1993 BMW325 IS - Brake Light Electrical System

I just bought a '93 235 IS and the following warning message was diaplayed
"Brake Light Electrical System - Chck your owners manual". Since I am the
3rd owner of this car, I do not have the owners manual, but I did check the
brake lights and they do all work, any suggestions?

"FSCHW" > wrote in message
lkaboutautos.com...
> I just bought a '93 235 IS and the following warning message was diaplayed
> "Brake Light Electrical System - Chck your owners manual". Since I am the
> 3rd owner of this car, I do not have the owners manual, but I did check
the
> brake lights and they do all work, any suggestions?

Hi,
I have the same problem with my 1993' 325IS. I've already changed the 4
pole brake switch on the dealer's suggestion ). I've changed ALL of
the bulbs. No luck. I've heard that the monitoring systems check the
impedance of the cicruits. My aftermarket Viper alarm may be setting it off
as it is tapped into the circuit right after the brake light switch. So I'm
going back to my local audio shop to have then temporarily disconnect the
alarm so I can check it out. Ya know?

Let me know if you find anything.
Good Luck!
Karl

In article <S4thd.2728$931.1128@lakeread01>,
Network Admin > wrote:
> My aftermarket Viper alarm may be setting it off
> as it is tapped into the circuit right after the brake light switch.

Why there?

--
*Caution: I drive like you do.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
...
> In article <S4thd.2728$931.1128@lakeread01>,
> Network Admin > wrote:
> > My aftermarket Viper alarm may be setting it off
> > as it is tapped into the circuit right after the brake light switch.
>
> Why there?
>
> Dave Plowman London SW

Dave,
I don't have the foggiest idea why they tapped into the circuit there
(Lazy?). I had the BMW technicians remove the connections, re-solder the
wires, etc, It made no difference on the error display.
They said I must have a burnt spot on the circuit rings in my brake light
housing. Now I just need to figure out which it is.

Ciao,
Karl

On Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:19:45 -0600, Network Admin wrote:

>
> "Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In article <S4thd.2728$931.1128@lakeread01>,
>> Network Admin > wrote:
>> > My aftermarket Viper alarm may be setting it off as it is tapped into
>> > the circuit right after the brake light switch.
>>
>> Why there?
>>
>> Dave Plowman London SW
>
> Dave,
> I don't have the foggiest idea why they tapped into the circuit there
> (Lazy?). I had the BMW technicians remove the connections, re-solder the
> wires, etc, It made no difference on the error display.
> They said I must have a burnt spot on the circuit rings in my brake
> light
> housing. Now I just need to figure out which it is.
>
A high resistance contact in the light housing could be the culprit. Most
of the time a visual inspection of the bulb holder and receptacle will
tell you if that's where the problem is. And one cause of this is
corrosion of the contacts. I'd guess that yours are similar to what was on
my '90 735i which were brass plated steel. If water gets into the contacts
it will corrode them and cause this sort of failure.

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

>I just bought a '93 235 IS and the following warning message was diaplayed
>"Brake Light Electrical System - Chck your owners manual"

I just bought a 1989 735i and I am getting the exact same message and my brake
lights work. How wierd is that ?
Milo- "If you can dilute it, shoot it"

The next day when we went to use the car, the message was gone and hasn't
come back. The problem went away all by itself. Must have been something
loose.

The next day when we went to use the car, the message was gone and hasn't
come back. The problem went away all by itself. Must have been something
loose. However, now the backup lights don't work. Took it to my local
mechanic and he said it's the switch on the transmission, but none of his
dealers had an aftermarket replacement and BMW would have to order it.

>The next day when we went to use the car, the message was gone and hasn't
>come back.

I replied to your original post w/ the same issue w/ my 735i. The
problem went away for me also, but comes back every other day or so.


Milo- "If you can dilute it, shoot it"

I have the identical problem on a '95 325iS. After a month or so the
back-up lights started working again, intermittantly at first, now,
after two or so weeks, most of the time.


In article >, BD U100 Icc
> wrote:

> >The next day when we went to use the car, the message was gone and hasn't
> >come back.
>
> I replied to your original post w/ the same issue w/ my 735i. The
> problem went away for me also, but comes back every other day or so.
>
>
> Milo- "If you can dilute it, shoot it"