GLK-Class (X204) Produced 2008-2014

Headlight control switch

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Old 06-01-2010, 04:00 AM
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S600,GLK350,528i,G35,X3,C320,330i
Headlight control switch

Does your GLK's Headlight control switch light up at night? My turning knot lit up at night. But the lighting selection markings doesn't. Couldn't see the lighting selection at night.
And in the GLK, the lighting is not that simple on and off function, but also, Left Parking,Right Parking, Auto, Corner, Low beam, Fog front, Fog Rear ect.
Bad design?
Old 06-01-2010, 09:17 AM
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Yep that's how it works. I don't know about bad design, I haven't touched for the most part. Just read the manual, imo light switch is very straight forward. And when at night you can just turn it in different positions and see what lights came on/off to get desired outcome.
Old 06-28-2010, 02:26 AM
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E320 CDI, GLK 350
my mom just got 1, drove it the other night and noticed the same thing. I agree bad design.
Old 06-28-2010, 01:45 PM
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yeah, very poor design. I usually leave it in A but there was once when i ended up driving at night with poor visibility so i turned it all the way to the right in order to turn on the front/rear fogs so ppl can see me better. Well the rain stopped afterwards and i wanted to turn the fogs off but didn't remember how many "clicks" to the left "A" was. Its hard to tell because the daylight running lamps are the headlights anyways. I think the new E class has seperate button's for the fogs so hopefully you won't need to still turn the knob around
Old 06-28-2010, 10:16 PM
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hey, you can see all the lamp indicators in the instrument cluster while turning the knob.
Old 06-29-2010, 03:38 PM
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that's a good point man ^
Old 06-30-2010, 01:30 PM
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Originally Posted by 3Stars
Does your GLK's Headlight control switch light up at night? My turning knot lit up at night. But the lighting selection markings doesn't. Couldn't see the lighting selection at night.
And in the GLK, the lighting is not that simple on and off function, but also, Left Parking,Right Parking, Auto, Corner, Low beam, Fog front, Fog Rear ect.
Bad design?
It's not hard for longtime Mercedes owners, as this is the way the switch has been since the 1970s if not longer.
Old 07-25-2010, 05:00 AM
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E320 CDi 2k SLK230 Designo 04 SLK 320 Final Edition 2010 GLK350 06 VW Beetle TDi 2012 Plug In Prius
When I replaced my light switch on my W203 with a European version the whole thing was lighted. I took both switches apart to see what was different and found the USA version had the same circuit board inside as the European switch but the LED's used for lighting the outer ring and other switch functions like mirror folding were missing along with the load resistors.
One interesting point to I also found is that the headlight switch on a Benz like other German cars is just a digital encoder. It sends a digital signal to the vehicle control bus to switch the power for the lights. There is no high current switching going on in the user switches anymore. This reduces the need for running a wire for every function to each control panel and also eliminates the need for larger and less flexible high current wires running all over the car body.
Old 07-25-2010, 01:29 PM
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S600,GLK350,528i,G35,X3,C320,330i
That's a very knowledgable answer. EE related background? Wonder if it's possible to replace the GLK headlight control like you did with your W203? Any pictures on US vs Euro switches circuit board?


Originally Posted by n5160u
When I replaced my light switch on my W203 with a European version the whole thing was lighted. I took both switches apart to see what was different and found the USA version had the same circuit board inside as the European switch but the LED's used for lighting the outer ring and other switch functions like mirror folding were missing along with the load resistors.
One interesting point to I also found is that the headlight switch on a Benz like other German cars is just a digital encoder. It sends a digital signal to the vehicle control bus to switch the power for the lights. There is no high current switching going on in the user switches anymore. This reduces the need for running a wire for every function to each control panel and also eliminates the need for larger and less flexible high current wires running all over the car body.

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