e89 tail light issue

[meatball]

Hi, all. Haven't been able to find anything on this, so hoping you have some thoughts.

Background - left tail light is not functioning properly. Brake light is fine, but blinker appears to have lost a bulb. Found a lot of water in the housing back in December when I tinted the tail lights.

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4

You can see a few photos with brake applied vs not applied and blinker on/off. It looks like the leftmost three lights on the LED row on the bottom are out. I suppose that means there are a series of bulbs and one blew? Is it possible this could be an electrical issue (wiring, I mean)? I suspect this is unlikely, but figured I would ask anyway.

[paris1]

Photo links are bad...

[meatball]

Originally Posted by paris1

Photo links are bad...

should be fixed now

[Mick70]

What is your car's build date? Or did you have a slight accident?

Water in the taillights was a common issue with earlier bulid dates (~2009-2010, I believe). Too tight fitting of the lights caused high stress cracks in their enclosure, allowing condensation water into the lights.

Most of these cases have been fixed under warranty or as a gesture of goodwill in the EU, it appears that there was even a BMW PUMA entry on this (Product and Measures Management Aftersales):
http://bit.ly/1YV6xZi
http://bit.ly/1YV6rkD

However, I do not know BMW's approach in the US.

[bigendbob]

Water ingress is due to the poor design of the seal on the back of the lights.
We have done this to death on the UK forum.
The crack issue is separate.
Remove light, take apart, dry out, glue seal back in and it's cover and reassemble.
Indicator should recover when dried out.

[meatball]

Originally Posted by bigendbob

Water ingress is due to the poor design of the seal on the back of the lights.
We have done this to death on the UK forum.
The crack issue is separate.
Remove light, take apart, dry out, glue seal back in and it's cover and reassemble.
Indicator should recover when dried out.

Thanks Mick and Bigendbob. Ill see if this solution helps, then will start bothering dealers.

Additionally, here's a video that shows some odd flickering when locking/unlocking in case this rings a bell for anyone. Focus on the flickering of the bottom row. The tail light flickering as it turns off is just a camera effect.

Video Link

[BMWZ4RIDER]

Search this site for the Many posts on this topic.

I had mine changed under warranty as both rear tail lights had failed seals causing condersation.

[ManiacGT]

Originally Posted by BMWZ4RIDER

Search this site for the Many posts on this topic.

I had mine changed under warranty as both rear tail lights had failed seals causing condersation.

This. I'm amazed OP that you couldn't find any topics on this as its a widely known issue...