"lamp defective" comes on when headlights turned on/off - ??
 

everytime I turn on the headlights, or when i turn them off and kill the engine/pull the key out, I get a "lamp defective" message. I can reset the message via the R button on the dash. I have checked all bulbs and they seem to work fine. I confirmed that I have H7 lowbeam bulbs.

What can be causing this? any solutions? thx

License plate light is often missed.

Len

both license plate lights are working

sidemarkers too....

will check those.. btw what bulbs do the sidemarkers take? what about city lights (between the H7 headlights)? thanks

OK, this has always been a bit of a problem with 210's in particular. Yes, common sense says "check all the bulbs" and that's been covered pretty well here. Just to add my 2 cents to that, a big problem is the small inner front lights ("running" lights as they are referred to), these are in the 2 small inner oval lights where the high beams are, which are very dim compaed to the actual headlight bulbs. The front side markers can cause this too, the amber lights on the side of the front bumper. Then of course the tail lights, license lights, etc. MB did have a kit of sorts that's supposed to help keep those front running lights lasting longer, but if they are both working, and everything else, you have some weird problem maybe with the failure monitor, or possibly you just have an incorrect wattage bulb somewhere, or a resistance on a bulb is incorrect, as though a bulb is "on the way" to blowing out. You haven't done something like swap in Xenon bulbs? Or higher wattage or something weird like that? Halogen tail light bulbs? LED's?
Gilly

let me know if the problem occurs with the light switch in position 1 or pos 1and 2. also please check all your tail-light and side markers for correct and uniform wattage ratings..be careful, i have seen similiar bulbs with the same rating but different manufacturers cause this problem. remember there are 2 tail marker bulbs per side -left side shares it with the fog lamp.

5w sidemarkers and 6w city lights

guys, i think i found the problem. the yellow sidemarkers on the front bumper do NOT work.

so I can just get some "5W" bulbs from autozone? will any kind work? also how do u take the amber lens out ? thanks

The procedure for removing the side marker lamps is in the owners manual.

In case you don't have the manual here's the procedure:

There's a small access panel inside the front fender, just behind the marker lamp. Open that, reach in and find a small plastic clip that must be pressed, and the lamp comes out of the fender (toward the outside).

In front of each tire in the mud guard, there is a "D" shaped hole you schtick your finger in to to reach a tab which retains the amber lense. Push that tab anf the whole assembly pops out. Yeah you can just get 2 similar bulbs at AZ, I forget the bulb number, they are those small "peanut bulbs" as I call them. I think maybe #198?? You'll see. Yeah those are your problem, it's not a real common thing for MB to have that style of front side marker, it was very unusual back in 96 when the 210 came out, so we had a few overlooks on those back "in the day" when trying to find the source of the warning, used to the side marker being next to the headlights, like on a 124 or 201 for example. DOH!
Gilly

thanks again guys. i went out to the car for a sec and i figured out how to take the assemblies out. i will stop by autozone tonight to pick up some bulbs. :)

bummer... i got the correct bulbs and installed them, but the lights still won't work. and i'm still getting the lamp defective warning message at lamp position #2.

so it's not the bulbs, so what else?? is there a fuse or something?? argh

IIRC they lamp monitor will stop sending power to a defective bulb. Install them, THEN turn the lights on. This is in case you had the lights on then tried to install the bulb.
Gilly

tried that.. still not working. argh!!! :mad: