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Thread: No brake lights passenger side only - solved

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    No brake lights passenger side only - solved

    I have a 96 318ti. When i brake, only the lights on the driver side of the car lights up. This includes the front turn signal and the rear. However, the lights on the passenger side do not light up.

    Passenger side Front Signal - No voltage to any of the wires when the brake is engaged.

    Passenger rear lights (see attached picture) - voltage appears on both wires A and B, when the brake is engaged. However, the mainboard that houses the light bulbs do not show voltage to any of the bulbs.
    50E14F7C-3B51-43E2-9CF5-B92D898FC8A5.jpeg

    ** the rear lights on the driver side... only one of the wires (B i think) has voltage whent he brake is engaged, unlike on the passenger side where 2 of the wires has voltage.

    *** I've tried swapping light bulbs from each side. It does not make a difference.
    Last edited by mnguyen84; 04-25-2018 at 10:29 PM.
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  2. #2
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    You sir are in luck! I had the same stinking issue a few years ago and finally found the source. I’m willing to bet that your headlight switch is going out. A very similar issue happened to my car with my brakes and running lights, replacing the switch solved the problem and unlike most things, it’s fairly cheap.

    I sourced mine from a local junkyard (often a gold mine for misc. e36 stuff) is you’re hesitant about the switch being the issue, maybe source one from a junkyard like I did to test the solution before buying one. My junkyard sourced switch has been fine for 2 years now, I got it for $5.

    Below is the DIY I used.

    https://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tec...amp-Switch.htm


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  3. #3
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    thanks. i'll give it a try
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  4. #4
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    What/where is a connection between non working brake lights and the headlight switch?
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by shogun View Post
    What/where is a connection between non working brake lights and the headlight switch?
    I have NO idea, but I’m telling you, my car did the same thing so I searched the forums and gave it a try and it worked. At the time I had just installed new taillights, corner lights and side markers, so I was worried I had defective lights, but when I re-installed the old lights the issues where the same. I swapped light bulbs, I sourced new light bulb sockets for the taillights, same issues. The headlight switch ended up fixing it.


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  6. #6
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    Maybe one of our electr. experts has an explanation for this after checking the ETM?
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  7. #7
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    my car has a different style of headlight switch....it's a button that you pull out and push in. anyone have any suggestions on how to remove it?
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by mnguyen84 View Post
    my car has a different style of headlight switch....it's a button that you pull out and push in. anyone have any suggestions on how to remove it?
    http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=28898

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by mnguyen84 View Post
    I have a 96 318ti. When i brake, only the lights on the driver side of the car lights up. This includes the front turn signal and the rear. However, the lights on the passenger side do not light up.

    Passenger side Front Signal - No voltage to any of the wires when the brake is engaged.

    Passenger rear lights (see attached picture) - voltage appears on both wires A and B, when the brake is engaged. However, the mainboard that houses the light bulbs do not show voltage to any of the bulbs.
    50E14F7C-3B51-43E2-9CF5-B92D898FC8A5.jpeg

    ** the rear lights on the driver side... only one of the wires (B i think) has voltage whent he brake is engaged, unlike on the passenger side where 2 of the wires has voltage.

    *** I've tried swapping light bulbs from each side. It does not make a difference.



    The front turn lights should NOT light when you use the brakes. Nothing on the front should light when you use the brakes. You have two problems, the front lights come on when you use the brakes, and the rear brake lights only work on one side of the car.

    - - - Updated - - -

    You are checking voltage at the connector, a good thing to do by the way, but now you need to take the tail lamp off of the car (4 nuts) and inspect the traces where the bulb holders make contact.

    Also, do you have trouble when the lights are on, that is, does the symptom change if the lights are on or off? It the symptoms change, then you have a grounding issue.

  10. #10
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    damn i was afraid of that. also, it turns out my tail brake lights don't work at all. For some reason, when I brake, the non-brake light bulbs (driver side only) light up.....as if i'm turning on my headlights. the fuses look good.

    There's voltage in the connectors, but it doesn't always translate onto the metal plate that holds the bulbs...in the case of passenger side. There's voltage in the connector but not on the plates.

    Oddly enough, When I turn head lights...everything lights up normally. I think it's an electrical short somewhere. I'm afraid its' the headlight switch...cuz that's a $150 part.

    Quote Originally Posted by JDStrickland View Post
    The front turn lights should NOT light when you use the brakes. Nothing on the front should light when you use the brakes. You have two problems, the front lights come on when you use the brakes, and the rear brake lights only work on one side of the car.

    - - - Updated - - -

    You are checking voltage at the connector, a good thing to do by the way, but now you need to take the tail lamp off of the car (4 nuts) and inspect the traces where the bulb holders make contact.

    Also, do you have trouble when the lights are on, that is, does the symptom change if the lights are on or off? It the symptoms change, then you have a grounding issue.
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  11. #11
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    it might be the metal housing thing that holds the bulb. There's voltage to the brake wire (blue/red) but the bulbs dont light up.
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  12. #12
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    Take the tail lamps off of the car and look inside of the connectors where the wire harness is plugged in, and also trace out the metal tracks from the connector to the bulb. You have burnt pins in the the connector, either on the vehicle side of the connector or on the tail lamp side. You are describing a ground circuit that has been lost on the back of the car, so electricity is getting the needed ground from a lamp that is someplace else -- front of the car is what you described.

    If you supply a voltage, a provided ground makes the light come on. If the local ground is missing, the electricity will travel through a connected bulb and then out onto the wire harness to find another bulb that has a ground, and turn that bulb on also, even if it is not supposed to be on. You are finding a "false ground" that allows a light to work and also causes a light that should not be working to come on. If you give power to the circuit that is giving the false ground, then the light that works will stop working, and the one that was coming on in error will stop doing that.

    Your car has a connection between the trunk lid and the left fender. The wires in this harness break due to the flexing that happens when you open and close the trunk lid. A test you can do is, open the trunk lid and have a helper apply the brakes, or put a stick between the seat and the brake pedal to hold the pedal depressed, and manipulate the harness that goes to the trunk lid and see if the symptoms change. The only circuit in the trunk lid that is common to the brake lights is the license plate lights, unless you have a 'vert, then you have a commonality with the center brake lamp. CAVEAT: your ti might change that last statement, I forget how the center mounted brake lamp on that car ties in relative to the trunk lid/tail gate.

    Cranking up the Memory Machine,
    The outboard lamps are a dual filament, running lamp and brake lamp, the inboard lamps are brake only. If the ground at the ail lamp is missing, the brake pedal will put voltage to the back of the car, which will pass through the lamps and then go to the front, where it passes through the corner marker and picks up a ground, turning the front marker lamp on with the brake pedal. When you turn the lights on, the false ground path for the brake pedal is removed and the lights do not change state when the brake pedal is depressed. You have a bad ground at the back of the car.

    Unplug the wire harness from the lamp housing and pull back the cover on the wires. Look for brown (BRN) wire and observe the pin location and condition. Then look inside the lamp housing connector for the same pin position. Something is burned to a crisp.

  13. #13
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    The conclusion to this weird saga. It turns out that the car had 2 issues. 1) the single and double fuse light bulbs in the rear were mixed up. This caused a short, where my front turning signal light would light up when I brake.

    2) this the perhaps the strangest. the board that houses all the bulbs was weirdly configured where there was no pathway leading to the bulbs for the brake lights. Instead of buying 2 new board ($25 each), I just bypassed the brake light wire (blue red) to the bulb.

    Craiglist bmw...not sure how the previous owner managed to mess things up so badly.
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  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by mnguyen84 View Post
    The conclusion to this weird saga. It turns out that the car had 2 issues. 1) the single and double fuse light bulbs in the rear were mixed up. This caused a short, where my front turning signal light would light up when I brake.

    2) this the perhaps the strangest. the board that houses all the bulbs was weirdly configured where there was no pathway leading to the bulbs for the brake lights. Instead of buying 2 new board ($25 each), I just bypassed the brake light wire (blue red) to the bulb.

    Craiglist bmw...not sure how the previous owner managed to mess things up so badly.


    He could have replaced a tail lamp housing from a car with the Control Check Module with one without the CCM, or vice versa. Also, the dual filament bulb could have been put into the wrong socket, but this is not supposed to be possible unless you are the gorilla that handles luggage at the airport. The dual filament bulb has a different base, and the holder it fits into has a different notch design than the single filament holder. The bulbs fit into holders that then fit into a socket on the tail lamp. The tail lamps for models with and without the CCM are different, although I'm not sure the difference causes the issue you are facing.

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