Headeater

Lol, this ain't Manhattan and the big apple! There is only one Benz dealer in Buffalo. Other than the routine stuff taking the car to non Benz service centers, the specialty stuff I take to them.

AkaSigFreak

I was originally told it was not covered since I am out of warranty. Speak to the Service Manager and focus on the point that you don't feel safe driving your Mercedes-Benz with such a blatant SAFETY HAZARD. The melting brakelight harness may cause the brakelights to stop working properly and cause an accident. If you don't get positive results- contact MBUSA Corporate and file a complaint.
Remember- you are not a customer complaining about floormats wearing out. These are the BRAKELIGHTS we're talking about.
You should not have to pay, but if you do- the couple hundred $$$ might be somewhat high but not completely out of range. That price most likely includes the labor which is NEVER cheap.

dcjwlee

I wonder how I messed this one up.

Especially after refusing to take it the stealer (being thickheaded), I gotta say I feel a little stupid.

Brakes illuminate properly, turns work, and rear fog turns on when needed.

I kind of like the way it looks, but would prefer it was the original way with two lit bars for visibility reasons. Pretty sure it's not a burnt bulb since the fog works. Also I only worked on the RIGHT side today, but somehow the left stopped working too.



p.s. If I could somehow get the top bar to turn on only when I'm braking that would actually be cool and maybe even more noticeable when braking.

4maticaddict

You must have messed up the connection to the upper lights. Test with a continuity meter. Test from the bulb base contact to the pin on the circuit board, then to the wire splice. I'm fixing my burnt wiring today so I'll see if I can advise further.

Big Daddy

Had exactly the same problem with my vehicle. Cut the brown wire and soldered it to the corresponding track on the Bulb holder. Worked ok for a year now

4maticaddict

Way to go Big Daddy. I had the same idea, but my wife shamed me into spending the $50 for the circuit board and connectors. I love it when you can beat the stealer at his own game.

p.s. It only took me 45 minutes to solder in and heat shrink the 7 new leads.

Brooklyn101

thanks for the help guys...i just noticed it too on my c300...but why is everyone replacing something? Did you catch it to late and melted the dash board?

Theres an on and off switch option for the rear fog....

AkaSigFreak

It has nothing to do with the use of the rear foglights. It is a short cause by the brown wire. Mine had the most damage on the passenger side- the rear fog is on the driver side. My harness and bulb holder had to be replaced because the harness actually melted into the bulb holder. This created contact between other wires and caused the short.

Cosworth2000

This can happen if you send water directly to the back of your car.

snowmuch

like washing your car?

Big Daddy

Unfortunately these tail light assemblies are not the result of typical German engineering, but are a result of some very poorly thought out electrics.
As all the current from the tail light assembly from each light bulb passes through the brown earth wire, when you have a small resistance in the pin connections ie. one or two ohms and with all lights operational, that is stop, indicator,reverse, tail and side lights the peak current can be near 8-12 amps.

Ohms law gives us heating power of about 20 watts. This is the same as a small soldering iron. Not something you want hidden away in the trunk. if you examine the connector you can see that it is not designed to carry this amount of current or disperse this type of heat.
Mercedes really screwed the pooch when they let this design pass the scrutiny of the QC team. The earth connector should be at least 3 times larger than it is at the moment, or a fixed wire from the main Earth connector on the power module to the bulb holder earth will cure the problem


Posted this on another thread

LandSeaAir

I like the way that looks, reminds of me the W220 S-class and the pre-facelift S550, they both just had the lower bars lit up.

I have the same issue on my car and would to do it myself, I'm assuming you cut the old wires off the old melted connecter, but how did you secure the new wires to the new connector?

dcjwlee

Yes, I chose to cut the wires. Although you can remove the wires and the individual pins that fix them to the actual connector, I wanted to use new pins that I knew were not affected by the heat.

I can give you the part # later as I don't have the invoice with me right now. I ordered 1 connector (black piece), 1 bulb plate, and 7 "pins".

I stripped the wires one by one, attaching the pin and placing it in the correct slot in the connector, to avoid mixing up any wires. You could also take a photo of the initial set up but the wires are multicolored.

I know some people choose to solder the wire directly to the bulb plate and then heat shrink insulation around it or something like that.

So far so good for me.

Haven't done any trouble shooting to fix the new "issue" as I do kind of like it as well. The error message is a little annoying and I think I will try to find a way to get rid of them for cheap before I sell the car.z

LandSeaAir, the pins are a bit of a hassle to get out correctly and I actually had to break one out of the connector (they can be removed with some patience and skill neither of which I possess) to see how the wire was supposed to fit into the pin. You strip the wire up to the first set of "tabs" and they should be touching rubber when folded down. The second set of tabs further up the pin should be folded onto the bare wire. You don't need to try to fit the wire into the little "hole" in the pin. This is all if I remember correctly so take it with a grain of salt.

Ia lso noticed the similarity to older E/S classes and I think it gives it a slightly more sinister look at night. Idk. *shrug*

extrakool

Hi dcjwlee
I have the exact same problem, my c300 2008 which was out of extended warranty by one month, Now have this issue. I will call dealer on monday to see if he will do as a good will and do it for free.

If not I am planning to buy below parts.(where did you buy them at the dealer or online)
1 204-820-09-77 lamp carrier right
1 211-545-03-28 plug
7 014-545-82-26 pin bushing.
Are these the right parts?

I will cut the 7 wires(How easy is it to get the old pins out?) , how easy is it to connect the wires to the pins and put it in the plug. Do I need to solder anything. or just press wires into pin bushing and .

Thanks

dcjwlee

The old pins are a pain to get out even when the connector hasn't been melted.

There is also a little "snap down" piece on the connector, don't press it down until you have all the connectors in place.

I bought the items from the dealership to avoid any headache from getting the wrong part. Seven pins, one connector, one bulb plate came out to around $60 IIRC.

Cut the wires one by one and place them in the corresponding hole BEFORE cutting the next wire. Not only will you avoid making any contact between the wires, but you will not mix any of them up.

AkaSigFreak

My car was out of warranty by over 1 year.

extrakool

Last time I went to dealer, they said since I am out of warranty they will take $59-$89 just to figure out what is wrong + cost of fixing the issue. This time i will tell them what the issue and see if they will do it for free.

If not I will buy parts and fix them. Did any one figure out how to reset the messages on Dashboards.

Thanks

AkaSigFreak

Previous Post:
The Service Advisor told me there would be charge for the repair. I asked to speak to the Service Manager and when I spoke to him- I advised it was a Safety Issue since my brake lights were working intermittently and he said it would be covered. It had also been noted in the computer that back in May/June 2011 I had received bulb-out error messages and when the dealership checked it- they were "checking" the harness because some of the connectors were "known" to come loose. Not sure if this helped.

I you don't receive cooperation- contact MBUSA and focus on the SAFETY ISSUE OF DEFECTIVE BRAKE LIGHTS. They are complete fools looking for a major lawsuit if they fail to act.

Ben'sBenz

Have any of you guys added an aftermarket reverse camera? I did a year or two ago and i am starting to get the error message as well. I am a bit concerned that the dealer will see the splice I created on the ground wire for the camera and claim that's the problem.

Big Daddy

As long as the splice is made in the cable before the connector it is physically impossible for it cause that problem. As it is a known defect if they come back with that response then they lay themselves open.

deaner1979

we need a DYI or photos for this common problem,
I have all the parts, as its cheeper for me to order them, then driver 2 hours one way to get fixed at stealership...

tunafish

The passenger tail light on my 2008 C350 was dimmer than the other tail light. I took it to the dealer (twice) and they said this was "normal" because of the fog light (OK, it make no sense but whatever). A week later my wife saw a warning message about the right rear tail light. I took the car back in and the dealer found the right rear tail light assembly had a melted wire. Even though the car is out of warranty, the SA insisted on blaming the meltdown on a splice I had made on the power to the backup light for my aftermarket back up camera (see the Cyclops thread). This was ridiculous, and I finally got him to admit that he had seen a "number" of melted tail light assemblies on early W204s. Long story short...I paid $500 or so to have the tail light assembly replaced and, guess what??? The right rear is no longer dimmer than the left! So, if a dimmer right light is normal, I guess my car is "abnormal". The subpar engineering is bad, but the refusal of the SAs to be rational and candid is disturbing. My wife loves this car, but I am not sure I'll buy another MB.

Big Daddy

You were ripped off complain to the head office for redress

4maticaddict

Tunafish.....complain!
Why did they replace the entire light wnen only the wiring and bulb carrier./circuit board was burned? At most with labor the cost should be $200.

dcjwlee

The parts should have cost under $6-

The pins, connector, and bulb board combined should have been under $60. I would not pay more than a half an hour of labor to address this issue. At $120-$140 an hour it should have cost no more than $60-$70.