last night driving home from a local gathering....my son behind me in his 98 M3...he tells me that half of my third brake light bulbs are out. So I go to the Auto Zone and pick up a few replacement bulbs and change out all of the old bulbs....well that didn't work .....no matter how I inserted the bulbs there were always a few out..... Some of the sockets had a coating of blue/green corrosion...I tried to get out as much as I could but when I put it together some bulbs still don't work..... and it's always random bulbs that are out...... so... is there a fix for this...perhaps LED replacements.......I did a search but came up empty handed...... HELP.....

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flimsy solder connections at board? Sometimes, pushing the bulbs into place bends the contacts. If you are handy, you can buy superbright LEDs online and wire them up yourself...will need to put in-line the appropriate resistor.

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[quote name='xrad' post='57651' date='Aug 9 2008, 06:15 PM']flimsy solder connections at board? Sometimes, pushing the bulbs into place bends the contacts. If you are handy, you can buy superbright LEDs online and wire them up yourself...will need to put in-line the appropriate resistor.[/quote]



is there anyone here that does that mod...?????

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[quote name='user426' post='57669' date='Aug 10 2008, 01:20 PM']is there anyone here that does that mod...?????[/quote]



Just done a search + found this..

http://www.968engineering.com/968chmsl.html

I knew it was out there in cyberspace....

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remember, it is important to get polarity right with LED's.

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[quote name='xrad' post='57692' date='Aug 10 2008, 07:33 PM']remember, it is important to get polarity right with LED's.[/quote]



Does anyone here do this mod.... my soldering skills are somewhat non-existent ....968 Engineering says NLA.....



thanks

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I would love to help, just short on time for the next 1.5 months. If you can wait, I was thinking of doing this mod to my own light...would just be as easy to do two at once.

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[quote name='xrad' post='57733' date='Aug 11 2008, 07:57 PM']I would love to help, just short on time for the next 1.5 months. If you can wait, I was thinking of doing this mod to my own light...would just be as easy to do two at once.[/quote]



Thanks for the offer...I'm going to give it a shot.....I'll let you know how I make out

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The entire part is available from Sunset, but expensive. My shop pulled it out and cleaned all of the contacts and rewired. Works great now. Whole job cost me about an hour in labor and some bulbs.

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The whole assembly is also used on early to mid 90's Corvette convertibles. The part might be cheaper that way.



Also if you want bulbs they are a lot cheaper from the low-voltage lighting aisle at Home Depot and places like that. LEDs would be interesting but they are often pretty dim off-axis. I might try a combination of both sometime if I get bored enough.

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Thanks for all the info.....what's the best way to get the blue/green oxidation off of the contacts without breaking them....????

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[quote name='user426' post='57743' date='Aug 12 2008, 04:17 AM']Thanks for all the info.....what's the best way to get the blue/green oxidation off of the contacts without breaking them....????[/quote]



I have been known to use a few drops of battery acid to clean that green stuff, followed by water and alcohol. That's what I have used to clean the thermal switches in the blower fan resistor module with great success. Obviously there are dangers so use good judgment, or a safer method.



You can steal some acid from an old battery or even the one under your hood, a clean chopstick is a good way to do this.

-Joel.

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Hi Folks,



Just fixed this today (yuk, another pain). Went to home depot, Autozone, Pep Boys, and Kragen. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/mad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



The computer in the 3 auto parts stores show the replacement is bulb number 7506. This is incorrect! A very large bulb. Same with the Sylvania catalog, shows the wrong bulb number. Home Depot did not have any bulbs that matched the size / configuration.



I matched the size to what was on the rack and found the #2721 is the correct bulb. There is also a #2723 of the exact same size but is only 2.3 watts. The correct one 2721 is 9.8 watts. (that is I hope the wattage is correct, I was going by the brightness of the couple of old bulbs that had a bit of life left in them when I tested the unit). Besides, a wattage of 2.3 (the 2723) is really low, they must be for interior usage on some car.



Autozone had 2721 from "Lighting Technologies" and Pep Boys had 2721 from Sylvania. I mixed the 2 brands and there is no noticeable difference (because one shop had only 2 packages).



Each package was $2.99 and contains 2 bulbs, so for a little over $12 I replaced them all. Make sure to replace them all, the 2-3 that were still working when I disassembled the unit went out just from handling it, so they were likely ancient.



Cleaned the contacts with good old Radio Shack contact cleaner, and used a small artist's brush to wiggle a few hairs down into the socket. Seemed to work.



I failed the "brake and light test" a couple of days ago because about 3 of the bulbs were out. Yeah, it stinks, to put the car back on the road I have to get a brake and light test from a certified shop. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/huh.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> $67 for about 10 minutes of work!



Roland

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Bump. Anyone ever come up with a fix? I hit up 968 engineering the other day to see if he had anymore or would do them again and "no go." It would be nice to have LED's back there. I have 2 lights out, at least. On my way to pick up some 2721 bulbs, knowing that they will fail again...

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You can do it yourself. It is VERY easy. The site should have the part number for the leds and the size and value for the resister.

If you can't find the stuff PM me and I'll get you the info.

Brian

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Lately the 928 guys have been talking about using distilled white vinegar to clean fuse contacts, etc. so that should also work to clean these contacts. It might take a while. I'd suggest high temp grease in the sockets to reduce future corrosion, and make sure your gasket is in good shape.



It is good that auto parts stores now carry these bi-pin bulbs at a decent price. They were pretty expensive last time I looked. I ended up finding them in the Malibu outdoor low-voltage lighting section at Home Depot, not in with other bulbs in Electrical. Ace Hardware I think also carries a system that uses the same bulbs under their own brand name. 12 volt Bi-Pin bulbs, I used 10 watts I think.



Stuffing some LED strip lights in there might work, not sure if it would be bright enough.



-Joel.

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I'm back in the trunk today regluing the side carpets (the previous fix worked until some heavy objects got flung around and ripped it all out) and I thought that I'll replace bulbs on the third brake light. Anyone got a picture or decription of how to get at the bulbs? A search turned up plenty of discussion on which bulb to use, but nothing on the replacement technique itself.

Thanks

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it has been forever since i was in there, but i think you have to remove the liner in the bottom of the lid and remove the nuts that will reveal

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Nuts. I was hoping to avoid pulling the foam liner - its about the only thing on the car that is like new [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img]

And of course its glued on.....

   

Comes off easy enough with some gentle persuasion and a razor blade.

And, as promised, the nuts. 2 of them, 1/4 inch. I'll post some additional pics once I have the bulbs. Think I'll polish the lens too - its either very dirty or cloudy.


   

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Fortunatly you don't have to remove the whole insulation piece. Porsche does not glue it at the front end. Its as if they knew this would be a high maintenance item. Porsche made the pad so you can flip it out of the bracing and also notched the bracing for a socket! Sure wish Euro deck lids were cheap, I hate the whole CHIMSL thing anyway, looks tacky.

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