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Headlight comparison - Depo vs. refurbished factory, and xenon vs. bi-xenon

19K views 65 replies 9 participants last post by  cowboyt 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi folks,

Earlier this year, I finished refurbishing the headlight assemblies on my 2003 S600 TT. These come with bi-xenons. Unfortunately, due to age and use, the silver-mirroring in the bi-xenon projectors had essentially baked away. Additionally, the lenses were kinda yellowed after 13 and a half years. I considered the low beams too dim to be safe to drive at night.

So, I decided to rebuild them...I Have The Technology...(insert bionic sound here)

To do so, I first removed the little spring-steel C-clamps on the headlight assemblies. They just pry off easily with a small screwdriver; there were four of them. Next, I baked them at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 Celsius) for four minutes. This softens the silicone sealant which is actually what holds the lens on. Pried it open (it's gooey!), and let it cool down. Unscrewed the projectors and had a look at 'em. No wonder they were so dim! Almost no silvering left at the top, and about half the silvering gone throughout the rest of 'em.

So, I replaced them with the Morimoto replicas of the Bosch E46 projectors. I also swapped over the (fully functional) solenoid/shield assemblies from the original projectors to the new Morimoto replicas. The Morimoto E46's are a straight swap; they just bolt right in. Put new Jahn 35-watt D2S HID bulbs in there, refinished the outer lens so it was clear, put some OptiLens UV-protectant on there (hopefully that stuff works over the long-haul--it ain't cheap!), and gave 'em a try.

What. A. Difference.

Low beams, standing at the car's left:




Low beams, standing right in front of the car, dead-centre:




Left low beam:




Right low-beam:




High beams:




Left high-beam:




Right high-beam:




Now, let's compare those to the Depos I had also put in the 2003 S430.


Both low-beams:




Left low-beam:




Right low-beam:




I don't have pictures of the high-beams on the Depos (sorry about that), but as the Depo low-beam projectors are single-xenon units, just imagine what you see above with a standard H7 halogen high-beam added. Note that Depo *does* make a bi-xenon model for post-facelift W220's set up for factory HID. I haven't yet tried these, but presumably they would perform similarly in low-beam mode to the single-xenon models shown above.

I noticed the following things.

1.) The Depo stock low-beam projectors, as I pointed out in my review of them in an earlier thread, really aren't bad. Indeed, I'd say they're pretty good. They actually do light up the road pretty well, somewhat better than halogen lights. But those Morimoto E46's really are worth the money; look at how bright they are by comparison. According to Unique Style Racing, the Depo projectors are made in Germany. Those Japanese Morimotos, though, definitely outclass them. This is not a knock on the Depos, but rather a testament to the Morimotos.

2.) Bi-xenons are, as the vernacular goes, "the bomb". You see how bright that hot spot is? I can tell you, those bi-xenons in high-beam mode pretty much make the halogen high-beams superfluous. I can't even see the halogen high-beams when those bi-xenon shields get lowered. These things are BRIGHT. Even if they weren't quite this bright, bi-xenons really are a good idea for high-beams, generally. One set of good high-beam bulbs lighting up a dark highway is nice. Two sets are even better.

3.) All that talk about how Morimoto's supposed to be all so wonderful and such? Now I get it. It's true. The proof is in the pictures above. Note that I'm not even talking about the FX-R's, but rather the E46's...makes me wonder just what FX-R's would be like! Unfortunately, they aren't drop-in replacements on W220 headlight assemblies, but believe me, that's OK! The E46's do a fine job.

Imagine what it would look like to have these bi-xenons in both the low-beam *and* the high-beam positions in the headlight assembly...and have both projectors activating when you turn on the lights. Assuming you aim your headlights properly (which everyone should!), then despite the increased brightness, oncoming drivers wouldn't get blinded because of the low-beam shield. Hit the high-beams, and you're burning up vampires. :) I am seriously considering this mod for my Dad's pre-facelift S430, which came with factory HID's.

And speaking of pre-facelift HID's....

THEY SUCK!! THEY SUCK CAMEL BALLS!!

My Dad's 2000 S430 has factory pre-facelift HID's, in very good shape, with lenses that look pretty much brand new. He always garaged his car, and whenever covered parking was available, he always took it. That car has very low miles for its age, about 85,000, and being a car guy, he always took top-notch care of it. I expected those HID's to be a lot brighter than they are. They're not. They're about as bright as my 1990's era Honda Civic halogens. Seriously.

Doing a comparison between the Depo HID's and my Dad's HID's...the Depos totally annihilated the pre-facelift HID's. I mean, annihilated. Comparing the pre-facelift lights against the S600's newly-refurbished bi-xenons in low-beam mode, they're not even in the same conversation.

And that's why I'm considering this mod for Dad's S430. When those lights go on, I want them to be BRIGHT.
 
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#5 ·
Not sure. They might be the originals, and they might not. The car is 17 years old, though when I got it, it had 78,000 miles on it. It now has 84K, a good chunk of which was driving it across the country from Dad's house to mine.
 
#3 ·
Can you provide a link to the new projectors? I'd buy a set of refurbished lights from you if you made another set!
 
#4 ·
#6 ·
Tried out a spare pair of new D2B HID bulbs from a previous project. There was a slight improvement, but not much. The Depos still handily destroyed the factory pre-facelift reflectors, and the Morimoto-retrofits even more so. There's just no comparison. The only real way, it appears, to get more light output out of the old-school reflectors is to stick a 35W LED into a halogen assembly, which isn't optimal, but it's an improvement to some degree.

Then I drove a couple of other vehicles with traditional prismed reflectors with halogen bulbs. Both of these vehicles have what would've been called "good" headlights, not so long ago. They're still in good condition. Again, no comparison, to either the Depos or the Morimoto retrofits.

Conclusions: projectors really *are* better, and having separate high-beams so you get both lows and highs simultaneously (as in W220's) is a very good idea.

Looks like I'm doing the new double bi-xenon headlight build project after all. The "low-beam" location will get a set of Morimoto Bosch E46 replicas. The "high beam" location will get the Morimoto FX-R's and a ballast conversion kit. That oughta do it!
 
#7 ·
OK, this project is on!

Recently, I bought a set of Depos for Dad's car. Just tried 'em out in the other thread, the review about Depos. This second pair works just as well as the first pair does.

Now, for the retrofit. The plan remains as follows.

1.) Replace the single-xenon low-beam projectors in there with Morimoto bi-xenon models. See if there's a difference.

2.) If need be, replace the ballast in one side to see if that yields more light. I've learned that a good ballast not only brings the bulb to full brightness faster, but also can make the bulb shine brighter, given the same rated output wattage.

3.) Try out a Jahn or Philips bulb in each side to see if that makes a difference. I've heard that there's HID bulbs, and then there's HID bulbs. The S600 has Jahn's in it, along with the Bosch OEM ballasts, and as you could see, those are plenty bright.

4.) Do the permanent retrofit both low beams according to the results from the above tests.

5.) Get started on the high beams. That's where the FX-R's come into play.

Remember, the goal for the high-beam-position retrofit is for both bulbs (per side, that is) to come on in low-beam mode. Then, when I hit the high-beam switch, both shields fall away, with the resulting burning of vampires.

The major problems are that the high beams are 55W, and that the bulbs are only energized when the high beam switch is activated. So, we need to do two things:

A.) find a way to safely supply power to the "high-beam-position" HID bulb when in low-beam mode, and in a way that keeps the computer happy, and
B.) fool the car's computer into thinking there's a 55W bulb when we hit the high-beam switch.

I believe I have a way to accomplish both goals, with a set of two relays.

In low-beam mode, the "high-beam-position" light (well, actually, its ballast) will be powered straight from the battery. In high-beam mode, the "high-beam-position" light (again, really the ballast) will get quickly switched--by the relay--to the car's standard high-beam output. The ballast will be a CANBUS-friendly type with the electronics to fool the car's computer.

What this means is that I can possibly use the existing Depo ballast for the high-beam position, since it has that CANBUS electronics in it. That means I can re-use the OEM Bosch ballasts from the "old" reflector-type HID's on this car. Since the car came from the factory with low-beam HID's, the car's computer will expect this 35W load at the low-beam position.

To power the solenoids for the lowbeam/highbeam shields, I'll just tap that into the "normal" high-beam power circuit. That load should be minimal.

This design of retrofit means I still get to flash my highbeams at night when needed. However, flashing them during the day when the lights are off would be inadvisable, to keep the ballasts healthy.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
#8 · (Edited)
The project S500 got some Depos as a trial before I do Dad's car. This car, like my Dad's car, is already programmed for XENON=PRESENT from the factory, so no CANBUS worries here. As usual, the Depos, which have single-xenon HID projectors with H7 HID bulbs, performed pretty well as they came from the factory.

The job this time was to swap out those single-xenons for some bi-xenons. The equipment list is as follows.

1.) Depo HID headlamp assemblies for pre-facelift W220
2.) Morimoto E46-R (Bosch E46 copy) D2S bi-xenon projector
3.) Osram Xenarc 66240 CLC (Classic) HID bulbs, [CORRECTION EDIT] 4000K color spectrum
4.) Hella Generation 3 D2S/D2R HID ballasts

First, I'll point out that this took several evenings to figure out how to do really right, and I made several time-consuming mistakes in the process. That's OK, as long as you learn from it. The next such retrofit will probably take just an evening or two, now that I know what I'm doing.

The Depos are just like the post-facelift OEM assemblies, where you've got to bake 'em to get the sealant soft enough to pull off the lens cover. Slightly messy, but easy enough.

Fortunately, the single-xenon projector that Depo uses is the same bolt pattern as the E46's. So, it's just a remove-and-replace operation, far as that goes.

Wiring up the bi-xenon solenoid was also easy enough. Just tap into the high-beam circuit, and you're done with that.

The tricky part was the D2S connector at the end of the ignitor cable. Just as in the OEM headlight assembly, you've got to use right-angle D2S connector cables. The straight ones will butt right up against the low-beam access door and totally throw off the aim, assuming you can even close the access door. You *MUST* use right-angle D2S ignitor cables here. If you buy those from an outfit like The Retrofit Source or whatever, you will want the AMP-to-D2S adaptor cables. This is because Depo puts AMP ballasts on their headlight assemblies, due to their use of H7 HID bulbs.

However, if you don't have right-angle adaptor cables, which was exactly my situation...you can also order a pair of Hella Gen 3 ballasts from somewhere like HIDProjectors. These *do* come with ignitor cables integrated with the unit, and they *are* right-angle. The other advantage is that, Hella Gen 3's being OEM ballasts for several car companies (BMW among them), they get that bulb to full brightness pretty quickly. That's the path I took in this case.

Now, time to try them out. Just as the S600 is brighter than the stock Depos, this retrofit (basically, hacked Depos) is also brighter in low-beam mode than the pair was as it originally came. The original configuration wasn't bad; it was actually pretty good, as always. But this is definitely an improvement. Remember, I'm a tinkerer. :wink

First, the low-beams are indeed brighter. This may be due to the bulbs, the Morimoto projectors, or both. This is like with the S600's retrofit.

Second, the high-beams are NO COMPARISON. With the stock Depos, you can see the halogen high-beams. They're pretty good high beams which do light up the road well. After the retrofit, though...those very same halogen high-beams get totally washed out by the HID projectors. Again, this is much like with the S600's retrofit. It's not that Depo put sucky halogens in there; they didn't. Rather, it's that the HID's are *that* bright in high-beam mode. And this is with Osram's most basic line of 66240 bulb, the CLC!

So, now I have a spare pair of fully functional aftermarket HID ballasts with AMP outputs. I will use these in another upcoming application.

Also, now I know how to do the retrofit for Dad's car. This should be fun. However, I'm wondering on the wisdom of going quad-xenon. These retrofitted headlight assemblies are already really bright as they are with just one bi-xenon projector, and it may not be worth all the effort of cutting up and fitting required to get those FX-R's in there.
 
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#9 ·
Projector replacement with Morimoto

I also have a 2003 S600 with bi-xenons and am in the middle of the process of replacing the projectors with Morimotos. I had no problem removing the headlight assemblies from the car, and removed the lens from the assembly using the oven-heating process you describe. I am having a problem removing the projectors. They can only be removed from the front of the assembly, and I've tried removing most of the screws from the frame holding the projectors but can't get the frames to release.
Can you tell me how you did it?

Two photos of the front of the assembly are attached. The first shows the whole assembly, the second a close-up of the part of the white bracket with a small gray stud that doesn't want to come off the gray piece of plastic below that is part on the adjustment mechanism. How did you do it?

Thanks. Jim
 

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#10 ·
Yeah, it's a snap-together ball 'n' socket joint. The white part is the socket, and the charcoal-grey thing you see through that hole in the middle is the ball that snaps into it. What you do is bend the white cage up a bit, enough to open that socket some. Then, take a flathead screwdriver, slide it underneath the (for lack of a better term) "socket arm", and gradually pry it up. You may have to pull the white cage up to open it up a bit more; do not bend it beyond, say, a 45 degree angle or you risk snapping one or more of the socket's tabs that hold things together. Remember that these things are about 14 years old now, and that plastic is probably a bit more brittle than when it was brand new.

You've got the correct screws undone, with the little white rounded peg-holders removed. Those are two of the fastening points. The third is that ball 'n' socket joint.
 
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#11 ·
So, just a final report on my headlamp projector replacement. I was able to remove the projector assembly by following cowboyt's instructions above, though as he warned, a part of the tabs on the white plastic "cage" broke off due to the age of the plastic. Not a problem, as there was enough left to hold the ball firmly in place when I re-installed it. The rest of the re-installation is pretty basic if you follow the instructions here and on YouTube, with the predictable wrestling to get the whole headlamp assembly back in place.

And the the result is fantastic! For the first time in the 8 years since I've owned the 2003 S600, the headlights are really bright, with a sharp, clean demarcation line at the top of the projected image.

By the way, the projectors (both the old and replacement ones) come with a movable shutter and motor to operate the shutter, though I read somewhere that the shutter is not utilized on the S600 since it has ABC to level the car. Don't know if this is true, but I don't see the image bouncing up and down on startup that I see on my wife's Lexus.
 
#12 · (Edited)
That shutter motor, a.k.a. the shutter solenoid, is for the high-beams, actually, and it definitely is used on the S600's (I've got an '03 S600 TT as well--my first headlight rebuild). When you hit the high beams, that solenoid gets power to it, the shield drops down, and you get the full output of the projector. The halogen high-beam will also turn on, so you're getting high-beam light from both bulbs. Experience has taught me that the HID high-beam projection should be bright enough to almost completely wash out that of the halogen.

EDIT: there is a slight complication if using the Morimoto solenoid in an MB/OEM housing. The MB/OEM housing expects a 3-prong connection. The Morimoto solenoid is a 2-prong connection. There are two solutions for this:

  1. swap the solenoid/shield assembly from the worn-out Bosch projector, which uses the 3-prong connector, or
  2. use the 2-prong to 3-prong adaptor that a fellow makes for exactly this purpose.

I chose to swap the solenoids. There's nothing wrong with the Bosch solenoid, and it was handy.
 
#13 ·
Hi Jim,

The Dip Beams only travel up and down on HID Xenons with the "Self Levelling Motor", that is what you are seeing on the Lexus.

The Shutter as T rightly says, is what gives you the Left and Right Hand Drive Beam Pattern, the Shutter Solenoid is used to drop away the "Cut Off" and give an un restricted beam, by dropping the Shield Down when switching to Full Beam.

I don't know about laws in USA, but in UK any Car with HID Xenon Dip Beam must have "Self Levelling" Motors, the DEPO Projector Lamps come with these installed, Plug and Play :wink

HTH,

Cheers Dave
 
#14 ·
I believe that's true not just in the UK, but throughout the rest of Europe as well. In Germany, I've read that they also require those headlight washers for HID installations. Here in the USA, neither is required. However, it *is* required for us to properly aim our headlights, and yes, the police are occasionally known to pull people over if it's really out of whack. Generally they give you a pretty stern warning (rightly so, since you're blinding oncoming traffic), but if they catch it a second time, then it might be a ticket.

The DEPO's are the only aftermarket lamps that I know of that have the self-leveling motors. It's a 4-pin connector. With factory-halogen cars, you simply don't plug that in, same as with the OEM MB/Bosch ones.

BTW, it's not just the ABC-equipped S600's that have HID assemblies from the factory. Both my Dad's car and the project-car S500 (both 2000 model years) came with HID's, and both are AIRmatic cars.

I would recommend tapping that shield's solenoid into the high-beam circuit. It only uses an extra 8 watts, so you'll be pulling about 63 W through the high-beam circuit, which the car can easily handle. This way, you get your full high-beam output, and that really is the point of bi-xenon projectors.
 
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#15 ·
Hi T,

Yeah, in UK we have to have H/Lamp Washers too on HID Xenons.

Agreed, my Car came with factory Xenon HID Dip's and that is Airmatic :wink

Cheers Dave
 
#16 · (Edited)
OK, here are some side-by-side photos showing the newly-modded bi-xenon DEPO's next to the 2003 S430's unmodified "stock" DEPO's. The stock DEPO's use H7 HID bulbs (brand unknown) at 6,000K. The modded DEPO's use Osram 66240 CLC "Classic" bulbs at [CORRECTION EDIT] 4,000K. The distance from the wall is 14 yards, or about 13 meters.

Let's begin. Thumbnails *are* clickable.

Side by side, low beams. Modded DEPO's on the left, stock DEPO's on the right.



The difference is obvious. I've always said the DEPO's come with pretty good low-beams, and the hot-spot against the wall is evidence of that. They are considerably brighter and throw more light down-road than the pre-facelift, MB-stock Bosch HID reflectors. Indeed, I believe my exact words were, "they annihilate the MB-stock reflectors." I really don't know why anyone would purchase reflector HID replacements after seeing the stock DEPO's.

But look at the ground on the way to the wall! That's where you can really see the difference. This is why the foglights are now superfluous with the modded pair. Seems turnabout is fair play; the stock DEPO's themselves seem to get "annihilated" in turn by their modded brethren.

Why such a difference? What's going on here?

Turns out it's largely due to the bulbs [EDIT 14 Feb 2018: actually, I learned later it's also probably the projectors after all; see later posts. But the bulbs are certainly one factor.]. I took a closer examination of the stock DEPO H7 bulbs vs. the Osram 66240 CLC's. I remind you that the CLC's are considered the "cheap Osrams", which is about like describing Mt. Kilimanjaro as a "short mountain". Yeah, only if you're comparing it to K2 or Mt. Everest!

There is a considerably greater amount of metal halide salts in the 66240 CLC's vs. the stock DEPO H7 bulbs. That's a big factor in how bright an HID bulb will be. If there were an H7 version of the Osram bulb, presumably this would make the stock DEPO low-beams very close, maybe equal, to those of the modded pair. The new Morimoto E46 projectors, no doubt, also play a role here, but the brightness difference of the bulbs themselves is clear.

Let's continue.

Focus on the stock DEPO's. The hot spot, as always, is pretty good, which shows up against the wall. Nice cutoff lines, all that, as you'd expect.




Focus on the modded DEPO's. The hot spot is now stellar. The cutoff lines remain distinct with the Morimoto bi-xenon projectors--again, as one would expect.

Yes, I know that the left one is aimed slightly lower than the right one. This was done to keep the hot-spots themselves level and prevent blinding people at night. Also, you can see that the right-side one is just slightly tilted, due to correcting an aligning mistake I had made while the headlights were apart. Still works fine, though, real-world.




Low beams, standing in front of both cars, right in the middle of them.




Now we hit the high beams on the stock DEPO's, with the modded pair still in low-beam mode. As you can see, they use single-xenon low-beams, so any high beam light is all from the halogen H7's. This is much like how the pre-facelift reflector HID's do it. These high-beams do a good job lighting up the road, too.




OK, let's reverse things. Now the modded DEPO's are in high-beam mode, with the stock pair back in low-beam mode. Hmm...looks like there's quite a difference here....




Both pairs in high-beam mode, side by side. There's just no comparison; totally different leagues here. You really notice it on the road, too; anyone living in "deer country" will appreciate this difference.




Just for fun, let's face both pairs in high-beam mode. Here, I'm standing about 8 or 9 yards in front of the cars. Since I'm now facing "backwards", the stock DEPO pair is on the left, and the modded pair is on the right. Interestingly, the stock pair looks brighter here, despite what we see against the wall. It also looks more amber, which does make sense since the halogens are comparatively powerful on the stock pair. On the modded pair, the halogen high-beams--which, again, are quality--get pretty much completely washed out by the HID high-beams, hence the bluer appearance here.




The stock pair only, with me standing right in front of it. You can see the right-hand side of the modded pair way to the right of the photo.




And the modded pair, standing in front of it. A bit bluer in appearance, and appears.to be about as bright from this view as the stock pair.




Both again, side by side, in high-beam mode, but with the camera held as high as I could hold it--about 8 feet from the ground. You can definitely see how the modded pair lights up the ground much more brightly immediately in front of the car.




And now, here's a look at another slight mod I did to the project 2000 S500. I got tired of having to replace that side-marker bulb, so I stuck a pair of DEPO LED side markers in there. This is a shot of the left side, and in person, it looks better on the car than the photo shows. Does kinda update the look a little bit, in a good way. It comes with a resistor that you insert in parallel to keep CANBUS happy, and there are no dash messages. It's a very straightforward install if you like this look.




And for comparison, here's the Mercedes-Benz stock front marker light, again, left side. Nothing wrong with this look, either. Functionally, I could easily put a standard 168 LED bulb replacement in there and insert a resistor in parallel, the same way I did for the DEPO LED side-marker assemblies. Like I said, it's very straightforward.



And this is why I think perhaps DEPO should reconsider putting D2S bi-xenons, with the affordable Osram 66240 CLC bulbs, as standard equipment in all of their W220 replacement HID headlight assemblies. They could always, and should, continue to use the single-xenons for their all-halogen assemblies. DEPO seems to have a good reputation on the Internet, and with good reason. This would just make it even better.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Gosh, hadn't thought about it, but I guess I could......since it does take the better part of a day to do this (at least, to do it right), I'd say about $200, on top of the parts+shipping. Parts cost could be kept down about $80 or so by using the DEPO-stock ballast vs. the Hella Gen 3, and just using right-angle AMP-to-D2S ignitor cables from The Retrofit Source or similar. There's nothing really "wrong" with the DEPO ballasts; warm-up time's not quite as quick as the Hellas, but they do work just fine.

Let's take an honest look at what this would cost to do.

First, the parts.


  • DEPO Halogen replacement headlights w/ HID option, $459.95 + $55 shipping = $514.95/pair
  • Morimoto E46-R Bosch replicas, $75/pair from The Retrofit Source's "Closeout" section
  • Projector shrouds E55-style, $30/pair (reason: the DEPO shrouds are specific to their projectors)
  • Osram 66240-series bulbs, about $95/pair, shipped, from most reputable places (I will *not* buy these on eBay--too many fakers!)
  • AMP-to-D2S right-angle ignitor cables, $15/pair

So, we're talking $515 + $75 + $30 + $15 + $95 = $730, just for the parts.

Then add the $200 for labor (mostly) and incidentals (minor stuff, like heat-shrink tubing, copper wire for lengthening, silicone sealant, etc.).

Finally, add the $55 shipping to ship the re-done headlight assemblies to you. I'm using Unique Style Racing's shipping figure here as a ballpark, since I don't know what it'd cost me as a private individual. Probably close to that.

We're talking now about $985 for a completed pair. That's just short of a grand, folks. That's a fair piece of change...granted it'd work great for halogen conversions, even HID upgrades...but are you sure?

Another option would be to send me your existing headlight assembly, which I could mod for you. But your car would be out of commission for that period of time, and I'd be doing this only on the weekends, 'cause of the day job. So, it might be worth it to find a used pair of post-facelift (they'd need to be post-facelift) halogen or HID assemblies and send them to me. If they're halogen assemblies, then that means we'd need ballasts, too; that's about $100/pair. If they're HID assemblies, make sure you get the factory Bosch ballasts that are supposed to go with them. Those aren't cheap. If the lens covers are all clouded up and need refinishing, then we'd be looking at either replacing that lens cover or refinishing the existing one as well. I don't know what new lens covers cost, but the eBay ones are made in China, so it's likely not a good fit. Refinishing the existing ones (virtually all of 'em will require this by now) would be another $150, since it takes between 3 and 4 hours to do both properly. And I wouldn't do the retrofit and leave cloudy lenses; that defeats the purpose of an HID upgrade.

Given all that, the new DEPO assemblies really are looking like the best platform for such a retrofit.

Like I said...in light of what this looks like it'd cost to do...are you sure?
 
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#20 · (Edited)
Yeah, this'd be more of a luxury item ("performance HID's") sort of thing. Now that I know how to do this, my next pair will be the one for Dad's car (currently has stock Depos in there, too).

In your case, I'd recommend just going with the stock DEPO's. I know the modded pair makes 'em look not so good, but that's only next to my modded pair. On an absolute scale, they're actually pretty good, and real-world, I think you'd like their performance. If my modded DEPO's are, we'll say, a Porterhouse steak, then the stock ones are a good sirloin steak.

EDIT: Turns out Morimoto makes H7 HID bulbs, at 4,500K color distribution, and they're said to be pretty good, almost like Osram's standard 66240. Being H7's with AMP connectors, these should be a no-fuss drop-in replacement for the stock no-name bulbs. You know, that's actually worth trying out in a stock pair, i. e. Dad's car, to see if that makes a difference. Hmmm....
 
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#25 · (Edited)
OK, the Morimoto H7 bulbs (4500K) arrived, and I've been trying them out for the last week and a half or so. Short version: it wasn't all I had hoped for.

I'll see if I can get some pictures tonight.
 
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#21 ·
Hi T,

Yeah, I'm using H7 HID Bulbs, I've just got a pair of 5000k's today to try, cos the 8000k's I've got in them atm make the Halogen Full beams look way too yellow :frown

Second what you say about the Stock DEPO's very good quality, much better than Chineseium :wink

Cheers Dave
 
#22 · (Edited)
Looking forward to seeing your results. It could, and probably will, affect which direction I go for foglights.

BTW, I found out where I bought those 66240 CLC's for $30/pop. The Web site is here, and shipping in the continental USA is free. They also do ship internationally.

https://hidbulbsrus.com/hid/d2s

Just bought three more pairs for my upcoming projects. I don't know why they're this inexpensive; they are pretty clearly the genuine article. Perhaps it's because the "HID Mafia", i. e. the various Internet commandos out there, turn up their collective noses at anything short of the 66240 CBI "Cool Blue". :rolleyes: It might also have something to do with the color distribution being "not blue" enough to be "kewl" and "31337". The temperature distribution of these bulbs is actually 4,000K, not 4,150K as I had previously mentioned; I will fix that in my previous posts. Personally, I quite like the 4,000K color distribution. It's easier to see stuff at night.

Anyway, source for this Web store:

https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/fo...y-difference-between-osram-66240-and-66240clc

HID Mafia's approval or not...given the real-world performance of these bulbs, I ain't complainin'. ;)
 
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#23 ·
I've been traveling and offline for about 10 days and haven't been able to respond to earlier posts regarding the Morimoto projectors I installed in my 2003 S600. After reviewing the posts above I checked and my projector shutters do not drop away when I turn on the high beams.

And yes, I noticed that there were only two wires on the plug of the new Morimotos vs. three wires on the MB OEM's. When I contacted ECS TUning (where I purchased them) about this, they said that was not a problem, but they were obviously wrong, or did not know about the high beams. I disposed of the OEM's so can't do the solenoid swap.

Does anyone know where I can get the 2-wire to 3-wire adaptor? Would I need to unseal and remove the lenses again to install the adaptors?

Thanks.
 
#24 ·
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#26 ·
Hi T,

Yeah, I came to the conclusion that it must be my eyesight, cos a lot of other guys give wonderfully technical explanations that 4300k is better than 8000k :frown

I found that the 8000k Bulbs were about the best, on a pitch black heilan night !!
Above that they seemed more Purple and not as bright.............
But problem is they are Illegal in UK, and when looking at the 8000k, they were just a bit too BLUE, and made the other bulbs look very yellow............

I think plod would notice, and give me grief so I've got a pair of 5000k to try out, which should be near to the UK Legal 4300k :wink

Cheers Dave
 
#27 · (Edited)
OK, got some pics.

We are using the '03 S430 "test mule" with the stock DEPO's. The only thing I did was change the right-side bulb from stock Depo H7 (6000K) to Morimoto H7 (4500K). Before installation, I did look at the Morimoto bulb's apparent quantity of metal halide salts. It does look like it has significantly more, much closer to what the Osram 66240 CLC has. So, I would expect it to outclass the stock DEPO bulb just for that alone.

Let's begin. Depo stock bulb on left, Morimoto on right.



Note that the right-hand side doesn't shout out at you, like I expected. Matter of fact, it looks just a little dimmer. So, let's compare the two by blocking first the left side, then the right side.

Blocking left side so we can see only the Morimoto bulb's output.



And now blocking right side so we can see only the DEPO bulb's output.



Hmm...quite a difference, isn't it? The DEPO stock bulb does appear brighter than this new Morimoto bulb that was supposed to be so good. What the hey? Weren't these Morimoto H7's supposed to be "all that"?

Well, we need to be fair here. Some of this has to do with the alignment of the bulb in the projector. Having driven this car a lot, the hot-spot on the right-hand side has always been like this, including with the factory DEPO bulb, compared to the left-hand side. You can see that in the beginning of this thread, where I compared the S600 to this same S430 earlier this year. A simple shimming would fix that. So, the Morimoto bulb is in fact just as bright as the stock DEPO one that it replaced.

Let's continue. Here, we see right in front of the car. This is where it's supposed to make my foglights superfluous. Does it?



About the same brightness here, aren't they? Well, maybe just the slightest of apparent edges to the Morimoto bulb here, but not much, and that might be because of the color of the pavement. But I don't see enough here to make my foglights redundant. Not even close.


Let's have a look at the front of the car. There are two pictures here. The first one, I'm standing at my full height, so the picture is taken at my eye level, which is about 6 feet. The second one, I'm kneeling before the car. No, not a marriage proposal to my Benz, but as good of a car as it is, it is worthy of respect. :wink



From both angles, they appear to be approximately as bright, which also is reflected (literally--yuk yuk) against the wall. The kneeling pic shows the difference between 4500K (more yellow-ish) and 6000K (more blue-ish).

Let's continue. The project 2000 S500 being on hand (highlighted above), we might as well compare this new bulb to that monster. As usual, the S500's lights are setting the standard to which we should aspire.




And now, does the Morimoto H7 bulb in the DEPO projector measure up? Let's find out. Side-by-side comparison of both cars. The project S500 is on the left, the S430 with the Morimoto H7 bulb is on the right. We start from the right hand side of the S430, then right between both cars, and then to the left of the S500. Again, the S430 is on the right hand side, the S500 on the left.



The 4000K bulbs in the S500, in those new E46-R projectors, as before, light up the road like airplane lights. The foglights *are* redundant here.

And a direct head-on comparison between the two cars. This time, the S430 is on the left, with the S500 on the right, 'cause I'm turned around now. Distance is about 12 metres. You can see which bulb is the bluest here. Note that the color distribution on the Morimoto H7 bulb appears very similar to the S500's Osram 66240 CLC's.



Conclusions:

First, it appears that the 4000K color distribution by itself doesn't make things dimmer. The S500 is ridiculously bright by comparison.

Second, the Morimoto bulb is hyped in my opinion. It ain't really all that, as we can see here. Even with not-so-good projectors, I expected the Morimoto H7 to outshine the no-name DEPO bulb. But it turns out it's no brighter after all; it's apparently exactly the same. I'm therefore putting the original DEPO bulb back in there this weekend. So much for the hype...oh, and where are those Morimoto H7 bulbs made? You guessed it...CHINA! Says it right on the box, too. Apparently you really *do* get what you pay for when it comes to bulbs.

Third, the projectors may matter a lot more than I had realized. Remember, those Osarm 66240 CLC's are supposedly the "cheap" Osram bulbs. But look at the whole picture here. Compare not just the hot spot, which is a lot brighter on the modded DEPO's (with Morimoto E46-R projectors), but also the light distribution in front of the car. Notice how well the road itself is lit up by comparison. I might have been incorrect in my earlier assessment that it was "mostly the bulbs". Remember, those new E46-R projectors that light up the road so well are also from Morimoto. It would be interesting to see a comparison in a similar, H7-friendly projector, but I don't believe they make an E46-R bolt-pattern projector that takes an H7 bulb. The other option, were it available, would be to try out an H7 version of the Osram 66240 bulb in the stock DEPO projector. Unfortunately, I cannot find those for sale anywhere.

So, while I strongly suspect the projector is also a major factor, I cannot definitively prove it from what we see here. Given the stark difference in results, I *suspect* the DEPO projector is "okay", while the Morimoto projector is terrific. But that's only a suspicion; I cannot prove that at this point. These stock DEPO low-beam projectors might be terrific as well, and it might be all the bulb; I cannot say just yet with certainty.

But we *do* now know, from these head-to-head tests, that the Morimoto H7 *bulb* is over-hyped. It got matched by a no-name H7 bulb with minimal metal halide salts, in the exact same projector model, in the exact same car. So, that's a valid conclusion. This is surprising to me, given that the same company makes such fine projectors. But, as Walter Cronkite used to say, "that's the way it is."

So, if you really want to improve things, the known formula is as follows.

1.) New Morimoto projector
2.) New OEM bulb from Osram, Philips, Jahn, or similar

"And that's the way it is." :wink
 
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#28 ·
The depos need a fore ground limiter or a more aggressive one. It's throwing way too much light on the ground in front of you which diminishes long range viewing when driving at night.. Some might like that but, it's not beneficial. I'd try to eliminate at least 20' worth of light from the front of the car/ground.

As an example




-Nigel
 
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