Parking Lights Only Work on Drivers Side

[njathind]

A really random one that I cant get my head around.

All of my headlamps and tail lamps work fine as they should if I use the headlamp control knob, however if I want to use parking lights when I park up I can only get the ones on the drivers side of the car to come on (right hand side)

By parking lights I mean the lights you can turn on with the indicator stalk with no keys in the ignition, if you put the stalk to turn the left then the front left side marker light should come on along with the left tail light. This should also apply if you set the stalk to turn right, the front right side marker light should come on along with the rear left tail light.

However in my car I can only get the parking lights to work if I set the stalk to turn right. If I set it to turn left nothing happens...
Just after some pointers as to how I could go about fixing this?

Many thanks in advance, Nat.

[colb]

My view is that this is working correctly only the drivers side should activate as parking lights. In the UK we drive on the left so if parked on the left you should be showing a white light to the front and red to the rear on the offside of the vehicle. Same if parked on the opposite side of the road and facing forward. The left side will not illuminate to prevent other road users seeing a white light on their side of the road should you park facing forward on the right side of the road facing in the direction of the oncoming traffic.
Where street lighting is lit you don't need parking lights anyway.

Colb

[njathind]

That's exactly what I thought to begin with however, the owners manual says it should functioning both sides. And my dads E46 will show parking lights on either side according to the direction of the indicator stalk.
Therefore I do believe they should work on either side.

My view is that this is working correctly only the drivers side should activate as parking lights. In the UK we drive on the left so if parked on the left you should be showing a white light to the front and red to the rear on the offside of the vehicle. Same if parked on the opposite side of the road and facing forward. The left side will not illuminate to prevent other road users seeing a white light on their side of the road should you park facing forward on the right side of the road facing in the direction of the oncoming traffic.
Where street lighting is lit you don't need parking lights anyway.

Colb

[Mike Fishwick]

I think you will find that the use of such parking lights - on the off side of the vehicle - is illegal in the UK anyway. Unless parked in a line of other cars, it would be confusing for other traffic to see parking lights some five feet from the kerb. The law requires all four parking lights or none, depending on the road and street lighting conditions.

[njathind]

I understand this however if it was illegal then why would the cars be specified like this for the UK when they were built in the factory?
My dads E46 functions the way my Z3 should. At the end of the day I am not asking what the law is on this issue I am asking for a solution, my Z3 is not functioning as it should and I am seeking a way to remedy this.

Many thanks

I think you will find that the use of such parking lights - on the off side of the vehicle - is illegal in the UK anyway. Unless parked in a line of other cars, it would be confusing for other traffic to see parking lights some five feet from the kerb. The law requires all four parking lights or none, depending on the road and street lighting conditions.

[lightning]

Disconnect the parking light feed from the ignition switch, then neither side will come on.

So effectively, both sides are then the same, and will stop you from getting stressed about it.

[Mike Fishwick]

According to the BMW wiring diagrams, the park light facility was removed from the trafficator switch in about September 1998 - but such dates are subject to change, depending on what components were lying around, waiting to be used in the factory. However, my October 1998 car lacks this facility, so I would guess that your 2 litre model will also lack it. Just to confuse the issue, my Owner's Manual states that it is only necessary to set the switch to either position with the ignition turned off!

There is no live 'parking' feed to the switch, unlike the system on older VW Golfs etc. The switch only has one live feed - when the ignition is turned on - do you have to select the parking option when the ignition is on?

If one side operates in this mode, it looks from the wiring diagram as if the problem must lie in the flasher relay - but showing an orange parking light is neither legal nor wise.

[Zedbedee]

Just checked my 2.0 Z3, built November '99 and registered January 2000. I've owned it for 6 years and not noticed this before but the offside (drivers) sidelights come on with the indicator stalk but not the nearside. This sort of makes sense regardless of what other cars do.