Funny lights on a 87 190D 2.5 NA w/ Euro lights up front, if that makes a difference.

Just replaced all rear bulbs.
Headlights, OK
Driving lights OK
Corner lights OK.

Hazard- Rear OK. RF OK, LF light is on constant, no blinks.

Blinkers- rapid always, rear turn indicators OK.
Tail lights, OK

Brake lights- OK when headlights are off.
When headlights are ON, left brake light goes out when I step on the brakes.

Any ideas? Needed for inspection.

__________________
CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

Bad ground for Left rear brake light would be my guess. It may be corrosion in the socket itself.

__________________
Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

OK, so the ground is more or less saturated by the additional lighting that is switched on with the headlights?

Each rear light group is a common ground plate with sockets punched into it. The hot contact for each bulb has it's own lead. There are no multifilament (2 hot leads) sockets in it.

In this case I would expect to see 12v at the hot lead for the left brake light bulb both with headlights on and off.

Scraping and checking leads and contacts would be the expected remedy.


The tail and corner light sockets are marked as 6W(atts), the brake and blinker sockets are marked as 10 W(atts).

One test might be to replace the big bulbs with the little ones, see if it normalizes.

Thanks Sam, a few things to tinker with.

__________________
CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

How did the car get to this state? Was it OK before, and then one day it started doing this, or did you start working on the car with this problem? Usually wiring issues like this are self-inflicted, or as already mentioned due to corrosion. Sometimes they are the result of a flaky switch.

If you don't know the history of the car, and the Euro lights are a modification by some PO, then I'd start with that wiring (at the front lights). If a trailer hitch is installed and a trailer wiring harness added, I've seen a lot of issued caused by poor work there.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC