Brake Lights

Just purchsed 1998 740IL 58,000 lbs - Seem to be having a problem with the right rear brake light. It works sometimes then I get error message that to check brake light/check rear lights and the brake light is nto workong on the left side then it will start working again . Part of the purchase agreement witht he dealer was to replace the right rear tailight as it had a crack in it - they tell me it is working fine.

Any ideas?

More than likely the sockets are coroded due to the lens being cracked.When they replaced it they did not clean it out.
This is an easy task clean the sockets out with an erasure or fine 0000 steal wool use an some electrical contact cleaner and the some dielectric grease . New bulbs would not hurt.

I hope this works.

Mark

or better yet, just buy new bulb sockets. they are cheap. The ones on the car, if you look closely have bad or melted/burnt contacts which happens after a few years.

this is a real common problem on many >'80 BMW's but has gotten much worse since the E36 intro. as 'bigsix' & 'shon' have said the sockets and lamp conductor plates can burn so badly they won't come apart [ sometimes due to the wrong bulb ! ]
they may have replaced the lamp but not the sockets..................................jb.

Had the same problem with the brake lights on my '86 528e. I began using high-intensity halogen bulbs specifically designed for brake lights (since the standard bulbs were ridiculously dim--no brighter than ordinary taillights).

In that car at least, the metal flanges on the sockets had to contact metal strips that lined the back of the taillight assembly. Some of these strips were loose, and the flanges on the brake light socket appeared almost melted or burned off (charred).

Ultimately, I replaced the offending taillight assembly with a new [used] one for $75 and the problem was fixed. I still have the old assembly in my room--it makes a nice decorative piece :p !

I had a similar situation with my '88 735. I found that the metal contacts on the bulb holder were slightly deformed. I bent them out so they made tighter contact with the housing and the problem was taken care of. This worked for me...hope it helps.