I can't see at night!

I have a Mercedes Benz E550 with the Bi-Xenon headlight system, and it's great. Spread and throw are great and very bright.

However, my wife's car has the regular lights on it, and it needs to be better. Converting to the Bi-Xenon would cost a mint, so I'm looking for other options.

I'm thinking about 2 small LED bars behind the grill, and perhaps a brighter fog light bulb. Fogs are 9006, and won't change much, I'm afraid, but I really want daylight with a long throw.

We drive in deer country, and want to see the *******s ahead of time so we don't hit them.

She has a regular Mercedes E350, stock lights, 9006 fogs.

Any suggestions on turning night into day with an LED bar or two? It's not a G-Wagon, so no roof mounted options, please!

:welcome:

AMG63 said:

However, my wife's Mercedes E350 has the regular lights on it, and it needs to be better. Converting to the Bi-Xenon would cost a mint, so I'm looking for other options.

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I'm assuming this is a 2012 or earlier model; '13 and newer have LED low beams. This car uses the H7 for each the high and low beam; the best H7 depends on whether you want better lifespan or better performance-- for lifespan the Osram Rallye 65W is the pick, for performance, the Philips RacingVision +150 wins out. The car probably came with a life-optimized bulb which by now has far outlived its usefulness, as the filament degrades and the envelope darkens. Refreshing the bulbs even with a standard one would probably help immensely. Since the lows are hard to change on that model, use the longer-lived Osram Rallye there, and the RacingVision for the less-frequently-used high beams.

I'm thinking about 2 small LED bars behind the grill, and perhaps a brighter fog light bulb. Fogs are 9006, and won't change much, I'm afraid, but I really want daylight with a long throw.

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You might as well mount them in the trunk-- the grille is going to cost you plenty of light no matter how thin and widely-spaced the openings are.

Forget using fog lamps in anything but thick fog or super heavy rain, not in clear weather. Also, when using them in those conditions, keep your speed under 25mph. If the conditions genuinely warrant using fog lamps, then anything over 25mph is too fast. They are not auxiliary low beams and will actually worsen your ability to see in the distance. Leave the 9006 bulbs in there and leave them off. Some very detailed reading on front fog lamps here.

AMG63 said:

She has a regular Mercedes E350, stock lights, 9006 fogs...

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What halogen bulbs does your E350 use for low beams and high beams?

Also, make sure those headlamps are genuinely optically clear-- by this time, sunlight, heat, and exposure to airborne grit on the road may have degraded the lenses. In that case, replacement with genuine Mercedes headlamps is warranted. If they are good and clear, also make sure they are aimed correctly. While you can do it yourself on a wall, given the right location, the technique described in that link, and the patience and discipline to do it correctly, you can do a pretty good job. If you're going to pay a mechanic or dealer to do it, and THEY are going to use the "shine it on the wall method", don't. Have them use a headlamp aiming machine because otherwise they'll just crank away until it "looks good" and bill you for it.

Back to those fog lamps, here are some more threads on front fog lamps and their (very limited) utility:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...How-many-of-you-actually-NEED-your-fog-lights
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?401875-Discussion-Are-fog-lights-really-worth-it
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...Re-Driving-with-fog-lights-when-theres-no-fog

AMG63 said:

my wife's car has the regular lights on it, and it needs to be better. Converting to the Bi-Xenon would cost a mint

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Well, it [i[would[/i] solve your problem completely, and with factory parts. Of course they're super costly as new parts from the dealership, but you could get the parts used (find via www.hollanderparts.com or www.car-part.com to reduce the spend.

I'm thinking about 2 small LED bars behind the grill, and perhaps a brighter fog light bulb.

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This idea is a non-starter. It will not do what you want, and in fact it will do the opposite, while making your car illegal in the process.

Fogs are 9006, and won't change much, I'm afraid, but I really want daylight with a long throw.

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Fog lamps and long throw are mutually exclusive. Fog lamps are basically useless except at very low speed in very bad weather; read the details in this article. Fog lamps cannot be converted into "driving" lamps (or anything else) by swapping bulbs or making other modifications.

Good LED light bars cost money; the cheap ones are junk. Good "driving" lamps, whether they're LED bars or any other kind, can throw a good amount of light well down the road, but only if they're mounted at or above headlamp height with nothing in front of them. Like all other "driving" lamps, they are effective, safe, and legal for use only with the vehicle's main high beam headlamps, not with low beams, not in traffic, and not in bad weather.

We drive in deer country, and want to see the *******s ahead of time so we don't hit them.

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Well, one deer hit would cost a lot more than a Bi-Xenon upgrade with all brand-new factory parts.

Assuming the car's existing headlamps are in brand-new condition (if not, they need to be replaced), you can get a pretty sizeable improvement by installing Osram 65w H7 bulbs in the low and high beams. Make sure you get legitimate ones; there are poor-quality knockoffs around. Make very sure your headlamps are aimed correctly with an optical aiming machine, which a MB dealer service department should have (and be able to use correctly).

It's unfortunate that the headlights Mercedes puts on vehicles it sells in the U.S. have departed from and are so much poorer than those it uses on vehicles sold in other countries. I wish the U.S. DOT would allow lighting approved for the EU to be used on U.S. models - both front and rear. Mercedes has certainly proven that it can create really awful LED and HID headlight systems as found by the IIHS: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/deskt...-headlight-ratings-show-most-need-improvement

I've experimented with countless halogen bulb types over decades and none have made much difference and most/all of the supposedly high performance ones have had much shorter lives. I'd say "tough it out" until you can replace the car with one with better headlights and look at ratings before you do.

It your E350 has plastic lenses and they have degraded - cloudy or worn - it is very possible that they can be restored to new or near new condition with a headlight refinishing kit and 15 minutes of your time. My favorite kit is from Sylvania and cost about $25. I've taken several sets of headlight lenses from nearly opaque to crystal clear with these kits and the improvements in light output has been dramatic.

Geezer1 said:

It's unfortunate that the headlights Mercedes puts on vehicles it sells in the U.S. have departed from and are so much poorer than those it uses on vehicles sold in other countries.

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Except for the advanced lighting features not yet allowed in the US, what you say is not the case. The low and high beams from the US and European headlamps are very closely similar -- and have been on Mercedes cars for many years now. On low beam the US lamps put very slightly more light in the region 2 to 4 degrees above horizontal, and (as applicable) the US headlamps have a built-in sidemarker light and/or reflector not present on the European model.

I wish the U.S. DOT would allow lighting approved for the EU to be used on U.S. models - both front and rear.

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That would not make things better, it would just introduce a different mix of good and bad. It isn't the case that European lighting specifications are categorically better, that's an internet meme that cannot be supported by facts. There's about the same amount of deficiency in the European specs as in the US specs, just a different list of deficiencies -- see here.

Yes, it sucks to have to wait for ADB, but the systems now on the road in Europe and elsewhere have some significant operational foibles. Next-generation systems will solve them, and frankly it's somebody else's turn to be the beta testers. American drivers did it for exhaust emission control; we put up with about two decades of poor performance and drivability to arrive at the modern fuel-injected, clean-exhaust, good-running vehicle, then once we'd worked out the bugs the rest of the world had a painless, easy, low-cost transition from dirty cars to clean ones. ADB will be much better by the time it's probably allowed in the US within the next year or two (on second thought, maybe not any more; President Trump has ordered all agencies not to issue any new regulations while he and his team works to make it almost impossible to do so)

Mercedes has certainly proven that it can create really awful LED and HID headlight systems as found by the IIHS

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That's what the headlines hollered, but it's not actual reality. See here.

It your E350 has plastic lenses and they have degraded - cloudy or worn - it is very possible that they can be restored to new or near new condition

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That's the advertising claim. It does not hold true in the long run.

I've experimented with countless halogen bulb types over decades and none have made much difference

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That's certainly possible, because there's an awful lot of junk on the market, promoted with bogus claims. But there are also some halogen bulb swaps that do make a sizeable improvement. In this case, we're talking about replacing a 1400-lumen bulb with a 2100-lumen bulb. That's probably not a swap you've tried before.