Left brake light malfunction

[Ryansbmw1]

This is a really dumb problem.

Replaced my brake and turn signals with LEDs. Used Bimmergeeks Protool to code the hot and cold checks. Everything works dandy. After a week, I got a message on the screen saying left tail brake light out. I have the wife step on the brakes and sure enough that tail light doesn’t light up. I remember swapping the bulbs side to side to see if the message follows the bulb and it did. A few weeks go by and I finally get around to buying a new set of bulbs, plug them in and no bueno. Swap the bulbs and the left side still won’t light up.

Is there some sort of fault I need to clear somewhere? Or is possible the socket went bad?

All other bulbs on that socket work so I know it’s not a ground issue or fuse. I checked wiring and the socket holder and didn’t see any scorching or trouble signs either

[Purplefade]

Just out of curiosity if you re-install the old standard light and bulb socket, does that work by chance? I am wondering if the led was simply a lower resistance rating on the circuit and the light module “locked it out” to prevent damage to the circuit. Just a thought

Other thing you can try is disconnect the battery for 15/20 minutes and clear the cars “memory”, that may bring that light back, for the moment, but if it is a resistance issue it will lock out again.


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[ard]

Is the FRM involved with this somehow? Some version of FRMs had a error counter that locked up and bricked the unit after some number of errors. BMW did a long warranty on the part, maybe 156k 10 years? Dont recall, and might have it mixed up. and of course if it happens while trying to use LEDs you are likely SOL.

[Ryansbmw1]

Originally Posted by ard

Is the FRM involved with this somehow? Some version of FRMs had a error counter that locked up and bricked the unit after some number of errors. BMW did a long warranty on the part, maybe 156k 10 years? Dont recall, and might have it mixed up. and of course if it happens while trying to use LEDs you are likely SOL.

FRM is likely involved. Been reading about the short circuit counter and they may need to be reset. Protool should be able do that if that’s the case. I don’t believe the unit is bricked since everything else works perfectly

[Ryansbmw1]

Update: Problem solved.

I used Protool to check for faults in the FRM and sure enough there was 2 faults for the left brake lamp, one of which was a short circuit. I reset the circuit and cleared the errors and the the tail light is now functioning again with the new LED. This should be the end of the issue.

Moral of the story: don’t drive around with a burned out tail light for too long so you don’t need to go into the module to reset it.

On a side note, I highly recommend the Bimmergeeks Protool app to everyone out there. The diagnostics part is pretty straight forward and being able to look into every module on the car and check for errors makes life really easy. That license also can register batteries and code injectors. The coding license is very simple to use but a tad more involved in some cases when you need to activate/deactivate multiple functions in multiple modules to get the desired result. Oh, and neither license is Vin locked so you can use it on multiple cars. For $140 for the master license, it’s a no brainer

[Purplefade]

That is outstanding news - very glad you were able to figure that out and also confirm that the module could be reset


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