Rear Taillights from ebay?

[BimmerDude]

Hello, I've been having the infamous rear brake light warning going on and off very often lately, so I took it to my dealer. They first told me that the socket is corroded. Then they said if we were to change it, that it would be over a month or so before they even receive a new taillight. The reason is because BMW changed the company that made the lights and has a new company but they haven't even started producing them yet.

So my question is, has anyone bought the rear taillights from ebay before? And if so how do you like them, and will they out last the oem ones? I've sprayed some PB lubricant, seems that this helps with the connection issues but its only temporary until I need to clean it and spray it again. Please any info would help, thanks in advance.

[Aimster]

sand the sock with sandpaper. It will work.

or you can buy the ebay lights which members say looks better.

[BimmerDude]

Yeah thats what I did, it works fine now but it will turn off again and I have to do the samething all over again. Not a big deal, just hate the idea. But the lights are ok? Thats my next step.

[Sudesh]

First thing I would do is; remove the tail lights yourself. Then take a small piece of light sand paper and rub down the metal pieces that have the corrosion on the tail lights and anywhere else around the bulbs etc that you can see corrosion [it wont be difficult to spot] once that is finished, refit the tail light and go again. Hopefully that will cure your problem!! If it doesnt, then you may have to go down the NEW tail light route, but I would try the sand the method above first.

[Tomaz]

Follow the advice as noted for cleaning the socket, but if a hole has burned clear through the contact, you'll need to repair the hole with some solder and an soldering iorn. I did mine a few years ago without any further problems. Good luck

[BimmerDude]

Sounds good to me! On removal of tail light, I unscrew the 2 nuts that are easy to spot and that should pop off the light right?

[Sudesh]

I think its 4 nuts?

[BimmerDude]

No hole visible, just corrosion. I hope the method works, it should as the little amount of cleaning has helped and the light works good now.

[BimmerDude]

Ok, 4 nuts then. But once I remove that should pop it off then, great, thanks everyone. Once I do this I will post my results...

[supernsx]

I have those Ebay light for more than a year and they work very well. Definitely look much better than my 01 OEM.