N/S rear light assembly

J

JohnE

Member
 Bury Lancs
I have some water in the indicator LED so I intend to take the housing out and have a look at it and replace if needed. Watched a video on this last night and the person doing the work had the boot open but the roof closed and once he had taken off some of the bits he then put the roof into an opening sequence but stopped it mid way or at least until whatever was in the way had moved and then he unbolted the lamp unit.

My question is this. Is it ok to do this and then switch off the ignition/engine or is there a risk of messing up the roof because it will be out of sequence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJa6z6e-a0
 
The roof will be fine, although its not something you should do regularly and you may find that it drops slowly on its own towards whichever way it is balanced/weighted when you stop it.
 
As said if you turn the engine off then the roof may well drop back down and you wouldn’t want to have you hand or head in there when it does
 
Thanks guys :thumbsup: .

I managed to get the cluster out but the roof had to be part opened because some of the mechanical bits were in the way. Ordered some new bits, cluster and gasket so do either of you know where the water actually gets into these things
 
Hi John,

I had the same issue with my O/S rear light. I solved it with some sealant. Please check the below post:

https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1647997#p1647997
 
Thanks guys thats excellent. I am hoping that the new gasket will be easy to fit because I found the old one rather difficult to re-seat it into the bodywork. Fitting it to the cluster was ok but I am also wondering if the new gasket will have some sort of sticky face to it.

Beeacon where abouts in Manchester are you
 
Hopefully this will be of use - I used to have an Mgzt - flooding rear light clusters was a common problem. I took the cluster out and the gasket had been built incomplete (same on the other side and I'd had it with only 600 odd miles on it). After drying it all out I ran a VERY thin bead of bath mastic and then set the old gasket back on it before refitting (that way you can still get the light off). Getting the gaskets was a bugger and this was a quick and easy fix - although the k series engine chose to implode with 60k on the clock
 
Thank you. I have a feeling that the new cluster which has come with a new gasket fitted will be a tight fit and so hopefully I wont need to use a sealant
 
Did your new cluster come two or three stud fittings?

I understand that the pre 2013 cluster came with 3, like in the video you looked at, but the later cluster comes with only 2 so needs one of the holes in the bodywork to be sealed.

See https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e89-z4-sdrive35i-roa/repair-manuals/63-lights/63-21-rear-light-cluster/8IKQGVVR

There is also mention of new grommets and checking the adhesive supporting foam on either the cluster or bumper.

One of the jobs I will be doing to do mine - I think the cluster plastic has separated and letting water in rather than the gasket leaking. No sign of ingress inside the car.

Cheers!
Andy
 
I ended up having to replace a rear with a post 2013 light unit. I could see the design difference.
Waste of time, they still put open cell foam to seal, replaced a fixing stud with a screw to try and clamp the foam with more force.
They hadn't got a clue what they were doing.
My new unit started fogging after a few months, so Evosticked up the new foam and unit. Fine since.
 
Sorry ACM, I missed your post. The new cluster came with two studs but on the basis that there was no waterproofing on the three stud version other than the gasket I didn't fill the redundant hole with anything. I will soon find out if that's acceptable when I check it over again after a trip south this coming week.

I don't know where the foam is though. Mine had a new gasket in place and this was held in place to the cluster with plastic tabs as per the original plus 4 self tappers
 
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