Bulb out warning But all bulbs ok?!

[Edslk]

Hello all,

Just purchased a 1998 slk230 picked it up Sunday

So far Love it unfortunately it’s for my girlfriend not me lol

So being a bloke I have set about checking everything works (for her safety, not my playing with a new toy) and everything seems fine.

Only one small issue the light out warning lamp is on and I'm stumped because all the exterior lights are working fine. Providing there is supposed only one rear fog light.

Any Ideas?

Also only got one key with the car and aafter speaking to the last owner and the garage it seems that neither have it.

my concern is that some bright spark with a bit of knowledge and a dodgy set of morals could come along press the blipper and bugger of with the car.
Is there anything I can do with in reasonable expense to prevent this?

Ed

p.s. also fitted a Parrot Rhythm n' blue cd/handsfree bluetooth stereo and so far its superbe anyone looking for a great soultion to handsfree should get one so good I just ordered another for my old man £119.95 delivered free from fonejuice

 

[robs-mbz]

Check the number plate lights, also check all bulbs and connections for corrossion

 

[DougCLK320]

Also whether you've got an odd wattage bulb in one of the lamps

 

[brandwooddixon]

If your bulb connections look OK, try tweaking the connections on the bulb holders for the rear lights. It's quite common for the tracking plates in the rear lamps to warp slightly giving you intermittent contacts.

Similarly as stated a wrong wattage lamp or incorrect lamp (especially dual filament brake light) forced into bulb holder will give problems.

As for the key. Dealers are the only place to get new keys from and they are not cheap. It may still be worth you checking with them for peace of mind.

I think each vehicle has 6 allocated codes for the key fobs.

 

[Dec]

Did you check both break lights when someone has their foot on break pedal!

Dec

 

[bigasotonuk]

Hi,
I think the dealer can block all previous keys cut for the vehicle, I was under the impression that the car had up to 9 keys available before new electronics were needed, do not be tempted to buy a key off of e-bay as they cannot be re-programmed. As for your bulb failure warning light it is quite a common fault and anything that i would of suggested has already been.

 

[Parrot of Doom]

Mine has started doing this, on left hand bends only. Annoying, so I'm going to clean all the sockets and see what's what.

 

[MRL]

as above any merc dealer can disable the keys so the wont open on remote and wont start the car (the blade will still work to open maually but the imob chip will be wiped)

same as above for the lamps, 9 times out of 10 its the contact burning to the lamp units, if you catch it in time you can get away with new bulb holders for a fer £ from merc if not then its a new lamp unit

 

[JEZ.S320L]

as above any merc dealer can disable the keys so the wont open on remote and wont start the car (the blade will still work to open maually but the imob chip will be wiped)

And the charge is in the region of £45 for doing so....

 

[Pabco]

Hi

I have the same problem with the near side rear brake light, I have carried out the following and still no joy

Changed the bulb also swapped the off side bulb and bulb holder (which is working fine) and put it into the near side light cluster then put the near side bulb & holder into the off side cluster.

hay presto the the off side still worked but the near side was still not!!

can any one please advise as I do not want to go to the garage to get it fixed if its a simple job?

 

[Robbostanhill]

Hi

I have the same problem with the near side rear brake light, I have carried out the following and still no joy

Changed the bulb also swapped the off side bulb and bulb holder (which is working fine) and put it into the near side light cluster then put the near side bulb & holder into the off side cluster.

hay presto the the off side still worked but the near side was still not!!

can any one please advise as I do not want to go to the garage to get it fixed if its a simple job?

Check for both a feed & earth at the connections for the lamp holder in the clisters and then work to the plug and see if there's corrosion at the terminals

 

[Pabco]

Check for both a feed & earth at the connections for the lamp holder in the clisters and then work to the plug and see if there's corrosion at the terminals

Thanks for the info

Will I need to remove the cluster off the car to carry this out? if so how does one go about removing it for better access?

 

[racall]

Slk ,s are notorious for corrosion on the bulb holder.
Best to take the complete unit out for a look.
2 or 3 10 mm nuts and its out.

 

[Pabco]

Slk ,s are notorious for corrosion on the bulb holder.
Best to take the complete unit out for a look.
2 or 3 10 mm nuts and its out.

Many thanks for this I will look into this at the weekend, fingers crossed the fine weather stays with us

 

[smb]

my 2c worth

I recently had the same symptoms on a 94 c-class. Warning light came on but I ddi a complete walkaround check and all lights were burning.

It was only by coincidence that as I was driving after sunset, I came face to face with a shiny surface and noticed that my one headlight was dimmer than the other. Turns out that theheadlight on my LHS was busted.

Note: this means that when I switched on the lights in the daytime and had a look, the park lights made it look as though there was no problem, even though one of the headlights were in fact blown.... I couldnt even notice the difference!!!!

Maybe its the angle that the bulbs are mounted, or the fact that I checked in the day - but (embarassingly I say) that a simple headlight check can sometimes play tricks on your eyes.

 

[Pabco]

Slk ,s are notorious for corrosion on the bulb holder.
Best to take the complete unit out for a look.
2 or 3 10 mm nuts and its out.

Did what you said took the cluster off (dead easy to do) and disconnected the wiring connector, checked the whole unit for corrosion and could not see any, checked conductivity of the cluster with an old 12volt golf battery and a bulb connected with crocodile clips and still everything was still ok , even the bake light worked.

The only thing then left was the wiring, so gave the connector a good blast of WD40 and hey presto its working again (good old WD40)

Many thanks again for the advice it was most appreciated

Pabco

 

[moosehead]

I've just had the same problem with the offside brake light on the wife's SLK. Whilst the bulb holders are a great idea i.e. it effectively screws into a PCB, repeated braking results in arcing between the bulb holder contacts and the PCB. The PCB ends up pitted and no electrical connection. You can reslove this by unscrewing the bulb holder by a few degress so that it is making contact with an unpitted part of the PCB. Obviously the bulb holder is no longer 'locked' in the PCB.

Does anyone have a better solution for this? I've had both rear light units out in recent years and even cleaning the PCB and connections makes no difference.

 

[cliff61]

i had the same problem on my previous C220CDi, but found that even though all lights appeared to be working fine, I found that one of the rear lights had failed, but (very cleverly) the car was now using the brake lights (but dimmed to look normal brigtness). When I fitted a new bulb to the back light, off went the brake lights and the normal rear lights worked as they should.