Acrobat

So I'm heading down a popular Interstate yesterday in my brand new E-car following a white pickup truck about 7 or so car lengths ahead of me.

The next thing I see is an orange 5 gal plastic bucket fly out of his bed. The dammed thing was headed straight for my windshield and then after being in the air for what seemed like forever it slammed into the pavement about 50 ft in front of me, still dead center to the star on the hood. It's funny, I recall thinking for a split second that the bucket lined up perfectly in the "gun sight" of my hood ornament.

I swerved hard left in order to avoid the bucket, but it impacted my front right bumper just above and to the outboard side of the fog light. I saw the bucket fly off the bumper and out of sight to the right. Dammed lucky that no other cars were around me at the time, otherwise someone else would have had to deal with avoiding the bucket in a car that may not handle as well as a Benz. BTW, when I swerved hard left at 85+ MPH the Benz didn't even complain, it just did exactly what I told it to do!! Damn this thing really handles!!!

I pulled over to assess the damage. Incredibly, there were a few contact marks on the bumper but nothing that couldn't be taken off with a good cleaner (and it all did come off!). BUT....my right side marker light was now hanging by the wires. I remember cursing the dumb son of a b*tch who couldn't keep his crap in the bed of his truck and off the highway. The SOB sped off, BTW...

So I get home and try to re-fit the light, but apparently whatever was holding the light on from the inside is now gone. The light itself has a pair of "hooks" on the front and a catch on the rear. All I'm left with on the car is a hole.

Question...what was behind there?? I have no diagrams of the body panels so I can't even imagine what was there. Whatever it was must have vaporized into thin air, because I can't locate anything inside the fender that even remotely resembles anything that would hold in the light fixture.

Are there any diagrams available on line? Can anyone help?

Thanks for a great forum!! I really like this place, I've learned so much in my short time here it's not even funny.

W211 Ryda

Sorry to hear about your little mishap, but at least the damage was minimal. From your post, it seems like your lamp is still intact if there are 2 hooks. Just slip the front end first till it hooks then snap the rear in. You have other options as well. What year is your car? For the 2003-2006 W211's you could actually purchase the Euro impact strips from www.MBenzNL.com which eliminates that hideous side marker light. Here is picture of the euro strip.


OR

You could get clear side marker lens from Ebay. (2003 - 2006 models)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2003-...81639039QQrdZ1

thegeneraltso

so sorry to hear of your incident. were you able to get the license plate numbers of the truck?

what did you do with the light when you installed the euro impact strips? i guess you had to leave the bulbs in, otherwise, you would get a 'light out' message, right? did you pull them up to the engine bay for easy access to change the bulbs just in case they burn out?

W211 Ryda

Mark_Cummins was kindly enough to install the euro strip for me since he had these plastic specialty tools that prevents scratching the paint. We just zip tied the bulb/wire behind the bumper. I believe MBenzNL could use his Star Diagnostics to delete the malfunction error if there are no bulbs in the socket.

eLTURCOamg

it happends bro, **** ive seen a 2X6 fall off a bed of a car before, i pulled over and took it off to the side of the road so no one hit it.

thegeneraltso

you are a good man. just make sure you don't get yourself hit by other cars, heh?

barrafp

I believe the lights you may be talking about is this one


Anyways, that's what it looks like inside. These are the OEM corner lights and has been replaced with clear corners.

Acrobat

Mine's an 07.

The light was still intect but for soem reason something else wasn't right, so the dealer had to order a part. All fixed up now and even after I told them I ran into a bucket at 80+ mph they still fixed it for free!



I like the idea of the clear marker lights. I'll have to ask for a set compatible with the 07.