Take a look at this little beauty! It’s from the rear of a 2005 Mercedes E220 Limousine on which the driver said he had an indicator bulb out. We foolishly said we’d change the bulb for him, and so began the saga!

As you know, I often like to talk about the ridiculous price of some car spares and this week, it’s the turn of Mercedes Benz and their E Class rear light bulbs. In the good old days, if you had a rear indicator not working, you’d simply change the bulb. This would normally be a straightforward job of unclipping the bulb holder from inside the boot and popping-in a new bulb. With a bulb costing maybe 50p and the job taking usually less than 5 minutes, we’d rarely give it a second thought. Not so on this Mercedes! Once we’d removed all the plastic trim from inside the boot and taken off the bolts securing the entire rear light unit, we were able to remove the part you can see above to get to the bulb. Except that when we tried to remove the blown bulb, it wouldn’t come out. Also, the bulb was a tiny little thing, the likes of which I’ve never seen before.  Also, the bulb wouldn’t come out as it’s soldered into the little panel. A quick call to out friendly local Mercedes dealer soon solved the mystery. It seems that you can’t actually buy a replacement bulb, but instead have to buy the complete unit for £27.00. That means throwing away the 5 other bulbs that work perfectly, just to replace the one dead one! In an age where we’re all supposed to be more environmentally conscious, and recycling is heavily promoted, it seems amazing that such waste should happen!

Anyway, I must go now as I’ve just noticed that one of the halogen downlighters in my kitchen is blown. Looks like I’d better replace the entire ceiling !

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