check rear lights / check brake light?

[indianapolisX5]

After 6 years of ownership with several "check brake light" incidents resulting from corroded contacts, I decided to eliminate the problem once and for all. Installed Sonar LED tails yesterday and am really happy with the look. No errors or thrown codes - just bright, clear instant-on light. They look really great at night. Only two regrets - not doing this mod sooner, and not ordering silver-coated signal bulbs. Other than that, thrilled with the result! Total cost was just under $200 shipped from Zomkspeed on eBay.

[Zulu95]

Do not use Dielectric grease. That is an insulator. Instead use conductive grease on the contacts and the problem will go away.

[Jaycee]

As I said above all contact points were perfect and I also checked resistance values and continuity of all filaments and current paths, all were good, but I did make sure with a little wire wool treatment.

However, the good news is that I've managed to locate and rectify the problem, and it's got nothing to do with electrical contacts thankfully. The last time I fired up NavCoder I made a couple of coding changes in the Light Control Module, and one change must have been to enable bulb-checking on the rear high-level brake light; nothing untoward happened at the time hence the reason I didn't pick it up straight away as being the problem, but the high-level brake light is a string of LEDs, and as we know LEDs often cause problems with bulb-check modules. This was therefore the cause of the "Check Brake Lights" warning.

My attention was initially drawn to the high-level brake light because when it was on I noticed it was very slightly pulsing, which I knew was the bulb-checker doing its thing, so I decided to get rid of that by disabling bulb-checking on it. Hey presto, after recoding the LCM to get rid of the pulsing I found that the "Check Brake Lights" warning also disappeared.

[RMak]

Originally Posted by vivanov1

does anyone know what bulbs i need for those two warnings? or should i call the dealer and they should know by the warnings?

Thanks!

I had the same problem. I just bought new sockets for $10 bucks and it solved my problems.

[markreg]

Hi, I also have the check rear lights (tailgate lights are out) and check rear brake lights (rear right side).

I've been looking around and I understand that there's a very good DIY fix regarding the rear brake light assembly.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ion-fix-5.html

But is there a fix for the rear tail gate lights itself?

[indianapolisX5]

Originally Posted by markreg

Hi, I also have the check rear lights (tailgate lights are out) and check rear brake lights (rear right side).

I've been looking around and I understand that there's a very good DIY fix regarding the rear brake light assembly.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ion-fix-5.html

But is there a fix for the rear tail gate lights itself?

My dealer performed this fix a few years back when I was still under warranty but replacement lenses were unavailable due to a change in vendors. They got the original lens to work again, but the problem resurfaced about 2 years later on the same side (passenger). So if this is your problem, go for it but don't be surprised if you have to do it again some time down the line.

As for the tail gate, the only bulbs in there are the reverse lights (and fogs if you're outside US). Pretty easy to get at and replace.

[markreg]

Originally Posted by indianapolisX5

My dealer performed this fix a few years back when I was still under warranty but replacement lenses were unavailable due to a change in vendors. They got the original lens to work again, but the problem resurfaced about 2 years later on the same side (passenger). So if this is your problem, go for it but don't be surprised if you have to do it again some time down the line.

As for the tail gate, the only bulbs in there are the reverse lights (and fogs if you're outside US). Pretty easy to get at and replace.

I understand that eventually you decided to replace the whole tail light assembly instead. I'm contemplating if I should waste my time in removing the brake tail light, troubleshoot, soder etc...or should I just buy a new kit assembly and replace the whole thing together (this includes the tailgate lights)

I saw this on ebay -

00 01 02 03 04 05 BMW E53 X5 Altezza LED Tail Lights RS: eBay Motors (item 330493216465 end time Dec-05-10 14:36:56 PST)

[indianapolisX5]

Originally Posted by markreg

I understand that eventually you decided to replace the whole tail light assembly instead. I'm contemplating if I should waste my time in removing the brake tail light, troubleshoot, soder etc...or should I just buy a new kit assembly and replace the whole thing together (this includes the tailgate lights)

I saw this on ebay -

00 01 02 03 04 05 BMW E53 X5 Altezza LED Tail Lights RS: eBay Motors (item 330493216465 end time Dec-05-10 14:36:56 PST)

I decided to go ahead and replace them altogether because I plan on keeping my X for at least another 4 - 5 years and didn't want to keep having to clean the corrosion off of the OEM contacts every so often. Plus the LED's really offer a cleaner and more up-to-date look, day & night.
Check these out: Halo Projector headlight LED Tail Lights Fog Light Grille items - Get great deals on items on eBay Stores!
They offer a few different styles, look to be $20 - $30 cheaper than the ones you found and are the same make (Sonar).
If you decide to go ahead and make the switch, consider getting some Invisibulbs for the turn signal indicators (Bimmian Solaris Invisibulbs for BMW X5 SAV - 2000-2006 E53).