New guy with e39 celis taillight swap questions?!

[nfbe39]

Hey all, so I'm new to this forum and I am in the middle of doing the Celis retrofit on my August of 1999, E39. So I've gotten the lights to fit pretty well, could use a little more work on the fitment, but I'm having an issue with the seal between the taillight bucket and the tail light itself. I tightened everything down and to be safe, I hosed down the taillight assembly in the back of the car and found that water was leaking into the trunk. I had to "massage" the taillight bucket a little bit here and there to get everything to fit, but I cannot keep the water from coming in. I am thinking of running some really good RTV or silicone around the light to keep the water/moisture out. Has anyone else had the same issue or experience this, if so please let me know and give me some insight! Thanks!

Nik

[hyjaxe]

I ran into the same problem as well, I used 3M Black weatherstrip and gasket adhesive really strong stuff. Another thing you might want to try is using the seals from the older tails to see if it will sit better. Some have tried this with success.

[easymoney]

Search and you'll find the answer and solutions to your inquiries. Then if you ran into some more problems regarding why it's not functioning properly PM RocketSurgeon about programming. I just did the retrofit very recently and he solved my problems.

[Nicks1k]

Hi Nik,

This is what I did and haven't got any water in the trunk since install. I took the rubber seals off the original tailights and put it between the new headlight seal and the car. Hope that helps.

[tmvE39E53Z32TT]

Buy new rubber seals. They are inexpensive.
FYI: You'll need to have at least LCM III and coding for them to work if you don't have the ballasts.

[BimmerBreaker]

LCM III B to be specific

[nfbe39]

Awesome thank you! I'm just desperate at this point to get them to seal properly

- - - Updated - - -

Along with the new lcm, which one should I buy? And then how do I go about having it programmed?? Thanks guys!

[BimmerBreaker]

Buy an LCM III B, any decent BMW mechanic worth their weight should be able to code it for you. BMW-specific mechanics will definitely be able to.

[240sxguy]

Use 3m strip caulk to seal the tails into the car. It's butyl rubber in a strip form. I had a leaker too and used this and 3 years later still dry.