Tail light, brake light or signal failure on the 2008 Mercedes Benz C300
8 fires 8 of the 70 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When tail light, brake light or signal failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Mercedes Benz C300 report tail light, brake light or signal failure at a median of 62,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 66 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 97,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 58,500 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
3% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 38,000 miles | 48,525 miles | 63,500 miles | 85,000 miles | 96,500 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 8 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $100–$900 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 57,500 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Both right and left rear tail lights malfunctioned. First, I noticed that one or the other of the right side turn signals failed to function because I heard a rapid clicking as I made a right turn into a parking lot. Once stopped, I noticed that the mercedes command system said to check the left rear tail and brake light bulbs. I saw no mention of the right turn signal. When I left the parking lot an hour later, there was no indication on the command system as to anything being wrong. At home, I removed the left printed circuit board and saw that the tail light/brake light bulbs were very dark and gave the appearance of having failed. On testing them with an ohmmeter, I discovered that they in fact had not failed. Even so I wanted to replace them, and on the 10th, which turns out to be 1 day after my 4 year warranty expired, I went by the dealership and the service rep gave me two replacement bulbs. I changed out the old bulbs and all appeared okay. However, the next time I drove the car long enough to get it thoroughly warmed up, I got indications from the command system that not only had a left brake light failed but also the…
Both right and left rear tail lights malfunctioned. First, I noticed that one or the other of the right side turn signals failed to function because I heard a rapid clicking as I made a right turn into a parking lot. Once stopped, I noticed that the mercedes command system said to check the left rear tail and brake light bulbs. I saw no mention of the right turn signal. When I left the parking lot an hour later, there was no indication on the command system as to anything being wrong. At home, I removed the left printed circuit board and saw that the tail light/brake light bulbs were very dark and gave the appearance of having failed. On testing them with an ohmmeter, I discovered that they in fact had not failed. Even so I wanted to replace them, and on the 10th, which turns out to be 1 day after my 4 year warranty expired, I went by the dealership and the service rep gave me two replacement bulbs. I changed out the old bulbs and all appeared okay. However, the next time I drove the car long enough to get it thoroughly warmed up, I got indications from the command system that not only had a left brake light failed but also the…
I received messages on my dash stating to check rear left turn signal and rear left tail/brake lamps. Upon pulling out the rear left (driver's side) tail light assembly, which holds all the bulbs, I noticed that the tail lights would flash when I jiggled the wires but not stay on. I pulled the harness plug from the socket on the assembly holding the bulbs and noticed a blackened burnt spot and melted plastic on the plug itself, and also a burnt spot inside the plug socket which almost burned through the other side of the tail light assembly unit. I have pictures of both the tail light assembly unit plug and socket showing the burned markings. This is a very concerning electrical safety hazard that could lead to a fire. This issue seems to be similar to 2 other incidents reported in the NHTSA database for the mercedes benz c300 2008 model year (incident #s 10475771 and 10466181). *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Mercedes Benz C300
Airbag inflator rupture
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Other lighting problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 70 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does tail light, brake light or signal failure happen on the 2008 Mercedes Benz C300?
Across 66 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 62,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is tail light, brake light or signal failure on the 2008 Mercedes Benz C300?
70 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.6 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed