[AlpsRider]

Sort of realated...Almost everytime I do a jet wash near the passenger door handle my passenger seat goes all the way back to the rear seats by itself. One day I didn't put it back up. When I came home I had some splainin' to do.

[bobert]

Originally Posted by tranck

Getting mine changed out on Monday - happens after a wash generally - which I did yesterday and the error message stayed on the iDrive for half the day.

Same here (Monday) - I just KNEW they were going to go the "replace the tail light" route - I told them it was likely a waste of time.

Also, the dealer confirmed that the TSB (or SIB or whatever they call them in BMW-land) is STILL inexplicably only for 2016 & 2017 model years - incredible that BMW never added 2018 to it since it's apparently so common (even if we only have anecdotal evidence around here).

[Bewstd]

Took my new to me (less than a week) 2018 into dealer for left turn signal fault. They are replacing both right now, mine would pop up every other day

[stulio2181]

Just had both replaced on my '18 with 24k miles.

[TMR013]

Took mine in for oil service. Told my SA that I was getting the error message. They took the light out and their determination was a kinked wire was causing it. Said they fixed, have not gotten the error message again yet.

[jmh600cbr]

Originally Posted by stulio2181

Just had both replaced on my '18 with 24k miles.

Same exact experience for me

[VisualEcho]

Dealer just replaced my right side tail lamp assembly. 2018 with 10,000 miles.

[Dec540]

I had both of mine replaced at 15,000kms. I had intermittent issues on the right side for a couple of months and the left one triggered the error once. Thankfully the dealership were good about replacing both.

[windnsea00]

2018 M2 with 27k miles, just had the RR taillight replaced.

[hz101]

Got the right one replaced a few weeks ago. Now having issues with the left one lol. Annoying, but better get this out of the way now than when the warranty runs out.

[TMR013]

Originally Posted by TMR013

Took mine in for oil service. Told my SA that I was getting the error message. They took the light out and their determination was a kinked wire was causing it. Said they fixed, have not gotten the error message again yet.

It's come back. And it looks like the water explanation must be correct. It was the day after I washed it with a pressure washer.

[doughboy]

Drop the light off, Get some silicone grease and pack the connector with it. That will keep moisture out.

Make sure you dry the connector out first.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by TMR013

It's come back. And it looks like the water explanation must be correct. It was the day after I washed it with a pressure washer.

It's not liquid intrusion, water is a poor conductor of electricity and the harness is insulated from seepage (see below), so it makes little sense that would cause the issue but dabbing a little dielectric grease won't hurt.

An overloaded ground polarity is the root cause of this problem but do whatever you feel works for you.

[amancuso]

Originally Posted by Poochie

It's not liquid intrusion, water is a poor conductor of electricity and the harness is insulated from seepage (see below), so it makes little sense that would cause the issue but dabbing a little dielectric grease won't hurt.

An overloaded ground polarity is the root cause of this problem but do whatever you feel works for you.

In that video, he split the ground. However, it was pretty inelegant to remove the pin and drill the hole to insert the aftermarket spade connector. Why didn't he just crimp on another factory pin and insert it into the factory plug?

[doughboy]

Speaking as an electrical engineer of 30yrs exp water ingress into low voltage DC control circuits is a big problem. In this case the information from the vehicle diagnostics is not conclusive as to the fault.

Yes pure water is an insulator but not dirty water.

Not just the water itself but the range of dissolved contaminants it brings with it. The connector is only lightly moisture proofed and it sits in the direct path of roof and rear window drainage water full of road dirt, salts and cleaning chemicals etc.

Both my connectors were full of dirty water.

Anyway, the contaminants running between the pins can act as a parallel path between signal(s) and ground. This will decrease circuit resistance and increase signal driver load current as seen by the lighting control module, the lighting control module will detect this and flag a fault.

The software flashes the turn light at higher speed to mimic the operation of an old thermal flasher to attract the drivers attention.

Equally when the connector dries out the resulting pin corrosion from salt deposits etc can cause high resistance joints that will decrease signal current and set off the same fault trigger.

If you find burned or overloaded wiring or pins then that is a different issue of course.

I can only comment from experience and from the 100% success on my own car with stopping this fault.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by amancuso

In that video, he split the ground. However, it was pretty inelegant to remove the pin and drill the hole to insert the aftermarket spade connector. Why didn't he just crimp on another factory pin and insert it into the factory plug?

There are couple of ways to supplement the ground, he obviously went a unique route but I in the name of simplicity, I just spliced into the original ground wire and tapped unto the vehicles's chassis. Either method produces the same result.

In the last 2 years, I did not have one single issue with rapid flashing.

The reason for this issue is the mentioned lack of ground polarity and also because although the vehicle's REM (lights controller) was originally designed for incandescent bulbs, which has a "hot/cold" check for the bulbs polarity to determine a fault, BMW still left on the "hot" check for the new LED turns signals.

LEDs draws much less electric current than incandescent, so when there is a lack of ground, the vehicle assumes there is a defect, as it was design do for incandescent lights, since the draw is so much lower with LEDs, thus resulting in a telltale rapid flashing turn signal.

LEDs for the turn signals are not steady burning, it only draws a momentary spark of electricity (see below), so that quick flicker, with the lack of ground, causes a momentary short, which the system interprets as a fault, thus, rapid flashing to indicate such.

Adding ground polarity and possible removing the "warm" check VIA coding will guarantee resolve this issue.


.

[st-rshM240i]

Mine has been giving me trouble sporadically. I ignored it for a year since I only drive the car on weekends.
Finally got sick of it and took off the light assembly a couple of weeks ago. I found the connector was loose and it has also a small clip to keep it in place which was not fastened. I put everything back tight the way it should be and no problem since. It actually seems like the tooling at the factory needs to be re-calibrated. So many 2 series with the same problem??

[silverado]

I had an issue with intermittent malfunction of the left turn signal (it blinks so fast and I get an error displayed in the iDrive and the dashboard). The issue would immediately go away the second time I would try it. Took it in for service and the dealer said that the whole left rear light assembly had to be replaced because there was corrosion inside it and evidence of water having leaked into it. They said it must have been a tiny hole... (a manufacturing defect?).

Incidentally, the second reason for taking the car in were scratchy noises form the right rear speaker. This was the second time I take it in for this issue and they had replaced the RR speaker that time. This time they said the amplifier had to be replaced but that the damage was caused by water as well! They kept the car for 4 days and did many water leak tests. Their theory was that the tree leafs that that had accumulated around the RIM of the trunk were the reason because they were keeping the water from draining normally.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by silverado

Took it in for service and the dealer said that the whole left rear light assembly had to be replaced because there was corrosion inside it and evidence of water having leaked into it. They said it must have been a tiny hole... (a manufacturing defect?).

By design, It's virtually impossible for water to seep into the taillights or harness, even if you douse it with liquid, especially if you can't see any droplets from the outside but I guess they have to justify why they're replacing it, in order to get reimbursed by BMW.

[Karmic Man]

Don't worry about twiddling with wires if your car is under warranty.

There is already a case with BMW on this fault. Go straight to your dealer and have them replace your taillights! I got mine replaced and no fault since.

[Anthony1s]

Originally Posted by Karmic Man

There is already a case with BMW on this fault.

There is? Last time I was there there wasn't anything like that, so the dealer wouldn't do anything for me. Do you have the service bulletin?

[Karmic Man]

Originally Posted by Anthony1s

There is? Last time I was there there wasn't anything like that, so the dealer wouldn't do anything for me. Do you have the service bulletin?

When did you go to the dealer?

There should be one now and press them to look into it if they are lazy