Folks,

I got a driver-side rear light bulb failure that is driving me bonkers.
The bulb in question is the one that illuminate the upper half of the red (upside down) "u" of the tail light.

Looking at the parts diagram, it suggests that I have 3 bulbs in my rear tail light cluster:
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...96&hg=63&fg=20

Access is very cramped through that tiny side opening in the trip, and my hands are a somewhat big, but I'm pretty sure I have 4 (not 3) bulbs:
- bottom white for reverse
- 2nd from bottom for bottom section of the tail light "u"
- 3rd from the bottom for yellow blinker light
- 4th form the bottom (top) for the upper section of the tail light "u" to complete the red light circle around yellow blinker <-- this one is burned out.

Unfortunately, the one at fault is at the very top where my hands can't reach ;-(

Has anyone successfully replaced rear tail light bulbs by taking the entire cluster out of the body?

I just don't see how I can get to that top 4th bulb unless I take the cluster out, or take apart the entire trunk carpet padding.

TIA,
a

 

It's really easy to remove the whole assembly. Use a flat head to pop off the plastic rings, remove the 3 screws, then reach in the access hole, squeeze the black bracket on the bottom of the lamp, and push out. The lamp should just pop out. I wish I had some pictures for you so it makes more sense, but it should be obvious once you look at it. I just swapped my assemblies for LED tail lights and it took less than 5 minutes to do both lights.

 

He's right on all accounts. Its super easy. I kept getting a bulb out warning that turned out to be a break light bulb. My fat hands couldn't turn the bulb holder so removal was my only option.

 

Thanks, guys.
Mission accomplished with no broken collateral plastic damage, for a change. All done in under 30 minutes. It took longer to warm up the garage to make it a pleasant environment in which to work.

I will post a few pics below, but for those who may tackle a similar situation in the future:
1). my '08 MCS real tail light housing has 4 single filament Osram 21W bulbs (not 3 as everyone on the internet and OEM parts database suggests). New light bulb part # is : 63-21-7-160-790 "Long life bulb" $4.48 from my local dealer.
2). The top light overheated, melting and distorting plastic around the connection between the light bulb socket and the receptacle in the taillight housing, breaking the circuit. The bulb itself was OK, but I replaced it anyway. Took a knife and carved the receptacle back into a round shape, and cleared melted plastic off the circuit board. Now the plug goes back in with minimal resistance, and will be serviceable through the tiny baggage compartment cut-out in the future, if necessary.
3). Removing the taillight housing has few ticks to it:
-- Chrome surround pops out if you apply gentle pressure to it from the outboard edge of the car (where chrome surround does not have any clips). I used plastic socket price tag/store bar codes to lever it out without scratching the body of the car. Behind the surround are 3 torx bolts that come out easily
-- The light cluster wiggled, but didn't come out, as it was held in place by 2 clips (one on top, one on the bottom of the cluster) one of which had to be depressed from inside. I maneuvered a long screwdriver through the trunk bulb access cutout area, until the lower one budged.
-- The rest is easy.

That's it.
Lights back to normal, no more annoying "bulb out" warning at start-up.

Hope this helps others,
a

 

If heat melted the area around the socket, I would be very tempted to replace the bulbs with lower-wattage ones. Those should produce less heat, and hopefully would keep the same thing from happening again.

I don't know what is available, though, nor if you can change the wattage without triggering a light-out warning....

 

At this point, if it took ~5 years to melt one socket, I'm willing to chance going another ~5 years on the replacement.

One contributing factor to my failure may be that I've gotten lazy with turning the lights ON and OFF over the years, and have been running them ON 100% of time for the last few years. That has been my substitute for the ambient light sensing headlight activation circuitry in the bimmer

It may sadly be the case that the tail lights, like one too many other parts of the MINI (N14 anyone?), are just not engineered well enough to operate continuously for 5+ years without croaking

a

 

Just replace them with LED bulbs. Way less heat.

 

more likely is the contacts had some corrosion on them causing more heat than clean contacts

every spring i remove every electrical plug/bulb and spray the contacts with a corrosion inhibitor ... acs-50 is my product of choice

my 18 year old gmc sonoma has no electrical issues, my 40 year old 1974 bmw r60/6 and 28 year old 1987 bmw k75s motorcycles don't either

 

The bulbs are brake lights.
The running lights are LED on fiber optic.