chriswhv6

Hi all,

Just picked up my 2007 S350 a few days ago and just going through the process of working out how everything works LOL + replacing some parts were needed

Ive noticed in one of the tail lamps it seems somewhere its made a crack and water has been entering the lower part of the lens and ruined the LED part of the tail lamp.
Mercedes Benz Australia has the series I tail lamps for sale still but does not have the colour coded 2 piece strips that attach to the tail lamp.

My question is can i safely remove the colour coded strips from my original tail lamps and fit them onto the new lens or is that not possible?

Many thanks in advance.

konigstiger

Yes.

chriswhv6

Great to see it can be done!
Thank you for the pic also.

chriswhv6

Well my brand new replacement tail light arrived from eBay but that i tried my very best to remove the colour/chrome strips from the original lights i had no luck.
The adhesive seems to be so strong glued on together that which ever position I try to force them off i get the feeling any bit more..... something is going to break

konigstiger

Have you tried to carefully unclip color inserts from trim as depicted in photo above?

lkchris

FWIW, in 2006 I went on the MBCA Germany tour, and among other things we visited the W221 assembly line. The taillights were the last things installed, which if I recall correctly, included drilling the holes.

chriswhv6

Yep I tried first to unclip the coloured strips on their own with no result, then i tried to remove the chrome back strip instead (with the colour strips on still) but no luck.
Both to me seem to have adhesive sticky on them. One of the clips on the coloured strip i bent it back too much that i think its about to break now :/

Not sure what's the best approach to take now?? Perhaps I should try with a hair dryer and heat up the tail light to help the adhesive come off more easily??
Other few surprises i found is...the damaged light is not its original. Stamped August 2008 built date while my car is mid 2007 built. The foam gasket that sits around the light is torn in multiple places which i believe is the culprit that allowed the water to be entering into the lower part of the tail light in the first place and then lastly more than half of the LED circuit board and individual LED lights have deteriorated from the dirty water over the years.

So all I've got at the moment is a brand new tail light but with no chrome backing strips or coloured strip on plus id need a new LED circuit assembly.

Wow sounds like it was an amazing experience to be able to watch. Very cool!
Actually ive been searching on youtube for any clips of the W221 model assembly but ive had no luck in finding any. If anyone has a link to share id appraicfte it please