Rear Indicator Failure

[Fullspeedahead]

My near side rear indicator failed this week so I naively thought It would just be a bulb change. How wrong can you be?
Thanks to the help on this forum I now realise I need to change the entire unit (thanks BMW, great design) and this morning had a quote from Sopers of Lincoln for £353.92. As if that wasn’t painful enough, the current delivery estimate is 16th August meaning my car will be off the road for the best part of 4 weeks if I’m lucky.
Question for members - does anyone have experience of repairing these units? It seems grossly wasteful that the entire unit has to be binned for the sake of one minor electrical fault.

 

[Phoenixboy]

moisture gets in to the rear of the unit and messes up the led indicator strip.
you can try popping open the rear flap and stick a hair dryer in to dry out the moisture.
its a temporary solution that worked for me until i got a replacement unit.
look on ecp for deals, much cheaper than bmw and its a magnet marelli unit which is oem.

 

[Chippie]

Here’s a link to a YouTube video repairing the indicator.
https://youtu.be/gVAMzZlmLs0

 

[matsmith749]

I tried all sorts of repairs on mine years ago when I had the first design indicators on a previous car.

What looked like a tint amount of water ingress actually amounted to maybe 200ml when I removed the fitting & tipped it all out.

Went to town on drying it out, but made little difference.

The good news is that the new design (looks the same, but subtley different) fixes the problem.

 

[Fullspeedahead]

Thanks all, for your very helpful responses. For info I took the unit out this morning and found it had already been bodged by a previous owner and it has been left as a completely unsealed unit. No wonder moisture was getting in! I’ll try drying it out as suggested while I wait the 4 weeks for BMW to source a new one. In the meantime I’ll follow other suggestions to source from elsewhere, thanks again.

 

[acm]

As mentioned, they are made by Magnetti Marelli - Euro Car Parts have them listed at £270 (less a penny) - nearly twice what I paid 3 years ago, but they have none in stock either. Maybe a call might give you an idea when they will get some in stock.

I would also give Cheltenham BMW a call to see what discount you can get from them - they are usually pretty good to me (and others too), so might beat the price you got from Sopers. I never get any discount from my local BMW dealer :x

Depending upon when your original lights were made you may find they are three post attachment which was later changed to a two post attachment, meaning the central post hole will need sealing with tape if you have the three post attachment.

Not a difficult job to do and has been discussed at length on this forum.

Cheers!
Andy

 

[Bmac]

Still waiting for near side rear for 8 weeks now none in stock in GB or Germany apparently stopped making them.
lots of Z4 owners complaining on face book not happy at all :x

 

[flybobbie]

Goes to prove what an utterly bad design the tail lights have been.

Looks like someone needs to set up to rebuild them.
Main problem is getting the rear lens off.
Bonkers amount of electronics in the bottom that gets damp and shorts out.
Wouldn't mind the rear indicators aren't that visible slightly off centre.
BMW must have a pile of failed lamps.

 

[RobbiZ4]

Goes to prove what an utterly bad design the tail lights have been.

This is where this design came from as well as the production line is: Tolmezzo in Italy
https://www-zroadster-com.translate.goog/forum/threads/dynamische-blinker.115396/page-18?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp#post-3279274

In total 12 generations where required to get this rounded design halfways stable. This can be seen on the parts label as addon of the partno:
"Partno-12" is the latest one.

 

[flybobbie]

Goes to prove what an utterly bad design the tail lights have been.

This is where this design came from as well as the production line is: Tolmezzo in Italy
https://www-zroadster-com.translate.goog/forum/threads/dynamische-blinker.115396/page-18?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp#post-3279274

In total 12 generations where required to get this rounded design halfways stable. This can be seen on the parts label as addon of the partno:
"Partno-12" is the latest one.

Explains everything, i think the roof mechanism was designed in Italy, probably made there, looks almost same on some Ferraris.

 

[flybobbie]

Goes to prove what an utterly bad design the tail lights have been.

This is where this design came from as well as the production line is: Tolmezzo in Italy
https://www-zroadster-com.translate.goog/forum/threads/dynamische-blinker.115396/page-18?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp#post-3279274

In total 12 generations where required to get this rounded design halfways stable. This can be seen on the parts label as addon of the partno:
"Partno-12" is the latest one.

Explains everything, i think the roof mechanism was designed in Italy, probably made there, looks almost same on some Ferraris.
Italians seem into machine tools, presses, hydraulics, pneumatics.

 

[RobbiZ4]

Goes to prove what an utterly bad design the tail lights have been.

This is where this design came from as well as the production line is: Tolmezzo in Italy
https://www-zroadster-com.translate.goog/forum/threads/dynamische-blinker.115396/page-18?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp#post-3279274

In total 12 generations where required to get this rounded design halfways stable. This can be seen on the parts label as addon of the partno:
"Partno-12" is the latest one.

Explains everything, i think the roof mechanism was designed in Italy, probably made there, looks almost same on some Ferraris.
Italians seem into machine tools, presses, hydraulics, pneumatics.

Not quite correct, only the tail lights are from Italy.

The roof was developed and built by EDSCHA in Regensburg, northeast of Munich. Their convertible subsidiary now belongs to WEBASTO, also located next to Munich.

 

[Nick1526]

Looks like I have the same issue with my passenger side rear indicator as well on my 23i. It’s intermittent as sometimes it works fine then it goes to the blinking twitchy stage with 4 LED’s out, but if I just leave it indicating it can go back to being fine again until later in the drive going wrong again. I took it to my local BMW independent garage for a service yesterday and they confirmed it would be a replacement needed.

Problem is the light isn’t in stock anywhere despite this being a much needed part reading posts like this online etc. The garage equally drew a blank on the day which is a bit disconcerting as I would like it fixed asap they are going to ask around for me as they probably just looked online like I did initially.

OP did you receive your replacement by the date you mentioned? if so do you know where they got it? If anyone else has any leads it would be greatly appreciated.

63217191775 is the part number for reference and I’m UK based North West.

 

[Nick2449]

Looks like I have the same issue with my passenger side rear indicator as well on my 23i. It’s intermittent as sometimes it works fine then it goes to the blinking twitchy stage with 4 LED’s out, but if I just leave it indicating it can go back to being fine again until later in the drive going wrong again. I took it to my local BMW independent garage for a service yesterday and they confirmed it would be a replacement needed.

Problem is the light isn’t in stock anywhere despite this being a much needed part reading posts like this online etc. The garage equally drew a blank on the day which is a bit disconcerting as I would like it fixed asap they are going to ask around for me as they probably just looked online like I did initially.

OP did you receive your replacement by the date you mentioned? if so do you know where they got it? If anyone else has any leads it would be greatly appreciated.

63217191775 is the part number for reference and I’m UK based North West.

Yep and me

 

[Nick1526]

Yep and me

What are we Nick's going to do with our Z4's

 

[flybobbie]

Perverse past time, every time i see a Zed, i check the tail lights for condensation, so does my former owner colleague.
So far i say 1/3 have damp in that is visible.
If you own Zed in Lincoln, plate starting S23.... car had damp in tail light.

 

[RobbiZ4]

Perverse past time, every time i see a Zed, i check the tail lights for condensation, so does my former owner colleague.
So far i say 1/3 have damp in that is visible.

Well, on each Z4 I'm allowed to open the trunk, I check the tail lights as well for

• micro cracks below the indicator line

• replaced tail lights

The crazy thing is, that if a tail light has been replaced in the past, in about 90% they are mounted the wrong way and the two oval seals have not been pulled into the trunk! That is the absolute invitation to get massive water into the trunk on rainy days.

 

[warmasice]

Perverse past time, every time i see a Zed, i check the tail lights for condensation, so does my former owner colleague.
So far i say 1/3 have damp in that is visible.

Well, on each Z4 I'm allowed to open the trunk, I check the tail lights as well for

• micro cracks below the indicator line

• replaced tail lights

The crazy thing is, that if a tail light has been replaced in the past, in about 90% they are mounted the wrong way and the two oval seals have not been pulled into the trunk! That is the absolute invitation to get massive water into the trunk on rainy days.

100% this. The seals need to be pulled inside of the sheet metal. If not, this is the cause of a lot of 'water in the boot' issues.
The crazy thing is, that if a tail light has been replaced in the past, in about 90% they are mounted the wrong way and the two oval seals have not been pulled into the trunk! That is the absolute invitation to get massive water into the trunk on rainy days.
[/quote]

 

[flybobbie]

The whole design is bonkers.
It needed a flat rubber seal that compresses against the body work.
People reinventing the wheel when it's not broken.
Then having lots of electronic components mounted at the bottom ready to short out with damp.
Because of the oval seals they used, it had to be made separate from rest of lamp, thus introducing another seal.
Then they used a open cell foam, like a bath sponge, instead of closed cell foam.
Whoever designed it needs sacking.

 

[Nick1526]

I still haven’t been able to find a replacement but oddly the indicator has not had the fault at all the last 4 occasions I have driven the car over a 3 week period. I’ve probably jinxed it now by mentioning it but very confused as to whether I can just leave it as is or if I still need to somehow find the part in stock urgently still.

We have had heavy rain here a couple of times the last few weeks and there is condensation inside the indicator still but perhaps the initial problem dried out in the sun we had just at the start of September?