Stop Lights

[Vangogh]

Hi All
Has anybody had the stop light contacts burning out? It seems a regular occurrence on my 98 SLK. I am on my second bulb holder in 6 months
Vangogh

 

[woodturner-fran]

I have a e200 and when I picked it up I noticed the rear right brake light wasn't working. After some investigation I discovered that the lens had actually melted a bit adn the bulb holder no longer made any contact with the contacts on the lens. .... poor contact nearly always means more heat. I took out the lens, melts the plastic (carefully) and pushed it out a bit to make good contact with the bulb holder. I cleaned both contacts and gave a spray with some switch cleaner. Brake light is working now.

I guess only time will tell...... a bit of preventative mayhelp with this issue

 

[turnipsock]

Maybes you are braking to hard.

 

[jberks]

Not burned out exactly, but I did find that the contacts had detriorated enough to bring the bulb warning light on. It still lit up, but not as brightly as it should. Hard to tell when you haven't got anything to compare with, but dramatic difference when fixed. Still, nothing that a little fettling and some wire wool didn't cure. Perhaps if the contacts are poor, thats what's heating up the holder? Failing that, you are using the correct wattage bulb? Is the bulb in the right way round - not sure how it would cope with the brake light on all the time. They shouldn't melt if all is well.

 

[Vangogh]

Thanks for ypur replays. bulb waTTagge OK, but i am feel ing burnt out, hic, toooooo many gt and teeeeeees. i dont care if the stop lights are working or not.
vangogh

 

[OlafMaxwell]

The bulb holders are a constant source of trouble. They either keep burning out or shorting and blowing bulbs. Overheating and melting lenses also happens...been there done that....You should replace it and also keep a spare, they are cheap.

 

[demolay]

e200T brake light issue

Hi
i have a 2000 e200 estate. I have an issue where both my brake lights have stopped working, (but the central bar light on the tailgate still lights when i brake). These are the combined tail/brakelights and yet the bulbs are intact and work fine as tail lights.
any clues?

 

[BlackC55]

Hi
i have a 2000 e200 estate. I have an issue where both my brake lights have stopped working, (but the central bar light on the tailgate still lights when i brake). These are the combined tail/brakelights and yet the bulbs are intact and work fine as tail lights.
any clues?

Bulb holder probably.

 

[star]

Check the contacts on the lamp, i expect their pitted as well or the plastic has melted allowing the metal to move.

 

[robint]

Over in the US there was a safety recall for all SLK models to get new rear lights fitted FOC. Pre-facelift models seem more prone to this problem.

Number of tweaks posted over on http://www.benzworld.org/forums/r170-slk-class/ and do a search or look in a couple of the 'stickies' at the top of the forum list.

European models do seem to have been less afflicted for some reason.