My mechanic gained access to the third stoplight in order to replace a burned out bulb. However, once he opened the housing, he told me that mine did not contain bulbs, instead it used LED's, and that the entire unit needed replacing. Without having to go to the dealer, where is a good source for a replacement LED panel. I have searched the Internet and found nothing. My car is a 97 SL500. Any help would be appreciated.

What does it look like? Depending on what it costs it may be cheaper to build one than to buy one. Do you have picture of it? Some LED boards are very simple, but then others...

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick

I only saw it as the technician for a fleeting moment as the technician and I looked at it. Once he realized it was an LED board, he snapped it back into place between the inner and outer trunk sheet metal. Basically it is a circuit board approximately 8 inches long with two rows of clear LED's. I assume the LED's on one end are burned out or else that end of the circuit board is bad. The tech said the board needs to be replaced as a unit as the LEDs are directly connected to the board as opposed to being in a socket allowing replacement. Anyone else experience this problem? I will check on the price tomorrow at the dealer naybe it will be less than I think.

If a new one ends up being expensive, you can find everything you need to make a new board at radio shack - even the new board. If you get really lucky and the board is still good (you could verify by testing it once you've desoldered and removed all the old LED's) all you would have to do is replace the LED's in the same board. Good luck.

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1982 Mercedes-Benz 300CD
1982 Mercedes-Benz 240D - stick