intramart

THis sounds like a broken records, but my 2009 C63 right tail lamp cooked also. Looking for the parts to replace.

HenryJr

I checked my tailights and noticed that both the left and right connectors were burnt. My left tailights are dimmer than the right. I'm bringing in my car Wednesday to get it fixed.

jackyff8

I went to my local MB dealership today in Toronto Mercedes Benz Thornhill and explained to them the issue with the tail light assembly connector melted. My 2009 C300 was just out of warranty on December, 2012. I asked them if there was an recalls and if they have seen the same problems with this issue and the service advisor said only seen it once. Which was a surprise to me. They said the repair would be around $190CDN. I feel like I should not be paying this since what I've been reading is that its more of a design flaw then wear and tear. I've only owned this car since 2009 and driven it less than 40k. I would understand bulbs being burnt but connectors and wires melting is just unacceptable, especially when there are multiple cases like this from reading forum posts like this. Is there anything else I can do?

Bosnia1992

just checked mine today, where the brown wire goes into the black plastic part, at the end of the brown wire the metal clip is rusted or corroded and bulbs seem very dim. is mine probably going to end up melting aswell?


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AkaSigFreak

Simply put- YES

B Marques

does anyone have a DIY on how to change the circuit board and plug with the pins?

AkaSigFreak

Threaten legal action if you are to be in an accident due to your brake lights not working resulting from a design/manufacturer defect. Tell them to put it in writing that they will not correct the SAFETY issue. Let me know what they do then.

AkaSigFreak

Drivers Side

Passenger Side

HenryJr

AkaSigFreak, the pictures you posted above... Are these of when the dealer fixed your issue? If so, it looks nothing like what they did to mine. I posted some pictures on this thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ghts-true.html

Doanster

Just got my car back. The were swamped yesterday and didn't complete mine on time. They unfortunately just repaired/replaced both carriers along with the connectors, i.e. no extra wire to the grounding post. Everything looks stock. Granted, maybe they added a ground elsewhere that's out of sight, but the paperwork just states that it was a repair/replace, with no mention of a new "kit" or fix. I left vmail w/ my SA and am waiting to hear back.

jackyff8

I already paid for the repair at the dealership because I'm in Canada and I don't want to risk my safety especially in snowing conditions. However, after reading these posts by numerous owners, I feel like I should write them a letter and file a complaint. It just looks said Mercedes Benz honestly know this is a common issue and still insist to leave it at that and owners are having to find their own way to DIY for fix. This is not a wear and tear item like a blew bulb~ This is again as Akasigfreak points out a design/manufacturer defect that we should not be paying for the cost of fixing these CORE safety issues. I will keep you guys posts if they ever reply my letter.

Bosnia1992

To those of you having trouble with stubborn stealerships, I'd go directly to MBUSA or whatever headquarters of your country and peruse this issue with them directly. I've had luck with issues through them rather than my dealership .

AkaSigFreak

Yes. That was the repair from the dealership.

b16

Just got a call from my SA, mine has done the same thing. 2009 C63 with 61k miles on it. Being covered under warranty.

global33

There should really be a recall on this issue if so many are having the same problem. Especially considering the fire hazard and safety/break light aspect. Any 2011 W204 owners with this problem? I guess I'll have to inspect the tail lights on a regular basis to check for this.

deaner1979

Mine has been replaced 3 times already and heading to the 4th this weekend....
all done at Canadian dealers (Dundas, Mavis, Newmarket and St. Catherines)
no problems at all.... I find I get alot of run around from the "Franchise Dealerships" not the MB Canada Corporate owned stores...

My neighbour also works at the dealer and will be adding a 2nd ground wire soldered in and grounded to an alternate place behind the trunk liner, I have been told this is what there doing to solve the issue !!

4maticaddict

It is apparent that we Canadian MB owners are not getting the same level of warranty service that our Southern cousins get. I, for one, after my last dealership experience, am using a well qualified private mechanic for all of my repairs rather than an unappreciative MB Canada dealer.

tivoboy

so, this just started happening to my 2009 C300. Thursday, warning said rear brake light out. Then RIGHT FOG, then RIGHT FLASHER. Friday, it was working again. Saturday it stopped so I pulled it to check the lamps, they were fine. Then I noticed the carrier had some burned brown spots, then a wire (I think the green but could have been the brown) was singed. Now it works again (probably from just touching it) but I'm taking it in anyway.

Here's the kicker. I THINK last Thursday, when the problem started was the end of standard warranty. Maybe they will do it as a "courtesy" but I'll be somewhat annoyed if it costs me much.

Knightmare69

Pffft Try being in Hong Kong, it's a franchise here and they don't care nor follow any notices from the homeland company.

builthatch

EDIT: i don't understand...the brown wire is a ground but there is current passing through it?

is there a write-up or theory about what can be done as a preventive measure? i've read about too many of these to not take some sort of preventive action.

Knightmare69

Splice the brown wire and solder in a thicker gauge wire, ground it somewhere in the trunk. I used one of the bolts holding the tail light lens as the ground point. Mine was already melting but now the wire doesn't seem to run hot like it used to, though it also might be because I swapped to LED bulbs. I got the replacement parts just still researching how to remove the pins from the connector.

builthatch

that makes some sense; so i guess what he was saying before was that the ground was entirely too minimal for the draw of the assorted positive terminals relying on that lone ground, so if more than, say, ONE of the positive terminals is seeing power, that ground becomes burdened and heats up. amirite?

my only hangup is that i would imagine the pin/terminal are still the weak link with your solution, but that is interesting that it seems to be helping in your instance.

Knightmare69

Well let me clarify, I'm running dual ground for each side. The thicker gauge wire I soldered in acts as a secondary ground to reduce the stress on the oem gauge wire. There's a thread where some have already done this as well as a dealership though they didn't ground it, they just added in a thicker wire....it's hard to explain, you'd have to see the pic to understand how weird it is.

builthatch

wow, yeah i have searched but haven't found anything like that just yet. i'll keep looking - i'd love to see that thread.

tivoboy

Man, my situation has gone from bad to WORSE. So, this started happening last THURSDAY, which was exactly the end of the standard warranty. I took it in today, couldn't get it in over the weekend. And it was intermittent. I confirmed over the weekend myself that the RIGHT connector is somewhat singed, just moving it around got it working again, but I can tell it has burned the light cluster a bit, so it needs fixing.

Dealer wants 900$ to do BOTH sides. So, WHY would I need both sides done, if this is only the RIGHT side. And WHY would I need the LEFT side done if this ISN'T a PROBLEM issue that should be fixed under warranty.

900$ WTF, they want to replace ALL the light housings as well apparently on BOTH sides.

And you know why? Because I DID purchase an extended warranty, but wasn't actually planning to activate it unless it was a big time issue. I might sell the car in a couple years, without the warranty and get a refund of the warranty.

But now, ONE DAY out of warranty (okay, it's THREE days now) they won't repair what is CLEARLY a problem issue with the car and should have been checked before (like when I had it in last month) and preemptively replaced.

This is EXACTLY the type of reason why I don't like going to the dealer for anything like this.

https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ts-true-2.html