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e46 left tail lights dimmer than right??

A strange one this...

After many months of intermitant warnings on the dash that my RHS tail light was faulty I had a poke around and dicovered that if a wiggled the wires entering the connector block for the tail light cluster (not tail light on boot lid) theey got 50% brighter and the dash warning light went out, sounds like I fixed it.....great....but NO.

Now the RHS tail lights are brighter than the LHS, I tried swapping the bulbs over but it made not difference. I've had a go at wiggling the wires as I did with the RHS but nothing changes.

The wires look in good condition, no scorching or damage of any type.

Has anyone had a similar problem? I suspect theres no simple answer to this but we can always live in hope.

While I'm here.....my LHS rear fog light does'nt work either. It's a single filement bulb that brightens when the fog lights are switched on, the RHS works fine but the LHS just stays dim as it doubles up as a tail light (not connected to previous tail light problem). I thought it may be a LHS problem only so i checked the front fog but their both working fine, so it just seems that theres no extra power getting to the rear LHS fog light to make it work.

Any thoughts anyone?

Thanks for reading

k-factor.

Reply to
paul.kinney
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similar... I have had to replace the bulb housing on the right tail so far (it would show bulb failure intermittently with no bulb failure, restarting the car would fix it for awhile - common post on e46fanatics.). and at one point after that change, the left was dim... I unplugged the socket and noticed corrosion on the wires, replugged solidly and all is well.

I could not clean the corrosion and one wire was pulling out of the plug, so now the plug is screwed up on mine and if it fails again I will have to get it rewired with a new plastic end.

The dealer told me bulb housings were a very commonly changed part on e46.

Reply to
SharkmanBMW

After further investigation I found that there is less voltage going to the LHS tail lights than the RHS, the LHS is getting 2.49V & the RHS is getting 2.53V, I guess theres a serious problem in the wiring loom somewhere.

Since my original post I've spoke to a BMW Technician and he confirmed what you said sharkmanbmw that the tail lights are a common fault on the E46's

Reply to
paul.kinney

There sure is.

Reply to
adder1969

That can't be even close to correct. At 2.5v the light wouldn't be dim, it would be off! Around 12v is the correct voltage, any lower than that (with the engine running) is too low.

I had a problem with the taillights on my old E30, but spraying some of that universal stuff on the contacts fixed it.

Ulf

Reply to
Ulf

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