'95 M3 - Front and Rear running lights inoperable (new bulbs - new fuses) solved

[JayhawkM3]

My 1995 M3 - US - does not have the function of front or rear running lights on the Driver's side only. I have opened up the driver corner light and rear tail light - replaced the bulbs - replaced ALL fuses across the car in any position that was having trouble after purchasing it a few days ago...I hilariously broke my test light earlier today so I can't test sockets at the moment.

Anyone else have any insight on why the runners on just the one side wouldn't work? The rest of the lights work across the board on the entire car...just those two. I can't for the life of me figure out why both would be affected by a single point of failure...unless they both just coincidentally stopped working at the same time. Do they both run off a single set of wires that maybe go to tail-light first...then headlight? Or vice-versa...or is there a common failure point? Thank you all for looking. Your wisdom is appreciated!

Jesse

[JayhawkM3]

Bump


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[AJLM34A]

Left and right lights are separate circuits;

http://wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/19...g%20Manual.pdf

[JayhawkM3]

Left and right lights are separate circuits;

http://wedophones.com/Manuals/BMW/19...g%20Manual.pdf

Wow! Thanks man; looks like I need to get a full ream ready tomorrow morning...excellent resource! I'll dig into that!

Jesse


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[Milney325]

Check the trunk wiring, as I recently had similar issues with my lights and that ended up being the culprit. Plenty of info on here about that issue if you look around.

[JayhawkM3]

Thank you Milney; I'll look at that. I have read quite a bit about checking that pass-through grommet in the trunk lid. I've had too many other things to get going but will hop into that this weekend.

[thewingman]

i have convertible and it had a leak i didnt know about, got very wet under the carpet. did some weird things like make one of my blinkers not work. fixed the leak and dried it out and all worked good again. have no idea whats under there that would effect a blinker -- or maybe running lights, so just throwin it out there.

[JayhawkM3]

i have convertible and it had a leak i didnt know about, got very wet under the carpet. did some weird things like make one of my blinkers not work. fixed the leak and dried it out and all worked good again. have no idea whats under there that would effect a blinker -- or maybe running lights, so just throwin it out there.

Actually got rain on it for the first time yesterday and discovered a leak in the drivers a-pillar...guessing it's the sunroof drain. Will get in there tomorrow but I don't know if any of that wiring runs up there or not. Good point made; appreciate it!


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[JayhawkM3]

I am at a loss. Any other suggestions would be extremely helpful. Pulled both grommets out and spliced the entire way, pulling down and up the prospective way as far as I could on the wires and I am not seeing any issues at all with any of these wires… In fact they look to be in great condition. Bulbs are good, fuses are good, I am getting a rear tail failure and low beam failure… Though my low beams in the front are working, it is the corner that isn't. It is functioning as a turn signal off the same bulb, but that chain is clearly not getting Power when indicated as running lights to the front or rear on the left. I read somewhere about the actual switch inside… Because my vent above it is in bad shape I ordered a new one and it should be in tomorrow. After that; I am out of options. I looked over the wiring schematic posted earlier...but don't even know where to start. I grew up on Chevy trucks...and though I can take those sob's down to bare frame and back up...I don't know where to even begin with a BMW coupe.



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[JayhawkM3]

I did just notice someone has clearly taped up this bunch just inside the trunk (down inside/behind the tail light cover on that side). I'll break that open later...does anyone know which color wire is the ground and power for the passenger side by chance?






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[thewingman]

when i had that leak, it also took out my radio. when i got it all dried out, thats one thing that didnt come back on. it wasnt getting power to the radio or the factory amp behind the rear seat but the fuse was hot. so i looked up the color of the wire in the bentley manual, and found the wire coming in under the dash. then, with a test light, i poked a hole in the wire to see if it was hot. it was. then i poked another hole close to the amp. not hot. i followed the wire the best i could from each direction, poking every now and then till i found the short. by doing this, i did find the problem, but now i had little holes here and there. i taped all the holes and/or used shrink wrap to cover them. idk if there is a better way to do it, but obviously any little open hole can turn into a new short down the road, so make sure to be very selective and systematic with the pokes!

[JayhawkM3]

You'd think someone on the whole of the internet would know which of those 8 wires runs the front and rear parking lights on that side... I am not super interested in gouging all of them a bunch of times...there has to be a simple way of finding the fail point. It's amazing to me that this issue is that unique.


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[thewingman]

cant u just take the light off and see what color the wire is?

[AJLM34A]

You'd think someone on the whole of the internet would know which of those 8 wires runs the front and rear parking lights on that side... I am not super interested in gouging all of them a bunch of times...there has to be a simple way of finding the fail point. It's amazing to me that this issue is that unique.

Someone did, me.

Click that link for the wire diagram, read through the table of contents, 6314.0.00 is for parking lights, double click that number, it will advance you to that section. The first page in that section, shows you the left and right outputs fro the switch, Gr/Vi is the left, gray/purple. Does it have check control? Page 6314.0.01 shows the left tail light connector X319, and it will be either pins 2&3 with CC, or pin 3 only without CC.

[JayhawkM3]

Someone did, me.

Click that link for the wire diagram, read through the table of contents, 6314.0.00 is for parking lights, double click that number, it will advance you to that section. The first page in that section, shows you the left and right outputs fro the switch, Gr/Vi is the left, gray/purple. Does it have check control? Page 6314.0.01 shows the left tail light connector X319, and it will be either pins 2&3 with CC, or pin 3 only without CC.

Oh wow: my apologies. I've been using the Tapatalk app and it got lost in advertising. Thank you SO much. I'm going to switch out the headlight switch as a few others resolved the same issue with one...then get into that wiring if necessary.

Jesse




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- - - Updated - - -

And I'm sorry; first M3. What is Check Control? Is that the diagnostics out of the 11-button OBC?

[JayhawkM3]

Just got my new headlight switch; will put it in tonight and take a look… Craziest thing though; I couldn't figure out what the little knob was on the back… Pulled it out and realized for the first time that there is a lightbulb in there! Ha ha! I thought that was just a BMW fail not putting back lights in the headlamp control.


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[JayhawkM3]

Amazingly...the new headlight switch DID immediately resolve the front drivers running/parking/corner lamp outage. Popped right on! The bulb or a connection in the newly discovered "backlight" did not work; that's easy enough to remedy...still no tail light. Now that I know it isn't a chained issue: I can delegate my attention to only the rear socket, housing, or wiring rather than the length of the car.

I was feeling a little discouraged yesterday; not going to lie. Going from a lifetime of full-size Chevy trucks to finally acquiring my literal dream car... I had no prior knowledge of beyond simple visual inspection and clear logic... it was like I woke up last weekend in a different country that speaks a language I've never heard. Now I am ready to really crack into this son of a gun. Thanks for all the snappy info so far: appreciate coming to a new forum and finding that it's active and engaging.


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[JayhawkM3]

Got it...completely ridiculous. After test lighting all wiring, socket, multiple bulbs, and still not having an answer I found it:

For some reason (not corrosion...not "loose"...) after about ten times swapping the socket they came on. It looks like the ground connection must have been just loose enough that it was rattling on and off. New socket = solved!


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[LockDots]

The joys of older cars