Ever seen a third (high mount) brake light lens melt??

[95s420]

Coming home in extra heavy stop and go traffic last week I notice a slight burnt smell. I get home and notice that my third brake light lens on my 1995 S420 is melted. I guess the combination of prolonged braking and Texas heat may have caused it. I called MB parts and before I could telll them what had happened thay asked me if the lens melted. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Just curious......

[Kestas]

Yes, but not on my Benz. My mother's Mercury had a melted third brake light. She is also a two-foot driver and is known to rest her foot on the brake pedal.

[wjm]

Yes, My 94 E420 is slightly melted. Car spend some time down in Texas as well.

[pcmaher]

I saw the same thing on my 95 S600. It wasn't bad though, just a little droopiness in some spots. However, when I bought the car, I was puzzled by the size of the third stop lamp unit. It was so big it would have interfered with the power shade on the rear window. After investigating, it turns out it was not the original unit, but a poorly substitute from a different model Benz. It must have been installed by a hack, because portions of it were held together with a hot glue gun! I bought the correct unit from our dear freind Phil, and it was much smaller. It also fixed my clearance problem with the rear shade. Think of it, someone actually hacked this together to make it work, and had to disable the shade in the process! I don't understand some people. Just buy the right part, it would've been soooo much simpler.