100w bulbs

[David Williams]

The headlights in my 98 CLK are worse than useless... Has anyone had any problems with the wiring etc, when using 100w bulbs?

 

[mike65]

They're illigal! Some say you'll blow the fuses or something similair but I've not had any problems.

Mike.

 

[JimmyTD]

Most likely to melt the wiring, bugger up the bulb failure, distort the reflectors and crack the lenses. Go for a bulb upgrade such as PIAA or Philips.

 

[landover]

You can also buy xeon 30% brighter bulbs .THEY SEEM TO DO THE JOB OK.

 

[190]

Well said mike, never mind about 100W bulbs being illegal, If you want 100W bulbs in your car put them in, I have had them in my 190 for eight years never blew a fuse never mind melting the wires so go for it mate if you feel you need brighter headlights.Most people on this forum would put there car into MB to have bulbs changed.

 

[mlc]

I used 100w bulbs in the late 80's (in a ford). they were supposed to be for off road use only and not road legal. I had no problems with them other than I was never convinced that they were actually better than the standard bulbs.

Go for it, I cant believe that it will cause any harm.

Mark.

 

[230K]

Hi

I had 130W in the main beam and 100W in the dip of C230K with no problems, lights on her were particularly bad before hand.
I also found that once fitted the lights need tilted down slightly to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic.
Another thing i had 90/130W in the 190E also although the dim dip stopped working but never any other problems.

230K

 

[pluggers]

Dont want to **** you off but be carfull ! This guy probably thought he could get away with it.
http://forums.mbworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=84786&page=1&pp=10

 

[turnipsock]

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7894

I think we have done this one before.

 

[190]

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7894

I think we have done this one before.

Well said Turnipsock if people would just read the posts or use the search button before posting question that probably been answered before.

 

[mike65]

I thought the theme was familair!

On my bulbs, it should be said my night/early morning driving is overwhemlingly "in traffic" so the 100w filament is rarely used for more than a few seconds here and there.

Mike.

 

[turnipsock]

I went for PIAA extra whites, it was a big improvement on the original bulbs. Most of my driving is rural areas so I'm on full beam a lot. I can now see the fear in the eyes of the deer as they run about in the front of the car trying to guess which way I'm going to swerve.

Has anybody thought about beefing up the fog lights? You can get 80W bulbs for them...if they fail then you still have your sensible lights.

 

[David Williams]

Thanks for all the replies - I am going to think about it for a while.... :idea:

 

[mike65]

You can split the diff and buy 70/75 watters...

Mike.

 

[David Williams]

I was thinking along the same lines - possibly using the 80w PIAA HiLo bulb where 80w power = 135w of light.

 

[OlafMaxwell]

I use a Peugeot 405 sometimes and fitted 130 watt bulbs, they are H1 type. No problem with wiring, battery power or fittings even using main beam on long rural drives. The baseplate on H1 and H4 bulbs is larger and probably hlps heat dissipation better than the smaller baseplate on the H7.

The E 320CDI and probably a lot of other Mercs seem to use H7 bulbs and high wattage bulbs are harder to get in H7. I have seen up to 80W but no higher.

The fitting that attaches to the dip beam headlamp bulbs in my car melted at 12,000 miles. I was doing a lot of long distance night time driving. Because of that I never even fitted higher wattage bulbs. Of course Mercedes in their wisdom decided that the failure was 'wear and tear'. If you want high wattage bulbs I would use heavier wiring, the wiring is very light and frail. Easy to reroute the wiring to and locate a relay near the headlamps. Remeber to take out the high wattage bulbs before MoT, you may fail the lights test.