yes.....no. facelifted tails will not fit perfectly into pre-facelifted models.
about 15-30 mins of light sanding of the rear of the light.

in other words, if you have tails with the 'oval' light design, you can replace
with the facelifted non-oval design, but you will need to sand the trunk lid
half of the light. see attachment

 

Thanks to -raymond for still more valuable information.

I vote for DIY STICKY inclusion...

Take care and enjoy the ride,
Greg

 

Thanks raymond- . Yes, gregs210, this is very useful information. I too vote for DIY STICKY

 

afterthought:

facelifted tails from E320 have clear upper lenses.

facelifted tails from E55 have smoked upper lens.

both (still) have the annoying MB bug of poor electrical connection problems,
though very solidly built surround. I was able to get E55 tails off Ebay for
$150 last year.

aftermarket tails may have resolved the electrical connection problem, but
they can be skimpily constructed. the LED aftermarkets seem to elicit
reports of premature bulb failure (heresay...from reading).

 

On my W210 1996 model, I bought from a salvage yard the face lift rear lights with the smoked upper part. The outer parts of the lights (larger) fit no problem and the wiring plug links up ok. For the inner smaller light, you need to trim the internal top corners a little to allow the light to sit flush againts its rubber seal. ITs not that tricky you just need to trim a little at a time. From the outside there is no evidence that you can see any alteration. You now have a NEW LOOKING W210!

 

:thumbsup: yup, that's pretty much it.

BE CAREFUL when shaving the plastic. it's somewhat thin back there
so if you are too aggressive and try to perform this too quickly, you could punch
through and your reflector will have a hole in it. periodically test the thickness
of the area every few seconds.....stop.....position the light into the trunk lid to
see if sufficient clearance has been achieved. if not, remove and shave off a
hair more. repeat.

 

...DONT worry about punching the reflector guys if you do as I mentioned you cannot see any sign of the cuttting from the front and the tiny corner of the reflector that your removing doesnt reflect much light anyway, Just tip out the shavings when you break through, I promise you its OK!

 

actually, it occurs to me that our differing experiences may stem from the fact
that they're based on slightly different variations. I can also assure you that,
depending on the specific fit, and where plastic relief is needed, people have
been a little too aggressive with the sanding tool. the fit isn't always in the
same place(s).

 

....i Thought I would show you some photos of the rear lights that I installed as I had some on my computer somewhere. However the only photos I have close up is where this bi#@tch smashed into the back of me at 40mph when I Was still which hit so hard it twisted the chasis and wrote the car off !. However you can at least see on the right hand side the un-smashed lights and that theres no sign of the reflector being cut from the outside !

You would not know looking at the first photo that my lovely car at the time was 12 years old now would you with those lights !

 

It took me a while, but this has been added to the lighting DIY post above. Thanks to all.

 

for a perfect result get armed with steel scissors or even angle grinder and adjust an opening for a foglight. Takes about 10 minutes each.

 

Hi, I have a 1996 model, and have changed to after face-lift version. After that I get a defective bulb warning everytime I start the engine. As far as I can see, there are no defective bulb. After checking a little, I found out that it is two parling light bulbs in the old tail light, and only one in the new. Is it any chance that this mising socket can make this errors? If so, do I have to connect both cables together to fix this? Thank you in advance, for replies.

 

no, that shouldn't be the cause. i beleive what you are seeing is the lack of
FOG light feature on both sides. here in the USA we drive on the right side
of the road. the socket which remains empty is on the RIGHT side of the car.
rear fog is activated on the side of the car nearest the opposing lane.

so the tail light on the opposite side *should* remain empty

more often than not, the offending part centers around the bulb which is the
lower, twin filament bulb nearest the trunk opening (not the ones on trunk lid).
seems to be the one which is more likely to suffer from poor contact with the
metalized circuit board which makes up the rear of the tail light lens.

 

Thanks for your answer. As far as I can see it is the "inner light" the parts mounted on the 5'th door that have the fog light. This is missing on my right side as well. What I am talking about, is the outer part. My old one had a 5w parking light in the bottom, so a combined 5W/21W park/brake-light, and the direction light at the top. The new have only the combined 5W/21W bulb, and direction light. I have automatic daylight driving light. Both head light + parking light in front are OK. All break light, direction light, reverse lights are OK in the back. I cannot get the fog light working, but I guess that this will not give a error signal, before the light switch are pulled out to activate it. Any suggestions?

 

thanks for the added info. now i'll have to look inside of my trunk and see if
i'm set up similarly to yours.

 

Hi, anyone that have experienced the same problem?

 

Hi Raymond, did you find out something about this? I will measure, and try to connect the two cables together.

 

Hey guys!

I have a quick question pertaining to this topic.

I have a 99 E320 and switched out to the 2000 clear/red tailights everything works perfect (no codes or anything) But, I was curious.....there are two bulbs on the outside lens. Should both bulbs light when applying the brake or just one?

I had to re-use the bulb sockets from the 99. But had to buy two (white) sockets for the outside. If the parking lights are on, they all light up but just the outside lights for the brake.

Do I need a double filament bulb socket or something or is it just the way it is?

Any help is appreciated? Thanks guys!

 

Hi
Actually forgot this issue for a while. My car got a damage, so it has been standing for some time now. Bodywork are finally finnish, and I have started to assambly the parts. I remember that this was the problem for me as well. I will check and measure some more tomorrow. Will see if I might have an answer then.

 

I bought a set of used face lifted tails off of ebay - it came off a a 01 e320, I've got the outer tails installed perfectly, however the inner tails (the ones on the trunk) do not sit flush, I've sanded it down pretty thin, but I just want to make sure, should I also grind/sand the opening of the trunk, where the lights sit?

Just want to make sure before I start doing it

 

no need to modify anything other than the plastic at the REAR outside of the
reflector. no metal modifications needed. proceed SLOWLY and CAREFULLY.
few swipes of the sandpaper and sample fit. again....again....until the taillight
sits in the trunk lid without wobbling. DO NOT sand through the reflector or
you will burst into tears and turn into a toad.

probably wouldn't hurt to have narrow weatherstripping to fit around the edges
and between plastic and metal

 

Haha thanks Raymond. I thought I had it sanded it down pretty thin but just needed to take a few more layers off, on one of the lights I accidentally went through the reflector, just a tiny portion, haven't turned into a toad yet

This is what it finally looks and it's a lot better than the old ones

 

Who knows the PART# for the "pink" bulb socket holder? I think mine has a broken section or its not making full contact. I keep having to fiddle with it by rotating partially to make contact. Want to buy a few extra spares to keep in the tool kit just in case - thanks!

 

Part # 210 826 00 82