Driver side Tail lights not working

[ualla]

Hi all, I have yet another small issue with my lovely Z3.

Last night I realised by pure chance that my right hand side tail lights aren't working. Does anybody know what might be causing this? Brake light doesn't work, normal light doesn't work either. Is there a specific fuse just for one side of the tail lights? All the other rear lights are working fine and the bulbs seem intact.

I have been working a bit in the boot of my car, so I might have bumped something, but I'm not sure what it could be.

I've tried removing and putting back the bulbs, but to no avail.

I thought the car was supposed to have a dash light indicating that a light wasn't working?

Thank you!

P.S. model is a '99 2.0L

[bertiejaffa]

Hi, no dash lights to advise - just the requirement to manually check once in a while.

I have tried changing the bulbs and/or checking there is power to the connections? I had an intermittent issue with a bulb that looked fine recently - I sanded the connections down to remove any dirty but still had the problem, changed the bulb and all fixed

[ualla]

Thanks for the heads up!

Now that I think about it, i do remember that when I got the indication that my brake pads had gone, my brake light (driver side) started working intermittently. That's when i checked the bulb and seemed fine, then it started working alright and now none of the lights there work.

I might as well get a pair of bulbs, just for peace of mind.

Thanks!

[Brian4]

Swop the bulbs from the good side to the bad side and you will see if the bulbs are at fault.

The plastic that holds the bulb holders has bee known to crack with age and so the contacts are nit made onto the bulb holders. Carefully remove the tail light unit from the body, only 3 nuts and have a look at the white plastic that all the tracks are on, if it is broken you need a replacement light unit. These tracks broke on ours but not all the lights failed just the lights and indicators.

[nachos23]

Hi Mate;

I ran into the same issue with my right rear brake lights and i found that I no longer had power to the right brake light. I actually had to tap into the left brake light wire that runs between the left and right brake lights right at the power connection and run the wire to the left power connection. I haven't been able to find where the break in the connection exists yet; a project for this winter.

I have changed the rear taillight assemblies to smoked lens from Germany, but im certain the swap wasn't the cause as they use the same power connectors and fitment was perfect. I'd take a meter and check to make sure you have power to the base of the socket....

[ualla]

Thanks for the reply guys, much appreciated!

I swapped the bulbs and they work, so I guess that the one lesson to take away from this is even if the filaments aren't broken, doesn't mean the bulb isn't fried.

Can't believe I opened a thread for burnt bulbs. In my defence, 3 out of 4 had blown all at once. The only working one was the reverse light.

@nachos23, I really hope you find the fault!

[Brian4]

Glad it was simple to fix. Not the expected to have all the bulbs blow and easier to sort when people give advice of their experiences.

Probably felt even more foolish if you had turned up at a garage with it.

[Robert T]

Probably not as embarassing as my experience a while back. Both dipped beam headlight bulbs failed at the same time a couple of years back. I was driving down the motorway at the time and had nearly reached my destination - the headlights had been on for a while, but on streetlit motorway - then part way down the M5, the streetlights stopped and I was plunged into pitch black motorway with no lights on the front of the car. I completed the last 10 miles on foglights only, on the basis that they were better than nothing. The next morning I proceeded to check all the fuses and to swap the headlamp relays to no effect, so fearing that there was a nasty electrical problem with the car, and knowing I had a 200 mile drive home again at the end of the week, I took it into a local BMW dealer, who charged me something like £90 for what amounted to changing two headlight bulbs (they did check the electrics for that as well). Even better (or worse) one of the new bulbs had died by the time I got home, because the numpties had broken it when putting it in - though it survived the quick test when I got the car back. Of course the bulbs they fitted were the standard ones, so I then had to shell out for the 100% brighter ones I have fitted now. I was rather pee'd off that week!

Cheers R.

[ualla]

Oh wow, that was also an expensive week at that too! On the bright side, you know that your electrics have no issues...