Ha. Just read your thread from a search. Tired of replacing the bulb's in my left rear.....either the brake or lamp bulb keeps on going out. I was just checking Ebay for new tailamp assemblies...

The new LED tails was a option....but there is a pic of Ebay with th lamps lit. Not feeling it at all...

If your under warranty let them hassle with it. But replacing the assembly won't help. It appears that the current draw is too much for the assembly and the additional ground wire decreases the load and prevents burnouts across contacts and bulbs. Although tempted I haven't looked to see If they really did this work in order to describe what was done. I may ask them for the information as a service to the members on this site.

To accomplish that i will have to go into the service bay (but not this week) and ask the foreman what he did.

I have to take it apart but this summer, I took off the tails and there was this white film on it....It was not rusty but some weird film. Totally went to town with electronic contact cleaner and removed the film. Did the same for the connectors and replaced all bulbs while I was at it.

Me wonders if the *film* came back. It only has been happening on my left tail lately.

What I have done to stop this problem is I bought this Deatx stuff from Bavauto.com. It a red contact cleaner and allows the elec. current to move freely and move more effiecent. I did this last year and I've have not had a problem since. Something to look into. Its cheap and maybe fixes the problem. So far, so good.

I got a reply from my SA and was advised the extra ground was an issue with the E46 platform. On the X, I've been advised it was the assembly circuit board.

Who knows.....regardless, it is not OOP for me now. At least it's confirmed .fwiw.

The assembly circuit board is the problem..... that is corrected by adding a ground wire. But you know what? i never got to the dealer to ask the foreman about it but i will for sure.

I serious doubt that the extra ground wire would help. The problem, as I see it is that the contacts between the bulb socket and the light assembly circuit board are horrible to say the least. So, as the high current moves across from the circuit board to the bulb socket, then back to the circuit board, it will create electrical sparks if the connections aren't perfect and this is where the problem lies. Over time, the sparks will eat away the metal contacts on both the bulb socket as well as the circuit board. It's a design flaw that won't be fixed with a simple wire...unless of course, that wire is soldered directly from the circuit board to the bulb socket!

You just killed your own point. The lack of the extra ground wire is why it would be "sparking". The electricity flowing through it needs a ground capable of "returning" so to speak that load. If the ground can't return it, then it needs someplace to go which is when it would "spark" to release the "build-up" of electricity.

Quicksilver is it still holding up?

Does anyone know the site to go to for TSB's?
IMO This sounds like it should be a recall instead of a TSB since there are so many issues of this. Too bad noone at BMW would listen to a letter or email. :(
Thanks.

Should be a re-call...I've ordered LED tails as I'm sick off removing the tails every fortnight to clean the contacts.

I am having the same problem on a 2001 X5. My rear right brake light keeps going out. The tail light housing seems brittle, and the old socket was slightly melted. I bought a new socket at the dealer ($27 rippoff) and a bulb, but the problem persists.

My question is, regardless of the fix proposed, grounding the circuit, would replacing the entire tail light with the newer version (04 and up) fix it?

Im sick and tired of beeps and messages...