[pablom2c]

Originally Posted by Poochie

How and what did you change in the with coding?

That sounds like a programming issue, go back to "Expert Mode" under REM and change these four parameters to "active."

The reason your light flickers when the turn signal is illuminated is because the frequency of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) is too slow. This change will eliminate that and give you working LED signals.

I used Carly to disable the bulb checks but I'm fed up with that app. I ordered a new adapter to use with Bimmercode and will try the expert mode configs maybe like you mention there is some coding missing there. But why would the indicator start working again after hitting the tail light?

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by pablom2c

I used Carly to disable the bulb checks but I'm fed up with that app. I ordered a new adapter to use with Bimmercode and will try the expert mode configs maybe like you mention there is some coding missing there. But why would the indicator start working again after hitting the tail light?

Honestly, I believe that was just a coincidence; the circuit board of which turn signal LEDs are embedded on are locked into place and is insulated from shock within the taillights, with layers of hard plastic, that knocking the outer shell really has no effect on the LEDs itself or it's power connection.

I wish I had saved all the photos I took because I had (literally) crack open a taillight just to examine its components and as you see from the photo below, the circuit board slides into a locking hardness and outer wire harness clips unto the taillight, which has no play or any gaps for water intrusion. By design, you can take a baseball bat to the taillights, crack the outer plastic open and the inner taillight LEDs would experience little or no physical shock and still function as normal.

I'm pretty sure you have a coding issue because I recognize the error you have. I experienced the same dimming/flickering turn signal prior to coding my pre-LCI incandescent settings to LEDs. The reason this happens is because the rear computer for the turn signals is sending the wrong modulation signal to the turn signals because it's assuming incandescent (not LEDs) are installed.

Try my coding suggestion, you really have nothing to lose. As long as your warranty is still active, BMW will still replace the taillights and whatever other components they feel like, an unlimited number of times until the warranty expires, if you are not satisfied with the results but I'm certain the proper coding will correct this issue.

I never tried Carly so I can't speak on that but I know BimmerCode is extremely intuitive and so worth the $30. Their customer service is also helpful and respond almost immediately, so you certainly get your money's worth IMHO.


.

[chris719]

Is the PCB easy to remove? If I have this problem I will remove the PCB and check all the resistors, the SOT-23 FET, and the larger driver or FET with tab.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by chris719

Is the PCB easy to remove? If I have this problem I will remove the PCB and check all the resistors, the SOT-23 FET, and the larger driver or FET with tab.

The taillights are glued together in different layers, you'll just ruin a perfectly good taillight trying to pry it open it, as they are not designed to be serviceable.

I cracked open mines because it was on the marketplace for over 3 months and I got tired of looking at them, so I said 'fvck it.'

There is a easier way to test the fully functionality of the taillight turn signals, the ISTA+ software has a diagnostic menu under "Exterior Light Check" to complete a full test, which bounces back any equipment faults, including resistors or ICs. But it's a waste of time because there is obviously nothing wrong with every single LCI M2/240i/Competition taillight every produced since 2017; the problem is coming from inside the house..

[Rk-d]

So it’s been several days since the REM module replacement and the tail lights are working fine.

Now, I have no doubt, this will come back again. The obvious question is why?

My suspicion is a combination of things - bad coding which is maybe permitting too low a threshold to trigger a warning after some sort of thermal, age or moisture related impact.

When the tail light and/or REM module is changed out things work again, until the same thermal/age/moisture issues eventually result in a false trigger that otherwise would not happen with proper coding.

I’m no engineer or programmer. But this is the best rationale I can come up with.

[MooMooM2]

Just had my left do it today (normally its the right). It was raining hard. But the weird thing was that the warning came up but the blink was totally fine (was not quick blinking like it did the other times), it was weird. Car off and car back on then no more problems. This is such a weird problem and so annoying that bmw just decided to do nothing about it.

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by Poochie

Honestly, I believe that was just a coincidence; the circuit board of which turn signal LEDs are embedded on are locked into place and is insulated from shock within the taillights, with layers of hard plastic, that knocking the outer shell really has no effect on the LEDs itself or it's power connection.

I give my turn light a smack every time it stops working / goes to low level flash that we all know about - and it immediately works fine, so I'm not the only one and it does effect something, it's not coincidence. and in my case (and others) this means there is some physical issue with the lamp unit.

The M2C always does it after wash or heavy rain - but no signs of moisture in the connectors or wiring loom or lamp housing.

The "fast flash" (and matching fast audio tick tick tick in the cabin) in my understanding is a programmed fault mode to alert the driver to the fault. It replicates the old days where cars had thermal flasher units that would naturally flash at a higher speed when a lamp failed and the load was reduced.

Good to see inside the lamp, I'm suprised the LEDs are wired and aren't on surface mount PCBs or tracks like my old 2009 E90 LCI rear LEDs were, on those moisture used get in and delaminate the thin flexi tracks causing LEDs to fail - but no fail warning was given on the E90.

I'm thinking to buy a set of later tail lamps anyway with the dark reverse lamp etc, so that may fix it - for a while.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by doughboy

I give my turn light a smack every time it stops working / goes to low level flash that we all know about - and it immediately works fine, so I'm not the only one and it does effect something, it's not coincidence. and in my case (and others) this means there is some physical issue with the lamp unit.

If simply tapping the taillight's outer plastic made the inner connectors and electronics susceptible to shock or vibration, then every time you hit a pothole or an undulated roads surface, your taillights would flicker from being physically volatile. You really believe a manufacture as high a caliber as BMW would be that sloppy with their lighting design. Taillights are safety component, they are naturally engineered to be insulated from outer intrusion, such as a lite impact.

The LED company that supplies the components for the taillights state that criteria was that lights had to continue to operate after a crash of under 40mph.

I know it's impossible to accept but this issue is the result of a programming error. The physical taillights are just fine. The flickering is sporadic and random, so it can mess with your assessment. Tapping on the taillights would not make any difference other than giving you a false-positive feedback.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by Poochie

I know it's impossible to accept but this issue is the result of a programming error. The physical taillights are just fine. The flickering is sporadic and random, so it can mess with your assessment.

It's clearly not. Not a single car has done this right off the lot. Majority affected are higher mileage.

I’m sure the coding bandaid works, I am not disputing that.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by chris719

It's clearly not. Not a single car has done this right off the lot. Majority affected are higher mileage.

I'm sure the coding bandaid works, I am not disputing that.

Well then, just keep swapping taillights every time you get an oil chance because obviously seems to be the solution..

Your car, your choice.. Best of luck 👍🏻

[Pilot-Z]

Originally Posted by Poochie

If simply tapping the taillight's outer plastic made the inner connectors and electronics susceptible to shock or vibration, then every time you hit a pothole or an undulated roads surface, your taillights would flicker from being physically volatile. You really believe a manufacture as high a caliber as BMW would be that sloppy with their lighting design. Taillights are safety component, they are naturally engineered to be insulated from outer intrusion, such as a lite impact.

The LED company that supplies the components for the taillights state that criteria was that lights had to continue to operate after a crash of under 40mph.

I know it's impossible to accept but this issue is the result of a programming error. The physical taillights are just fine. The flickering is sporadic and random, so it can mess with your assessment. Tapping on the taillights would not make any difference other than giving you a false-positive feedback.

100% wrong. As someone who just had this happen to me for the first time last week on my 2019, I can attest that the instant I "tapped" on the tail light it immediately went back to operating properly. I have no idea why but I know for a fact it worked.

[Rk-d]

Programming is only part of the story, IMO

Something clearly changes. Brand new - these parts work fine. Something changes and then they don’t. So there is some kind of hardware issue.

At the same time, there has to be a coding issue as well - why else would changing parameters resolve the problem with no downside?

I really think it’s a combination of errors/design flaws.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by Rk-d

Programming is only part of the story, IMO

Something clearly changes. Brand new - these parts work fine. Something changes and then they don’t. So there is some kind of hardware issue.

At the same time, there has to be a coding issue as well - why else would changing parameters resolve the problem with no downside?

I really think it’s a combination of errors/design flaws.

Yes, I believe you are correct. There is definitely something that happens over time with the cluster. I am also sure that the coding works around it. The only question is, is it forever and are there any side effects? So far, it seems like no.

[chris719]

Originally Posted by Poochie

Well then, just keep swapping taillights every time you get an oil chance because obviously seems to be the solution..

Your car, your choice.. Best of luck ����

I did say the coding fixes or masks the issue. I'm not discouraging anyone from coding this, just pointing out that there is some kind of change that happens to the assembly over time. I did mostly defend your point of view against that Anthony1s nut, remember?

I work as an EE and have designed many LED drive circuits including PWM, so I'm not going to just ignore the fact that something is experiencing a parameter shift over time. Perhaps it is benign. If this happens to me, I will tear apart the bad one and find out once and for all what component changes.

[pjfernan]

I used to have daily, the rear tail light malfunction for both taillights and since I code them about two weeks ago and have not had the notification message.
Problem solved and both turn signal are working fine.

[bmxcamel]

I finally managed to catch this issue on video. I found it very interesting that the right tail light reporting the malfunction actually still lit up, but was dimmer than the normal brightness. You can see in the film I switch to the left signal and the light is the normal brightness. A tap on the unit had no effect.

It's the only time I've been able to quickly pull over and record it, so I'm not sure if the turn signal always operates in a dimmed fashion like this or not when the error is displayed. I have not yet applied Poochie's proposed coding fix, but if this keeps up frequently I will certainly give it a whirl.

Also, in case someone notices, apologies in advance for parking in a handicapped spot. There were multiple other handicapped spots available, it was late at night, and I was only parked there for a minute or two.

[zellatc]

Hi all,

I think I discussed this topic with other members in the OG forum, so here is again my 2 cents: I also got these errors in my LCI, first on the left side and some months later on the right. So eventually, I guess all 2 series will have this issue.

I simply cleaned thoroughly (with circuit cleaner and a toothbrush) both the light sockets an the loom pins, and I didn't have an error ever since (this was almost 1 year ago). In my case, there was no corrosion or signs of overload whatsoever.

So, give it a try.

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by Pilot-Z

100% wrong. As someone who just had this happen to me for the first time last week on my 2019, I can attest that the instant I "tapped" on the tail light it immediately went back to operating properly. I have no idea why but I know for a fact it worked.

I've said before, as others say below, there's a physcial issue the progresses with these lights, maybe exacerbated by some not ideal REM coding.

Yes this coding helps to mask the issue when it arises, but as you then lose lamp fail warnings I put my coding back to OE, so when it fails I just jump out and give it a tap, it's fine for another week or two - more in the summer.

[Poochie]

Originally Posted by doughboy

I've said before, as others say below, there's a physcial issue the progresses with these lights, maybe exacerbated by some not ideal REM coding.

Yes this coding helps to mask the issue when it arises, but as you then lose lamp fail warnings I put my coding back to OE, so when it fails I just jump out and give it a tap, it's fine for another week or two - more in the summer.

So when you see someone on the side of the road beating their taillights like a bongo, they are not crazy, they are simply trying to fix it..

All your guys with this issues shouldn't bother resolving it, you should instead just start a band.. 😂

…J/k…

[MooMooM2]

ahahah I need to go play bongo in mine, its been really bad, every sing time this week so far and then goes away for like a 10 minutes and then back. Usually right side but I had the left do it once last week so that will probably start doing it too, I need to code it out

[pablom2c]

Originally Posted by Poochie

Honestly, I believe that was just a coincidence; the circuit board of which turn signal LEDs are embedded on are locked into place and is insulated from shock within the taillights, with layers of hard plastic, that knocking the outer shell really has no effect on the LEDs itself or it's power connection.

I wish I had saved all the photos I took because I had (literally) crack open a taillight just to examine its components and as you see from the photo below, the circuit board slides into a locking hardness and outer wire harness clips unto the taillight, which has no play or any gaps for water intrusion. By design, you can take a baseball bat to the taillights, crack the outer plastic open and the inner taillight LEDs would experience little or no physical shock and still function as normal.

I'm pretty sure you have a coding issue because I recognize the error you have. I experienced the same dimming/flickering turn signal prior to coding my pre-LCI incandescent settings to LEDs. The reason this happens is because the rear computer for the turn signals is sending the wrong modulation signal to the turn signals because it's assuming incandescent (not LEDs) are installed.

Try my coding suggestion, you really have nothing to lose. As long as your warranty is still active, BMW will still replace the taillights and whatever other components they feel like, an unlimited number of times until the warranty expires, if you are not satisfied with the results but I'm certain the proper coding will correct this issue.

I never tried Carly so I can't speak on that but I know BimmerCode is extremely intuitive and so worth the $30. Their customer service is also helpful and respond almost immediately, so you certainly get your money's worth IMHO.


.

Just did your programming with Bimmercode. The first 2 were not active and the last 2 were already set to active apparently by Carly from previous programming. Let's see how it goes but when I closed the car the indicator was dim again and guess what, I tapped it and it started working again :

Next time if it fails again I will record it !

[pablom2c]

It happened again this morning and I recorded it, coding is done as indicated previously.

[IMG][/IMG]