I just saw a thread in the SLK section and would love to add this to my car as well. Has anyone ever tried adding a foglight to the passenger side, to make the rear lights look equal? I never turn them on because it looks funny with it just on the driver's side.

Thread... https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...61#post2009661

 

It is supposed to look like that, if you have both on it looks like the brakes are on...

It is kinda' like the guy in another thread that wanted to put staggered on a 4Matic?

I am not insulting you or him but there is a reason things are the way they are on the car; it is over engineered.

 

There are several issues to deal with if you want to do what you stated above. The thread that you quoted talks about other model Mercedes cars that still have a socket on the passenger side that is left blank. The W211 does not have this.

The rear bulbs on the W211 are all the same kind and they are soldered onto a board. They are a long-life halogen gas filled bulbs. The blinker and reverse lights light at full intensity (brake lights too if they are not LEDs).

The Parking lights are the same style bulbs as the others, but they are given less voltage so that they don't light at full power, last much longer and seem to be weaker. When you turn on the rear fog light, the BUS will send full voltage to the two parking light bulbs on the driver's side and make them illuminate at a much brighter level.

This means that you would need to get into the Star Diagnostics and see if there is even a setting to make both sides light up at full power. I have the impression that it can either do one side or the other, but not both. This was made this way so that MB can set up the W211 for right or left hand drive models and not have to switch taillights at the production line. It is now just a software setting.

I am constantly driving behind idiots who turn on their rear fog lights when the visibility is fine. They are very bothersome! I usually pass them and turn mine one to see if they even get a clue. You are only supposed to use them if visibility is lass than 50 meters which means you should not be driving faster than 35 MPH. I had to use my rear fog last weekend when I was driving in a whiteout blizzard, but I don't just drive with them on because they look cool, they are annoying.

The reason that the rear fog in only on the driver's side is so that it is not confused with brake lights. There is even a rule that the rear fog needs to be at least 10 cm away from the stoplight on the side where it lights. If you look, they are always separated from the brake light.

So I would not mess with it since it requires getting into the computer system of the car,

Steve

 

Guys, keep in mind that Jaguar's rear foglights light up on both sides.

Steve, thank you for the insight. I didn't even know that it annoyed some people, and it sounds like this is more trouble than it's worth.

Thanks for the ideas, I'm skipping this mod.

 

If this is the case, I am not suprised..

 

funny, I was interested in adding the second light to my car too... the idea of having my *** brightly lit during some of the crappy rain /snow storms that I have been in is pretty enticing... (not trying to look cool running around with them on)

I was even contemplating changing the daytime running lights + high beams + the fogs to the Sylvania silver star bulbs (they give the whitest light that I have seen of any bulbs) ... I think that it would look better with the HIDs that are on my car....any thoughts on using that combination?




BTW.. Steve, Thanks for that detailed, informative, and accurate answer!...

any comments with equal knowledge about 4matics, 18 inch wheels, a staggered setup, and offsets?

 

The lights are bright enough to annoy someone if the weather is clear. Don't turn it on unless you really need to. I only use my rear fog light in inclement weather when visibility is poor.

The only exception is if some moron is tailgating me

 

Probably done by those brilliant Ford engineers who have never been much good at safety (Pinto, Crown Vic, etc)

The rear fog light is useful in heavy rain as well as fog.

Back in the day when I lived in Germany, people would mount a white light on the road side of the rear bumper.

 

I want to do two lights too. The one light thing is for stupid people.

Stupid person:

"Is that guy braking?!"
"Looks like it!!! But he's still moving!"

Smart person:

"Looks like a newer model Mercedes, obviously, all newer cars now come standard with a center third brake light. Mercedes utilizes LEDs for their centers and the possibility of a lamp malfunction or burnout is slim. It is not on, and therefore I will assume that those are just fog lamps."

 

i don't think the people are stupid for having the rear fog on. it is more like they didn't give it a second thought when pulling the knob for the front fog. they just pull until it can't be pulled and voilla "i got front fog on."

same with people who drives down the road with the blinkers on because their radio is so loud that they couldn't hear the tick-tock tick-tock.

they are inconsiderate to others. it is the ME ME thing!

 

You are kidding right? If not you should consider a Jaguar .

 

hmmmmm... Range Rover has it too... (and I think that it was like that before Ford got a hold of them... and I would bet RR does too!) the RR Sport was my other choice ... but I figured the guys on the MB forum would be much more fun and smart....

when I'm going down a white out condition on a snowy pass on I91 in VT (with some dumbass New Yorker driving his Escalade like an idiot coming up behind me).... I'll take that second fog light.. thank you very much. (with my Blizzaks and 17 inch Sport wheels)

 

After reading this thread.. I now know why Mercedes completely takes every feature out of their cars (especially in the US). The features that are there, people complain constantly and don't want to use them properly..

Watch, due to this thread they will remove the rear fogs (only in the US though, thank God I am in Canada.)...

 

Again, I am not surprised..

Seriously, two different cars, not even in the same league.

The Mercedes is designed this way on purpose for a great reason. Either you know this or you are driving the wrong car..

 

My Audi has two rear fogs. I don't know why, but some Audis have two and others just have one. I only find them incredibly annoying when visibility is fine and it is very dark out. The light coming out of the fog lights is a lot brighter than you think. If there was a simple setting (and now I will ask when I am at the dealer) I would probably make my W211 have both) but I would only use them when it is bad visibility.

The European law (and I know that we don't have any regulation on this here in the US) simply states that it should be used when visibility is impaired, no matter what it causing the low visibility.

I modified my taillights on my 190E 2.3 in Europe to have more of the parking lights. I put a double bulb (5w/21w) where the fog light went and just a 5w on the other side. This gave me 4 rear parking lights (red side marker lights are not used in the EU) at low intensity and improved my rear visibility. I never had any problems when I had the car inspected. I did not do this to my 300E in the US because I would have to wire it using relays so that the “burned out light” indicator would not malfunction. I just never got around to it, plus, the 300E in the US has 4 rear parking lights if you count the side markers.

I am happy that my cars have rear fog lights, they are a nice extra safety feature. You would be surprised how much they help low visibility. The reason that the EU went to a single one now is that people coming up from behind will know that the brightest red light is the left side of the car and if they pass that on the left there is oncoming traffic. This was one reason along with the fact that the EU was very late in accepting the 3rd stop light.

I can see (because of all of this discussion) that BMW and VW are not all that stupid by simply removing this feature in their US models. US drivers like to do whatever they want. I was just following an idiot in their Acura who put clear taillights on his car. I call him an idiot because he did not even bother putting bulbs that had color on them. He was simply driving with white taillights. I called the Boulder police as I was driving and they actually caught him. You would think that he would know that taillights should be red.

Steve

 

I have to unfortunately agree with you on this!

 

Stupid person:

"Is that guy braking?!"
"Looks like it!!! But he's still moving!"

Or this might be one of those other idiots who presses the brake with their left foot and never releases their foot from the pedal all the way! He always has his brake lights on and he burned out the center light. LED lights do sometimes fail (but rarely as you stated), have you seen the Cadillac STS trunk mounted lights?

Smart person:

"Looks like a newer model Mercedes, obviously, all newer cars now come standard with a center third brake light. Mercedes utilizes LEDs for their centers and the possibility of a lamp malfunction or burnout is slim. It is not on, and therefore I will assume that those are just fog lamps."

Yes, they would be kind of smart since this thought process is something that rarely enters most drivers’ minds. My GF would just complain about the intensity. If you asked her what kind of car it was she would tell you that it was a “blue one.”

You can’t go on thinking that most people take driving and cars as seriously as you do,

Steve

 

For those of you that have driven in SoCal, you know that 99.9% of the drivers don't give their driving and/or vehicles a second thought ever. It's pretty scary! Just a retired motor officer's perspective...

 

What do you mean?

Canada is part of the US, yes?

You have been for centuries!

 

Yup...people driving around with their fogs on...front and rear...all the time. All of them idiots...we have truly poor visibility maybe 5 days per year.

What irritates me more, however, are people that drive GM cars at night with their high-beam DRLs blazing.

 

We may appear to just another state, but we consider you guys just another province.. lol.

 

5 days out of 365? I'm envious. Where do you live?

 

Los Angeles. Note that I said truly poor visibility...a bit of rain or light fog doesn't qualify.

 

I know this thread is old but we all have 2 rear fog lights. I have mine enabled

 

How??