we47b1me

Posting this in this forum as well as it's the same chassis & p/n. I really wish we would combine the w166 forums like Benzworld does. The cars are literally the same minus some electronic upgrades and small body facelifts.

Hey everyone --

Quick question for anything with a heated/cooled cupholder who had it as an ORIGINAL option.

Does your cupholder light up no matter what time of day it is? IE -- are the yellow (solar) lights on at all times of the day, no matter if it's dark or not?

Asking because I retrofitted mine with the proper wiring harness, and tapping into the cig lighter for power. It's 4 plugs -- 3 x 12v's and 1 ground. Ever since I installed mine, it would illuminate when the truck was on, and when entering/exiting vehicle (would turn off after 30 seconds or so, timed with the interior lighting). About a week ago, I noticed it stopped doing so, only illuminating in low light conditions / headlights were turned on. So I'm just trying to determine whether or not that's how it should work from the factor, or if my wiring harness/retrofit may have a short in it somewhere.

​​​​​​​THANKS!!

Eurocar11

We have the heated/cooled cupholders as original equipment on our 2019 GLE 400. Here's how the lighting works on ours.

When the headlights are on (either manually or via the "auto" headlight setting) and the cupholders are not activated, the "yellow" light is on. When the headlights are off, the yellow light is off. Regardless of headlight status, when the cupholder button is pressed once, the light is blue (to indicate cooling). Push the button a second time and the light will be red (to indicate heating). Pushing the button a third time deactivates the cupholder function.

we47b1me

I appreciate the response. So however mine was wired before it started acting up, was actually not how it works from the factory (as the yellow cupholder lighter was ALWAYS on and timed with interior lights when truck was turned off) which I actually prefer. Will have to do some digging around. Part of the reason I liked it always on was because of the delay during shutdown of the heat function specifically, and it taking a few minutes before power was cut off to the cup holder. IE -- the red light indicating the unit was hot would stay illuminated to let people know it was still hot instead of what it does now which is a hard shutdown as soon as car is turned off during daylight.

whitewagon

I think the yellow lights come on with the Ambient lighting. It says yellow all the time. When lights are off, yellow lights are off

amusa

I think it's tied in with the ambient lighting. If needed I can confirm this when I get a chance. Since I have this options on my 2016.

Now that got me thinking if I change the ambient lighting to a different color will the cupholder lights stay yellow or will it change color?. I'm going to try it tonight and see what happen.

we47b1me

If you have the heated/cooled cupholder, the yellow (solar) does not change with the ambient light color selection. Only has solar, blue, and red.

amusa

Yes your correct. I can confirm this because I tried it.