CLS Dipped Beam

[LisleR]

The light output on dipped beam on my late model CLS is very poor. The light from the headlights of an approaching vehicle is enough to drown out my lights forcing me to slow to a crawl.

My local main dealer confirms the headlight alignment is correct. My previous E280T was perfectly satisfactory. I have no problems with night driving in other cars so the problem is not my eyesight.

Do other CLS owners have the same problem?

 

[Brian WH]

Basically No, my lights are perfectly bright.

Have you had Xenons before, as they are different to other lights, but certainly not worse, in fact they are " Brilliant".

 

[LisleR]

So is there something wrong with the lights on my CLS?

What should the light output be?

I have had vehicles with Xenon lights, but my W124 (E280T) didn't have Xenon lights and the dipped beam was more than satisfactory for night driving. Whereas the dipped beam on my CLS is appallingly bad.

 

[whitenemesis]

Did your dealer check to auto-leveling was set correctly? If a sensor fails / becomes disconnected the lights will default to the lowest setting i.e. shine on the road about 2' in front of you! Main beam remains unaffected

 

[APM]

my lights are good!

 

[LisleR]

Well I e-mailed Mercedes customer service and they asked me to visit my local dealer again to check the lights.

This time the tester refused to drive the vehicle because the lights were so poor. Although the bulbs are not covered under warranty they changed them without charge. Pleased to say I can now see where I am going when it's dark.

 

[mr. shr]

So what was wrong exactly?
Do bulbs lose their brightness?

 

[LisleR]

The car was first registered in March 2009, most of the miles driven were during daylight until recently.

With replacement bulbs from the main dealer dipped beam is perfectly satisfactory now. A test was carried out to make sure there was not an electrical fault causing the bulbs to burn out.

It seems the problem was faulty bulbs.

In answer to your second question bulbs do deteriorate with use and age as I've read on some posts discussing Xenon lights. In this case the bulbs were fitted to a vehicle under one year old it is unlikely that the fault was related to the age of the bulbs. Just one of those things I guess. Even more delighted with the vehicle now.

 

[Simon_M]

Very strange...the xenons are brilliant.

 

[Brian WH]

The car was first registered in March 2009, most of the miles driven were during daylight until recently.

With replacement bulbs from the main dealer dipped beam is perfectly satisfactory now. A test was carried out to make sure there was not an electrical fault causing the bulbs to burn out.

It seems the problem was faulty bulbs.

In answer to your second question bulbs do deteriorate with use and age as I've read on some posts discussing Xenon lights. In this case the bulbs were fitted to a vehicle under one year old it is unlikely that the fault was related to the age of the bulbs. Just one of those things I guess. Even more delighted with the vehicle now.

Sorry I thought Xenons were a sealed unit, NOT BULBS???

They may have changed the ballast unit.

 

[whitenemesis]

Sorry I thought Xenons were a sealed unit, NOT BULBS???

They may have changed the ballast unit.

Not sealed, they have bulbs (emitters) at around £90 from the dealers!