I am from Canada and have an ML500. I don't know if I have a problem or not, but here is the situation:

If I switch on high beams, my Zenon lights happily switch up. However, my inside high beams remain off. MB told me that this is normal and that the inside high beams will only come on if the Zenon lights fail. Seems odd. I was wondering if this is related to Canada's daytime running lights configuration, or if this was the case in all ML's with Zenon's.

I did an interesting test, where I switched the ignition on (did not star the car - so the Zenon's remain off) and I flashed the high beams, and YES - the inside beams came on. With the high beam switch on, I started the car and sure enough - the inside lights switched off, and the Zenon's switch on.

If you live in Canada, the Zenon's are the day time running lights, and given that, the inside high beams will never be used. Strange, but true. Can anyone confirm?

PS: If you are wondering why I would want the inside lights to be on as well as the Zenon's; I have bad night vision, and the more light on dark back roads, the less chance I have of killing a skunk.

 

That is correct, North American ML's do not use the inside high beams, only EURO spec ML's do. In the north american ML's it is just used as flash to pass, like you said it lights up when u flash them. Member Drew_ML has made his ML use the inside high beams along with the xenon high beams, PM him and he will probably send you the article he wrote.

 

The inside high beams are used for flashing only...my tech said that the zenons get fried if used for flashing...so they use two sets...the zenons for constant high beam...the inside for HB flash.