I have the exact same problem...it's hereditary.

What I've done is quickly and repeatedly move the stalk back and forth until the high beams come on. They will.

My 95 E320 wagon does it all the time and I do not have "flash" when the lights are off. My 91 300TE never had that problem.

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I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)