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#1
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High mount center light LED
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#2
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Same problem here. Anybody know?
The service manual says the whole assembly needs to be replaced, but only one ~3 inch segment is dark on mine and I'd prefer to repair it. Especially because the part is $240+, vs. a bulb or fixing the circuit board. Genuine BMW Third Brake Light Assembly 63258362039 - Free Shipping I've already removed the light assembly, which is straightforward in the service manual (and way more involved than expected - step one is to remove the spoiler).
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2001 X5 3.0i, 203k miles, AT, owned since 2014 Last edited by oldskewel; 12-05-2015 at 03:01 AM. |
#3
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Fixed!
Here's some info, and what I did. My car is a 2001 x5, and x3's and later x5's are different in this area, but I will guess similar enough that this info will help. Based on the June 2001 manufacturing date on the unit, I'm sure this part is original, with 174k miles. It's a plastic-welded unit, not intended for disassembly or repair, just replacement. The LEDs run off 2.3V each, powered in clusters of 4, all soldered to a single circuit board running the full width of the assembly. Red LEDs, then a clear (white) lens, then a red outer lens. The whole assembly is powered with 12V on the blue wire, ground on the brown wire. Symptoms - one segment of 4 LEDs was out, the rest all worked fine. It appears that with this circuit design, when any one LED fails in any way it will take out the entire 4-LED segment. Root cause - failed solder joint on one of the LEDs. Solution - After checking voltages on working-vs-non-working segments and understanding the circuit, I figured it could be a bad joint and I had nothing to lose, so I just started re-flowing the solder on the joints in that part of the circuit. Luckily the very first joint I hit was the problem and it lit up. I continued to re-flow all 4 joints on that LED, for good measure. Hardest part - disassembly of the plastic-welded light assembly. Not really hard, but I did not know how it would go, and it took some time and care to do it nicely. I used a thin Dremel cutoff tool around the entire outer seam (between the red lens and gray plastic housing). Then used a Dremel small cutting tool to cut the 4 plastic ~rivet type moldings off. I used a 12V cordless tool (Craftsman Nextec) battery to provide 12V for testing throughout. First step - removing the light assembly from the car: remove spoiler = open hatch, remove 2 rubber plugs near the spoiler, remove 5 Torx T30 screws (2 of them under the rubber plugs) holding it on, remove carefully. Then just 2 Philips #2 screws holding the light assembly in place, one connector with 12V/ground. Here's a photo showing it disassembled, after the repair, with some of the tools.
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2001 X5 3.0i, 203k miles, AT, owned since 2014 |
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