I bought my S212 back in February and have basically had no problems with it for my ownership so far, but I just noticed that my passenger side high beam hasn't been working the entire time. The only problem I've encountered with the lighting system was having a blown fuse for the automatic high beams on the road trip home after buying it, but after putting a new one in I haven't had a problem. I only just noticed yesterday that only the driver's side high beam is working. Even the low beams are better than any other high beams I've had on a car so I didn't notice that the passenger side high beam wasn't working until now. My vehicle is a 2013 E350 Wagon with the 608, 615, and 619 lighting options. I've done some research on the forum so far and I found the tutorial on how to dremel out some of the bad casting on the flap that covers the high beam, but it seems like everyone who encountered that problem had some error code for the flap malfunctioning, which I've never had. I've previously taken the car to the dealer and my independent shop, and niether said anything about any codes being thrown or any suppresed warnings present, although I didn't know about this issue so it wasn't something I asked for either of them to look into. I also have used my personal scanner and I've never produced a CEL or any diagnostic code during my ownership. On the carfax it does state the passenger headlight was replaced, which is evident because you can tell the housing is newer compared to the driver's side, but that was done at a dealer so I assumed it was installed properly.

I was wondering if anyone has come across this issue before where the high beam won't "engage" without throwing any kind of error message. The driver's side high beam functions just like normal with doing the automatic calibration on startup and moving with the wheel. I'm mainly just hoping that I don't have to explore using my dremel and trying to seperate the lense from the housing and it's just a connection or something else that's loose. Thanks!

 

This is a dilemma, the housing differences could be from your car was an early '13 and got the '12 edition, there were 3 renditions of this headlight, the earlier parts were superseded by the final '13 rendition, the '14's have LED low beams. Since your low beam is working, we know the bulb is good and the flap is down, or the headlight would shut off, so it's likely the motor for the flap is not working, usually when the flap is the issue, it gets stuck in the up position, the car automatically turns off the light. What happens when you use #619 option of automatic high beams? do they work? one side only? if the system can't function correctly it throws a code and message "Intelligent lighting system inoperable"? Maybe drive at night with the system set to auto and see what happens?

And one additional question, what happens when you turn the headlight switch from Auto to headlights on and pull the stalk back for high beams?

 

For question 1: Automatic high beams work as intended for the driver side, but nothing happens on the passenger side. On startup, the driver's high beam does the calibration dance, but nothing happens with the passenger's high beam (at least that can be seen from the driver's seat). I typically drive all the time with the lights on auto and stalk pushed forward in the "high" setting causing the auto high beam symbol to turn on with the headlights. The only time I've gotten that error code is when I first got the car and the fuse was blown and a couple of times if there's still a little bit of frost blocking the camera in the windshield.

For question 2: The passenger side high beam still doesn't turn on. Since I live out in the country, I'll typically drive with the light selector switch set to "on" and then the stalk pushed forward to always have the high beams on. Since the automatic high beams don't stay on below 30 mph I run my lights like this so I can see through corners.

 

OK, sounds like the actuator motor, does the right headlight do it's dance on startup? I'm assuming not, so maybe check all wiring connections for corrosion, your gonna hate this one, but it worked for me on my W220, turn light switch to ON, pull stalk back for high beams and bang on headlight with an open palm, yes, this actually worked on my S500, took a couple tries though, motor must have been bound up. next three options, replace with a junkyard light, get programmed at dealer, buy replacement light, get programmed or dremel headlight bezel off, get replacement lens and unbind motor or replace, I believe I saw these available in Europe, Also I believe somewhere on this foum is a video of removing bezel, grinding flap and replacing bezel. Weird yours is stuck in the down position, even weirder you have no codes, when this happened to me, I had a dash warning and numerous codes.

 

I'll have to give the physical persuasion method a try. The bang on something till it works is typically one of the first things I do for any electronic problems, I just hadn't thought about trying it here. The puzzling thing for me is that there are no error codes shown and the car/adaptive lights work as intended for everything except the passenger high beam. I think this weekend I'll look at taking the wheel lining off and look at the back of the headlight. I did already unplug/plug in the main connector on the outside of the housing and took off the little access door, but there's not much to see or reach without the liner off. I kind of assume there should be some kind of feedback sensor/switch telling the light controller that the flap has raised or at least what position it's in, so I'm still lost as to why there's no warning light.

When you got the warning of the stuck/faulty flap, was it just for one side or both sides? Also, when you had the stuck flap, did the other one still operate like normal?

 

I agree, this one's weird. There should be codes and the car should be announcing frequently " intelligent lighting system inoperable" Yes, when I got the warning it was just for one side, but it does not indicate a side just a generic message saying inoperable, but if I remember correctly it was 2-4 codes when scanned. I wonder if you pulled the wheel liner and had a helper with headlights switched to " ON" and pulled the stalk for high beams if you hear anything from the headlight with your head in the wheel well? And yes when I had the one stuck flap, with the headlights on and pulling the high beam lever, the left headlight flap went up giving me high beam on the left, but the other headlight shut off as my flap was stuck up, as is the case most of the time, this is so weird, i don't remember ever hearing of a headlight flap stuck in the down position, or not getting a code, that's nuts. You may need to find someone with Xentry diagnostics to help, Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

I just had an epiphany, maybe the little arm actuator disconnected from the flap? causing the car to believe everything was fine as the motor and actuator was working and moving to the correct position, hence not throwing a code as the CPU thinks everything is fine? I wonder if pulling the wheel liner and listening, ignition and lights on motor off might give some indication this is the case?

 

That is interesting and that seems very likely, I'll have to investigate this weekend. Do you happen to know if this arm/actuator is accessible with the headlight still attached to the car? I'll pull off the liner and open the access door to look into it this weekend. I didn't really give this a thought because I figured it was all a single unit so nothing could become disconnected.

 

In the event I need to look at purchasing a motor, below is my VIN. After looking online it seems like there are a couple of motors that are VIN specific. I didn't know if anyone following this thread would be able to look up which specific P/N I need to look for. Thanks!

WDDHH8JB4DA663653

 

This same thing is happening in my 2011 S212. My left side does the little headlight dance on start up while the right side does nothing. When I turn my highbeams on, my left one is the only one working. I get a message that says my auto high beam is inop.

 

Are you both in a colder area?

 

I wouldn't say colder area. I'm in Washington State. Mine has been like that since I got the car a few years ago.

 

Pierre I am sorry, I don't know the logic to troubleshoot MB headlights!
Hard to help with tips or shortcuts then.

Many incarnations HID, LED... control modules requires Xentry coding.
Generic scanners don't see LIN bus therefore are mostly blind for live data.

Front-SAM is involved but rear SAM as well because it's in charge of all lights.
They are directly powered 24/7 and asleep most of the time. I don't know if they are subject to soft-crashing thus like Reboots... though the cooling fan gets a little crazy!

Once thing useful about HL is to RTV-silicone generously all exposed connectors to prevent penetration by capilarity.

90% chance bad controller I can't even say controller is bad because I don't know how to test it.


++++ WIS Doc should offer clues....

 

I'm in Indiana so it gets cold, but not super cold and the problem hasn't been temperature dependent.

 

That's the dilemma here, no codes would indicate the servo motor is working, telling the CPU it's moving the flap.that's why I asked if you could pull the wheel liner and listen while someone else switched the stalk from low beam to high beam with the light switch in on not auto. I seem to remember from the video of the guy taking off the lens to grind the flap that the lever from the servo could be seen from the back of the housing on the left side, I could be mistaken. either way, maybe with a long forcep you could reach the lever and re-attach if it's not broken and just came off?

 

This is a weird one Cali, no codes? WTF? that's why at this point I believe the motor is working, the car thinks it's working and the lever to move the flap came off the connector or broke because the motor not being able to move the flap would certainly throw a code, right? I asked him to listen with his head in the wheel well, liner removed, to see if the motor was running at start up and when switching from low to high beam with the headlights in the on position. Just spitballing here, but if the controller was bad, it would certainly throw a code, right?

 

​​​​​​
> Try a different tack:
Pierre, you know if you can not figure out this flippin' HL, them no one else can...?

I am not a HL guy but I can guess the unit must have gone seriously nuts.

I know these units work in tandem... it could be the otherside is bad...

> How is that?
You know how these modules are powered 24/7 like the "sleepless SAM", right?

What do you think these systems like the most???
​​​​​​TO GET A BREAK.... REBOOT!!


> Long-term:
I bet the "painted GND" located near front beams are now coming to full force.

So you'll be doing no wrong to clean HL GND as well as main GND under cariage near muffler (Disconnect BATT to do that as well).

Hopefully this helps ya


++++ "NO CODE" meaning...
Is the scanner able to read LIN HL at all? : YES/NO
IF YES then look live PID status to see what controller sees!
ELSE wrench it out

++++ Plan B...
Scanner being mute and all above steps don't yield improvement then no other move beside get close & personal: take HL module out.

 

All great points!

 

So over the weekend I took the wheel liner out to try and get better access to the inside of the headlight without removing it from the car. After cycling the high beams, it is evident that the motor is not activating the right high beam. Standing outside the driver's window and activating the high beams that way, I can easily hear the driver's side motor actuate and turn on the high beam. I can't hear the passenger side at all, and after placing my phone directly on the headlight and taking a video, no mechanical noise is heard. Looking from the back of the headlight through the access port, I can see the motor and it appears to be completely connected. Other than that, I think I'd need to get the headlight off of the car to really look inside it. I tried feeling around the motor to see if I could feel any kind of mechanism that I could either relatch or guide back on, but I couldn't tell there was anything disconnected. If the motor is connected by some kind of arm and not connected by gears, then either that arm is gone completely or there is a cover over the mechanism.

As of right now, my next step is to really just let it be. I don't have Xentry, so there's not much software diagnostic work I can accomplish. Nothing comes up when using my OBD2 scanner, which I didn't expect it to, so I can't diagnose it that way. Also, with no codes/errors being shown in the instrument cluster, I can't pinpoint exactly what may be at fault (mechanical or electrical problem). Since this is my only car, and I get to work before the sun comes up, I would like to have my headlights. I'm hesitant to dive too deeply into this as I don't want to break anything and cause the passenger headlight to not function at all or need to wait for a part for the headlight. I think I may plan on diving more into this (taking the bumper off and removing the headlight) when I take some vacation later this winter, so if more information comes to light or if there's more diagnosing I can do then I'll probably try. I hate to just leave it as is right now, but since the headlights work for the most part, and I don't feel like it's dangerous to not have my right side high beam because of how nice the lights are, it's just gonna stay as is for now. The only thing I'm considering doing is a CAN reset by disconnecting the main battery, but I'm wondering if that may reset something and then start displaying the warning message, which I would prefer not to happen.

 

Well, I feel terrible we couldn't get to the bottom of this, if you can't hear the motor, and you can hear the other one, that's telling. Hmm... Cali's suggestion for a reboot is a good one, it works a lot, so maybe disconnect the negative battery cable for an hour or so? I'll see if I can come up with anything in the meantime...

 

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I appreciate the help! I think I'll be looking into getting one of those scanners too.