My car (2002 E320 Sedan) has the "bulb malfunction" error that seems pretty common. The person who had the car before me said it came on after they put some higher power bulbs in it.

I'm looking to just put the correct ones in and I thought I saw a post with the model number needed. It comes on even when I just put the parking lights on so I am assuming the little headlights (not sure what they are called) need to be replaced along with the main ones. So do they all use the same bulbs?

I did try to search since I'm sure this is common but didn't find a great answer.

Thanks!

 

"city" light bulbs are round bayonet based, H6W. some converted headlights
such as Depo headlights use the wedge based H5W. i understand that the
H6W may be challenging to find for some folks, depending on where you live.
I've not had any problems, but then again, most recent purchase was through
some online vendor like Powerbulbs. i always like to have spare fuses, bulbs,
windshield wipers, and other items which need regular replenishment.....as
well as 'likely-to-blow-up' items like belt, CPS, window regulator...

 

Do you have LED lights in your city/parking lights? Turn the lights on only one click and the small middle (city) headlights should come on. Do they look kind of blue in color? Turn on the headlights, and compare the two. Do the city lights look blue while the headlights look yellow?

My guess is the "higher power" bulbs the previous owner installed were LED lights that trigger the warning.

Either way, your best bet is probably the dealer. They'll give you the right bulbs. Other bulbs that look like they fit may actually break the light socket due to the pin configuration. You can make them fit properly if you want to file off one of the pins.

This is what proper Mercedes city lights look like (technically they are BAX9S H6W bulbs):


Note the 30 degree offset of the pins. Bulbs from Autozone will generally not have this offset (pins will be directly across from each other) and this can break your socket.

You can also find 17 LED BAX9S lights on eBay that will not give you a warning, but I think you'd really only want these if you had HIDs and wanted to match the color:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2pcs-...Q5fAccessories

 

Thanks for the info so far. So if I picked up the LED ones linked to on eBay, do you know what HID's would match them that will not give me the error? I'd like to just replace everything at once since I think the current headlights will trip it as well, not just the city lights.

 

Your current headlights shouldn't give an error, unless something very odd was done. The city lights giving an error is much more understandable. Can you post a picture of your headlights, both turned on and turned off? That might help us identify what the previous owner did.

 

I haven't tried just changing the city lights first and hopefully that is all it needs. I bought the car from my uncle so I could just call him to see what he changed. Thanks for the help.

 

hid's or H7's in the headlights?
www.danielsternlighting.com
for 65 watt rally H7's that won't trigger the warning.
Some metric bike shops carry h6w