Rear brake light bulbs issue

nitsuae90 · 05-13-2019, 11:28 PM

Hi there,

I am hoping someone had encountered this situation before me so I can get some guidance.

I have a 2011 328i sedan and recently my brake light bulb (the larger ones) went out. I opened up the light compartment and pulled out the bulb and confirmed it was bad and needed replacement. I went to the local autocrats...O'Reilly and got a suitable replacement bulbs and reconnected the bulb back to the light compartment.
However, it did not work. I checked the wiring, the electronic plug to make sure it is good condition and everything seems fine. Anyway, i ran out of time that day and so today when i went home (did not drive the car since I did not want a bad rear light safety issue), my dad told me he was able to get it to work but when i tested it out, the rear signaling on both sides are not working (and the signaling sound/beat is going as a faster pace than normal) as well as the rear light indicator is not working on the right side. The only thing that seems to work is the braking light but everything else...idle light, signaling light are not working.

Is there something else i need to do than just replacing the bulb...like resetting the error message or something?
Help!

much appreciated.

BadContrakt · 05-15-2019, 11:55 AM

My E90 had the dashboard lit up and I mean lit up with errors regarding lights. Blinker, brake, tail, head, DRL, I mean it was like 9 things on my iDrive screen.

I bought new bulbs to no avail
I bought new bulb sockets in the rear to no avail
I checked all wiring from the trunk lid to the wiring harnesses - all looked great

I did solve it, however...

I had my coder code out the failure errors in iDrive. I heard somewhere that once the car recognizes there's a bad connection/bulb/ground/short/etc it will disable the power to that area to prevent problems until reset in iDrive. That was true! All bulbs worked again!

Until they failed again. Well I checked the connection where the bulb meets the socket and it was black and gross looking. I used the new socket I bought and boom! Haven't failed since. The wiring all looks really good as well.

TL : DR - The root of the problem was the metal tab that touches the bottom of the bulb inside the socket. The DME constantly pulses and monitors for faults which causes corrosion at the wires and sockets. Cleared light related errors in iDrive & disabled DME's ability to check for failing bulbs. Replaced tail lamp socket. All lights working now for weeks straight.

I copied my response from this thread that was just posted 5 days ago.

05-13-2019, 11:28 PM	#1
nitsuae90 Registered 1 Rep 3 Posts Drives: 2011 328i Join Date: Sep 2018 Location: Anaheim iTrader: (0)	Rear brake light bulbs issue Hi there, I am hoping someone had encountered this situation before me so I can get some guidance. I have a 2011 328i sedan and recently my brake light bulb (the larger ones) went out. I opened up the light compartment and pulled out the bulb and confirmed it was bad and needed replacement. I went to the local autocrats...O'Reilly and got a suitable replacement bulbs and reconnected the bulb back to the light compartment. However, it did not work. I checked the wiring, the electronic plug to make sure it is good condition and everything seems fine. Anyway, i ran out of time that day and so today when i went home (did not drive the car since I did not want a bad rear light safety issue), my dad told me he was able to get it to work but when i tested it out, the rear signaling on both sides are not working (and the signaling sound/beat is going as a faster pace than normal) as well as the rear light indicator is not working on the right side. The only thing that seems to work is the braking light but everything else...idle light, signaling light are not working. Is there something else i need to do than just replacing the bulb...like resetting the error message or something? Help! much appreciated.
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05-15-2019, 11:55 AM	#2
BadContrakt Private First Class 74 Rep 135 Posts Drives: 2008 E90 335XI Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Florida iTrader: (0)	My E90 had the dashboard lit up and I mean lit up with errors regarding lights. Blinker, brake, tail, head, DRL, I mean it was like 9 things on my iDrive screen. I bought new bulbs to no avail I bought new bulb sockets in the rear to no avail I checked all wiring from the trunk lid to the wiring harnesses - all looked great I did solve it, however... I had my coder code out the failure errors in iDrive. I heard somewhere that once the car recognizes there's a bad connection/bulb/ground/short/etc it will disable the power to that area to prevent problems until reset in iDrive. That was true! All bulbs worked again! Until they failed again. Well I checked the connection where the bulb meets the socket and it was black and gross looking. I used the new socket I bought and boom! Haven't failed since. The wiring all looks really good as well. TL : DR - The root of the problem was the metal tab that touches the bottom of the bulb inside the socket. The DME constantly pulses and monitors for faults which causes corrosion at the wires and sockets. Cleared light related errors in iDrive & disabled DME's ability to check for failing bulbs. Replaced tail lamp socket. All lights working now for weeks straight. I copied my response from this thread that was just posted 5 days ago.
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