nrgy

The 2012 facelift taillights I ordered from Germany finally arrived from a seller I found on eBay after 3 weeks. Thanks to member DOME for being the first to retrofit these lights, I felt comfortable knowing these would work. As you can see from the pics, the surface of the lights are smooth compared to the originals which are recessed in areas.

Also, the turn signal on these lights are orange, compared to the red signals on North American W204s. Who knows if the 2012 W204s will have orange or red for the U.S., but I have zero preference either way. But the orange provides a better contrast when signalling so I'll take it.

The new taillights are noticeably brighter than the old ones. The illumination on the back of my garage door was obvious when comparing side by side, even though as of now the rear fogs are illuminated as well. Even with the fogs programmed to be off, these are brighter taillights.

Comparison shot:


Here are the part numbers if anyone is interested:


Installation was fairly simple. You need to remove the plastic cover just above the rear bumper when you open the trunk so that you can in turn move the trunk liner a bit. There are two push pins and a tie hold down on both sides that need to be removed from the trunk liner so you can peel it back just enough to get your hand behind it to remove one of the nuts holding the taillights in place. The other 3 nuts you can access easily enough by removing the covers.


As you can somewhat tell from this picture, without being programmed, the rear fog lights are illuminated. There is a single LED near the top corner, and 4 LEDs above the top light strip. I am not 100% positive if the 4 LEDs above the light strip are indeed the fogs or simply part of the normal illumination. But these LEDs are found on both LEFT and RIGHT taillights. Other than that, the lights work flawlessly and the wiring harness plugs right in, with no error codes displayed on the dash.

There is a shop local to me that does have the developer software to program these lights which I will eventually take to him, the only problem is the language is in German and the translations aren't always direct so it may take some time to find the right menu, etc. BUT, I think they look great even as they are now and would not be upset if for some reason I could not get them programmed to turn off the rear fogs.



So there you have it! All in all I'm very happy with the new tails. It gives the car a fresh modern look, and I love the LED strips. Next on the list is the 2012 front bumper and LEDs, which I'm told might be available sometime in May, although I'm not holding my breath on that.

Kaiba

Amazing !

Thanks for the write up. Please let us know the ebay seller so we can order

nrgy

Check out German eBay.de, since those guys have easier access to the source. There are actually a number of sellers offering the lights, although I believe at a premium of $150 or so. It's hard to say for sure since the dealers here don't even have the part numbers for these, let alone the price. I'm sure if one wanted to wait several months, or once the 2012 models starting rolling around, you could probably pick them up for less.

pumper131

Can this fit a normal 2010 C180 CGI?

obsidian05e55

Great job NRGY! Im still waiting for mine to come in. I have no clue who can do thr coding around me, but now i know we can at least use them without it..

pumper131

I am really interested in this but I cannot find any on ebay....can u pls send me the link and the cost? Thanks aloT!

nrgy

Here is one auction that I was watching, although it ended. But I'm sure if you contact them they can still get them for you.

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I checked ebay.de and I don't see any current auctions for the taillights right now. Expect to pay 400 euro + shipping at current market price. I believe www.mbenznl.nl can get the taillights also for 400 euro shipped.

Also, I see no reason why these taillights wouldn't work on ALL W204s.

obsidian05e55, I think your best bet would be to ask around the indy benz shops, ask if they have the STAR developer software I think its called. The truth of the matter is, I'm not sure if my local shop can program them yet either, although he feels somewhat confident he can figure it out.

nlpamg

That looks awesome. Thanks for the write-up! Definitely a great mod.

dleung22

can we get some head on rear shots please??

AkaSigFreak

Did you already have the P2 with the LED tail lights? I have heard of members trying to install LED units on non-P2 cars and they had issues with error codes.
The new lights look great!

khmergod

What did tails look like for non led C63?

ZephyrAMG

Looks good. Looks real good.

mthis

looks good, i might have to do the same as one of my rear light is burnt crisp

JeffDL

looks great. I'm looking for a set now. Do you have any shots from the back of the car?

PatSC23

so with the fogs on its not too annoying to people following? If not then its not an issue to me just to keep them on all the time.

JeffDL

that's what I was thinking. want to see a pic of the back of the car with them on.

obsidian05e55

Here is DOME's car before the codeing to correct the fog issue..

JeffDL

^^ thank you.

PatSC23

this link was posted in another thread for exhaust tips - looks like they hav LEDs

www.platinumvip.mx

obsidian05e55

$791USA!! HAHAH.. The same ones are on Ebay for $250-$300

PatSC23

are these OEM? Or are the Ebay ones OEM? I remember buying OEM e46 M3 tail lights after they upgraded to LEDs and that was like $475 for the pair from dealer.

obsidian05e55

Unlike the E46 M, which I also had, and did the OEM LED upgrade. Great mod!! Only OEM LED tails for our cars are the ones that come with it, only having LED turn signals not brake lights. The ones they are selling are the same ones found on Ebay, witch i hear are quite good looking in person, but the new 2012 LED tails are the way to go!

Another question is, are the new 2012 tailights LED when you brake, or is just those "strips" that stay lit?

nrgy

I wouldn't think the rear fogs would be too annoying, and at least there on in both the left and right taillights, so it doesn't look like you have a burnt out bulb on the right side. But after more playing around with them some more, the fogs do put out quite a bit of light. Though it shouldn't bother the drivers behind you since red light preserves a person's night vision.

The actual brake lights use two incandescent bulbs behind the bottom LED light bar/strip. The only other incandescent bulb is for the reverse light.

1Lop2K5C

Looks great, though what type of coding does one need to resolve the fog issue?

avengerboater

I hate you, nrgy. That's all. Carry on.