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BMW Rear Light Fix

Posted by Malc on December 8, 2021
Posted in: Misc. Tagged: BMW, F32.

My car has been intermittently playing the brake / indicator failure warning game for the last 6 months, but the bulbs were actually functioning fine. Then in the last 2 weeks, the warnings become permanent and the lights had actually stopped working this time.

Fixed it this weekend. Unfortunately the easy fix, 1 pin swap out, wasn’t viable as the remains of the disintegrated pin from the bulb holder was stuck in the connector, meaning it couldn’t be released from the plastic plug body. Maybe if you catch it when the error is intermittent, you’d get away with just replacing the bulb holder and 1 pin in the plug.

Mine ended up needing the new plug body, re-used the other 3 original female pins with 1 new pin from the repair kit and the new bulb holder.

One new 4 series bulb holder (left rear)
Plug repair / replacement kit; 1 x plug body, 6 x female pins, 7 x green grommets, 4 x blue bungs
Purple plastic slider locks the pins, pushing the little triangle in with a fine screwdriver or pick should release the pins
Unless the remains of the bulb holder male pin is still stuck in the plug’s female pin, in which case it’s a whole plug replacement needed
Stripped that a bit too far, really only needs 4-5mm exposed wire, definitely not the inch or so that half the folk on YouTube seem to prefer! Gave it a slight trim before crimping
One knackered bulb holder, 3rd pin in from the left is gone. Mostly inside the female pin on the loom plug
New bulb holder with correct complement of pins

How to, if you fancy a go yourself.

https://youtu.be/jFLu_xmG90Y

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