W210 replaced Brake light bulb now no brake lights !

[Grabs]

Hi All,

I have a friend who recommended this site and said you may have a solution to my problem and you are all very helpful chaps. Any way here goes.

I have a 1998 E320 and receieved the light warning one morning i quickly diagnosed a rear brake light was out, so i purchased a bulb and replaced it still not working GRRRRR.

Anyways after closer inspection i can see some movement on the light cluster where the bulb holder sits so i figure loose connection so i gets my girlfriend to sit in the car press the brake light while im fiddling with the bulb holder, then (try not to laugh to loud) i get a small spark from somewhere and my Girlfriend pipes up oh you have another warning now BAS and ASR.

So i am now in the situation of having the BAS ASR warning light and no brake lights at all. i have checked every fuse i can find (including under the back seat) and have tried the lock to lock reset for the BAS ASR but why no brake lights? i have heard mention of a brake light relay could it be that if so where is it? or could it be that im missing a fuse? as im not sure which is the correct one but like i say have checked every one i can find.

Finally i have heard that disconnecting the battery can clear warning lights i havent tried this yet as i figure surely it wouldnt disable all the brake lights if it detected a fault as the car drives normally? and this would surely be a safety issue?

Any help would be very much appreciated only had the thing a week and beginning to regret getting rid of the BMW so please point me in the right direction im not a clot and can usually fault find most things myself (or trawl the internet) but this has me beat so please help me fix my lovely E320

Many Thanks

Grabs

 

[tlzeebub]

Probably brake light switch IMO

 

[Dieselman]

At a guess you've shorted the brake lights out and blown the fuse.

Have you checked the fuse card for the brake light fuse, it's fuse 9 in the fusebox at the right hand end of the dashboard.

 

[Grabs]

Yes Dieselman you got it spot on i blew a fuse! thought i had checked them all but didnt realise my E320 has 3 fuse boxes! and had only checked under the bonnet and under the seat.
So my BAS ASR warning light has now gone, i didnt have to do the reset thing just went out when i replaced the fuse, however i still have the light warning as it looks like my light cluster has suffered some electrical problems and the bulb holder doesnt connect correctly so no brake light !
Are these clusters cheap enough or should i just get the soldering iron out and solder a wire in place to repair the dodgy connection? i read somewhere on here that the system measures resistance to check the circuit and just wondering if wiring the thing directly would alter the resistance and still give a fault? anyone tried this before?

 

[Dieselman]

however i still have the light warning as it looks like my light cluster has suffered some electrical problems and the bulb holder doesnt connect correctly so no brake light !

Which is why you still have the lamp warning light lit. Just check all the lights carefully and fix the dodgy one.
The rear lights were modified due to bad connection problems.
If yours has white brake lamp holders it's the old type, if pink it's the new one.

 

[Grabs]

Finally got round to fixing my light cluster, the metal where it makes contact to the bulb holder was just a black burnt mess obviously where the bulb holder had been arcing across, i removed the cluster and soldered a wire in which sorted it. All is fine at last and got rid of that annoying light warning msg. Oh and the bulb holder is pink so if indeed it is the new type it didnt fix the issue!

Cheers

Grabs