HOWTO - W211 LED Brake Light Replacement

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Alps

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London\Essex
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E63s s213 2019, E55 2004 Silver-SOLD, E63 w212 Weistec AMG-SOLD, E55 2004-SOLD, C36 1997-SOLD
After seeing the pics from the Goodwood trackday, i realised that my 3rd brakelight had a few LED that were not working, I could have sourced the LEDs and had them soldered back on, but i opted to replace the rear brake light with the updated version, i bought the light a month or so back and finally found some time this morning to put it in.

As you can see the two left hand LEDs are not working
IMG_0417.jpg


I bought the light unit from the local Dealers which came to about £65 inc vat and discounts, part number A2118201456. For that price really not worth messing around with soldering irons for. there was a clear one on Ebay which i was tempted with but i went OEM.

Pic of the facelift light unit

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Firstly, open the bootlid and take the end off, this is attached using x6 T20 torq screws
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Once screws are out the panel will clip off, If you have assisted boot closure you will need to unclip the white plug for the buttons
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then remove the warning triangle and uncrew the T20 screw holding the holder, the holder removes by pressing the middle clip and sliding it out of its notches.
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then remove all the plugs tha hold the lining on, a small flathead should be good enough to pry the center bit out and the whole plug can be pryed out once the center pin is out, the pic below will show what i mean
IMG_0423.jpg


remove all 8,
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The boot lining will then come off, remove the small plug for the light and put the cover to one side
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There are 2 more of these plugs on the side of the hinge covers, remove these as per pic
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and then unclip the 2 clips holding the covers on, they should then slide off.
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Pic of the stripped bootlid
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Now you can see the light, pull outwards the two cblack levers which will release the LED inner panel
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then unplug the connector to the LED panel
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then the Inner LED panel will come out, mine had water ingress which corroded the board a bit and shorted the two LEDS
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Now carefully push out the red lens of the light from the inside, its clipped on around the perimeter
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both old and new lights
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After giving the area a good clean I used t-cut and Super resin polish, peel the sticky backing off the foam on the new light and fix into place
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Put everything together in reverse order.

finished result
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This completes the updated look on the rear of the car
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Hope this comes usefull to others
 

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