Hey everyone, I’ve been experiencing an extremely strange phenomenon with my lights however it only happens under certain conditions.

If my lighting dial is turned all the way to the left on off and I lock my car, the left parking light and taillight will remain on without turning off. Once I put the lighting dial to automatic (where it usually is) the issue doesn’t happen. Does anyone know what might be causing this? I’ve added some pictures below.

 

I think it is a "Europian" feature. It is intended to use 1/2 of the power to keep the lights on if you need to leave the car on the side of the street at night. You will turn on the lights on the side of the car that is closest to the road.
~20 years ago I owned Audi and VW in Russia that were imported form Germany. Both of them had this feature. In both cars one side of the parking lights will be turned on with ignition in "OFF" position if you put turn signal stalk to "left" or "right" position.

Max

 

 

so this is saying that feature is meant to be? Also if I turn the dial to the 2nd option it’ll do the same on the right?

 

Yes, when we have parties in our neighborhood and fifty or more cars are parked on the street all the Benz's have these on.

 

This has been a Mercedes-Benz feature for decades. It is used alot in Europe where there is alot of curb parking. With the prevalence of parking lots in the US, there is usually no need for curb parking at night.

I can't remember the last time I parked on a street curb... or used Parktronic to automatically enter such a space. (I use the perpendicular auto park feature all the time.)

 

is this function part of a package or is it stock? I do have all packages other than the one with distronic cruise

 

It’s part of the Parking Assistance Package

 

Ah yes, Mercedes standing lamp feature. I don't think I have ever had a need to use this on any of my Benzes.

 

Well my '12 with park assist has it and so does my '13 w/o park assist, It may be a different package that includes it on the "13 ?

It is way better than leaving your flashers going while attending a five hour party, LB, DFW, you guys need to get out more! LOL.

 

I assumed Alan-e550 was referring to the auto park feature. If not I agree with you the “parking light” feature the thread was originally posted about is standard on all of our cars.

 

You very well may be correct, on another related topic, my '12 only has the early parktronic, searches for a space, then directs you how to turn the wheel and shift for yourself, I believe the later models did much more.

 

when I bought my first Mercedes in 2009 (a SLK280), that's the first thing that my sales person explain to me before handing me the key LOL

 

Also in Europe the roads tend to be narrower so the logic is that having a light on helps prevent getting side swiped. On BMW's its activated using the turn signal with the car off.

 

My right hand side park light remains on even when the turn switch is off. The battery is farely new. I have been using this car from 2018 but it is only showing this in 2023

 

It's not likely you have an "Off" switch, I don't know the year of your car, but pretty sure only the 2010 model had one. Read through post number 2 and 3, I think what you believe is off is actually left or right parking lights, they won't come on until you turn the car off and close the door. So to recap, straight up is Auto, one click to the left is parking lamps on, two clicks is left side parking and three clicks is right size parking. Obviously the headlights are off in all three of those positions, use the first for parking lights on for driving without headlights, the next two are for parking your car on the street, only one side parking lights only stays lit, left or right side depending on which position the switch is in. I use these all the time for parties, especially for street parking with no street lights, it is way better than leaving your flashers on for hours, usually the last person in the line of parked cars has them on, it's considered good etiquette. If you leave your light switch in Auto, this will not happen

 

Additionally, European models come with less gadgets and smaller batteries, so leaving parking light all around might deplete the battery before you leave the party.
Why MB leave the feature on US models?
My guess would be that making 2 different light switches would cost more and they tend to nickel and dime in last years.
No oil pressure gauges, no AC refrigerant temp gauges. The list is probably pretty long, but that is from top of my head.