Ill try and keep this short.

Bought a 2009 C350 last weekend. The outermost passenger side parking light (eyelid) was out when I bought it. So, I pulled the bulb out, and it was in fact blown. I thought simple fix, so I ordered some W5W Canbus LED's. They came in today, and I went to put one in. Didnt work. Flipped it around. Nothing. Flicked the LED and moved it around in the socket. It would flash VERY dimly for a micro second at times, but otherwise was 100% dead. Tried two more LED's, and got the same thing.

So at this point I thought I got a bunch of bad LED's. I tried them in my driver visor light, and they all worked like a charm. Oookay..at this point, I was confused, so I decided to pull out the inner bulb. To my surprise (and this may be totally unrelated) the socket came out with part of the housing broken off and still attached firmly to it. I dont think I did this, I believe it was already done and the bulb was just sitting in there. I wasn't too pleased, but this bulb at least worked okay. I plugged an LED into this socket, and it worked fine.

Recap just in case I lost anyone..LED's work fine, outermost socket doesn't light up except for a micro second when you flick the LED around and it's very dim when it does flash on, inner most socket has headlight housing broken off around it, and looks partially melted (the housing, not the socket).

Continue..I shut the lights off with the LED still in the innermost socket (and working fine). The LED stayed on, as did the lower portion of the passenger taillight. All other lights shut off. I waited, light didn't dim or shut off, even after 3 minutes. I started getting pissed, and decided to abandon the whole LED in the eyelid lights idea, and tried the OEM bulb from the inner socket in the outer socket. Didn't work. So I tried to put the OEM bulb back in the inner socket, and now the inner socket won't work. WTF!

No matter what I try, both sockets are 100% dead now. LED's nor regular bulbs work in either. I looked at the wiring leading from the socket, and both have parts of the sheath cut off. I plugged the bulbs in and made sure the two bare wires weren't touching, and they weren't. Both sockets are just dead at this point. I checked fuses 2, 3, 39 and I believe 41 (whichever ones are for courtesy lights) and they are all fine.

So I'm lost. Any ideas?

 

Disregard I guess, I figured it out. I read that when you pull a bulb, or it goes out, the vehicle cuts voltage to that socket, and you have to cycle the key to get it to turn on again. Okay, never heard of that, but I tried it, and all sockets work now. The passenger side was still flickering after I turned the car off and turned the lights off (before I switched out the driver side) but now that I have all 4 sockets switched out to LED's, they seem to work as they should. All is good for now I guess. I even started switching out some interior LED's for some left over W5W LED's I had. They looks great over OEM yellow.

 

More on this issue, even though I finally got the LED's working, they kept flickering even while driving around, and when the parking lights were first turned on, the lights would flicker and turn off, then take a second and come back on. They stayed on even when the lights were off..etc. It was just a headache, so I pulled them out and put regular W5W bulbs back in. These bulbs work fine in every other socket on my car. I have them on the interior, trunk and license plate lights. No flickering, no going out, no staying on when they shouldnt be.

Any idea why these are giving me such a hard time in the eyelid lights? I really want to put some white LED's in there, as I hate the amber yellow, but I am tired of dealing with the headache.