Brake light oddity!

[jcoatz]

I have a mini cooper 51 plate, and recently discovered my brake light wasn't working. I checked it out today, and found that while my left brake light isn't activating when I press the brake, the side light on the same bulb is fine, so the bulb is fine. Are there any obvious fixes/checks I can do??

Thanks a lot!

[Snowie]

Quote: Originally Posted by jcoatz (original)

I have a mini cooper 51 plate, and recently discovered my brake light wasn't working. I checked it out today, and found that while my left brake light isn't activating when I press the brake, the side light on the same bulb is fine, so the bulb is fine. Are there any obvious fixes/checks I can do??

Thanks a lot!

Brake light and side light use 2 differenet filaments in the same bulb - just because the side light works does not mean the bulb is fine.

However because the side light works it means that the earth connection to the bulb is fine.

New bulb required - try swopping the RH bulb to LH. this will prove if it is tyhe bulb or not

[mikeythemini]

Dead right Alan

However had this been a 2nd gen - they use 1 filament to do both the sidelight & brake

[Snowie]

Quote: Originally Posted by mikeythemini (original)

Dead right Alan

However had this been a 2nd gen - they use 1 filament to do both the sidelight & brake

I learnt something new today - how the hell do they do that and get the brake lights so bright on an R56 --- ''resitors'' in the circuit to drop volts or what. Let me in on the techy secrets.

I hate following an R56 in traffic in the dark - you get blinded by the brake lights and can not see the indicators.

[mikeythemini]

Quote: Originally Posted by Snowie (original)

I learnt something new today - how the hell do they do that and get the brake lights so bright on an R56 --- ''resitors'' in the circuit to drop volts or what. Let me in on the techy secrets.

I hate following an R56 in traffic in the dark - you get blinded by the brake lights and can not see the indicators.

They are normal 21w bulbs but for sidelights they are pulsed on and off very quickly to give a dimmer light, if you look closely at one you can see the flickering. BMW have been that way for a while. When it first came out it caused a few problems the first time we came to fit tow electrics

[thewalshter]

The R56 uses CAN control which most modern vehicles use ,full name control area network.