When I turn the Headlights on in the 1981 240D it takes about a second or two before the headlights go on.

Did I just not notice this or is something failing? I don't want to sit back and wait for them not to work when my Teenager is trying to drive home at night.

Thanks

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

Are they plain, old school lights? If so they should come on instantly so I would investigate. The newer style takes a moment to charge or whatever it is they do.

-Rog

My 1982 300TD does the same thing. A 2 -4 second delay before the headlights come on. I have had this situation for about 2 years. The lights have never failed to come on.

They are old school, original lights.

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

Just regular old U.S. Spec headlights.

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

My 1979 300D did the same thing, and then began getting progressively longer and longer. It was caused by a bad headlight switch.

The contacts inside get oxidized over time and when turned on the resistance caused by it is very high until it burns through and makes a good connection. At least that's how it was explained to me.

I replaced the switch with one from the wreckers and never had the issue again.

Sounds logical.

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

It was the switch, fresh switch installed for 100 bucks.

It took 2 1/2 minutes for the headlights to come on the other day, I had to fix it.

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

I knew that didn't sound right. Thanks for posting the fix, I'll add that to my bag of knowledge.

-Rog

its the grease in them thats old and sticky... I just live with it I noticed it is worse when cold. If there was a way to squirt some WD40 in there it might be effective

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

With headlights, you want something that you know will always work. Mine got to the point where it's was like 5 minutes before they would come on.....

A few seconds is one thing, but 2 1/2 minutes? My 16-year-old daughter drives this car, it needs to work. Myself, I would have lived with it.

I'm sure I could have fixed it myself, but I just don't have time.

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1981 240D Four on the floor, Orient Red over Parchment, bought with 154,000 but it's a daily driver and up to 180,000 miles, mostly original paint and all original interior.

That is something you don't want to mess around with. High current dc plus high resistance = fire. Especially in a 123/124/126 where the feed is straight from the battery with no fuse. It's not like your house lights fed from 120 V ac that hums and has enough voltage to make serious arcing noise. DC does not hum on overcurrent, it just gets hot silently, and 12 V dc not high enough voltage to make arc sounds loud enough to hear over road noises.

If I turned my light switch and I did not get instant light I would be all over that in a hot New York minute.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

A fuse won't protect against a hot connection. Because the connection is poor, the impedance in the circuit is LOWER than it would be with a good connection, therefore the current draw is also LOWER than normal. The heat comes from the resistance of the connection itself. Once it gets hot enough, it "burns through". Do that enough times and it just burns.

If I had a delay in my headlight switch, that switch would be popped out for inspection the second I got home...

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)