Awesome Vanguard....ashamed to say myself, I will be looking to aftermarket rear tail lights myself.

“Resealed/rebuilt” vacuum pump today and replaced oil pressure temp sensor. Trying to keep my mind off feeling unwell. Fever and headache/body aches that won’t go away. Got tested yesterday and waiting to see if I got the ‘Rona. :( Figured I could sweat it out in the garage.

I did it too.... after resetting the factory metal on those tail lights and plastic welding them more times over the years than I can count.... I went with Spyder Customs replacement tail lights and absolutely love them! They are (in my option) a minor upgrade in appearance and the very best part, I haven’t had to screw with them once since they were installed which is absolutely awesome!


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a proper fix is not too difficult; you need to drill out the plastic rivets, put in a proper spacer and replace the rivets with some self-tapping screws:

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sha...3&share_type=t

the problem is steel is a terrible contact yet that's what BMW chose to use; it gets dirty and high resistance, it heats up enough to melt the plastic and the spring pressure presses the contact into the plastic reducing the pressure increasing the resistance and accelerating the damage. I think most people try to fix this by either stretching the springs on the bulb holder to increase the pressure (which just pushes harder on the soft plastic), or they add solder bumps which does the same.

removing the plastic out of the equation eliminates the problem of the soft plastic; even if the contacts get dirty the steel can handle the heat it's the plastic that cannot.

a proper fix is not too difficult; you need to drill out the plastic rivets, put in a proper spacer and replace the rivets with some self-tapping screws:

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?sha...3&share_type=t

the problem is steel is a terrible contact yet that's what BMW chose to use; it gets dirty and high resistance, it heats up enough to melt the plastic and the spring pressure presses the contact into the plastic reducing the pressure increasing the resistance and accelerating the damage. I think most people try to fix this by either stretching the springs on the bulb holder to increase the pressure (which just pushes harder on the soft plastic), or they add solder bumps which does the same.

removing the plastic out of the equation eliminates the problem of the soft plastic; even if the contacts get dirty the steel can handle the heat it's the plastic that cannot.

Swapped out a bad ballast sunday and replaced the cracked back cover of the headlight that I believe was letting water get into it.
Then replaced the vacuum pump and seals and a noisy idler pulley.
Yesterday I removed the GM3 module and shipped it out for repair.

Still trying to figure out why the rear wiper goes on intermittently anytime the trunk is open tho.

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No wiring loom that goes through the right side hinge is common for broken wires

Yep. Might cut the conduit open and see what I find.

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I wouldnt cut it open... there will be a harness connector just on either side. I dont know what side though, but there will be, you can then pull the wires out and actually look at them/probe them.

You will never get that conduit sealed up again if you cut it open. Some idiot(prior owner) did that to my Z4 decklid and I want to kill them for it...

Really? I will have to look on realoem if theres a piece I can buy.
I figured it was part of a looooong harness and I'd just have to deal with a open conduit

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Well it looks like it's a $1200 sub-harness for the entire rear trunk lid.
Not the kind of money I want to spend on something that I'm probably gonna sell at the end of the year. :(

Realoem lists it at $356 but seems u can't get it anywhere close to that.

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