X5 Tail Light Alteration and fix.

[SlickGT1]

Did this as well before reading the guide. It was sort of common sense for me. I didn't sand anything, but managed to get a decent amount of solder through the hole to create a metal support. Didn't have to take the gasket off or anything else. We will see how long that last.

[bizlur]

I'm not going to read through 5 pages of posts, I'm just going to say how I fixed it on my X5 and 2 of my e36's in the past.

If you take out the tail light and look at the plate that the bulb that is not working connects to, you will see corrosion at the point where the bulb holder makes connection with the metal plate.

All you have to do is drill/drimmel out all of the corrosion. I drimmelled both of my e36's and drilled my e53's. Once it is clean, use some thicker paper/thinner cardboard and put it between the metal plate and the tail light.

Then use solder and fill the hole. The paper/cardboard will keep it from dripping through to the plastic or down into the tail light. Once dry, drimmel it smooth.

Everything should work as long as the bulb holder is not corroded. I have drimmelled the contacts on them before just to help, but if they are too bad they aren't that much to replace.

I used to have pictures of the whole process, if I can find them I'll post it.

Hope this helps someone out there.

[bizlur]

Well... it looks like someone already posted that lol.

Here's where I posted it 7 years ago, however I must have deleted the pictures off my server.

E36 "brake light failure" cause corrosion DIY FIX - DTMPower BMW Forum

[aimtimes100]

they say fight fire with fire, so why not fix german with german? heres a cheap fix that uses a MB part.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...light-fix.html

[Gregory891]

I have a 2002 X5 3.0 diesel (I live in Europe) and have had the same tail light issues as X5's around the world. MANY do have a corrosion problem for the brake light bulbs, usually at the contact point (bulb holder) or the circuit "board" metal (more likely).

Removing the corrosion with a Dremel grinder and (even better) tinning this with solder will resolve this, for a while. Read one.

The TRUE origin of the problem is heat from the circuit that will (over time) melt the plastic stand-off's that hold the circuit metal holder. The circuit metal will then shift or modestly warp, causing intermittent and then (later) permanent poor contacts and the brake light error.

This mostly happens to the brake light (bottom bulb) rather than reverse or running lights.

THE fix is covered in BMW SI B 63 08 07, which supercedes BMW SI B 63 08 08. It involves repair to support / glue the circuit board with a BMW plastic repair kit. The glue / filler itself is a Henkel product called Terokal 9225. Easy to do. I did the grind, clean and solder on one tail light - it gave me a year. I just applied the BMW type repair myself on both sides, MUCH better and more permanent fix. I had epoxy putty in my "glue collection" (Milliput) instead of Terokal.

Removal and repair is a 30 minute job per side, then wait for your glue to cure.

Do it and your E53 will entirely cease to give you spurious warnings. Next time it'll really be for burnt out bulb

[Quicksilver]

I believe it been 5 or six years since I had the initial problem. Recently I replaced two sockets and we're good to go.

[jmcgxx]

Again thanks to all for the instructions on how to remedy the Brake light problem.
Had a "Check Brake Lights" indication. Replaced bulb socket, which had small amount of corrosion, $14. Also cleaned and soldered corrosion spot on board.
Working well.

[andrewwynn]

What's broken on your E53 today!
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/top...ink_source=app

Proper fix. Drill out the melted plastic rivets. Shim out to original height and use self tapping screws to attach the metal frame.

Design defect the 21w high filament gets hot enough to melt the plastic and the spring pressure pushes the contact away from the bulb adding resistance that causes more heat and faster melting.

It doesn't hurt to put some silver solder on the contact points but that doesn't eliminate the root cause.

[oldskewel]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...e53-today.html

What's broken on your E53 today!
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/top...ink_source=app

Proper fix. Drill out the melted plastic rivets. Shim out to original height and use self tapping screws to attach the metal frame.

Design defect the 21w high filament gets hot enough to melt the plastic and the spring pressure pushes the contact away from the bulb adding resistance that causes more heat and faster melting.

It doesn't hurt to put some silver solder on the contact points but that doesn't eliminate the root cause.

Not sure why the thread revival, but I 100% agree with all that, both the cause and the best solution.

BTW, here's a direct link to post #65
https://xoutpost.com/1047563-post65.html

On my repair journey, I first effed around with other repair attempts such as sanding, soldering, shimming, bending, cleaning, adding foil, etc. that all turned out to be temporary.

Then I did the screw repair (although the screws I used were much smaller and lower profile than the ones in that post - you need to make sure there is clearance from the bulb sockets) and that has been permanent.

[andrewwynn]

I couldn't find my photos so I pulled up the post that showed them including my original description.

There was plenty of room for the screw heads. I use self tapping screws because they won't split plastic and are simple and fast.

The clean link does not load in tap a talk so why the crazy long link tat generated.