E85 Facelift Tail light - Dim

[trick4]

Hi chaps,

I've got a problem with the offside rear tail light (dimmer than the near side) so went to take a look at the bulbs. I noticed the manual says the tail light is LED, is this going to mean a whole new cluster? I cant see any other issues without cracking open the cluster, connector looks fine.

2006 3.0si Roadster

Thanks

[sk93]

afaik, the rear tail lights are not LED, but bulbs?
If you mean the third brakelight, then that is indeed led, but the rest...

but I may be 100% wrong

[trick4]

afaik, the rear tail lights are not LED, but bulbs?
If you mean the third brakelight, then that is indeed led, but the rest...

but I may be 100% wrong

I thought the same too... but here's the picture from the manual.

IMG_0967.JPG (51.92 KiB) Viewed 1652 times

[jamie_z4]

if its the same as the E46 facelift, its a new cluster, or strip them down & solder new LED's in. Sounds like it could be an earthing issue though if one sides dimmer than the other side? LED's usually flicker or dont work at all when they are failing/fail.

[Marius]

if its the same as the E46 facelift, its a new cluster, or strip them down & solder new LED's in. Sounds like it could be an earthing issue though if one sides dimmer than the other side? LED's usually flicker or dont work at all when they are failing/fail.

not really, sometimes they just get dimmer before they fail completely , common on e92 taillights and very cheap fix because 3mm led cost 5p

[jamie_z4]

if its the same as the E46 facelift, its a new cluster, or strip them down & solder new LED's in. Sounds like it could be an earthing issue though if one sides dimmer than the other side? LED's usually flicker or dont work at all when they are failing/fail.

common on e92 taillights and very cheap fix because 3mm led cost 5p

for you maybe who does it day in , day out... to your avarage forum member not so much.

A diff input shaft seal costs £2.36, is that a relevant point to the fix?

[sk93]

misunderstanding about tail lights

If one is weaker, it could very well be an earthing problem as others have pointed out.
If it's not, I'm not sure if you can easily separate the cluster (don't even know if 'baking' them works. not saying it doesn't, but I've not seen anyone post about doing it!)

Also, if you CAN separate it, it'd be a unsolder, replace, solder job, across the lot I'd imagine.
However, again, I've never seen the circuitry, so there may be some damaged resistors, some other component in the circuit that's failed/failing that could be causing the dimness.

I guess what I'm saying is, you've got two choices: 1 - buy a new unit, or 2 - attempt to separate and repair the existing unit.

You've got nothing to loose by attempting number 2 unless the car is your daily and you have to have it on the road.

[Marius]

if its the same as the E46 facelift, its a new cluster, or strip them down & solder new LED's in. Sounds like it could be an earthing issue though if one sides dimmer than the other side? LED's usually flicker or dont work at all when they are failing/fail.

common on e92 taillights and very cheap fix because 3mm led cost 5p

for you maybe who does it day in , day out... to your avarage forum member not so much.

A diff input shaft seal costs £2.36, is that a relevant point to the fix?

i don't do that everyday, but i have common sense (getting rare in uk )

[jamie_z4]

edit; you cant put nowt where there is nowt.

[trick4]

You guys are right in assuming I'm useless , but generally willing to give stuff a go. This car is not critical to me on a day to day basis.

Just been out for a spin after tinkering with all the rear bulbs/contacts, there is no difference other than my right indicator decided to indicate twice as fast as normal for the first 5 minutes of the drive.

On my list of lighting issues i now have:
- the near side front indicator and angel eye intermittent
- dim off side tail light
- possibly a dodgy right indicator of some sort

I'm up for checking the earth - but where? All the wires looked in tact as far down as i could see behind the boot liner.

EDIT: I just took a look at the near side rear (the brighter side), looks like it's had a new connector spliced in to the wiring - so potentially some history with that. Perhaps it's brighter because its a new cluster?

Cheers

[sk93]

common on e92 taillights and very cheap fix because 3mm led cost 5p

for you maybe who does it day in , day out... to your avarage forum member not so much.

A diff input shaft seal costs £2.36, is that a relevant point to the fix?

i don't do that everyday, but i have common sense (getting rare in uk )

see my post

[sk93]

wasn't there also an issue with the pins being a bit dodge in the connectors too?
I certainly remember having to purchase a coupla new connectors once upon a time

[trick4]

Had a bit more of a look at this, took both clusters out, thoroughly inspected the wiring etc. I can't see any issues at all. For now i'm going to keep a watch for a used right facelift tail light cluster, I'm almost certain the problem is inside.

[trick4]

Found a spare and it was hand delivered by someone tonight! Confirmed this has fixed the issue, so was something wrong with the LEDs/circuit in the cluster.

[sk93]

time to take the old one apart buddy