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I know this thread is old, but I just tried the tinfoil over the bulb socket holder edges and it seems as my brake light out on dash is finally gone! I will keep an eye on it and see how it goes over a few days, but thank you to wannawagon!
glad it worked for you. Found after a couple of years you may need to redo it as I assume the foil eventually gets burnt out.
Originally Posted by Foreste1
I know this thread is old, but I just tried the tinfoil over the bulb socket holder edges and it seems as my brake light out on dash is finally gone! I will keep an eye on it and see how it goes over a few days, but thank you to wannawagon!
It was so easy,no problem doing again later. I saw another ML on the road and noticed their brake lights messed up as well, wanted to get next to them and tell them how to fix it!
I have had this a few times and have found if you carefully wrap the terminals of the globe holder (where they arc on the galvanised plate) with thick aluminium foil (pie tray) the aluminium being softer seems to make a better connection than the steel terminals of globe holders. Done this on two ML's that had intermittent errors and both now fixed - been 2 years or so.
I have not taken the lights out to do this - just the globe holder - so quite easy - just had the logic that the original had two hard surfaces (steel) mating and if one was softer it would make a better conection.
been concerned about removing the arced material from the galvanised steel so as to minimise corrosion
I had both brake lights out, and a noting messages. Replaced bulbs and no change. Did this foil trick, and everything works perfectly. No errors. Thank you soooo much for your post!
I had both brake lights out, and a noting messages. Replaced bulbs and no change. Did this foil trick, and everything works perfectly. No errors. Thank you soooo much for your post!
Ended up changing my brake light sockets to these on amazon. $12 each, work great and make great connection with the plate
I fixed the issue by removing all the parking lights and other rear lights, reverse, turning... I think there's 5 in all.
using my phone and video with light on I could see the corrosion spots...
I then removed the contacts from the black sockets... and rinsed them in alcohol and then rust remover. I then scoured them with a wire brush.
Using gloves and qtips... applied rust remover to the corrosion spots on the light assembly plates... then scraped the remaining corrosion off using a dentist pick... steel pick....
All cleaned and scoured.
Put the lights back in, don't attempt LED BTW. Unless you get the correct ones... canbus i think.... anyway...I didn't... they register a fault ... so using the conventional lights.
All is good.
I considered nickel plating the contacts but stopped short. Figured it'll be good for many years to come..
Note the photo below shows the green corrosion... scrape that clean, plus the contacts for the bulb and you should be all set... some of my bulbs also had corrosion... but still work!
. Here's another quick gif of cleaning the green corrosion off the plate.
Yeah I had to do the exact same thing to my 2007 ML350. They've been working fine since so I guess I'm going to have to do the same thing with this one.
Cheers for the reply, the nice write-up, and the photo.
I have this issue on my 2011 ML350. The bulb alert for left side bulb keeps coming on. Dumb me kept cleaning the lower bulb! which looked perfect. Having read and seen the pictures i will take out the upper bulb and look at that.
This is such a brilliant write and repair instructions, thanks to all the great information.
yeah, the upper bulb (brake light) was very loose. I just scratched up the contact areas with a thin screw driver. I bent the bulb holder tabs up a little to increase contact pressure. reseated the bulb. No more brake light alerts and all is working goodly.
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