My driver side brake light was out, I looked at the bulb which was fine, switched the passenger side with drivers side, didn't work...monkeyed arond with it, took the directional bulb out, put the brake bulb back in, it worked, but the directional bulb doesn't work, giggled the brake light bulb, the directional works but the brake doesn't htis is a huge mystery...anyone have an idea what is going on here?

Common problem. Every couple of years I need to find the "sweet spot" to make the bulb work. A search will yield some fixes others have used like building up the contact area, etc. For me it's just easy enough to play with the bulb a bit until it finds the spot it likes.

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Len
'59 220S Cabriolet-SOLD and living happily in Malta
'83 240D 351,500 miles original owner-SOLD
'88 560SL 41,000 miles - totaled and parted out
https://sites.google.com/site/mercedesstuff/home
'99 E300 turbo 227,500 miles
'03 SLK320 40,000 miles - gave to my daughter
'14 Smart electric coupe 28,500 miles
'14 Smart electric cabriolet 28,500 miles
'15 Smart electric coupe 28,000 miles

Haru, inspect the base of the bulb. Sometimes they develop flat spots ... like someone used a file on the base. Replacing the bulb should resolve the problem.

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Fred Hoelzle

I replace lots of taillamp lenses due to problems like this. If you remove the bulb and look closely at the contact area between the bulb socket and lens, you'll probably find that it's melted, causing a distortion of the contact surface.

I took a Weller soldering iron and built up the contact area with solder. I don't believe that the new lens assemblies have been improved to prevent this from happening again.

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Ray
1998 Mercedes E320, 200K Miles
2001 Acura 3.2TL, 178K Miles
1992 Chevy Astro, 205K Miles