[Drew]

For those of you who do not know what city lamps are, they are the tiny 5 watt bulbs which act as parking lamp bulbs. They dimly illuminate the high beam reflectors so as to mark the vehicle's position and width at night.

Ever since I took delivery of the C320, I've been looking for an alternative to the stock 5 watt bulbs as they stick out like sore thumbs compared to the bright bluish/whitish hue of the Bi-Xenons. I've tried both the APC "ricer" blue-tinted W5W bulbs, to the Phillips Bluevision W5W bulbs. While both were whiter than the stock bulbs, especially the Bluevisions, I've never found a good alternative till now.

The solution to the problem turned out to be a high intensity mini-4 HyperBwhite LED wedge bulb from formymercedes.com! These LEDs have a beautiful blue/whitish hue to them which matches the Bi-Xenons perfectly. Not only are they great higher colour temperature, but they are much brighter as well, especially when viewed directly on.

While the bulbs are a direct fit with the factory socket, I had to make a couple of minor wiring modifications in order to trick the computer into not displaying the "bulb-out" warning, as the LED bulbs draw much less current than the incandescent bulbs.

<b>Stock bulbs that came with the car. Extremely yellowish:</b>

<b>Phillips Bluevisions, much better, however still yellower than the Bi-Xenons, as expected. The bulbs now reside in my clear corners:</b>

<b>Formymercedes.com mini-wedge 4 HyperBright white LED bulbs. Finally, the colour temperatures are very similar!</b>

<b>In this picture, the camera's auto white balance interpreted it a little too bluish rather than the extreme white (with a blue hue) that they appear in reality:</b>

<b>The LED bulbs look high-tech and unique as well!</b>

More pictures to come soon [] If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

 

[Tezta]

That is really cool, do you have anymore pics of the car? maybe some pics of the whole fro...

That is really cool, do you have anymore pics of the car? maybe some pics of the whole front end with the lights on? BTW i checked out formymercedes.com and i couldnt find LED lights for city lamps. do you have a direct link?

 

[Drew]

I just snapped a couple of pictures...

That is really cool, do you have anymore pics of the car? maybe some pics of the whole front end with the lights on? BTW i checked out formymercedes.com and i couldnt find LED lights for city lamps. do you have a direct link?

...last night. I'l upload them a little later this evening, so check back then or tomorrow []

Here's the link that you want. Try out their LED snakes and the LED flashlight. Cheap but extremely powerful!

http://www.myroadster.net/led.asp

 

[bigjx76]

Led mini wedge lights

Hey, those r some sick lights. I was wondering tho, cuz when i looked up those ligthts on the web link u left, i couldn't find the numbers which matched up bulbs in the manual. In my c class manual, and it says the bulb's need r "H7 (55 W)" for the high beam....and the Parking and standing lamps r " W 5 W "....so could u respond back and let me kno what type of LED bulb code number u have on ur C class in the pic? thanks [8D]

 

[Drew]

Thanks for the compliment...

Hey, those r some sick lights. I was wondering tho, cuz when i looked up those ligthts on the web link u left, i couldn't find the numbers which matched up bulbs in the manual. In my c class manual, and it says the bulb's need r "H7 (55 W)" for the high beam....and the Parking and standing lamps r " W 5 W "....so could u respond back and let me kno what type of LED bulb code number u have on ur C class in the pic? thanks [8D]

W5W is equivalent to 194 bulbs. The site only sells one bulb style anyway:
http://www.myroadster.net/led.asp

You should understand though, that you will need to leave your existing bulb in there and tap off of the existing bulb socket harness. This is because the LED bulb draws so little current that the bulb-out system in the car thinks that the bulb is blown. It's not a big deal and can be accomplished with four 3M quick connectors and two generic 194 bulb sockets []

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[anal]

Rather than modifying the harness, couldn't you just "parallel" a resistor of the correct value onto the contacts of the new bulb to prevent the diagnostic circuit from freaking?

 

[t0ast]

RE: Thanks for the compliment...

Drew - 1/19/2003 7:00 PM

You should understand though, that you will need to leave your existing bulb in there and tap off of the existing bulb socket harness. This is because the LED bulb draws so little current that the bulb-out system in the car thinks that the bulb is blown. It's not a big deal and can be accomplished with four 3M quick connectors and two generic 194 bulb sockets []

When you say "leave your existing bulb in there," did you just leave the lit stock bulb danging behind your headlamps?

 

[orionbluecoupe]

Drew,
Where did you find the W5W adapter/load equalizer??

 

[JDymond$clk55]

gosh, almost the same issue I have going on. I can't get my high beams to work. Purchase all new bulbs, fuses, and it can't be the switch because everything else lights up. I put two wires together for trial N error to see if I can find the issue and now I blew out my right tail break lights. And what is really strange about this is that they are L.E.D's and the inner breaks don't work but the top parking reverse works and the left side works completely but the right side is half out. Very strange! So those don't work plus high beams and one little light under the highbeam dont work but the other side does. Lost!!! Need help asap