View Single Post
  #32  
Old 10-09-2017, 03:47 PM
oldskewel oldskewel is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: SF Bay Area
Posts: 1,423
oldskewel is on a distinguished road
On my '01 I first thought the problem was poor surface conductivity, etc. as detailed in the PDF fix early on in this thread. Problem came back though a couple of times, until ...

I realized that the root cause of the problems was that the conductors in the taillight assembly had separated from the plastic housing - those little melted nubs that hold the conductor in place has cracked off. This made the conductor looser than it should be, so that by some bending and tweaking, and polishing, I could get it back in place and convince myself that it was fixed. But the problem came back.

The fix for me was to drill tiny holes and put tiny screws in place, firmly holding the conductors in place on the plastic housing - doing the job that the melted plastic nubs had stopped doing. This way, the tension holding the bulb contacts against the housing contacts was strong and constant. No more failures since doing this.

It makes sense that once the plastic nub cracks off, contact pressure is lost, and an intermittent electrical connection can result. If left unrepaired, the resistance at that flaky interface will generate heat to melt things and make them worse.
__________________
2001 X5 3.0i, 203k miles, AT, owned since 2014
Reply With Quote

Sponsored Links