I recently had my climate control display replaced because the backlighting stopped coming on when my headlights did. Now the new climate display color (when illuminated) no longer matches the original audio display's color -- one is bright orange while the other is pale yellow/green. Ghetto fabulous, in my opinion. Given that I also had intermittent albeit rare problems with my audio display scrambling, I convinced them to replace the audio display as well (hoping that the new one would match the new climate control display's color). No, they still don't match when illuminated.

So tell me this... do your climate and audio displays' backlighting colors match?

I tried to take a pic at night with the dash lit up but that didn't turn out so well. Instead, here is a pic of the displays I'm talking about for your reference.

Mine are close, but not perfectly matching in coloration either. I noticed it when I took delivery of the car. The climate control backlight is a lighter yellow than the audio control which is slightly darker yellow. The difference is subtle, but noticeable.

The contrast is even more blatant on my buddies 2001 CLK320. They don't even come close in matching.

Hmmm... OK. I was hoping to hear that this isn't common and I can take it back until they make the colors match. But it sounds like I was just lucky with my original equipment and it's not likely that the displays will ever match again. It's pretty annoying though, because they are soooooo blatantly different now. Thanks for letting me know!

HI,

You don't need to replace the whole A/C unit just because the backlit display stopped working. All you need to do is just replace a small light bulb underneath the A/C unit when you remove the A/C unit.

Its possible that all the mechanic did was just replaced a bulb for the A/C display and told you he replaced the whole unit.

I would guess that the difference in color now is because he used a bulb of a diff color.

I have a 97 E420 and both the display for my A/C panel and the Radio do match. I had the same problem before and I found out I can just replace a small bulb after I bought a used A/C unit on ebay.

Ed

It would be nice if they matched.

shouldn't the lighting for one of these be linked to the the instrument cluster/dash lighting? i would try to adjust the brightness and see if that did anything

I didn't notice the colors are different when I had both radio and A/C during four years.

haha, so are they actually different then?

Different? I don't know.
I upgraded COMMAND, and no longer have chance to compare. :p

After reading this thread this morning, then during a ride afterward, I did notice that when the sun shines on the OEM displays of my 2000 E320, I can clearly see that the substance of the displays are a different color. The CC is a neutral grey color and the radio is significantly different with a yellowish green cast.

I'm sure that in the dark with backlight added, they would also look different - but I'll have to wait 'till later to be sure.

Brian - Yakima, WA

I checked and found my 2001 E430 has greenish climate control and orangie radio. Same thing on 2001 E320. Different, but not too obvious.

I believe Cabby850 is right. There are all different color bulbs. Your mechanic prob. didn't take note of the different part numbers for different color bulbs. Small detail but big difference as you've noted.

I have a '99 and all instrumentation is light orange and they all match. I had the light (it's one single bulb) behind the climate control go out and just a new bulb did the trick...however you have to have the "key" to remove the unit to replace.

I had to replace the bulb behind my clock in the main instrumentation cluster and my tech was sure to look up the part # to ensure that I had the right color...otherwise I could have gotten stuck w/ the wrong color there.

Well... I dissagree with the above about the color of the lamps. That would certainly be true when viewing the displays in the total darkness - and if the lamps were actually different colors.

But my assesment as stated above, was from viewing the displays with full sunlight shining directly onto them. The strongest backlight couldn't have the slightest effect in that condition. In my case (on my car), the material that the LCD devices are made from are clearly different colors.

I really believe that given the same lamp color and quality, my displays would light differently at night. Of course if the lamp colors are different - well...

I'm sure that the displays are manufactured at many different places around the world and consistancy of the LCD characteristics is difficult.

Brian - Yakima, WA

From day 1 that I have owned my 97 e420, I have noticed that the two LCD's have different colors. Since I am an electronics enthusiast and an engineer, I concur with others that it is materials issue, and NOT a bulb issue. I have inspected both lcds with backlights off and they are different color/consistancy.

I do not think that changing bulbs would help any. You would be changing contrast or brightness but not color depth.

the color is provided by the liquid crystal's pigmentation and apparently both lcd's are made in different plants under different process.

my 2c

I am more inclined to believe that the glass 'overlay' is a different color rather than the LCD itself. Afterall, there are tons of LCD manufacturers that sell to thousands of OEM companies. Since the AC display is not made by Becker, I am not surprised to see that it doesn't match 100%, although I never saw a digital watch that looked any different from another brand.
Who knows, maybe the MBZ engineer responsinble for that is color-blind or the specification has a pretty wide range of acceptable variation (can you say 12-sigma?)
here is a pic borrowed from another post that illustrates the differences.

ahhhh, see, I shouldn't post unless I'm certain; 80% certainty doesn't count. But I swear I had a tech fret over the "color of the bulb" once. And there was a thread a while back that talked about putting different color after market bulbs in the main insrumentation cluster. Although I don't claim my memory here to be accurate...I defer to the others' posts.