w210 Brake Bulbs

[pipers]

My W210 keeps blowing the brake light bulb (drivers side). Has anyone else had this issue? Any tips on what to look for?. All the connections seem fine.

[C240Sport97]

get the bulbs from MB .. don't use non MB ones, and see if that does the trick

[pipers]

i have tried the genuine mb bulbs but they blow almost immediatly.

Any other suggestions?

[zafarius]

Check the bulb board on the driver's side at the rear. Look for any problems there. I have has the same problem and solve it by fixing this board which has 2 pieces of metal touching when they should not have been.

[pipers]

Have checked the light fitting and all connections, it all looks ok. Still blowing bulbs. Its driving me nuts, any other ideas?

[Birdman]

Had the same problem with my pre-facelift W210. Five years on I have a 2001 facelift model and it's has 'only' happened twice in two years ownership, against three times a year previously.
I found replacing the bulb holder helped with the first car. Arcing was occuring around the pins so it may be connected with a faulty holder design.
I don't think DCX ever cured the problem in the W210 but upgrading the car seems to have helped!
- Birdman

[BenzComander]

On my W210 estate, the plastic around the hole the bulb holder goes into had distorted due to the heat the arcing of the contacts had generated.

Re-bent the contacts on the holder to ensure they were a really good fit and so far have not had any further problems.

[GregE240]

Pipers, I did have the same problem as you describe, but, as per BenzComander re-made all the connections within the bulb holder to ensure it held the bulb tightly and the connections were nice and strong. If this hadn't have worked, I'd have ordered new holders.

So far so good. As stated before, its a good idea to use pukka MB brake light bulbs, but it sounds like you're already doing that.

Good luck!
Greg

[pipers]

Thanks for all the replies.

I changed the bulbholders, no difference.
Then I changed the rear light cluster which solved the problem. The plastic had melted slightly in the original light cluster which was causing the bad connection.