W124 Interior lights: air vent and back lighting

[ShivaYash]

Good morning

Two bulbs have been replaced in my car, the right hand side air vent indicator light and the headlight back light. Both tiny bulbs but they now seem considerably brighter than others. Could this be due to the wrong wattage of bulb being fitted? If so, could a warmer bulb damage the plastics?

I presume such small bulbs only come in a limited variety of wattages.

Many thanks.

 

[hotrodder]

Could this be due to the wrong wattage of bulb being fitted? If so, could a warmer bulb damage the plastics?

Yep and maybe, dunno about actually damaging plastics but "i've changed the bulbs and my switches get hot" is certainly not uncommon. It could also just be a new versus old thing if there's not much in it/they don't get warm

I presume such small bulbs only come in a limited variety of wattages.

That'd be far too sensible... IIRC the origionals had frosted glass to diffuse the light and are no longer available. Can't remember what the wattage was but the ones you want are 0.4 or 0.5W and not that common from generic bulb sources. Type N000000001061 into the search engine of your choice and you should get a few alternative sources other than MB, places like Euromerc Mercedes Parts should be almost 1/2 the price of the local dealer (£1.30 ish/ea) which makes a difference if replacing all of them 'cause you know that taking the centre console apart to replace one blown bulb will result in irritation when one of its neighbours pops a few days later