- Joined
- Nov 25, 2012
- Points
- 178
- Location
- Newport, South Wales,UK
- Model of Z
- Z3 M43 1.8 (1999) and Z4 E85 2.5 (2003)
Car developed an issue with the inner left indicator bulb being on when sidelights switched on, code scan revealed no codes for lights and all bulbs front and back and side repeaters all lit ok.
Solved my indicator inner bulb being lit today.
Took the wheel off to get a better look and access to the back of the headlight, checked all bulbs and holders, all were good.
Then took a closer look at the bundle of wires in there and once some of the wires were pulled from the small cut out in the plastic body that supports some of the wires I found the blue, white and brown wires had melted together. Using a pick I separated the wires and found the only casualties were the blue wire and white wire where bare copper was showing in two places. Once separated the indicator light that was staying on went out so looks like the cause was a short from one of the other melted wires that fed the indicator bulb and caused it to stay on as opposed to a bulb out warning function being the cause.
Managed to use tape to insulate the damage, would have used heatshrink but its a bit tight and not much slack on the blue wire to do a solder joint in the area of the damaged outer cover of the wire. Recoded the bulb out warning using BMW Scanner 1.4 and then did a full test of all lights and didn't get any bulb out codes. I had considered using some electrical insulation paint on the damaged wire but local Halfrauds didnt have any. May get some and revisit the damaged wire again and try that paint repair on it. I did ensure all the wires are separated in there just in case there is another heat build up, I didn't tuck them into the plastic cut out support, its a bit small for the amount of wires that should go in there and may have been the cause of the damage occurring in the first place since that showed signs of heat build up.
The damaged blue wire is bottom right in the picture.
Solved my indicator inner bulb being lit today.
Took the wheel off to get a better look and access to the back of the headlight, checked all bulbs and holders, all were good.
Then took a closer look at the bundle of wires in there and once some of the wires were pulled from the small cut out in the plastic body that supports some of the wires I found the blue, white and brown wires had melted together. Using a pick I separated the wires and found the only casualties were the blue wire and white wire where bare copper was showing in two places. Once separated the indicator light that was staying on went out so looks like the cause was a short from one of the other melted wires that fed the indicator bulb and caused it to stay on as opposed to a bulb out warning function being the cause.
Managed to use tape to insulate the damage, would have used heatshrink but its a bit tight and not much slack on the blue wire to do a solder joint in the area of the damaged outer cover of the wire. Recoded the bulb out warning using BMW Scanner 1.4 and then did a full test of all lights and didn't get any bulb out codes. I had considered using some electrical insulation paint on the damaged wire but local Halfrauds didnt have any. May get some and revisit the damaged wire again and try that paint repair on it. I did ensure all the wires are separated in there just in case there is another heat build up, I didn't tuck them into the plastic cut out support, its a bit small for the amount of wires that should go in there and may have been the cause of the damage occurring in the first place since that showed signs of heat build up.
The damaged blue wire is bottom right in the picture.
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