Third Brake Light issues

[garberz]

The LED brake light strip on my coupe is having issues. The four LED's on the left side don't always light up. Sometimes they come on with half the intensity, sometimes they are all full intensity. Most of the time just the four are out. I've read where others have had similar issues, but haven't seen an answer. Is it the LED strip itself or something to do with the adaptive tail light feature?

Mark Davis

[chickdr]

Originally Posted by garberz

The LED brake light strip on my coupe is having issues. The four LED's on the left side don't always light up. Sometimes they come on with half the intensity, sometimes they are all full intensity. Most of the time just the four are out. I've read where others have had similar issues, but haven't seen an answer. Is it the LED strip itself or something to do with the adaptive tail light feature?

Mark Davis

I am sure the strip is just dying on you. Nothing to do with the adaptive braking(that is down in the main lights). You will have to buy a new LED and replace it(very easy to do but the light is a bit pricey).

http://eagleday.stores.yahoo.net/bmwz4liandle.html

[garberz]

Got it, thanks.

[trevor]

Depending on how the car is wired, one light could be screwing with all of them. Try replacing the bulbs and see if that resolves the issue. You can look at the bulbs and see which ones are good too, just get copper wire and a battery to test them (copper wire must be covered in rubber so you don't electrocute yourself..).

Tie one end of the wire to the metal bottom of the bulb, and then put the end of the bulb on the + side and touch the other end of the copper wire on the - side of the battery. Sample:

There are videos on youtube, this one uses two wires, but if you just do what I said above, you only need one -

The bulb will light up normally if it works fine. If not, replace the bulb. Now if they all work, check the wiring on the hub where you screw in the bulbs, the wires can wear out over time or maybe something came loose (disconnect car battery and turn car off before doing anything). You can usually push it back together and do an easy duct tape solution, but I recommend replacing the wiring for a long term solution because you don't want duct tape to melt over it, over the years.

You can replace the entire unit if needed, buy the parts online, pretty cheap..

[ried]

The LEDs in the third brake light are not removable / replaceable.

garberz, the left four on my E86 went out at one point also. I investigated and found that the whole LED assembly needs to be replaced, so I ordered the part through my local dealer. After it arrived, I checked and the original LED assembly was working fine. Strange, right? I returned the replacement part and the original seems to continue working just fine six months on.

[garberz]

Originally Posted by ried

The LEDs in the third brake light are not removable / replaceable.

garberz, the left four on my E86 went out at one point also. I investigated and found that the whole LED assembly needs to be replaced, so I ordered the part through my local dealer. After it arrived, I checked and the original LED assembly was working fine. Strange, right? I returned the replacement part and the original seems to continue working just fine six months on.

??? This is my issue. Sometimes the complete assembly work just fine. Sometimes it doesn't. Not sure what to do.

Mark

[garberz]

Seems to be fixed! 2 weeks ago, I had the DSC light come on, along with the brake warning light. Brake warning light was amber. The car would pull hard to the right if I let go of the wheel, first thought was I had a flat. I brought it in to have checked. My fear was it could be the ABS/DSC hydraulic pump. They checked it out, did a four wheel alignment, re calibrated the SAS and updated the software for the DSC. Now the Third Brake Light has been fine since I got it back. Seems like it must have something to do with the control module for the DSC.

Mark

[ried]

How strange! Thanks for the update.

[Vanne]

Hi Mark, i had the same issue.. 4 or so lights on one side out…no idea for how long, noticed it during a wheel alignment when the car was on the bridge.. gave it a good slap or 2 and haven't seen the issue since..