After tail-light upgrade, left brake light is gone!?!

[mostwired]

I have (finally) installed some nice clear tail lights. These are OEM BMW-made ones. After I've done installing them, I check all lights and see that all of them work (turn signals, reverse, etc), but the left brake light is not working.

I've swapped the right working one with housing for the left one, and it doesn't work either. All fuses are ok. Can't be a brake light switch - 'cause 2 other brake lights work. So I said - what the heck - and put my old tail lights back on - same thing - the left brake light is out!!! Any ideas? Maybe, when I was pulling the plug out, one of the wires broke under insulation? If so, what color would this wire be? (I have green, brown, brown-white, etc. coming into the tail light plug). Anybody has wiring diagrams for tail lights from ETK or something?

Another peculiar thing - the wiring layout is not exactly the same as my old factory lights. So when I turn my lights at night, the two bottom lights to the outer edge of the cluster are off. I probably can fix it by soldering some contacts on - but don't know if that'll cause a fire hazard

 

[vlad]

Silly question; Have you changed the left bad bulb with the right working bulb? You state that you switched the housings and checked the fuses, but have you checked the bulb itself?

 

[flyinH]

all pins should match up to the plug that plugs into the back of the oem lights.and the problem with the light not working......how does the contacts on the bulb holder look?you could try bending the metal tabs out alittle more to make better contact with the taillight housing.

 

[Kenny2g]

hey post some pics. I wanna see them.

 

[mostwired]

Yeah, I have tried with both different housings and bulbs - they all work on the right side, but not on the left. I also lifted the two metal tabs up a bit. A few mins ago I checked the voltage on the two metal contacts for the left break light - nothing. Must be a broken wire or something... Sure I'll post a pic - I've also put on and painted a new (aftermarket) spoiler, and I think it looks just great If only break light worked

 

[mostwired]

Update on my break light problem - fixed it. Apparently, there are a few versions of the tail lights produced by BMW. Brought the car to a friend's shop, we have checked the lights. From the brake light switch, the wiring goes to the right tail light (blue-red wire on the bottom of the connector). The other blue-red wire just above this one leads to the left tail light. Guess what - the pin for it was missing on the headlight housing connector itself... I clipped the two wires together - and voila! All break lights work perfectly - couldn't have hoped for a better present for Thanksgiving.