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  #1  
Old 05-23-2012, 12:24 PM
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The permanent taillight fix

So I recently purchased my second 4.6is and it came with bad taillights just like my previous one. (Sold my last one missed it blah blah blah)

Anyway I did not want to buy my third and forth BMW taillight assemblies so I did some digging. I came up with a taillight bulb and harness made by Mercedes for the same exact problem. It completely takes the circuit board out of play and hardwires a new bulb socket to the brake wire and ground wire. I installed it flawlessly and and have two functional brake lights again! The best part is the kits from Mercedes totaled about $40 for both sides, $20 a kit.

Here is the part number, you will need two kits 164-826-00-07.

Simply wire in the red wire to the brake light feed wire and the brown to ground. Install the twist bulb holder in the taillight just like you removed the factory one and done!

Enjoy your fixed once and forever taillights and enjoy the savings!


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Old 05-23-2012, 02:07 PM
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164...thats from an ML!

Im not surprised. when I was switching out my tail lights I noticed the sockets looked very familiar. I pulled one socket out of my 95 MB and they match exactly. on the X5 they just melted the portion where the MB star should be. but now it makes me wonder, if my 95 MB has the same wiring design tail lights as the X5, how come my MB has no tail light issues?
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Old 05-24-2012, 09:08 AM
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http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ight-rust.html
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Old 05-25-2012, 09:01 PM
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Originally Posted by killcrap View Post
Oh man thought I was the smart guy....
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Old 05-26-2012, 01:02 AM
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Great fix and inexpensive. Unfortunately it would take away the "need" for someone to get LED tail lights.
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Old 05-27-2012, 08:58 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mark///m3 View Post
So I recently purchased my second 4.6is and it came with bad taillights just like my previous one. (Sold my last one missed it blah blah blah)

Anyway I did not want to buy my third and forth BMW taillight assemblies so I did some digging. I came up with a taillight bulb and harness made by Mercedes for the same exact problem. It completely takes the circuit board out of play and hardwires a new bulb socket to the brake wire and ground wire. I installed it flawlessly and and have two functional brake lights again! The best part is the kits from Mercedes totaled about $40 for both sides, $20 a kit.

Here is the part number, you will need two kits 164-826-00-07.

Simply wire in the red wire to the brake light feed wire and the brown to ground. Install the twist bulb holder in the taillight just like you removed the factory one and done!

Enjoy your fixed once and forever taillights and enjoy the savings!


miight look into this.so the kit comes with those wires attached and you tapped into the said wires in the brake light harness?
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Old 05-30-2012, 09:41 PM
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miight look into this.so the kit comes with those wires attached and you tapped into the said wires in the brake light harness?
Correct, worked like a charm.
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Old 06-05-2012, 06:58 PM
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Great fix!

I'm a little confused as to which light this fixes.

my X5 has the lower light (3 lights in the assembly) going out intermittently.

I have pulled it apart, glued the metal a bit, scraped it, bent the tongs a bit, and even waved dead fairy bones over it... it just goes out intermittently.. a bit of an annoyance when it goes out, as you end up wiggling it around for 3-4 minutes to get it back on....

it's the BOTTOM of the 3 lights.

is this the correct size for that one, or would i need a different one?

tx!

Dave
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Old 04-14-2013, 09:45 PM
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today i pulled out my taillight because the brake light kept going out.... there was a lot of corrosion where the connectors touched the circuit board.

i thought about doing the whole soldering thing, but then i just took a piece of tin foil, cut out a small piece, folded it over the part that was corroded, put the bulb back in, and VOILA!!! works like a charm!
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Old 03-08-2016, 12:26 PM
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OK, after lots of reading on the solder fix, I found this thread and bought the MB kit. Put it in and the bulb still doesn't light. Still have errors on the dash. What could I have done wrong? This is on an 05 4.4 if it matters. The weird thing is that I am getting "check tail lights" and "check brake lights" errors but only the bottom light is out. The middle one works fine.
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