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2008 Mercedes benz C350 Exterior Lighting Problems, Complaints and Defects

Issue ID	1031640
Internal NHTSA #	10558572
Manufacurer	Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC.
Brand	MERCEDES BENZ
Model	C350
Model Year	2008
File date	05/01/14
Component	EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Product type code	VEHICLE
Description of the problem	After parking my c350 i noticed smoke coming from the trunk on the passenger side. I opened the trunk to discover the source of the smoke was the trunk fuse box panel. I removed the panel and found that the taillight assembly was smoking. Following the removal directions in the owner's manual, i removed the multi-pin connector and noticed that the housing around the brown conductor was completely melted and corroded. There was a distinct smell of burning plastic. I then drove home with the passenger tail light assembly disconnected for fear of further damage or an electrical fire. Luckily i was not pulled over nor did i cause an accident due to inactive brake/reverse lights. Once home, i determined that the burned and corroded conductor must be the ground connection. I believe that the ground cable in the tail light harness is not of heavy enough gauge to handle the current that passes through it under normal conditions. Here is the math: each bulb is 21w. If you are at a stoplight at night with your headlights on and you're turning right, there will be 5 bulbs active (per side). This is a total of 105w. At 12v, 105w translates to about 9a. The recommended wire gauge is 16-18 at this level of current. The brown wire in the tail light harness is an 18 gauge wire i believe. This wire is right at its limit for current handling. We know that in the real-world, current can easily exceed theoretical limits, so engineers often over-spec wire to be totally sure that a circuit will not fail. In this case, the mercedes-benz engineers did not over-spec the wire... They under-spec'd the wire, and it failed! I highly recommend a recall, since this is potentially a serious safety issue. A car could easily go up in flames due to this problem. Or an accident could happen due to brake/reverse/turning lights that have burned up and failed.
Vehicle Mileage at Failure	78579
Number of Occurences	1
Source of the issue	NHTSA WEB SITE
City and State	IRVINE , CA
VIN pattern	WDDGF56X88RXXXXXX
Was vehicle invloved in a crash?	N
Was vehicle involved in a fire?	N
Was incedent reported to police?	N
Was medical attention required?
Was part original equipment?
No. of injured persons	0
No. of fatalities	0
Date of purchase	07/08/26
Was original owner?	N
Anti-lock brakes	N
Cruise control	N
Number of cylinders	6
Drive train type
Transmission type
Vehicle speed	0
DoT tire identifier
Tire size
Location of tire code
Type of tire failure code
Was defective tire repaired?
Date of manufacture
Type of child seat code
Type of restraint
Dealer's name
Dealer's telephone number
Dealer's city
Dealer's state code
Dealer's ZIP code

What is Recall?
A recall is when a product is removed from the market or a correction is made to the product because it is either defective or potentially harmful.
What is Failure?
Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic engineering.
What is Defect?
Non-conformance of a car component with the specified requirements, or non-fulfillment of user expectations, including the safety aspects.

Last decoded VIN:

1FA6P8CF0H5230517 3C4NJCBB0LT162060 1HGCD5567TA097502 JMZGG14T241199922 SAL1A2AW0PA126808 VF3M4DGZUMS097071 WDDUG8GB1JA414831 5UXTS3C59K0Z06696 JN8AY3NY8T9102860 9BWZZZ231SP012132 KM8JT3ACXAU022499 CAT0246CTJAY08764

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2008 Mercedes benz C350 Exterior Lighting Problems, Complaints and Defects, Recalls and Failures

2008 Mercedes benz C350 Exterior Lighting Problems, Complaints and Defects

What is Recall?

What is Failure?

What is Defect?