wortonmill

My local garage replaced the 6W front parking bulbs with 20W bulbs - they started to melt the holders before they stopped working - when the bulb gone indicator told me they had stopped working- I have replaced them with the correct bulbs but they still don't work.

Al other lights work OK - all fuses I can find are OK ( includes secret ones at end of dash and all under hood)

any/all ideas on what is wrong will be welcome

many thanks

E55 KEV

MAN ARE YOU LUCKY I AM SEEING YOUR POST. A dealer would replace the entire headlamp and if Xenon that unit is about $1k each.

A friend of mine had the same problem. A non Mercedes dealer mechanic put in a high wattage bulb instead of the H6W. This was either 10 or 12 watts and it shorted out. We replaced the correct bulb and did not work. The dumb mechanic actually used the wrong bulb and forced it into the socket and damaged it and it was breaking apart.

I had a couple old damaged cracked W210 headlamp units lying around I got out the trash at the Mercedes body shop. Since the H6W bulb connector was ruined in his car I cut the connector off the junk headlamp, sliced together with electrical tape and ..... still did not work. We used a connector off a second junk headlamp and still did not work. However, we tested the 2 connectors from the junk lamps and they worked find but when we put them on the car they did not work.

We pulled all the wires out of the junk units and low and behold the H6W bulb has an INLINE FUSE on the wire deep inside the headlamp unit. The inline fuse in the headlamp on the car was melted. We cut off the junk inline fuse and sliced it together and then it worked.

A dealership would never go to the trouble of using a piece from an old broken headlamp to fix yours. Plus they would not have had the trashed unit nor taken the time to actually find the problem thru trial and error.

I doubt you can buy just the wire from inside the HeadLamp Unit with the inline fuse from Mercedes parts. So Good Luck in the Trash Bins!

rob_fed

The tip about he inline fuse is great! I am glad I read this board. I was experimenting with diferent bulbs for my parking light, I was trying to get it to look brighter, I went with 20watt bulbs, but I could smell something melting/burning, so I shut down. I was lucky enough not to damage anything before the failure.

I did some observations though, the 20w bulb was not much brighter than the stock H6W bulb. My bulb was even a 20w halogen marine bulb. When you power up both bulbs side-by-side, outside of the housing, the 20w is much brighter. I think it has to do with the internal reflectors inside the parking light.

Has anyone been able to fit a bulb into the parking light to make it brighter?

Rob Lee

Air Marshall Eldritch

I see that Phillips has the H6W "white" bulb available for about $22 for a pair.

Can anyone tell me if these are worth putting in, or are they too similar to the stock parking lights?
I really don't like the way the stock bulbs look (yellowish) next to the zenon main lights, but I don't want to go higher in wattage either.

pocholin

I'm also glad I read this board. I do want to change light bulbs on my car (I did the front turn signals) with hyperwhite bulbs and ist looks great, very, very bright, but it looks great. It is good to know not to mess with the bulb wattage because it can easyly mess the holders. Thanks for the tips E55 KEV

tony

I have the Philips Bluevision bulbs in my car and although they are slightly whiter than the stock bulbs, they still look yellow next to the Xenons. However, the stock bulbs seemed to burn out every year or two,and the Philips are still going strong after two years. I bought mine from Powerbulbs.com

aTOMic

I put in one Philips Bluevision H6W bulb (for comparison) and I forgot which one it is - you cannot tell it from the stock (osram) bulb. Save your money. Also, beware: Powerbulbs has a less that favorable exchange rate if you are buying from the USA; it was estimated $86 but they charged my well over $100. BTW, Freight was included in the first estimate. Insult to injury, the bulbs came rattling around in a box with no protective padding other than the plastic blister packs.

I feel better now.

-Tom

nguyensteve

I had a set of the Phillip Blue - FOR SALE - Open to try-ONLY it but is not white enought - $15.00 include shipping in the U.S.
email me if interested, I take Paypal.

Steve Nguyen,
nguyensteve@yahoo.com