I have a 1999 E320 wagon. I am a wholesaler and bought a 1998 today. The 98 has the hid lights and I really like them. Does any one if the headlight assemblies and ballasts can be switched in the two vehicles to upgrade my 99 to the HID lights. I am curious if the cars are pre wired and if it will be plug and play or if this is a major ordeal. Thanks in advance

 

the HID unit can be removed from the 98 and it will physically fit into the 99 w/o any problems.

the 99 will not have the suspension telemetry linkages which will allow the HID to auto
level. so you'll need to adjust and set the light beam accurately...and perhaps even dip
them a scootch lower. you dont want to risk blinding opposing drivers unecessarily.

electrically, the 98's HID should plug into the 99 but the headlight has an additional female
socket to mate with the autolevel....with the 99 doesn't have. so you would just leave
that unplugged. i cant quite picture the ballast wiring in my head right now, but any
additional retrofitting with the wiring is minimal. it's been several years since I worked on
the HID package, but you'll need to get 12vdc into the input leads of the ballast. i'd
highly recommend an inline fuse.

there should not be any SDS version coding needed.

the above advice is based on some hands-on. i took an aftermarket headlight, disassembled,
removed the halogen projector, inserted a bixenon HID from an E55, sealed back up, patched
in the Hella/OEM ballast and sewed things back up. i wanted the projector look of the w211
instead of the reflector look. i also wanted the performance of HID. here is an example of
the results...

http://i31.tinypic.com/25r1etf.jpg