X5 rear "check brake light warning"
 

Out of the blue my cluster displays "check brake lights" I pull over and look all 3 are on.. warning goes away and then randomly comes on whenever ? Any ideas

If you have an error code in the cluster just scan the truck to see why you have the code. If you don't have a BMW specific scanner, either buy one if you want to DIY or bring it in to get it scan. Just a WAG (wild ass guess) could be your brake light switch.

I have a OBD II scan tool and i did scan it... Nothing stored nothing pending.. Do I need a BMW scan tool ? the one for th round 20 pin ?

What you're experiencing is a common problem among X5's with original taillights. I'm going thru the same right now with my '03. What happens is a bit of oxidation forms on the bus bar of the taillight, changing the resistance of the circuit, causing the Light Control Module (LCM) to think a bulb is burnt out. There are DIY's here on Xoutpost for how to solve this issue. Take some time to search and you'll find them.

Its because the circuit boards in the tail lights on the cars are notorious for burning through and making poor connections, which is why half the E53's you see on the road have one tail light out or one dimmer than the other. This has been discussed numerous times, search for "E53 tail light fix" in google.

how about regular parking tail lights?


also, those lights are notorious for corroding there, both on the bulb side of the connector and even more, on the car side of the connector... the car side is impossible to see, you need to pull the tail light out...

Your SAV is telling you to upgrade the taillights ;)

Mine politely reminds me every day...

:D

I will pull bulbs clean contacts and some add some dielectric grease . thanks

It isn't necessarily just the contacts for the bulbs. The entire socket gets corroded, and the wires often don't make good contact at the connector behind the socket. If cleaning the visible part fixes it, great, but also see this write-up:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...t-fix-diy.html