All

It appears that the rear tail light assembly has failed on the right side of my W210 97 E420. The Brake light does not light up even though the main tail light (which is the same bulb) does. I have replaced the bulb a number of times without any success. I think this may be an issue with the assembly itself. If so, is this a known issue? is there a fix?

Any advise would be appreciated.

__________________
With best regards

Al

alot of the time the assembly around where the bulb makes electrical contact melt, not allowing for a good connection, to fix it is best to replace the unit

Known problem. Bet if you wiggle the bulb with someone holding the brake pedal down, it will come on.

Len

This problem is caused by loss of contact between the terminals in the bulb receptacle and the lamp assembly. Look closely; you may see some discoloration at the contact area due to arcing.

To solve the problem you need to re-establish contact by locating these two terminals.

The terminal on the bulb receptacle is obvious but the one on the lamp housing is not. The lamp-housing terminal is a small metal strip (2-3mm wide) that is snapped into the housing. It is located on the outer edge of the bulb hole.

Solution: Get a flat head screwdriver or small putty knife. Carefully pry out the lamp terminal strip out of one snap hole closest to the bad bulb. The terminal will feel loose and can make contact easier. Clean the bulb receptacle contacts. Re-install the bulb and problem should be fixed.
You may apply epoxy glue to hold the strip in place.

BTW, make sure bulbs are the correct specification. Use only OE or Osram bulbs