BenzV12

May be not a mystery but this is what I discovered today thanks to a family pal . Long story short, I started the engine and headlamps came on , I popped up the hood and he said left side headlamp has more light , I said no way lol
As the images show ,driver side has an extra lamp is turned on whereas passenger side's is not . Then , I closed the hood and a few secs later that yellow lamp is also turned off . I stopped the engine and restarted it this time that mysterious yellowish light never come on at all lol You can see this in the 3rd image
I know there is not a problem with the headlamps because there is no any warning light on the cluster panel

BTW, adaptive headlamp assist is on and I have Bi-Xenons .

newyorktoLA

That's not a mystery anymore!
It's the cornering light (it is in both headlamps!) that provides extra illumination when cornering at low speeds. It comes on when the turn signal is engaged for either side, the wheel is turned in one direction, or when you are at a curve. It only comes on cars with P2 aka those that come from the factory with bi-xenons.

alanme123

Yea thats the cornering lamps. They are only activated when you drive below a certain speed while turning your steering wheel. It's purpose is to light up the side areas where you turn. For example the corner of a sidewalk when you are turning right at an intersection.

BenzV12

Thanks for your replies , I appreciate these informative and detailed inputs
Happy driving

leapingpoint

cornering lights... yup.


mercedes doesn't advertise a lot of what they put on their cars... to the crazy azz mercedes engineers, those equipments should be on the earth from day one.

Arrie

I'm not sure but I thought the gear needs to be on either forward or reverse for the cornering lights to work. The light in question for sure is the cornering light but how did it really come ON?

You said you popped the hood so you probably happened to turn the steering wheel and this triggered the light to come on but I thought the gear had to be ON for it to work. Need to investigate on this...

How the cornering lights work is that when your speed is 20 mph or less the light comes on either from having the blinker ON or turning the steering wheel, i.e. driving slower than 20 mph when you turn right or engage right side blinker the right side cornering light comes ON.

But the great German engineers did not stop here. The light works opposite when in reverse. Now, the blinker function I have not tested but when you move your car in dark on a parking lot or something and move it forward and backward the cornering light comes ON on the right side if you turn right and go forward but the light comes ON on the left side if you turn the steering wheel right but you move reverse.

The cornering light litghts up on the side where the front of the car moves to.

rufmb

Very clever, wonder if it is just Mercedes or other manufacturers offering the same function also handle reverse with the same logic.

BenzV12

Thanks for your inputs .Right after reading 1st two great posts by dear MB Owners , I also thought that whether I had swung the s-wheel mistakenly when releasing the hood but I am positive I didn't lol
Well, may be steering wheel angle was something like towards left side (the day before after park was complete and I might not bother to make it steady) , don't remember that but still the car was in P as the images suggest

All I can say is WOW and kudos to German engineering

Arrie

That is what bothers me as I say, the cornering light working with the car in park. But I never tested for this so perhaps the cornering light works in park too and just assumes the gear position to forward or reverse or picks the last one used before park.

And it probably is that you don't need to be turning the wheel. The steering being off of the zero angle by what ever tolerance they but in the system probably triggers the light.

But still it bothers why the lights would work with the gear in park...??

alanme123

From what I recall, the lights do work when in park. I remember playing around with it to see when it will activate.