cracker123

my car has not been to the shop in over 3 weeks so now the xenon's started flickering and went out a couple of times then came back on. it loves to go to the shop every once in a while, i guess the car misses the dealership a lot?

MBUSA has spent about $7000 fixing my 05 C230 and it has been in the shop for over a month since i bought it, pretty sure it will hit 12k in 3-4 months, i have no problem with it, if they want to spend 60k fixing my car over the next 4 years.

EKY

I have the same problem with my '05 230SS. It happened for about a week off and on and it seemed to have stopped. I still love the car though.

C230 Sport Coup

Ha! I bet MB has spent at least 20K on mine between work and rental cars....

MBc230

Do you have your lights set in the "auto" position? If so, then it will go on and off at times, so make sure its set to "on" instead. This happens to me on a few occasions while driving in the city since the streets are well lit, the sensors go crazy switching the headlights on/off. Now I only use the "on" position.

cracker123

oh it does not turn of the lights, just the front lights goes off, becuase my cluster listing is on, I actually got out of the car and saw the lights and thew were wavering.

to tell the truth they were flip floping.

scorchie

Hahha, 2005! It is possible that this problem is caused by the AUDIO GATEWAY.

-s-

wingless

The problem may be with the Xenon power supply. That component ignites the lamp then maintains the lamp at a constant power. If it does not function properly it may result in the lamp cycling on and off.

yodlebenz

HAHAHA! They could have bought me a new coupe for what they've spent on me. hey! i'm now awaiting delivery of my 4th instrument cluster! After a 3 week wait for the last one, it was defective on delivery. No tellin what those run. just add it to the ever growing list of failed parts.

my service advisor loves to tell me "we've never seen THAT before". i hear that all the time. it's getting bad when he stops asking you for a contact number when you drop your car off because he can write it from memory.

on a positive note, MBUSA did purchase me an extended warranty. So, for at least as long as i have this car, i won't have to pay for this nightmare.

//glad i don't have xenons, they'd probably explode.

scorchie

Wow, would that make one light go off and the other come on and back and forth like he explained (I think he wrote "flip flop")? I haven't heard of a xenon power supply... as far as I knew there was only a ballast and ignitor. That's why I was wondering if it could make the lights do that.

-s-

Jim Banville

That's one reason I ordered my car with as few electrical options as possible!

cracker123

the service guy told me that the xenon bulbs were out , so they had to replace them, I mean WTF arent these things supposed to last a while. In less than 7 months they are gone.

Audio Gateway, well my audio system does not work some time, radio, cd player they fail to respond, for the cd changer i get a message no cd changer. when i restart the car the problem goes away.

Are we charged for the Xenon bulbs or are they part of warrnty ??, i dont really want to pay **** for those lights, i will drive wtih my fog lights, kidding.

cracker123

I need to try and get an extended warrenty from them.

scorchie

The xenon bulbs are blown out because they have been flickering... this blows the bulbs out.

You really should have the AGW checked because a problem between the interior CANBUS and the MOST fibre loop can cause this problem.

-s-

wingless

Another name commonly used for this component is ballast. The terminolgy I feel is most accurate is a Xenon power supply. It is a power supply, that delivers to the load, the lamp, a constant power output. It also contains a high-voltage ignitor circuit, that starts the lamp by ionizing the Xenon gas, using a high voltage spark, formed between the lamp electrodes. The ignitor circuit also monitors the lamp to determine if the lamp is lit and sends an additional pulse, if required.

cracker123

what is the full form of CANBUS and MOST,

how are these units connected, and what do they do, just out of curiosity.

scorchie

So is it true that what you're saying is that little tin can on a fluorescent lamp is most accurately called a "power supply?"

-s-

yodlebenz

well, read my sig... this car has been a mess from the start. I finally said screw it and wrote a letter to MBUSA. The local rep called my dealer a few days later and after a week or so, they came up with the ext. warranty offer. I MIGHT have been able to get them to take the car back, but i would almost certainly have had to get a lawyer. Just not worth the effort. When my car is running i love it. I was mainly worried that my factory warranty would go away and i'd be stuck with a car that had a history of problems and since it was a lease, i'd HAVE to get them fixed. This way, i never have to worry about it, it takes effect when my factory warranty expires and runs an additional 3 yrs or 75K miles, $0 deductable.

you better believe i'm turning this car in at the end of the lease tho, 60+ days in the shop in 2 years...

cracker123

37 days in the shop in less than 7 months, I might win the contest on who had the car the most in the shop.

the last major repair i had, they had to resurface all the valves becuase of carbon buildup, cost MBUSA 3.5k to fix it. They sure have a lot of nerve to build cars with such low quality. The first benz a 01 C240 had very minor problems in 3 years,

As you say, I love the car when it works. Even with all these problems my next will surly be a benz.

Jim Banville

You seem to have experienced the exact opposite of what I've read. You got a good 1st. gen. W203, which was known to have lots of bugs, and got a lousy 5th. gen. W203, which is considered the most trouble-free W203 as of yet!
It sounds like you have some DEEPER electrical problem. How can you have 4 bad gauge clusters in a row, while just about everyone else here has a perfectly functioning original cluster?

wingless

No.

The component used to regulate the current in a fluorescent lamp is indeed a ballast. This technical article describes the operation of a ballast with a fluorescent lamp. This includes the operation of the electrode preheat circuits and starting voltages and currents.

While it is acceptable to call the Xenon power supply a ballast, it is more accurate to call it a Xenon power supply. The function of a ballast is to regulate current. The Xenon power supply has identical topology and circuitry to generic power supplies, with some notable differences. One is the ignitor circuit. Another is that the power supply operates in constant power mode, instead of the common constant voltage or constant current.

Other than those differences, the Xenon power supply is much more like a power supply than a fluorescent lamp ballast.

In fact, the two major manufacturers of non-automotive Xenon power supplies, PerkinElmer and Carsan, both call this component a Xenon power supply.

So if this component is called a ballast and ignitor, then others will know what is being discussed. But, if this component is called a Xenon power supply, then that is the correct description.

lars

I'm not sure I ever understood what this problem looked like. If the lights were flickering, as others have said, the issue is likely with the ballast/power supply. This item has to supply an overvoltage to get the xenon lights started by throwing an arc across two electrodes in the bulb. If there is, say, a quality control problem in manufacturing the ballast, the lights never get hot enough to vapourise the metal salts inside the bulbs, causing them to teeter on the verge of complete ignition. So they flicker and wear the electrodes much more quickly than should happen. Sounds to me as if the dealer took the right action, and the problem was another quality issue in a component.

Another, less likely reason the lights might flicker would be insufficient power. If this were related to a battery problem you would have seen evidence of this all over the place in other electrical items not working correctly. If there is a connector problem somewhere in the lighting circuit, for example, the flickering might come back again and if it does, you would know a good place to look next for the cause.

raunen

My left lamp was flickering about a month ago. I took the car in and they replaced the lamp. Yesterday, the left lamp started flickering again. I turned the lights off then back on and now the lamp is out completely, with a malfunction error reported in the heads up display.

I'm suspicious of a secondary problem maybe with the ballast. The first lamp was replaced 6 months after I took delivery, now the second lamp is out one month after that. I checked all wiring and fuses but nothing looks out of order on that front.

raunen

update: the light assembly was replaced. the light is now yellowish.

anyone know how long it will take to "burn in" and emit whiter light?

also, i notice that there is a dark spot in the projection. is this something that will go away or is it possible there something long with the lens?

thanks for any info.

TheBossman

Myabe lemon it if this persists, and get once again a BRAND NEW one....thats what we did with our Audi A4