njsdavis

Soooooo it was dreary, foggy, raining evening and I decided as i was rolling down the interstate i should actually use my fog lamps for a change so I cut them on and it helped tremendously. Well i pulled up to the store and hopped out to pickup my to go order that i called in on the way home and when i came back out i saw this ......

PICTURE ATTACHED

....... so I immediately thought this is gonna cost me a few hundred bucks. right?

The right side tail light is out i thought ... but actually that light only displays when you have the fog lamps switched on which is why i saw it now and never noticed it before. under normal circumstances only the 3 LED "streaks" would be lit but remember i had the fogs switched on. Now this wouldn't be an issue to me if it hadn't been the day after i ordered these.........

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360528265452...84.m1423.l2649

Reason i purchased the LED white lights was to match the headlights to cruise the downtown area and showboat during the summer on my nightly hangouts ...... BUT it would be kind to stupid to showoff the lighting and you rear light is OUT! kind of a slap in the face.

Long story short ... here is the question already. Can i just replace a bulb or do i have to purchase the whole right side taillight????

Sorry I Had To Vent, HELP ANYONE!?!?

blaine.sellie

I'm thinking all is good. You switched on the fog lights and it turned on the rear fog, which is in the upper left only on the rears. Others?

njsdavis

So its only supposed to light up on the left side?? SERIOUSLY? .... I'm gonna need some people to post pictures of their rear fog. If i see 10+ more pics of just one light lit on the rear I'll believe the hype. I've never seen that before ever. This is my first "luxury" car though so who knows.

blaine.sellie

Per the manual..........


Rear fog lamp (driver’s side only)
Switch on the low beam
headlampsB ( page 372).
 Pull out exterior lamp switch to second
stop.
The front fog lamps and the rear fog
lamp switch on.
The yellow indicator lamp† in the
exterior lamp switch comes on
( page 371).
 Push in the exterior lamp switch to first
stop.
The rear fog lamp switches off.
The green indicator lamp‡ in the
exterior lamp switch goes out.
The front fog lamps remain lit.

bha

As posted, yes, only the left fog light turns on.

This is so someone doesn't hit you from behind in foggy weather. Only one light turns on so they can see you. If both were on, it would look like you were braking.

As long as the left rear fog light comes on, everything is fine.

The right rear fog light will never come on. Almost every European car is this way. Find a friend with a Volvo/BMW/Porsche and turn on their rear fog light and you will see.

E300_Diesel

LOL. Anytime I use the rear fog light and someone I know sees me I always get a text telling me one of my taillights is out. Haven't any of these people been to Europe?? It's required there and optional here but still a good idea IMO. I'm not sure it would look good on the W221 but some cars in the UK have the rear fog light as a completely seperate assemby and not integrated into the tail light housing...I'm assuming that helps to avoid confusion.

Here's the real stumper...all these years of owning a Porsche and a Mercedes and I still can't figure out why I would only want one half of my parking lights on...Maybe someone here can educate me on that one. Even driving in the UK I've never seen that used (intentionally).

njsdavis

Thanks everyone. guess i should move this to the thread .. stuff i figured out by accident cause i too lazy to read the manual. BUT yet a sigh of relief. no money has to be spent.

E300_Diesel

I was thinking about this today and IMO this can be especially confusing to folks, like me, who have owned Mercedes in the past (like my E320) where the very top section of the wedge style taillight has been the brake lamp for many model years.

When I've seen European cars where the brake lamp is in its own section of the taillight and only lights up when the brakes are applied I found that it really catches your attention, especially when the parking lights are already on at night. I was behind a late model Dodge today and even though its new the parking light, brake light, and turn signal are all still the same bulb. When the parking lights are on and they brake it’s hard to tell something has changed. In the same vein I don't like how the LED turn signals on the new C class are red as opposed to amber on my S350. I think when the brake light is on the amber really stands out.

I'm probably the only person on here who thinks about these things but I work in law enforcement and so my perspective is skewed...

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