Outer tail lights

[Stupe]

Hi folks,

A series of strange events unfolded recently for my E90 LCI.
- An SA recently pointed this out to me, happening to both left and right outer tail lights. Basically it looks like the upper tube melted?
- Never noticed it before! I then scrambled online to look at new lights, and it's supposed to be straight.
- So happened I saw another E90 LCI on the streets, and it has the melted lights too!
- I'm not even sure if there's some sort of circuitry problem, or connection problem, or just faulty tail lights..

What's going on?? Anyone experienced this, or have any clue?

View attachment 64654View attachment 64655

 

[Stupe]

Re: Outer tail lights

Any ideas folks?

I'm noticing quite a few cars on the road, with a mix of straight-straight, melted-straight, straight-melted, and melted-melted.

Not sure if this can be attributed to some kind of manufacturer fault. It's kind of far-fetched to park this as normal 'wear & tear' or 'thats the average lifespan'?

 

[esis311]

Re: Outer tail lights

My view is due to design issue of the light housing as in Europe, generally the weather is cold, so the temperature of the housing is not as high as in tropical weather in Singapore, in other SE Asia country, the supplier of the older model of Benz and BMW had come up with the idea to drill 1-2 small holes at the back sdie of the bulb housing to serve as heat ventilation.
I had similar problem with my E90 back light melted, replaced with new set and drilled a hole on the back housing, been OK for 3 years since the replacement.
Try not to use the rear fog light in Singapore as it create excessive heat to the whole unit and potential melt situation.
All the best

 

[Stupe]

Re: Outer tail lights

Thanks for your insights esis311!

Just want to check with you a couple of things:
- When you discovered the problem, did you send it in for any other checks? Reason I'm asking is that I don't want the new lights melting again, only to find out that the root cause turns out to be an electrical problem (if this sounds logical).
- The new set that you got, was it just a plain vanilla new set, or was it a new version of the part?

 

[esis311]

Re: Outer tail lights

No, cable link was good, melted part was the the light bulb housing extended to the light cover.
Changed to the original plain vanilla as the after market darkened was made in Taiwan, in general this is for aesthetic reason as the copper conductor at the light bulb generally thinner thus potentially melt in the future, there is some workshop offer to replace the copper part with the original copper taken from scrap part, they only do it for relationship reason as it is very labor intensive.

 

[Stupe]

Re: Outer tail lights

Thanks very much!