S211 Tail light replacement

The Mercedes-Benz E Class wagon is not particularly common.  It would appear that most buyers opted for the ML/GLE model.   Their loss as I believe the S211 is the far better car, unless you want to tow.    This makes spare parts a bit more tricky, when those parts are not shared with the sedan.   In this case, the tail light lens was broken and needed replacement.   Even a used unit was hundreds of dollars.   Dealer parts here in Australia from Mercedes-Benz are eye wateringly expensive.    Luckily the part is the same on US cars, and i was able to source a brand new S211 tail light from the USA at a much more reasonable cost.

Changing the S211 tail light is a doddle.   The compartment for the first aid kit is opened up and the four nuts that hold it in are exposed.   All that is required is a socket set with an extension.   Due to the cracks, it smelt like water had been getting into through the assembly.   Certainly, the tail light itself was full of water.    As there are a lot of electrics in this area, it is good to get it changed out.

Unlike the cars I am more used to, the S211 tail light is an entire assembly that is changed.   There is not a separate lens, bulbs, gasket etc like the older cars.    There is no outer gasket either.  The S211 tail light I removed from the car was dated 2010, so the car was obviously in a minor accident at some point.   I couldn’t see evidence of any major crash damage though.

The overall time to change the unit out was about 10 minutes,  an easy job for anyone to do at home.    It is important to check the right part number.  The later cars like mine have an updated look so require a different tail light than the earlier ones.   The electronic parts catalogue helps with this.