Dietcokeman said:Ok firstly I have to say thank you to flybobbie for his video on removing the rear lights that can be found on YouTube if you search .
I know this has been cover before but here is my take on things. The following may be of help to someone with what I have discovered when looking at my own car .
If you think you lights may be suffering from water ingress, you need to look at the bottom white/silver indicator section of the lamp to see if you have this sort of thing
Next also look at the edge of the light lens here and see if it looks like this
If it does, then it's a good bet that the seal between the lens and the housing has been compromised too, a frosty look here is a bad sign .
With the lamp removed from the car , clean off the debris that will be around the rubber seals that seal the lamp into the back panel . Then carefully remove the seal panel by prising it off like this
This will then reveal the seal that will also cause issues if not attended to , as its porous and soaks up water eventually , also one of mine was fitted poorly which doesn't help .
You will note that the the bulbs ( apart from the indicator led's which are not replaceable ) can still be removed with the seal panel in place , so don't worry about the next bit, which is basically sealing the panel onto the grey housing to prevent water ingress.......
Clean the lamp lens and housing joint , where the lens meets the grey housing , where is may be compromised. Clean the seal and seal panel, dry them throughly , dry the lamps out thoroughly in a airing cupboard or on a radiator etc until the lamps and seals etc are completely dry.
Now refit the seal into the plastic holder( the googles plastic trim with rubber seals ) then run a bead of silicone sealer around the refitted seal and replace it on to the rear lamp housing and push it firmly into place on all its clips whilst the silicone is still wet .
Now run a bead of silicone sealer right around the lamp edge between the lens and grey housing , smooth the joint off with a wet finger making sure the gap is full of sealer , do not worry at this point about excess, this can easily be trimmed off with a sharp knife when the silicone has dried , but try and fill the gap fully with silicone sealer .
Refit the lamps and hopefully the water ingress issue will be sorted. It appears the bottom edge of these lamps crack away from the inner housing whilst flexing when the roof is operated . And the seal inside the plastic holder is made of open cell foam which allows water to soak up and then bleed into the housing eventually . Crappy design .
Hope this helps someone
Just like to say thanks for this how to..went out last night to see condesation in my N/S rear light so followed the above and run some mastic around the seal and fingers crossed I'm hoping it's sorted
A
Anonymous
Guest
ric19 said:Dietcokeman said:Ok firstly I have to say thank you to flybobbie for his video on removing the rear lights that can be found on YouTube if you search .
I know this has been cover before but here is my take on things. The following may be of help to someone with what I have discovered when looking at my own car .
If you think you lights may be suffering from water ingress, you need to look at the bottom white/silver indicator section of the lamp to see if you have this sort of thing
Next also look at the edge of the light lens here and see if it looks like this
If it does, then it's a good bet that the seal between the lens and the housing has been compromised too, a frosty look here is a bad sign .
With the lamp removed from the car , clean off the debris that will be around the rubber seals that seal the lamp into the back panel . Then carefully remove the seal panel by prising it off like this
This will then reveal the seal that will also cause issues if not attended to , as its porous and soaks up water eventually , also one of mine was fitted poorly which doesn't help .
You will note that the the bulbs ( apart from the indicator led's which are not replaceable ) can still be removed with the seal panel in place , so don't worry about the next bit, which is basically sealing the panel onto the grey housing to prevent water ingress.......
Clean the lamp lens and housing joint , where the lens meets the grey housing , where is may be compromised. Clean the seal and seal panel, dry them throughly , dry the lamps out thoroughly in a airing cupboard or on a radiator etc until the lamps and seals etc are completely dry.
Now refit the seal into the plastic holder( the googles plastic trim with rubber seals ) then run a bead of silicone sealer around the refitted seal and replace it on to the rear lamp housing and push it firmly into place on all its clips whilst the silicone is still wet .
Now run a bead of silicone sealer right around the lamp edge between the lens and grey housing , smooth the joint off with a wet finger making sure the gap is full of sealer , do not worry at this point about excess, this can easily be trimmed off with a sharp knife when the silicone has dried , but try and fill the gap fully with silicone sealer .
Refit the lamps and hopefully the water ingress issue will be sorted. It appears the bottom edge of these lamps crack away from the inner housing whilst flexing when the roof is operated . And the seal inside the plastic holder is made of open cell foam which allows water to soak up and then bleed into the housing eventually . Crappy design .
Hope this helps someone
Just like to say thanks for this how to..went out last night to see condesation in my N/S rear light so followed the above and run some mastic around the seal and fingers crossed I'm hoping it's sorted
I would add to this by saying that I've had mixed success with these old ( 3 bolt type lights) with this , however what I have had complete success with is if whilst doing this you remove all the fixing screws , all the screws you can in the light and put mastic in all the screw holes and refit the screws, any you can't remove , mastic over the screw head completely , the lights seem very poorly put together seal wise, it's a nightmare when you get this and one one of my own cars I had the light in and out more times than I care to remember but doing the mastic over head and in every screw hole did the trick and all I've done since have remained water tight .
I've just spotted condensation in one of my rear light clusters, I've dried out using a hair dryer but on closer inspection I can see the odd hair line cracks on the bottom of the light cluster.
I have the 2 stud version on a 2012.
My question is do anyone know who makes the genuine BMW light cluster? Reason I ask is Europarts on a auction site have Magneti light cluster for £157 which is approx £100 cheaper than BMW, I'm always a genuine parts person but BMW get someone to make there lights for them and was wondering if anyone new who makes the rear light clusters for the Z4.
I have the 2 stud version on a 2012.
My question is do anyone know who makes the genuine BMW light cluster? Reason I ask is Europarts on a auction site have Magneti light cluster for £157 which is approx £100 cheaper than BMW, I'm always a genuine parts person but BMW get someone to make there lights for them and was wondering if anyone new who makes the rear light clusters for the Z4.