WTF are these lights?

[500 DXB]

Evening gents.

I came across this parts 1993 E500 in Dubai from a contact here called Shan (hello Shan if you are reading) - Shan's one of those fantastic guys who knows everyone and can literally source you anything and mentioned tonight he knows a chap that has a wrecked Enzo 6.5 V12 engine just sitting gathering dust. He's a veritable W124 E500 /500E fancier and has made many of the years so a good guy to know (cheers to Mike for the intro). No matter anytime I meet Shan he's always smiling and one of those rare genuine chaps hard to come buy here in Dubai.


I wanted to get rid of the totally sh1ght lights on my car as they have about the lighting power of a med-evil candle light lantern.

Shan sourced me the attached lights from a Japanese parts e500 (attached) and I am wondering what the hell they actually are - are they some sort of HID conversion as per the little HID boxes on them and more importantly what do I need to do to my car to get them to work on it?

All thoughts, theories and banter welcome.

 

[gsxr]

They look like standard W124 facelift headlights (NOT E500 lights), with an aftermarket HID conversion.

 

[500 DXB]

They look like standard W124 facelift headlights (NOT E500 lights), with an aftermarket HID conversion.

Oh dear me.

What do I need to do to get these working on my car in terms of HID?

 

[2phast]

Oh dear me.

What do I need to do to get these working on my car in terms of HID?

Do everyone else driving on the road a big favor and do not use those HID's in flutted halogen headlights

 

[500 DXB]

Do everyone else driving on the road a big favor and do not use those HID's in flutted halogen headlights

Good man Rik.

Is that because they are insanely dazzling or just pure sh1gt?

In Dubai being tail gated at night on the main highway by a Nissan Patrol pumping out 500bhp is a regular occurrence.

Having blinding headlights would actually be a good deterrent for road Rogers here

 

[195910]

Is that a half Cut ? What's left of it ? Any more Half Cuts ?

 

[gsxr]

Do everyone else driving on the road a big favor and do not use those HID's in flutted halogen headlights

+1. Rik is correct.

BTW, from the poor photos, I'm not 100% sure if those are standard Euros or E500 Euros. If they are Bosch, they are definitely not E500 Euro lights. The proper .036 headlights were only produced by Hella. The headlight wiper is covering the spot where the Hella logo would be, if there's no Hella logo, they are the wrong lights.

What headlights do you have in the car now? What's wrong with them?

 

[500 DXB]

+1. Rik is correct.

BTW, from the poor photos, I'm not 100% sure if those are standard Euros or E500 Euros. If they are Bosch, they are definitely not E500 Euro lights. The proper .036 headlights were only produced by Hella. The headlight wiper is covering the spot where the Hella logo would be, if there's no Hella logo, they are the wrong lights.

What headlights do you have in the car now? What's wrong with them?

Cheers Dave,

There is a "DEP" logo on the lights and Bosch on the indicators.

My current lights are pure sh1ght and replacements from the original lights the car had.

 

[gsxr]

Yeah, those are standard lights on your car now. Why not just get new OE MB E500 lights? With good bulbs, those are excellent. No HID burners needed!

 

[2phast]

Good man Rik.

Is that because they are insanely dazzling or just pure sh1gt?

In Dubai being tail gated at night on the main highway by a Nissan Patrol pumping out 500bhp is a regular occurrence.

Having blinding headlights would actually be a good deterrent for road Rogers here

Well thats a long story. And not becasue HID's are shit, far from it. HID's are an excellent source of light, if the technology is applied correctly. Sticking aftermarket HID into a headlight designed for halogen bulbs can be done, but it really requires removal of the headlight glass flutting and using a proper projecter assembly.

This is the best retrofit I have seen done on a W124.

http://kamran1860.tripod.com/n_xenon_e.htm

I have installed HID's into standard euro headlights (like what you are looking at) and it is documented here; http://www.2phast.com/190e/headlight.htm BUT what is not documented is how bad the light distribution was. There just is no way to control your light pattern when it goes through halogen flutting. I ended up with tape over both of my headlights (to control the light pattern) before I finally pulled them out. Do keep in mind this was a long time ago, before the market was flooded with cheap H4 HID kits.

Also did a proper retrofit of projectors and it is documented here http://www.2phast.com/500e/exterior.htm scroll down to the headlight section. The light output was incredible with a perfect cut-off. While the light was good, the appearance of the lights themselves never really grew on me and after being on the receiving end of too many "Johnny Five" jokes, it was back to regular halogen euros for me.

 

[500 DXB]

I've put these lights in and now and yes as per Rik's advice they are hard to control the light dispersion but I can actually see the road signs now at night. More importantly fellow road users here can see my car approaching clearly now.
In the Uk this would not pass a standard MOT by a long shot. Neither would the de-cat exhaust system. But out here all passed with flying colours. For now I'm happy the lights until they implode. For what I paid for them if they last the winter I'm happy enough. After that I can review the OE MB E500 light with good bulbs as way to improve the car again.

Thanks for all your advice here as always.

 

[500 DXB]

Hello chaps, just to let you know my E500 is now sold and left these Gulf shores on a boat back to the UK. Former owner Will is taking the car back and will be running it in the UK and Europe afterwards.

Cheers