BKaradakov

Hey, guys!

My father is currently waiting his ML to be delivered any time soon and I want to change all the bulbs in the interior to LEDs. I want to do this as soon as the car is here and that's why I want to buy the bulbs earlier.

Could some of you please tell me how many bulbs should I buy because I haven't seen any 2012 ML in detail and don't know how many bulbs would I need or what type exactly...

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you very much for your time

GMW

I believe the some if not all the interior lights in the new ML are already LED. It's best you visit a dealer and check for your self.

27T

Yeah, the interior lights are BRIGHT from factory.

300DTurbo

The rear lamps are incandescent or halogen and get HOT the front are LED.

Let me know. 6 sets of lights in the back alone!

8 foot well lights...

BKaradakov

This is exactly what I thought at first, but then I saw all these ads in sites like cars.com and the lights there appeared to be incandescent... that's why I wanted to ask, just to make sure

Thanks!

So, you mean that I will need to swap just the lights in the rear and the footlights, right?

Do you know if they are festoon or some other kind?

BKaradakov

After searching here and there, this is what I managed to find:





It looks like neither the front, nor the rear lights are LEDs, but they seem to be incandescent... Can somebody confirm that?

katiesdad7

Just make sure that they dim. I think they went with regular bulbs because it softens up the lighting. I like the lights that come with the car. However, I do wish they rear brake lights were LED's.

nosnoop

+1

It seems they went a step backwards after the last model used all LEDs after the facelift.

BKaradakov

I have already ordered and received the LED bulbs for the rear brake lights and the reverse lights, as well but I didn't know and still don't know what to do with the interior... I guess, I'll have to wait until it comes... and btw it's an AMG

dougiebear

I'm pretty sure I have as is stated in some manual or guide that if you have the bixenons you have LED tail lights. AMG will have them :o)

BKaradakov

You DO have LED tail lights and I think they DO come as standard on AMGs (or at least with the lighting package)... but they still do NOT have LED brake lights. When you press the brake, it is incandescent bulb and if you check your manual again, you will see that I am right.

But yet to back my words up, I am going to put a visual proof:

dougiebear

Looks like yellow brake lights.
Cool look but is that not what everyone is saying should be the signal lights?????
Not RED blinkers
I have to check the tail n brake housings as I see white LED backup lights
My manual only speaks of standard base light systems

PS no pick needed I believe what you say but it looks cool

nosnoop

That's caused by overexposure at the digital camera image sensor resulting in orange color shift. It is very common in car photos; you see the same type of color shift from reflected light from red reflectors in flash pictures.

BKaradakov

+1

I am going to dig this up a little further... But I will speak more with images this time as it is easier to understand what I mean, and also pics of beautiful car doesn't hurt, right?

Here it is with the brakes only (basically the farther you are from the car the more red the lights will look - on cameras):





The main issue about the lights looking yellowish is because the bulbs are incandescent, which means they light up white and the red lens on the taillights passes only the red wavelengths... (Maybe the cameras can see this better than the human eye and it looks yellowish in pics but I'm not sure about this)

As you can see here it's with both the turn signal on and brake pressed:



The angle of the car is pretty weird but if you look closely you will see for yourself.

Here is better one:



Here it is only with the turn signal:



And last... here you can see the two incandescent bulbs in the taillights - the reverse lights and the brake lights:

xxGenericSNxx

WTF even the ML63 doesn't have LED brake lights? Even the previous gen ML with lighting package has it.

BKaradakov

+12304029312223

I didn't like it much, either. I thought that it has something to do with the fiber optics but then again it can be done even though as well. BMWs, for example they do also have fiber optics in the taillights but the brake lights are LEDs there and they look hundred times better.

Thimee

An interesting thread on LED tail lights for the previous generation ML: https://mbworld.org/forums/m-class-w...il-lights.html

Perhaps in a year or two we might be able to retrofit them?

xxGenericSNxx

Retrofitting is usually not the issue. The issue is if it's made OEM. But along the same vein, hopefully MB will come to their senses and create an OEM LED tail light in a few years (is that what you were implying?)