2012 E89 Tail Light Bulb Question...

cwoav8r · 07-30-2019, 06:51 PM

Just purchased a 2012 E89 sDrive35is and have a failure indication for the left rear brake light. There are three replaceable bulbs in each taillight and according to REALOEM there are 2 H21W bulbs and 4 W16W bulbs.

I also found in the owners manual:
Outer Brake Lamp, Backup Lamp: W16W
Inner Brake Lamp: H21W

I am confused because I have 4 H21W and 2 W16W. The outer and inner brake are H21W and the reverse is a W16W. The inner on the left side is the one that is bad because apparently it got hot enough to melt the housing and allowed the bulb to back away from the contact.

I wonder if someone changed the outer bulb housings to accept the wrong bulb... Can you guys let me know what inner brake light bulbs you have in your Zs?

RobbiZ4 · 08-02-2019, 11:30 AM

Here you can see some pics of the tail light and the bulbs.

https://www.zroadster.com/forum/thre...0/post-2475243

Outer brake = fog light = H21W, 21W (black)
Inner brake & reverse light = W16W, 16W (white)

cwoav8r · 08-02-2019, 12:47 PM

Thanks for that link! My inner bulbs are definetly H21Ws with the black bulb housings... someone must have changed them after delivery. I tried several different LED bulbs and so far I have not been able to find anything as bright or brighter than the halogens. My X5 on the other hand was a huge difference with LEDs. I'll put up a detailed post in a few days for anyone interested to include bulbs I found for the Angel Eyes that absolutely rock... They are almost too bright.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

RobbiZ4 · 08-02-2019, 01:55 PM

LED bulbs for the tail lights?
Or are you mixing ab tail and front topics?

For the angel eyes on the front you will find lots of recommendations as well as pics on the same German ZRoadster forum.

Just copy a link of a thread and put it into translate.google.com and you will get a nearly perfect translation!

And never forget to replace the two salmon relais (~35€) to avoid a damage of the very expensive hydraulic pump (~3.000€) !!
Details and more technical basics in the same forum.

Winks337 · 07-29-2020, 06:15 AM

When coding, the outer brake lights are called "Rear fog lights". You have to disable the voltage monitoring in order to eliminate the flicker and bulb error when using LED's.

07-30-2019, 06:51 PM	#1
cwoav8r Registered 1 Rep 2 Posts Drives: sDrive35is Join Date: Jul 2019 Location: Naples, FL iTrader: (0) Garage List 2012 Z4 sDrive35is [0.00] 2013 X5 xDrive35i [0.00]	2012 E89 Tail Light Bulb Question... Just purchased a 2012 E89 sDrive35is and have a failure indication for the left rear brake light. There are three replaceable bulbs in each taillight and according to REALOEM there are 2 H21W bulbs and 4 W16W bulbs. I also found in the owners manual: Outer Brake Lamp, Backup Lamp: W16W Inner Brake Lamp: H21W I am confused because I have 4 H21W and 2 W16W. The outer and inner brake are H21W and the reverse is a W16W. The inner on the left side is the one that is bad because apparently it got hot enough to melt the housing and allowed the bulb to back away from the contact. I wonder if someone changed the outer bulb housings to accept the wrong bulb... Can you guys let me know what inner brake light bulbs you have in your Zs? Last edited by cwoav8r; 07-30-2019 at 07:00 PM.. Reason: Added Content
	Appreciate 0 Tweet Quote

08-02-2019, 11:30 AM	#2
RobbiZ4 Call me "Dr. Bob" 126 Rep 400 Posts Drives: BMW Z4 E89 sDrive 30i Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Munich, Bavaria (Home of BMW) iTrader: (0)	Here you can see some pics of the tail light and the bulbs. https://www.zroadster.com/forum/thre...0/post-2475243 Outer brake = fog light = H21W, 21W (black) Inner brake & reverse light = W16W, 16W (white) Last edited by RobbiZ4; 08-02-2019 at 11:52 AM..
	Appreciate 0 Quote

08-02-2019, 12:47 PM	#3
cwoav8r Registered 1 Rep 2 Posts Drives: sDrive35is Join Date: Jul 2019 Location: Naples, FL iTrader: (0) Garage List 2012 Z4 sDrive35is [0.00] 2013 X5 xDrive35i [0.00]	Thanks for that link! My inner bulbs are definetly H21Ws with the black bulb housings... someone must have changed them after delivery. I tried several different LED bulbs and so far I have not been able to find anything as bright or brighter than the halogens. My X5 on the other hand was a huge difference with LEDs. I'll put up a detailed post in a few days for anyone interested to include bulbs I found for the Angel Eyes that absolutely rock... They are almost too bright. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
	Appreciate 0 Quote

08-02-2019, 01:55 PM	#4
RobbiZ4 Call me "Dr. Bob" 126 Rep 400 Posts Drives: BMW Z4 E89 sDrive 30i Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Munich, Bavaria (Home of BMW) iTrader: (0)	LED bulbs for the tail lights? Or are you mixing ab tail and front topics? For the angel eyes on the front you will find lots of recommendations as well as pics on the same German ZRoadster forum. Just copy a link of a thread and put it into translate.google.com and you will get a nearly perfect translation! And never forget to replace the two salmon relais (~35€) to avoid a damage of the very expensive hydraulic pump (~3.000€) !! Details and more technical basics in the same forum.
	Appreciate 0 Quote

07-29-2020, 06:15 AM	#5
Winks337 New Member 0 Rep 8 Posts Drives: 2015 M4 Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: Waterloo, ON iTrader: (0)	When coding, the outer brake lights are called "Rear fog lights". You have to disable the voltage monitoring in order to eliminate the flicker and bulb error when using LED's.
	Appreciate 0 Quote