dealer + tax.

I don't know what lights they are, they had some group buy on an MB forum, mbklasse.com, that doesn't even exist anymore. The new ones were just ebay specials, had a name brand but who remembers but I can tell you, nobody sold them cheaper

The components, bulbs, ballasts, clips, wires, etc are probably made by one or two companies in China and there's probably a bunch of garage size companies assembling the components into kits in a sweatshop, working 18 hours a day under the most hazerdous conditions, swimming in toxic waste with child labor, at least that's what they show on Dateline.

You want to be safe, keep the old bulbs, if a HID goes out, you can unplug it anywhere and stick the old bulb in, no problem. Also, consider getting 2 kits, if a bulb goes out, throw out the whole side, ballast, bulb, clips and put in all new, heck, $40 a kit, that's as cheap as they were selling blue tinted halogens for a few years ago. Will it cause your car to burst into flames, maybe, happened to my parents MB while driving on the freeway on a sunny day in San Diego, no HID, no aftermarket stuff, just an MB doing it's thing. If it shorts out, you have fuses to protect you. Can disaster happen, yes, but the probability is very low and for that, we have insurance.

DJYoshi · 01-12-2009, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buellwinkle

The components, bulbs, ballasts, clips, wires, etc are probably made by one or two companies in China and there's probably a bunch of garage size companies assembling the components into kits in a sweatshop, working 18 hours a day under the most hazerdous conditions, swimming in toxic waste with child labor, at least that's what they show on Dateline.

hilarious!
I ended up going with Riken to see how they work out....we'll see. for the fog lights, i'm probably gonna go with the cheaper $65 kit that we see on ebay.
let me know how your new kit works out:
yoshi@djyoshi.com.