cityguyboston

My dash tells me every so often and I think more so when I hit the brakes that I have a "defective lamp" except I do not. All brake lamps are working. All lamps are operative when asked.

I hit clear and it does not come back for days or every 20 minutes.

Anybody got any ideas on the cause?

RichardM98

MB uses a special bulb socket which gets it's power from contact tabs on the socket instead of a wire protruding from the back. Over the years the contact points can become corroded or just loose. A trick that worked well for me is to seat (rotate fully) the socket and then back it off a little (~ 5 degrees) to create a new contact point. For some reason the left rear brake light is the most common culprit but others could be the problem as well.

Plutoe

Sounds like you either have a wiring or bulb contact issue---patience and looking will find the fault------no simple fix like faulty brake light switch!!

cityguyboston

Thanks. Off to the garage.

raymond g-

some techniques used: clean oxidation off the winged contacts on the bulb
holder, clean the metal surface of the tail light panel which serves as the
contact board/circuit, screw/solder a hard wire from the board over to the
bulb holder

cityguyboston

Cleaned all the socket tabs and did the re-seat and back off ~5 degrees. So far so good. Thanks all.