xenon flickering
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
From: L.A.
CLK 350
xenon flickering
hi all, i have a 2008 w209 and my passenger side xenon turns on and off (flicker like crazy) when driving. i swapped out my after market bulbs with the stock bulbs and they still flicker. obviously, not the bulbs, could it be wiring, ballast, control module?? i went to the stealership and they told me they cannot will not plug the car to their computer on to recognize the change from halogens to xenons. is this required? who in SoCal does this besides the dealership?
i did a search on the forum and someone suggested the following website, but not sure if anyone on this forum has any experience with them.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php
please help.
i did a search on the forum and someone suggested the following website, but not sure if anyone on this forum has any experience with them.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php
please help.
Super Moderator
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 19,942
Likes: 192
From: Llandudno, Cape Town, South Africa
late 2009 CLK 350 Coupe Elegance, '65 Jaguar S Type wires
Is the car fitted with OE BiX? If so the car will be set to BiX = present.
If so - It's likely ignitor failing.
https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...acement-1-.pdf
If so - It's likely ignitor failing.
https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...acement-1-.pdf
Last edited by Glyn M Ruck; Jun 6, 2012 at 06:32 PM.
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 57
Likes: 0
From: Delaware Ohio
'06 CLK500 '10 C63
Yes it is required to have the car coded to xenon=present in the star diagnostic system. My local factory dealer does this for $50 here in Ohio. Takes 5 minutes and is required to make the computer recognize the xenon's IF the car is on. The lights will work with the car off and not yet coded. This is required with factory xenon lights. Not sure with the aftermarket as I have not seen/installed any of those.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
From: L.A.
CLK 350
so i here is the update: over the weekend i took it to an indy shop in LA (charged me $95) to re-program the car and had it coded to xenon=present. stopped the flickering. no other errors were identified on the car except from all the lights that i swapped out earlier but no major problems. by the way, the dealer did not want to code the car due to them being liable if there ever was a failure, besides they were charging $170 to just diagnose the car.
one thing that i noticed is that my passenger side takes 5 seconds to turn on, whereas the driver side turns on instantly. any ideas?
one thing that i noticed is that my passenger side takes 5 seconds to turn on, whereas the driver side turns on instantly. any ideas?
MBworld Guru
Joined: Dec 2009
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NO LONGER ACTIVE
$95 to recode? That's almost (if not higher) than dealer pricing! Yes, it takes some time to pull the car into the garage, hook it up to SDS, and do the work, but even my dealer doesn't charge that much for a recode. They only charge $100 for a TCU or ECU software update, which is much more involved than changing the HID settings.
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MBworld Guru
Joined: Dec 2009
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Yeah, many dealers will refuse to code for "mods". Maybe there is a forum member nearby who has a copy of SDS. Sorry you aren't closer to me - I'd do it for you for free (or at least a cold beverage) 
