My Exterior Lighting warning light came on this morning in my R56, but my exterior lights all seem to be one.

I am a little puzzled. Has anyone experienced this problem?

 

Are you sure they're all on? The brake lights are two parts, upper and lower, unless you check carefully you'll miss one of the halves being out.

 

Including the license plate lights?
You'll need to check EVERY exterior bulb.

- Erik

 

Right. Make sure BOTH license plates lights are working. I had that issue and you don't normally check those.

 

I had same warning lamp - forgot about license plate lamps - both were out. Your posts reminded me [duh]. Thanks again.

 

Thanks to all who replied. At least for now the "Exterior Lighting" warning light is no longer being displayed. If (when) it comes back on, I will check things out again. The license bulbs were an item that I did not check before.

 

Also of note is that sometimes it can come on because of a "loose" bulb. I have this problem occasionally with my drivers side city light (parking light). It will usually come on when i check the bulbs but is not recognized by the bulb check circuits. Once I pull it out and plug it back in the problem goes away for months.

 

My warning light has come on intermittently for the past several months. I mentioned it to dealer at last service and they couldn't find the bad bulb. Finally a couple weeks ago, by accident, while in my garage I noticed one of my rear license plate lights was out. I am guessing that's what has triggered the intermittent warning. I'll have it attended to next scheduled service.

 

Exterior lighting warning light came on again. Took it to the dealer. They found a problem with the left upper brake light. The whole tail light assembly had to be replaced under warranty.

 

There is also a recent service bulletin about a similar issue. There is a dealer software update for the FRM module that will correct this issue. Normally, I would post it but my saved copy got overwritten this weekend.

 

This thread was really helpful. I knew the driver’s side ‘marker light’ was burnt out, but there was no warning light, the other lights seemed to be working, I’d get to it eventually. But then the bulb out warning light started coming on. So I got tired of it. Figured out how to remove the wheel well paneling to get to it and replaced bulb. Hooray. done.

warning light still on. 😡
I could not figure out why the external light warning was still on.
I read this thread and it said to check the license plate lights.
Aha!!! One of the license plate bulbs was out. 🙄
used the same size bulb as the marker light. Used bulb #02 from the 2 pack replacement bulbs I purchased. Hooray. done.

warning light STILL on. 😦😐

my dad and I walked around the car. Brake lights came on. Hatchback and both sides. Reverse lights. Blinkers. Fog lights. *baffled*

But I checked the lightbulb warning light and it was giving a code for the right rear lights.

So in frustration I took the panel out and the bulbs. I used a long piece of floor moulding I had lying around, ran it from the trunk through the seats to the front of the car, and pressed the brake pedal from the trunk.

Eureka. ugh. 😩😣 There are two brake light bulbs. Apparently neither my father nor myself noticed the right rear brake light was less lit up than the left one. I wouldn’t have even figured that out if I hadn’t taken the panel off and removed the bulb housing so I could see them. This is literally the last bulb on the car I can find that is not working, and it corresponds to the warning light code (apparently I should’ve checked what the code was providing from the beginning. &#128563 The autoparts store is closed, so I’ll get a replacement bulb tomorrow.

if the exterior lightbulb warning light still refuses to turn off, I will probably spontaneously combust. Any way. For anyone else like myself. Check the code ID. It probably is better than you are. Taking the bulb housing out might also be helpful, as it was for me.

 

I've got the same problem...all lights working, but have the warning light at start up. The lower rear "bumper" light or fog light, has three areas, two white for the reverse, and one red in the center. The center red doesn't light up at all. Is this a brake light or what? I had one license plate bulb out and replaced that. This is the only possible light to be out.

 

@jbanim:
Did you remove the bulbs from the rear lights? The plastic sockets of the rear R56 lights have a tendency to melt, causing sometimes the bulb to get stuck in place and/or lose the electrical connection (my R56 had this and yes, I initially also didn't notice that there are actually two bulbs each for the stop lights). If they are stuck, don't exert too much force. Instead, remove the entire rear light assembly from the car to better work on the socket.

@ Andernamen:
The center red one in the bumper is the rear fog light.

Edit: missed the part of jbanim's post clearly stating that he did remove the bulbs...