New Tail lights electrical fault - E36 1998 316i SE

Hi,

I have brought some new tail lights for my saloon E36. They are replicas
of the originals but have smoked indictor and reverse light sections
instead of the usual orange and white.

I thought this would be a very simple straight forward fit as the use the
original bulbs, bulb holders and wiring connections.

The passenger side cluster is fine, but the drivers side causes the 10amp
fuse that controls the side lights, fog lights and instrument panel, to
blow when the parking or full lights are turned on. Therefore the drivers
side rear lights and instrument panels wont work. The indicator and brake
light functions continue to work though on the drivers side.

i have now put the old lights back in, and the problem has gone away, but
before I send the faulty unit back, i wanted to check if this can be
rectified simply? The bulbs for the rear side and fog lights are still
fine, but im curious as to what is causing this short circuit to happen?

Could it be that the socket for the wiring plug has not been manufactured
correctly, and is not meeting the contact plates that pass the power to
the bulbs correctly, or a soldering fault? Or, is the bulb not meeting the
contact plates correctly on the new unit, and this is causing a short?

Any help on this would be much appreciated

Many thanks, Justin

In article outautos.com>,
TIMBERSNAKE > wrote:
> Could it be that the socket for the wiring plug has not been
> manufactured correctly, and is not meeting the contact plates that pass
> the power to the bulbs correctly, or a soldering fault? Or, is the bulb
> not meeting the contact plates correctly on the new unit, and this is
> causing a short?

It sounds like a fault in the tail light part of the fitting. A visual
inspection and checking with the continuity tester of a DVM should find it.

--
*Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

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

"TIMBERSNAKE" > wrote in message
lkaboutautos.com...
>
> Could it be that the socket for the wiring plug has not been manufactured
> correctly, and is not meeting the contact plates that pass the power to
> the bulbs correctly, or a soldering fault? Or, is the bulb not meeting the
> contact plates correctly on the new unit, and this is causing a short?
>
> Any help on this would be much appreciated
>
> Many thanks, Justin
>

Something is wrong with the assembly that causes the fuse to blow. It has a
short somewhere. Take all of the bulbs out of it, then put them in one at a
time until the fuse pops again. That is what you need to fix. You must be
capable of doing a visual inspection of the faulty unit to determine where
the fault is coming from. You might need to be able to do an electrical
inspection as well. But clearly the problem is on the assembly side, not the
car side, because the car works properly with the original assemblies
installed.

My guess is that you have a bulb socket screwed into the wrong hole. Or,
screwed intothe right hole but not aligned properly. Since the fuse blows
for the tail lights, then I have to assume the turn signal, brake lamps, and
back up lights are all set properly, and the running lamp is the problem. If
you look at the sockets and lamp holders, you will be able to see guide pins
that force you to orientate the lamps properly, and you will see metal
contacts that feed power to the lamps. If you are able to defeat teh guide
pins and set the holders into the sockets wrongly, then the contacts can
connect power directly to ground, which will blow the fuse.

"Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
...
> In article
> outautos.com>,
> TIMBERSNAKE > wrote:
>> Could it be that the socket for the wiring plug has not been
>> manufactured correctly, and is not meeting the contact plates that pass
>> the power to the bulbs correctly, or a soldering fault? Or, is the bulb
>> not meeting the contact plates correctly on the new unit, and this is
>> causing a short?
>
> It sounds like a fault in the tail light part of the fitting. A visual
> inspection and checking with the continuity tester of a DVM should find
> it.
>
> --
> *Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
>
> Dave Plowman London SW
> To e-mail, change noise into sound.

The other problem is that people behind can't see you have hit the brakes,
so they drive into the back of your car and break the lights.

In article >,
R. Mark Clayton > wrote:
> > It sounds like a fault in the tail light part of the fitting. A visual
> > inspection and checking with the continuity tester of a DVM should
> > find it.
> >

> The other problem is that people behind can't see you have hit the
> brakes, so they drive into the back of your car and break the lights.

Ah - that should sort it. You'll have to get a new unit then.

--
*I wish the buck stopped here. I could use a few.

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

"R. Mark Clayton" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Dave Plowman (News)" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In article
>> outautos.com>,
>> TIMBERSNAKE > wrote:
>>> Could it be that the socket for the wiring plug has not been
>>> manufactured correctly, and is not meeting the contact plates that pass
>>> the power to the bulbs correctly, or a soldering fault? Or, is the bulb
>>> not meeting the contact plates correctly on the new unit, and this is
>>> causing a short?
>>
>> It sounds like a fault in the tail light part of the fitting. A visual
>> inspection and checking with the continuity tester of a DVM should find
>> it.
>>
>> --
>> *Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
>>
>> Dave Plowman London SW
>> To e-mail, change noise into sound.
>
> The other problem is that people behind can't see you have hit the brakes,
> so they drive into the back of your car and break the lights.
>

That could be a problem, but that we don't know that by the description of
his problem set.

Hi,
Thanks for the advice. It seems after alot of trial and error, the far
right stop/fog light was not connecting with the unit properly. Originally
I was installing the light cluster first, then putting the bulbs in, so i
could not see exactly how they were connecting.
However, when testing the unit while it was seperate from the car, i found
that one of the pins of the bulb holder was able to slide underneath the
contact plates of the light cluster, which was causing power to ground.

So, i carefully installed the bulbs first, checking connections one by one
and could eventually confirm they all worked, then i installed the light
cluster with the bulbs already in it.

It all works now!
Thanks again for the advice

Justin

On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:44:39 -0400, "TIMBERSNAKE"
> wrote:

>So, i carefully installed the bulbs first, checking connections one by one
>and could eventually confirm they all worked, then i installed the light
>cluster with the bulbs already in it.
>
>It all works now!

Am I alone in wondering if this if going to cause you or the
subsequent owner grief when that bulb blows and needs to be replaced?