Mercedes Vito reversing light switch

I'm no expert and most likely wrong but chucking out a guess ... possibly on top or somewhere on the gearbox ?

not off hand, no, almost invariably it will be on the gearbox, a very few vehicles have the switch on the linkage. but a failed switch is rare on any vehicle, so if the lights don't come on, then a check with a meter at the bulb holder and wiring would come before looking at the switch.

Hello there.

I have a new shape Mercedes Vito 115 (56 reg) and have had a problem with the reverse lights not coming on. I found that if I moved the gear stick around whilst in reverse gear I could sometimes make the lights come on.

I managed to locate the switch which is actually located inside the vehicle behind the panel which covers the gear stick. To get at it, you have to remove the very bottom middle panel (2 torx screws on either side) and then the actual panel around the gear stick (There are two screws under the gearstick gator (The gator should just clip off), 1 inside the tray which can be pulled out, and a couple become visible after you have removed the bottom panel).

With all the screws removed, the whole panel should unclip and can be lifted off over the gearstick.

Once the panel was removed, I found the switch on the driver=92s side (mine is a right hand drive) just under and to the right of the gear stick. It was held in with two silver torx screws.

With the panel removed I could see that when the reverse gear is selected, a plastic ledge is raised on the gearstick and this presses on a silver lever which in turn activates the reverse switch. It was clear that the plastic ledge wasn=92t pressing on the silver lever enough to activate the switch. I removed the switch by removing both torx screws and confirmed that the switch was actually working fine by pressing it in and out and watching the reverse lights go on and off. I glued a small piece of plastic on to the metal lever; just enough to make sure the plastic ledge made the silver level activate the switch.

Everything now works perfectly and I hope that this helps someone save a bit of cash. After all, the Mercedes dealer quoted me =A3120 to fix this and I managed to do it myself in an hour and that was with all the experimenting etc.

Lee.

Good work Lee. Though I had the different problem.. but your guide is good for people to locate the Reversing sensor location.

Cheers, HJ

Thanks very helpful I did same and it works