Recently purchased my 2001 E320. It had all kinds of problems and warnings. We have taken care of most of them. The only remaining one is a mistery. I keep getting a Defective lamp warning on the status screen even though all the lights seem to be working fine. I thought there was a rear fog light missing (there is a hole in the right side of the trunk lid) until I read here that there is not supposed to be a light there, and I can not find any other defective light, but then again, I don't know if there are supposed to be any more lights than I see. I know that the courtesy lights do not come on when one opens any of the doors, and I wonder if that might be the reason why I am getting that warning. Can anyone please shed some light (no pun intended) on the subject? Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions. By the way, before I bought this E320 I used to think "who in their right mind would spend the kind of money for this kind of car? Well... now I know... it is a dream to drive!!!!)

Arturo M Garcia
Certified Court Interpreter
Los Angeles, CA

 

When do the warnings appear? I have a 98 and rarely i will get the same warning. Usually it's when i turn the fog lights on. Sometimes they work perfect and other times not, but it has to do with the wiring deteriorating slowly on them. Slowly go through each click on the light knob and see if the message comes up at a certain spot. Also, make sure it isn't your reverse lights or rear third brakelight. My third brakelight shorted and burned the metal contacts and I didn't notice till someone said something

 

i think you should use the SEARCH feature and see what the other suggestions
have been. the solution isn't precise because you did not inventory what you
checked. folks wishing to help end up making guesses

the malfunction list only covers external lights. you need to go through each
bulb and identify the action taken e.g. continuity, activating by { }, and like
ditty suggests, what action on your part triggers the malfunction warning in
the first place.

 

The warniing light pops up the moment I turn the lights on. At the beginning I had a broken fog light housing lens and bulb, so I thought that was the problem. Now both front fog lights have been fixed and they work as they should, and then I thiught about the missing right read fog light socket, but I read that one is intentionally missiing, so now I don't know if the courtesy lights might trigger the same warning, altough I am now reading the warning signal only applies to external lighting.... Again, thanks for your suggestions...

 

i have the same problem. as far as your interior lights did you press the button to have the lights come on when the doors open? its above the rear view mirror. I know its silly but I drove it for a week with no lights until i realized there was a button. Im still getting the lamp defective light when i turn my lights on. i have checked all the bulbs and they all seem to be working. Im about to take every bulb out and check them. Many are duel filiment bulbs and in some cases only one filiment is defective. This will still trigger the lamp defective light. I have also read that many W210's will show this defective message no matter what.