Right Rear Tail Light
 

Anybody have a stock tail light assembly laying around?

PM me is you do

Thanks

I don't sorry but if might help if you list the build month and year of car as there is a big difference between the pre-facelift and facelift tail assemblies (electrically speaking).

o yeah 2001 x5 3.0i

thanks

Do you really need one? I have a step by step for rebuilding the moronic self destructing lamp holder.


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I tried fixing it once and it didn't work but I'll take a look at your guide

Right Rear Tail Light
 

What's broken on your E53 today!
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sha...3&share_type=t


That post shows the basic before and after. It doesn't show how I supported the metal contact ring but you can see the self threading screw I used to reattach it.

The problem is a design flaw: steel is a TERRIBLE contact material yet they choose to use it it's moronic. The steel corrodes makes for high resistance that causes heat which melts the plastic.

Not sure what you tried to do to fix it but unless you removed the metal ring on the melted side, propped it up underneath to make it level and parallel and screwed it back down it was not even a band-aid much less a fix. I see many ignorant posts about cleaning the contacts or stretching out the spring contacts etc. The contact ring must be detached and reassembled properly. THEN clean the contacts and replace the bulb holder if it's contacts are shot.

It took an hour to fix both of my wife's. If you have one bad the other is surely about to go. When one of her lights blinked out the other was 95% shot as well they looked just the same amount of melted.

I got tired of all the fixing tail lights thing so I bought a new stock tail light assembly for the drivers side.
I believe it came complete bulbs and all. Had the indy install it. Took less than 30 Minutes and haven't had any trouble since then.

I just put a blob of solder (acid core) on each of mine where the contacts had burned/corroded through, contacts in rings place if I remember right, and never had a problem since.

Good day all!

I'm gonna see how this works for mine... I got rid of the zinc plating with my small disc sander and covered the area with solder...

Cheers!

As long as it hasn't melted the plastic that should work well

did you find one. few e53s at the junkyard in my area, i can grab one for you over the weekend.

light just turned on today, bulb holder/socket looks good when I pulled it out this morning. Going to spend some time to take out the assembly and check what's busted. I know that the tail light assembly was designed by the guys who did the CCV..

was wondering if I could just rewire it using plain wires soldered directly instead of relying on that metal circuit board..





https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net...28&oe=5B99B8AF


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LOL :bustingup

:bustingup:bustingup

Picture of yours and if it was broken in the way mine was I can tell you exactly how to fix it


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the metal portion is pressed down due to the melted plastic behind it, caused by a loose contact (burnt mark)
https://scontent.fmkc1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...f4&oe=5B839ACC

I have to push the metal upwards to provide a better contact but for how long this fix will last? Thinking of putting some epoxy behind the metal to offset the melted plastic..
https://scontent.fmkc1-1.fna.fbcdn.n...16&oe=5B93DB43


over-engineering at its best..



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Time is money. After attempting a number of fixes I decided a new tail light assembly was in order. I’m happy I did it.

I fixed Lumba2 (wife's e53) good as new with the steps shown here:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0SGrhkPxG3LazS


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that's a great fix! never thought of using the screws. What kind of material you put behind the metal?




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I believe I had some really tough rubber like roofing material. It worked perfectly. I like using rubber in such a fix because I can twice the screws while the rubber squeezes to get the right depth perfectly.

I did both sides right away as it's a straight up design defect they will all fail.

I checked mine but due to an accident my 2001 has lamp assemblies from 2009. They are a slightly different design which allowed me to rewire to use both brake filaments for full brightness

Which is a cool mod but something the LCI (facelift) cars kinda do anyway - via the adaptive brake light feature. And I wouldn't go goofing with tail light wiring in an LCI car due to the risks of frying the LKM (LCM) module.

https://xoutpost.com/attachments/x5-...chip_death.jpg

(image from Spunbearing)

The-LCI (pre-facelift) cars are designed for double filament lamps. The LCI (facelift) cars use PWM to vary the brightness of a single filament lamp.

I noticed that this warning light has been on and off this winter and I didn't bother to check (since it's cold all the time) until it becomes permanent a few days ago. I think the moment the warning is illuminated temporarily it's time to check it out before it will melt the plastic.

I think the aftermarket ones with clear lenses are better designed since they have individual wires (no metal circuit boards) which IMO is the best way to fix this nagging issue.


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+1 on filling the hole with solder. My car is an '05 3.0L, and the left side brake lamp was giving a message -- actually, I got a message and had to find it in the left side tail lamp. In any case, there was a hole that came from arcing, I filled the pit with solder. I cannot say if I used acid core or not.