I got fed up with the crappy stock headlights on my 2012 MCS and replaced them with the halogen Helix projectors from ECS Tuning. They work great: good pattern and all the bulbs work right, but I'm getting a headlight out warning from the car at startup.

I'm certain all the bulbs are working. Is this a known issue with these aftermarket headlamps or is there something I'm missing?

 

Thats weird, are they flickering or doing anything. Check and make sure the bulbs are all still working. If it still has problems, call our CS team and they can help you out with an exchange or something.

https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/ES3192997/

 

Likely you need to code the car to remove the bulb out warning due to them being a different resistance than stock.

 

No, they seem to be working perfectly fine: no flickering or anything.

So as a test I turned off the DRLs in the dash menu and now I don't get any errors and the headlights still work fine. So it's definitely related to the DRLs, but no idea what the problem could be. It's not like I need the DRLs, at least.

 

I didn't know there was coding for bulb wattage. Do you need a dealer to do that or can an independent mechanic do it, or an app via OBD 2?

 

Its a standard halogen bulb like you had before. Must be the voltage on the DRL which is just a lower voltage must have not been in range, when the DRL are turned on do the headlights work, but at a dimmer light?

Thanks

 

This is a 2012 MCS. The standard halogen is a two-filament 55W/65W H13. When the DRLs are on the low beam is on full brightness.

The Helix headlights use a single-filament 55W H7 with a mechanical shutter. When the DRLs are on the low beam is on full brightness, just like stock.

I suspect the onboard computer is getting confused by the change from a two-filament bulb to a one-filament bulb with shutter. I would assume the headlight is not drawing the correct current in high or low configuration and that's messing up the warnings. It sounds like I need to code the car to turn off the warnings. Just surprising that I'm the first person to run into this issue.

 

Okay, I turned off the voltage check for high beams using Carly and now I don't get the warning anymore with the DRLs turned on. Everything is working properly now.

 

Ok, great thanks for the update.

 

I also get this error time to time. How do I turn off the high voltage error with my scanguage or permanently disable it through the dash?

Additionslly, while I think the lights look great they def do not have great light output. Is there a way to fix this? I have PIAA 5K halogen bulbs.

 

You either need to turn off the DRLs via the dash menu, or turn off the high beam voltage check using some sort of software. I did the latter using the Carly app.

I've been very happy with the output vs. the stock halogens. You have to make sure you aim them properly, details here:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

Also, those 5K "ultra white" bulbs are junk and their output is crap. Basically any bulb that has blue glass is costing you light on the road. Buy a good set of halogen H7s, ones with a clear bulb. Philips H7 VisionPlus or ExtremeVision bulbs are a good fit for these headlights.

Why ultra white halogens suck:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...good/good.html