Problem with front indicator lamp - W211

[mr. shr]

My Mum's 211 flagged up the bulb failure message for front right indicator lamp.

On wriggling the light fitting around in the socket, the bulb came on so it's a dodgy connection.

I pulled the lamp socket out, and sure enough, one of the contacts is all black and dirty.

So I replaced with a new lamp holder but now the bulb wont come on no matter how much wriggling I do.

I've ended up putting kitchen foil over the connector on the lamp fitting and then screwed it back into place.
Voila, the lamp works.

So it seems the electrical contact in the headlight unit is all corroded.

Anyone come across this?
Think I'm gonna need the whole headlamp unit out to clean the contacts properly, but is this easy enough? Car has xenons.

Thanks for any help.

 

[alibally]

There is a wiring mod kit for the indicator lamps. You can get them from your dealer. It comes with a modified bulb holder with wires attached to it that you connect into the headlamp wiring and an earth. It takes about 30 mins to do the both headlamps. The parts are not that expensive so I wouldn't bother trying to clean the connections.
The kit came out originally for W203 C classes but fits E and S classes as well.

 

[mr. shr]

Thanks for that.
I've been doing a bit of searching on the web and have found exactly as you say, there's a repair kit available.

How easy is it to do? Do I need to remove the headlamp itself?

 

[mr. shr]

Can't find any reference to it in WIS.
Anyone tell me where it would be?