Hey guys,

So I have the aftermarket LED taillights installed on my car and have been receiving the Check Rear Right Taillight error message intermittently. I checked the connector on the drivers side and all looked well. I checked the passenger side connector and one of the ports (ground wire) was kind of burned looking. So I took my car to the closest Mercedes dealership to get the recall done. Here is my story:

Saturday: Dropped my car off - service advisor stated my car would be worked on first thing Monday morning.

Monday: I get a call from the advisor around noon stating the recall has been completed.

Monday evening: Advisor sends his porter to pick up my car - I stand there waiting and reading my receipt and it states "Recall could not be performed due to aftermarket taillights". I go back to the advisor and WHAT? He goes "Oh, I did not even see that note", when it was the only note on the damn receipt. Then he goes "Ok I will talk to my tech tomorrow morning because he is gone for the day". He does not tell me to leave the car but he did not tell me to take the car home either… So I just leave because the porter hadn’t even brought my car yet. I was a little annoyed that the advisor can be that irresponsible.

Tuesday morning: Advisor calls me and says “I didn’t realize you did not take your car home? I saw it in the service lane this morning with no service tag”. I am pissed at this moment. Why the F would I take my car home when nothing was done and he didn't tell me to take my car home… He then goes “sir, the recall cannot be performed because of my aftermarket taillights...” So I explain to him that the connector is still OEM, the recall should not have anything to do with the actual taillights. He goes "My tech states there are wires spliced back there and epoxy on the connectors so he could not even unplug anything". I am super pissed at this moment because obviously the tech did not even look hard enough that lazy useless piece of @$$. I tell my advisor I was able to remove the OEM connector and see the burned port. So, he states he will let his SHOP FOREMAN take a look at it and call me back.


Tuesday afternoon: Good for nothing advisor calls and states the work was completed; my car was ready for pickup.
Tuesday evening: Go to pick up my car and all looks well. I checked both connectors and do not see any burned ports. I get home and park the car only to see “Check Rear Right Taillight” message… I checked bulbs etc. and all looks good. Brake lights all turn on as they should.



So, what do you guys think is wrong here? Does the car need to be driven more maybe? Is there a fuse that needs to be replaced? Did the dealership only complete one side of the car?

Only issue is that I hear a clicking noise from the taillights when the brake is pressed… Actual taillights need to be replaced?

 

I'd take it back and make them fix it, but you might get some resistance because of the aftermarket taillights. I've got them too, but I put my stock lights back in before getting my recall done. Then it was just an easy plug in play to put my LED's back in, and everything works flawlessly.

 

How would I tell if the recall was performed?? Should I see an extra wire going into the connector? I really don't want to take my car back to them just because of how terrible my advisor was.

 

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but all they replace is the connectors that plug into the taillights. So just check your connectors to see if they're shiny new plastic. If they look the same as they did when you had first put your LED's in... then they probably didn't perform the re-call like they said they have.

Do you have another Mercedes dealership around to get a second opinion on them?

 

Did you get the message before putting in the aftermarket lights?

 

They do look shiny new and there is another dealership not too far. I haven't received the message all yesterday and this morning, so I am

Nope. The message came up long after putting in the taillights (bought and installed the lights in Dec 2014 and got the message maybe a month ago).

 

Welp guys, the error message came back last night! I am thinking about installing my OEM ones to see if the message comes up... If it doesn't then obv I need to replace these LED ones... Hopefully there is a 1 year warranty on them.

 

install the OEMS. aftermarket junk

 

Great advice man!

 

Well, I got the message on my OEM lights, before I switched out to the Depo FL-LED ones. I simply connected the wire that led into the burned out connector (both sides!) to the new tail light harness. Took 5 minutes. All good now.

 

You just spliced the wires and connected? Did you use male+female connectors?

 

No. Just spliced with a bit of soldering.

 

Do you mind taking a picture? I just want to see it so I can use it as an example. Also, did you lights "click" when you pressed on the brake pedal?

I installed the OEM lights, which are super gross looking. No error messages at all! So it has got to be the lights

Any suggestions? Should I splice and see what happens? I reached out to the company that sold them to me but got no response. I asked about a 1 year warranty.

 

They are supposed to replace the bulb holder. (#4 in the chart below)

If there connector/wire harness appears to be corroded (and typically, it is) then they are to replace the connector as well.

Edited to add: Link to NHTSA Official Recall Notice

 

What do you mean by "Click?"

I just snipped off the wire that went into the melted/burnt bit of the connector/plug and spliced it to the corresponding wire out of the FL light plug. This is the last wire.
I've taped them up, so a picture may be a bit difficult. Sorry.

 

The taillights itself make a clicking noise when I press on the brake pedals. I am assuming the resistors that come with the lights have gone bad? I've emailed the seller and he is trying to troubleshoot with me. Hopefully they send me new resistors. Thanks for replying!

 

My right OEM lights just died yesterday. I got the message on the dash about replacing/checking rear right lights. I took a look and all the lights on the rear right side (parking, signal, stop) on the assembly was dead. There's no way that 3-5 lights all died. Pulled the assembly out and none of the bulbs were burnt. Tried to pull out the plug that clipped into the assembly and it would not budge. After a lot of effort I got it out and realized the brown ground wire was burnt and melted a bit (causing difficulty in pulling out). Panicked a bit. Then went online and stumbled onto this thread and a few others about the recall. Now I'm looking forward to calling the dealership to deal with this mess.

 

You should have received A recall notice from both, the NHTSA as well as Mercedes Benz... That happened a few months back.

 

You put aftermarket lights in, then you start receiving errors, then you assume that the recall will be the cause of those errors (and not the fault after market lights) and send your car in to have the 'recall performed' regardless of diagnosis.

You notice burnt wiring, you admit that the error message started after you put non-OEM lights in, you admit there have been alterations made to the OEM wiring harness to make your after market lights work - and you're upset that they don't want anything to do with it?

I think you need to accept the possibility that your after market lights, or your wiring harness butchering are the cause of your errors - and stop blaming MB for your woes.

If your lights are working (as you said earlier) but the error message is still displaying, that would suggest either poor wiring continuity (from your splicing)- or resistance issues (esp if you replaced a filament system with an LED system which requires resistors as you mentioned).

 

The error was because of the recall actually. I had burnt connectors which was not from the aftermarket taillights...

There were no alterations made to my OEM wiring harness actually... Where did you read this?????? I was upset with MB because they didn't perform the recall and then called me saying "your car is ready for pickup".

I've already spoke with the seller and they are working with me to replace/repair the faulty taillights...

Are you retarded? You're mixing up other peoples posts/comments wit mine or something

 

And you can prove that? I hope so - because if I was the service supervisor and came across someone with your attitude I'd just point out that any non-standard modification to an electrical circuit (Ie your china-spec tail lights) will void the warranty and thus you can go EAD.

Burnt connectors are often a sign of high-resistance caused by heat. This can be due to cut or nicked wiring, LOOSE connections (eg, a poor fit between factory connector and your china-spec lights) or an increase in resistance due to incorrect gauge wiring (eg, what is most likely featured in your china-spec lights).

So before you go shooting your mouth of at me, or at your service supervisor, you better educate yourself. You can come join me in my school for 'special people'.

 

Hahaha why don't you go and read DuckSaysQuack's post... Clearly he says he has OEM TAILLIGHTS... There are lots of cases of this... So why don't you go EAD sir. Gtfo here!

 

Yes - and OEM tail lights should be covered by both warranty or TSB.

Yours should not.

Enjoy.

 

stfu retard gtfo.