Exterior lamp failure

[qha000]

Hi all,
The failure indicator lamp in the cluster on my 97 S600 lights up even after I changed all the rear bulbs to the specs. I have narrowed it down to the brake lights causing the failure and was wondering if there is anything else invoved other than the bulb. Thanks.

[J. M. van Swaay]

Sometimes the lamp indicator will come on even if the all bulbs are working. The bulb fault light electronics are very sensitive and replacement bulbs from Mcparts stores (Autozone, Walmart.....) can have enough of a current draw difference to cause the car to think it has a bad bulb. Try to find an exact replacement bulb and not an equivalent.

I had this happen on the brake light on my E320. Installing an exact replacement solved the problem.

J. M. van Swaay

[qha000]

Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a shot to see if that takes care of the problem.

[qha000]

I ended up buying bulbs from the dealer ($8/piece) and still the same problem. Is there anything else involved that causes the failure indicator to turn on other than the bulbs? Thanks.

[raymond~]

walk around and inventory all exterior lighting: headlamp, parking lamp, city
light, bumper corner lens, 3rd brake light, license plate bulb....usually covers
the walk around. oh, also, the brake light bulb may have twin elements so
park in front of large window and step on brake and view reflection....and
operation of brake light.

[lesrrt]

Ditto on that Raymond. I had a license plate light out. Also, the 3rd brake light gets intermittant when the heat gets to it.

[qha000]

Well, I've narrowed it down and I know for sure the problem is in the brake lights. When I remove the lights and put them back in the sockets the failure light in the cluster head goes out. Then I start turning the lights on one at a time and everything is OK until when I hit the brakes at which time the light in the dash goes off. It's getting really annoying, any thoughts? Thanks.

[raymond~]

dont know of your design but try this....

presuming that your brake light bulb rides within a plastic holder...which displays
little metal wings....which contacts the metal plate in the tail light assembly/
housing.....

bend the winglets so that they make better contact when you screw it back on.

Then I start turning the lights on one at a time and everything is OK until when I hit the brakes at which time the light in the dash goes off.

you meant to type "....at which time the light in the dash goes ON", right?

[qha000]

Thanks Raymon, I'll try that tonight. And yes, I mis-typed.

[mpolli]

Have you verified that all the brake lights are lighting up?

Mike