Re: <E36> "brake light circuit failure."

[Luis Marques <marques@xxxxxx>]

This usually means that one of the brake light bulbs is not working. 
Usually fixed by replacing the blown bulb.  Now, a lot of E36s with
perfectly working brake lights have been getting this message. 
Apparently on some of them the "brake light sensor" has gone bad and the
dealer has replaced them under warranty.  On my case, I was getting an
intermittent warning once or twice a week.  I mentioned it to the dealer
when I had an oil change and they "replaced brake light bulb" under
warranty.  It's anybody's guess whether they actually changed it, or the
"sensor", or just wiggled the contacts.  As I understand it, the
"sensor" looks for a certain current draw.  So after market bulbs could
cause a false warning to show up in the OBC display.

Luis Marques
'97 328i


"Chris E. Geiselman" <CGeiselman@domain.elided> wrote:
>
> Twice today the OBC in my '94 325i has warned me of "brake light
> circuit failure."  Owners Manual is about as clear as mud on this
> message. Is this simply an intermitent  failure of the brake light
> or is it a more serious failure of one of the brake circuits?
> 
> In general, the brake lights seem to be working...and stopping
> distances seem normal...any ideas?
> 
> Chris Geiselman

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