The C Class Lighting FAQ page.
What bulbs do I have in my car.
If you have a W203 C Class car you have:
H7 55w bulbs for high and low beam
9006 55w bulbs for fog lights
W 5w for your city lights
model number 194 wedge bulbs
Corner bulbs are also 194 wedge bulbs
Note* The wedge type bulb
for the corner lights or the city lights may have any of the following part
numbers: Manufactory Part#: 194 , 168 , 158 , 12256 , 12961
What do they look like in relation to OEM bulbs?
Phillips blue vision vs. OEM bulbs
Phillips vision Plus vs. OEM bulbs
In the previous pictures the OEM bulb is on the left.
My car with Eurolite Xenon vs. OEM Mitsubishi bulbs
A video of Stage 2 HID lights must have QuickTime to view.
Where can I get real Xenon lighting?
There are several places to get them online.
HIGH/LOW BEAM
warning: do not touch the glass of the
bulbs. wear gloves if possible.
1. remove the headlight housing caps (large jar caps) by twisting them off. put
aside.
2. reach into housing, and twist bulb housing counterclockwise about 15° and you
should be able to gently pull them out. (i had to do this blind especially for
the driver's side). when you feel it, the flat parts are horizontal.
3. using the metal base of the bulb, pull out the OEM bulb. insert new bulb - it
is unidirectional and there is a metal flange on the housing that prevents you
putting the bulb in the wrong way.
again, don't touch the glass parts
4. re-insert the housing at 15° off flat, and then twist it in clockwise. it
should click in. if it feels loose, it didn't catch. i had to do this several
times before i got the hang of it. once in, it should not be loose at all.
5. put headlight cap back on - don't forget this step...
Fog Lights
On the driver's side, you must replace the bulb from under the car.
1. There is a panel just below the light. There is a seam between that panel and the one under the engine.
2. Remove the screw between these two panels and fish your hand up through the crack (no need to remove the panels).
3. You should feel the back of the bulb and then you twist it 90° then it should pop out. Replace bulb and put back in.
On the passenger side you can:
1. reach down from the top of the car and get it loose
2. from there I found a small hole on the underside of the car right below the fog light.
3. Drop the connector through there take off bulb and replace then, from top of car, reinstall the light
What is Xenon/HID lighting? from hid4less.com
What Is XENON and HID Lighting?
HID/Xenon lights are a fairly new technology for automobiles. It is much more powerful lighting system than Halogen bulbs. Note that it is a lighting system, which consists of more than just a simple bulb. These system are factory options on cars such as BMW, MERCEDES, AUDI, ACURA , and other high-end luxury cars.
What about those Xenon halogen bulbs?
Bulbs that claim that they are filled with xenon gas, or that they are the closest thing to HID are not. They are just simply HALOGEN bulbs with a bluish coating on them. These bulbs with the bluish coating simply filter all but the blue light out, effectively making the light output very little. Other bulbs, in order to make their bulbs brighter simply up the wattage usage of each bulb, which only puts a much bigger strain on your electrical system and your alternator. These bulbs are not legal, and do not in any way approach the brightness of High Intensity Discharge lights.
What does HID Stand for?
HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. The term xenon is comes from the type of gas that is found inside the bulb .
What advantages are there with HID compared to Halogen Bulbs?
There are many advantages to HID.
1/3 less power consumption
3 times the light output: No halogen bulb can even come close to the output of a normal HID light. More light output if you do Stage 2
Safety and Visibility. More visibility equals more nighttime safety. Much more powerful than halogen, HID allows you to see farther and brighter during nighttime driving. Plus, HID approximates the temperature of sunlight, so objects appear more real.
Common myths about "Xenon bulbs" From hid4less.com
XENON BULBS ARE BRIGHTER THAN MY ORIGINAL HALOGENS..
While they may look brighter in reality they are not. Bulbs that are "blue" whether it be by tinting the glass or painting it, filter out certain spectrums of light therefore reducing the amount of light output.
ARE BLUE BULBS THE SAME AS THESE "XENON" BULBS I HAVE SEEN FOR DIRECT REPLACEMENT OF REGULAR HALOGEN BULBS?
No. It is confusing, not only because of the explosion in recent years of all sorts of new products in the field of lighting and signaling, but also because some of the terms are being used to describe more than one product. For example, in the field of lighting, a "Xenon lamp" is a gas-discharge (or High Intensity Discharge)-sourced light, just like the light source in your camera's electronic flash. And we're seeing more and more such lights (under a plethora of brand names, which makes things even more confusing) on today's cars. BUT, we also have some companies using "Xenon" in their trade names for halogen bulbs that have a higher percentage of Xenon in their fill gas mix, and that gas is under higher pressure than normal halogen bulbs. And there is nothing preventing somebody from having high-Xenon-percentage halogen bulbs made with a blue-pass (or an anything-pass, for that matter) diachronic filter coating. The resultant mishmash of terms and technologies can be quite difficult to sort out.
The high-Xenon-percentage halogen bulbs are not a gimmick and not a scam, if they're not blue. All of the new bulb designs being produced for new headlamps--such as the new H7 bulb size--use this newly-tweaked, higher-pressure gas mix, and the results have been good, with the H7 achieving a higher luminous flux (amount of available usable light) from a given wattage than was achievable with halogen bulbs that used the old gas mix under the old lower pressure
SO HOW CAN I TELL A
GENUINE ARC-DISCHARGE HEADLAMP FROM A REGULAR HEADLAMP THAT HAS THESE BLUE
HALOGEN BULBS?
One clue is the type of car. As
mentioned at the top of this message, there are only very few models at this
time in North America being offered with the arc-discharge headlamp system, and
all of them are top-end/luxury models. If you spot the characteristic
purplish-blue light color coming from an everyday-Joe type of car, you've found
the illegal bulbs.
Another way to tell at a glance is to observe the color of the light. Genuine
arc-discharge headlamps run with a very purplish-white character that will
remind you exactly of the color of the electronic flash on your camera, while
blue-tinted halogen bulbs give headlamps a turquoise/blue/green coloring. Once
you have this information in mind, it is easy to spot a user of these bulbs at
quite a distance. The signal image of an automotive HID headlamp has a
distinctly blue cast, but if you drive behind them you are struck by the very
white characteristic of the light
How do I change the computer settings to recognize the Xenon bulbs?
You must take the car into the dealership for this. It should only take about 5 minutes and can be done in the parking lot. Although some dealers will do it for free the charges may vary. Here is a link of the pages that show you how to enable the settings. Xenon settings page. Thanks to Randy Stevens from Brumos Mercedes in Jacksonville for this!
Flashman's unofficial C-Coupe FAQ
CSportcoupe.com anything you need to know about the C Coupe can be found here
Contact me at z28boy@carolina.rr.com
