ggong5150

Damn, that car looks familiar!

drexappeal

Might be able to get pics of my taillights by tomorrow. Gonna head to my cuzn's apartment to install my k&n and use his digital camera. Hopefully I can do that all tonight.

kyosho1

I luv those S-class tail-lights. Reading thru' the discussion, it seems that the tails are not oem replacements. Was wondering, will the original/oem S-class tail-lights fit the C-class? Is the oem S-class tail-lights of LEDs type?
Thanks

trust203

NO,the S-class tail-lights will NOT fit on C-class ! Yes the newer S-class tail-lights are LEDs type, early S-class are not LEDs

ekimpay

the LED's on mine are on the top triangle only. the turn and reverse are still regular bulbs.

phattbam

nice... multipiece Mono III's... and yes you got it.. needs to be lowered.. what size are those?? chrome isnt my first choice but those wheels are hard to find now

drexappeal

This thread is about the S-Class "style" taillights that have been designed for the C Class. The manufacturer was at the Irvine meet (in California). The name of the company is FactorOne Garage. There URL is www.factoronegarage.com There are multiple companies that sell these on ebay.

Now, these are definitely OEM replacements. They are a direct swap with the '04.5 and prior (although, you will not be using the OEM bulb board) and the female connector is a direct plug in to the male OEM connector. 2005 - 2006 have a 7 prong connector, therefore the OEM male connector needs to be retrofitted (i.e. wired) to the OEM wiring in order for these to operate correctly. Fitment (shape-wise) is pretty close to perfect (very, very slightly bigger gap between taillights and body).

The OEM S Class taillights WILL NOT fit the w203. There's no way this would work. The OEM S Class taillights (and CL taillights) with the multiple clear/horizontal lines seem to be LED, however this is a question better suited for the S-Class/CL-Class owners.

Hope that helps.

drex

drexappeal

I posted this on another thread, but here's the pic that Phil took of my taillights (and Euro trunk lid).

PrsnBenz

yo drex, you went to LMU? Sry to go off topic but i couldnt help noticing that. I applied for spring just outta pure curiositiy, it was voted #12 for having one of the nicest campuses in the country. i dont know a whole lot about the school and how good it is. any info on it would be great. lol sry for derailing the thread but i appreciate it!

drexappeal

Oh man, you're in for an experience! They upgraded the campus 10 X's since I graduated in '99. They bought the Howard Hughes building and built more dorms for on campus housing, built a new gym (state of the art) with Nautulus Equipment (sp?), etc...

Depending on what you are going to be studying, the best "schools" on campus are the Business and Liberal Arts schools. Top notch, in fact. If you're going there for master's, it's known for Business, Film and Teaching (aside from the Law School, which is world famous, but not necessarily in conjunction directly).

No problem about derailing the thread. If you have more questions for me, you can always email or PM me.

drexappeal

Here's a pic w/ explanation of how I switched the bottom sockets from how the manufacturer and distributors had them set up.

The LED's act as a running light and brake light. The bottom bulb sockets are the same. The manufacturer had it set up to mimic how the S Class looks (w/ the running lights on the inside bottom, but not on the outside). The only problem I had with this is that the outside left became the rear foglight. Since the sockets used the same bulb, I was able to flip them (i.e. inside to outside and vice versa). Now the running lights for how I have it set up are the LED's and the outside bottom.

My next goal is to get the functionality of the inside lights to stay on as running lights (as the OEM w203 taillights are), keep the functionality of the LED running lights and maintain the functionality of the rear foglight (and possibly have the right rear act as a 2nd rear foglight).

I still have to test the wires with my cousin, but we both think it can be done. I'll let you guys know when I have more progress reports.

drex

phattbam

night pics if possible Drex.. please

kyosho1

Hi Drex,
Thanks for the info. I am thinking of ordering from www.factoronegarage.com . It seems they do not have a return policy on these special order items. Any problems with the items or packaging when they first arrived at your doorstep. Thinking of getting them to send it over to Singapore. Thanks.

MadC32

@drex

this is an easy problem to fix. Was a 10 sec job. Just exchange the 2 bulb sockets. Works great for me. Love those taillights. Car looks tons better now.

drexappeal

No problem with the products. At first I thought there was because the running lights were set up differently.

The main thing I'm trying to figure out now is how to get the functionality of the inner running lights to work (as standard OEM C Class taillights do), as well as keeping the functionality of the rear fog (and possibly getting the right-inner running light to work as a rear foglight as well).

drexappeal

phattbam, I'm gonna try my best to do this tonight. Only problem is that my cousin is the only one that has a digital camera that I can borrow and he's always busy on the weekends.

I'll see what I can do tonight.

drex

phattbam

if you could please do a full DIY when you get it done that'd be great..

drexappeal

My b'day is this coming Wednesday. I'm hoping to get a digital camera (for myself)...lol. I took pics with my cousin's camera, but he's still gotta upload the pics and give me a cd (since they were taken at the highest resolution). I'll probably pic that up tonight.

If I do end up getting a digital camera, I'll have the ability to do DIY's more often. Definitely, when I find the time, will do a DIY on the wiring for the taillights (whenever I do have time to do that). Shouldn't be too difficult, as my cousin and I took a good look at the lights last night and from looking at it, should be a simple splice of the power wire - we'll see.

ekimpay

i got mine from them at the Irvine meet. great guys and very helpful. i don't think you'll have problems communicating with them.

if you can, i would recommend testing it before sending overseas.

kyosho1

I reside in Singapore currently, so I will have to rely on their good services. BTW I have seen a few eBay tail lights that cost between $150 to $230 for non-LED types. The LEDs ones cost around $250 to $270. Are there many brands around?

BTW Drex, are those LEDs bulb replacement hard to find?

drexappeal

The LED's in these taillights are all on one electronic board. They are not replacable (unless you know what you're doing).

An option that I was thinking about (for those that have the regular non-LED taillights) was that you could try to find replacement LED bulbs to see if those would work. I'm not sure what the bulb number is for the brakelights, but might be a possiblity.

drexappeal

BTW...Just an FYI to everybody, one row of LED's is out on my passenger side. My cousin noticed it yesterday (only bad part of my b'day).

I'm trying to find a way to get in touch with Factor One, but they don't have a phone number on the website. If anybody knows the number, could you please pass the info to me. I want to see if they can figure out what is wrong. I know they're in Los Angeles or Orange County somewhere because they were at the Irvine meet. Just didn't get a chance to get their contact info (aside from their website).

kyosho1

Hi Drex,
Thanks again. I think I will get the bulb type tail lights which are easier to get replacement at my side of the world .

ekimpay

Wilson C. (626) 806-6132. I think he's the Regional Sales Manager for Factor One. He was there at the meet. I think they are currently preparing for SEMA. Hope this helps.

drexappeal

Thanks for the 411. I'll try him today.