hey guys yesterday i got the "front headlight" malfunction warning. I got out the car and noticed that the low beam bulb, on the passengers side (the smaller circle), had gone out. Today in the morning I popped the hood and took a look at the headlight compartment, but for the passenger side headlights, its a very tight space in which i can't maneuver much. My questions are:
1) What type of bulb will i need? Please detail (the ones on the car right now are just the stock ones)
2) Where can i find it?
3) Can i do this myself ? if i take it to the shop how much will it run me?

Thank You very much. Appreciate the help

 

1) It is a standard H7 bulb. Costs around $10 or less
2) Any autopart store will carry it. Autozone carries Sylvania, which don't last very long in my opinion, but it's a standard bulb, easy to get
3) It's easy to do. There is a big round black plastic under behind the bulb that you unscrew by hand and remove. Once removed, reach your hand inside and find the socket. Turn is slightly and remove from light housing. remove the bulb from the socket and put new one in. Avoid touching the glass of the new bulb because the oils from your skin can damage the bulb when hot

If this sounds intimidating, a shop will charge very little to do it.

 

$90 minimum shop labor at the dealer
put on a pair of latex gloves and just squeeze in there,you will get it. Unless your name is Andre the giant.God rest his soul

H7 or if you want more light www.danielsternlighting.com
65 watt H7 rally bulb.
The low beam is your outside big oval, the high beam is the inside H7 small oval,
the smallest beam in the small oval is your city/park bulb H6W is the number for that one.

 

Well hey, I wouldn't suggest going to a dealer to replace a headlamp but you certailnly don't need a Mercedes specialist mechanic to replace an H7 lamp. A reasonable shop woulld probably charge $25

 

I am standing on a high mountain north of Seattle furtively searching with my hand across my brow looking side to side to and fro looking for that elusive reasonable shop
Wait I spot one. nope it was a Bald Eagle

 

Pardon my ignorance but since when did these cars tell us which exact bulb is out? All mine has ever said is LAMP DEFECTIVE or something quite similar.

 

They don't. There is only one message for Lamp Defective.

 

He's talking about the inboard headlamp's "low beam" which I would interpret as the city light. That would be a dealer only BC6 bulb.

 

You can use a Sylvania 3893 (T4W) as a replacement for the city light. It is readily available at Pep Boys. Bulb looks identical and works just fine. Slightly dimmer then the original bulb (4 watt vs 6 watt) but you'll barely notice it, in fact it looks more like the lighting that is on the w211. If you replace both you definately wont notice it. The package is labeled License, Parking and Side Marker - European Lamps and its about $3 for two bulbs. Keep some on hand for when the dreaded "Lamp Defective" error comes on. I think I've replaced more bulbs in my W210 then all my other cars combined

 

... and a lot better than $6+ a piece from dealer.

 

That's what I thought but it's not what he said in quotes so I was confused and obviously mis-understood him. And based on Franasias's post I'm not the only one having trouble interpreting him. Thanks for the reply.

 

Thank You very much.!

 

Anyone with step by step AND pics to install the H7 HID conversion kit?...I have installed many HID kits on my other cars but Mercedes set up looks intimidating and I prefer not to try it without help?

thanks,

 

I will confirm what ohlord says about the 65 watt H7 rally bulbs. They provide an amazing upgrade to the stock bulbs. I took his advice and bought them along with the 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System. The car looks great, and I can see at night!

 

Isn't the parking/city light only on when the car is parked and that light is selected on the light switch. Asking because my smaller light on the right is out and I thought, I needed an h7 to replace this light. After reading this thread now I'm confused.

 

no, when you turn the headlight switch one click clockwise, that turns on that
bulb, a low wattage H6W. turn the switch one more click and the H6W remains
on, plus the low beam's H7 bulb lights up (or D2R for HID equipped headlights).

the smaller light has 2 bulbs: the low wattage H6W, and the HIGH beam's H7.

this thread is mixing up cause/solutions for low, high, and city/standing bulbs
so i wouldn't try to make sense of this thread. rather, describe what is out
on yours and we can assist you with the solution

 

I understand it now, with your statement. Thank you for setting me straight. I've just never had to replace the city lights before so I was unsure which bulb was being used for normal function. My h7 high beams work just fine. Although it may or may not be coincidence that my right city/parking light went out and 3 days later my left h7 low beam went out. The city lights have been in there for 2+ years while i'm on my 3rd set of thoose damn silverstar ultras

 

THE 210 city lights are reliable, though the harness and connector to this bulb
are known weak point and suffer from accelerated decomposition for some
reason.

silverstars seem to have relatively low life span and may be the result (my guess)
that they're 'overclocked' just to get that advertised brighter bulb. performance
halogens seem to share this trait

 

Just to jump on this thread.

A 2002 W210 - the right side high beam and city light are out when the switch is on low beam. When setting to high beam the both work.

Note there is no voltage to the halgen bulb plug when on low beam.

Any ideas? Thanks - Alan

 

theres not susposed to be voltage to the high beam when you just have your normal driving lights on. Your high beam h7 doesn't turn on until you switch the brights on. The light that is out in your car is the right side h6w (city/parking) light. It's the little bulb on bottom. Replacements are like 6 bucks at the dealership. I would just replace them both since they are cheap and the other wont take long to go out, since you can assume they where replaced at the sametime.

 

Brau0318 - your right - I just double checked in the dark.

Thanks for the info!

 

I know its an old thread, but still i want to pass my thanks for the tip. I just had to replace both my city lights and these bulbs are readily available at my local canadian tire, fit perfectly and do the job.

 

I just did that job on my '02 E320. The parking lamp had burned out. Took 10 minutes to replace. The worst part was paying $9 for a replacement bulb at OReilly's.