Re: Brake light message

["Paul Frederick" <pfrederi@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

That was very helpful. As a matter of fact that's exactly what my problem 
was. I took a flashlight and looked in the socket and found a burnt section 
on the plastic part of the brake light assy where the metal strip is 
supposed to make contact with the bulb housing. This caused the contact to 
not line up properly with the contacts on the bulb housing. I pried the 
contacts out a little bit paying close attention not to break it (they are 
very easy to break if you bend it too much). Put the bulb in it's housing 
back in the brake light assy and it worked like a charm. Don't know if I'm 
going to have to replace the whole brake light assy in the future but this 
seems to be a good fix.

Does anyone know what causes the plastic to burn like that in that 
particular location? does the bulb (looks more like the metal conatcts that 
did it) get that hot to melt the plastic?

Once again thanks to all for their helpful advice, hope this helps anyone 
else who is having the same problem.

Paul
BMWCCA 186412


>From: Bertan Erdi <berdi@domain.elided>
>To: bmw@domain.elided
>Subject: Re: Brake light message
>Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 18:12:11 -0800
>
>Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 23:02:42 -0500
>From: Seeker <rfg@domain.elided>
>Subject: Re: Brake light message
>
> >>I have been experiencing a problem with my left break light on my E36
>M3(all
> >>other tail and brake lights are fine). The OBC would say that "1 brake
>light
> >>fail" message and in most cases the light would not be out. Eventually 
>the
> >>bulb did go out and i replaced it. Even after replacing the bulb, the
> >>message
> >>did not go away until after a couple of days. I have been having this
> >>problem
> >>on and off for sometime now.
>
>I don't know whether this works or is just a lot of bull, but I
>once saw someone respond to someone else on this list with a problem like
>yours, suggesting that he replace any non-BMW bulbs with bulbs bought from
>the BMW dealer.  Something about different resistance or impedance or
>whatever.  Cheap enough to give it a shot to see if it works, no?
>
>
>Answer:  I have/had the same problem in my E36 ('97 328ic) where the OBC
>would read "1 brake light fail"  After several bulb replacements, by the
>dealer on many occasions, the problem was still there.  Then I decided to
>look at the taillight assembly in daylight and noticed that the place where
>the bulb screws on to had "partially burned off" and hence was causing the
>OBC to trigger with a message.  I read about the area where the bulb snaps
>on being burned over time on some other message board.
>
>	In any event, this weekend I went to my local BMW dealer and told the
>service rep my problem and what I thought the reason for the problem.  He
>agreed that a part of the assembly was burned from the heat generated and
>offered two alternatives. 1) replacing the left corner taillight assembly 
>2)
>turning the bulb enough so that it has contact but not so much that it is
>not making contact.  I opted for fix #2 and said that I would drive this 
>way
>until the OBC message came on again.  I am sure that I have to replace the
>entire assembly some time in the near future.  It is quite disturbing that
>BMW has a bulletin out on this problem but won't recall the lights and will
>only replace them with cars having under 50K.  How generous of them!!
>
>I hope this was helpful.
>
>Bertan ERDI
>'97 328ic
>'92 535i
>--
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