So I was driving long distance last week and all in a sudden I got the message, "Rear Tail Lamp Malfunction".

I decided to check my lamp from inside the trunk and notice the plug going to the taillight has partially melted! WTF!!
One of the pins from the taillight broke off and the plug going to the taillight melted a little bit. I have no freaking clue what happened. I don't even have any after market bulbs in my taillights. Looks like I'm going to have to possibly buy a new taillight and plug and fix it.

Anyone else have go through this before? It sucks since LCI taillights aren't cheap lol.

I'll try to get pics later since I'm gonna solder a new connection as a temporary fix...

I see your car is an '08 ...even if out of warranty and you choose to fix it on your own that failure should be brought to the attention of your BMW dealer and BMWNA.

If not that, I'd take lots of pictures and notify the NHTSA. https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/Vehicl...nt/index.xhtml

[font="'Comic Sans MS"]I've never seen an LCI taillight in person, so I'm just going on my non-lci one here... but sure you can get away with buying just the housing that holds all the bulbs that fits IN to the taillamp?[/font]
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Good idea. Thanks

Dude! I'm so glad you just mentioned that because I just checked my car and indeed it's the piece that holds all the bulbs. The plug goes into it!

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l3...3/390eddac.jpg

Now I just need to find out how much this costs.

Looks like I may have found the part I need on eBay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-e...6#ht_627wt_939

Can you take pics of the actual damage? This is probably the first time most of us have heard of this. Would be good to know it better in detail.

Sure. I'll get some later today.

Awesome, I'm glad I've helped.

BTW, I just re-read my post and realised it means garbage. https://5series.net/forums/public/st...efault/doh.gif It was meant to say:
I've never seen an LCI taillight in person, so I'm just going on my non-lci one here... but sureLY you can get away with just buying the housing that holds all the bulbs that fits IN to the taillamp?

That's a big difference lol.


Also, what part of the LCI lights means that you have to buy model year specific bulb holders!? https://5series.net/forums/public/st...ault/think.gifI know they changed the design of the lights, and that they look different, but isn't that due to an optical design WITHIN the glass of the taillamp design, and not the bulbs?
I know one difference of the LCI lights is that there are now three red side-marker LED's, but AFAIK they're wired independently to the rest of the bulbs.
I.E. surely you can get away with buying a year 2003 bulb holder, because it's gotta be the same thing, and hopefully cheaper as well?https://5series.net/forums/public/st...ault/think.gif

P.S. If by any chance you've already bought the LCI taillamp, feel free to send it my way, I could do with a nice upgrade https://5series.net/forums/public/st...ault/tease.gif

Same problem with mine but i caught it before the housing was ruined. The ground wire seemed to get hot and melt the plastic plug around the wire. I replaced the wiring junction plug that plugs into the back of the bulb holder. The BMW dealer quoted me $200 to fix it in January 2011. I spent $5. no problems so far. The new plug was green where the original part was black. Maybe an improved part.

Same thing happened to me but it melted the housing and burnt the trunk area where the light is. It ruined the taillight for good. Luckily I was in warranty and it was a 4 hour labor job. My SA also had them change my brakes LOL. I enjoyed dealer amenities while they did a $2500 job for free.

[font="'Comic Sans MS"]WOW, are dealers stupid![/font]
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[font="'Comic Sans MS"]Hopefully if enough people complain, they'll do a recall! (...and possibly give everyone free brakes lol!)[/font]