License Plate Lights and Fog Lights
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 2
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2001 CLK 430
License Plate Lights and Fog Lights
I kept getting an error message "Check Lights" when I started the car and either:
1. Pressed the brake
2. Turned on the lights
(Rear Fog light not working either)
(Reverse lights out as well)
Brake lights worked fine. Even the brake light bar on the trunk.
Replaced the license plate bulbs using the inside the trunk method. Nothing.
All the fuses are fine. All the bulbs are fine. WTF?
A guy from Sydney posted this SOLUTION but I can't find his post again to thank him. In short - it's a short! And easy to fix.
The wires that deliver power to the trunk "Lid" get severed after time. These wires are on the passenger side of the trunk and because they run from inside the trunk to the trunk lid through a black rubber sleeve they bend every time you open the trunk. It's like bending a wire coat hanger back and forth to get a piece of the wire to break off. And after so times of opening and closing the trunk - boom, wire snaps.
In the picture below the BROWN wire carries power to the License Plate Lights, Reverse Lights, and Fog Lights. Its one of the wires harnessed together that run from your trunk into your trunk lid. It is protected by the Black Rubber Sleeve. You can't see it.
The wire often breaks in the middle of the Black Rubber Sleeve so you can't see it. But your dealer can and he will charge you major clams to fix it.
Pull the Black Rubber Sleeve end caps away from the Trunk Lid and the Trunk.
Start working through the sleeve to visually inspect the wires. There's only about 6 of them and it's going to be pretty easy to see which one is severed.
Mine as you can see was a clean cut. But it started shorting a little over time so I would get random check lights errors. And when I close the trunk a certain way, on a certain day the errors went away. No. The wires were just making contact again.
Take 12 gauge wire, about a foot of it, run it back through the Black Rubber Sleeve and splice it back onto the old BROWN power line.
Boom - good to go. I removed the entire trunk to get to this remarkable conclusion and only by accident. I was pulling on the BROWN cable and it literally popped out in hand.
If not, I might not have found it. But the guy in Sydney got me in the right place.
Good luck
1. Pressed the brake
2. Turned on the lights
(Rear Fog light not working either)
(Reverse lights out as well)
Brake lights worked fine. Even the brake light bar on the trunk.
Replaced the license plate bulbs using the inside the trunk method. Nothing.
All the fuses are fine. All the bulbs are fine. WTF?
A guy from Sydney posted this SOLUTION but I can't find his post again to thank him. In short - it's a short! And easy to fix.
The wires that deliver power to the trunk "Lid" get severed after time. These wires are on the passenger side of the trunk and because they run from inside the trunk to the trunk lid through a black rubber sleeve they bend every time you open the trunk. It's like bending a wire coat hanger back and forth to get a piece of the wire to break off. And after so times of opening and closing the trunk - boom, wire snaps.
In the picture below the BROWN wire carries power to the License Plate Lights, Reverse Lights, and Fog Lights. Its one of the wires harnessed together that run from your trunk into your trunk lid. It is protected by the Black Rubber Sleeve. You can't see it.
The wire often breaks in the middle of the Black Rubber Sleeve so you can't see it. But your dealer can and he will charge you major clams to fix it.
Pull the Black Rubber Sleeve end caps away from the Trunk Lid and the Trunk.
Start working through the sleeve to visually inspect the wires. There's only about 6 of them and it's going to be pretty easy to see which one is severed.
Mine as you can see was a clean cut. But it started shorting a little over time so I would get random check lights errors. And when I close the trunk a certain way, on a certain day the errors went away. No. The wires were just making contact again.
Take 12 gauge wire, about a foot of it, run it back through the Black Rubber Sleeve and splice it back onto the old BROWN power line.
Boom - good to go. I removed the entire trunk to get to this remarkable conclusion and only by accident. I was pulling on the BROWN cable and it literally popped out in hand.
If not, I might not have found it. But the guy in Sydney got me in the right place.
Good luck
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
CLK 230k Avantgarde tip Cabriolet (2000)
License Plate Lights and Fog Lights
Just corrected the same problem and it was exactly as you described - the brown wire had snapped within the sleeve!
I also had the nightmare of the parking sensors stuck on constant. Thanks to your post, I managed to solve the problem in 5 minutes!
Many thanks!!
I also had the nightmare of the parking sensors stuck on constant. Thanks to your post, I managed to solve the problem in 5 minutes!
Many thanks!!
