BMW X3 2011-2016 LED tail light repair

Thank You for the video.... I just did this repair! I found that you do not need to remove the rear plastic hatch cover! I fixed the two on the hatch and the right side. What is interesting is that you really don't have to add much or any solder. Just heading up the old solder fixed the crack! If you have some jeweler's glasses you can actually see the cracks!! The two side lights are 250ish each and the center lights are 150ish each . If you do not repair them you have to replace the whole light. So if you have all of them not working you are looking at 1100 with labor!

Awesome. I love the internet. With the help of your tutorial, I fixed the non-functional hatch LED (for FREE!). Thank you so much for this. P.S. I didn't have to take off the entire hatch panel for access, just the little door. I also didn't have to remove the circuit board from the light; after putting pressure on it to verify that loose connection was the issue, I brought the entire light assembly inside and dabbed solder without removing anything. I just propped it in a little box to hold it still and had two hands free for the job. I pressed the capacitor with a toothpick while dabbing with the solder iron.

Thank you so much for showing us how to fix it on our own. We are retired and have a fixed income and appreciate you saving us the cost of a new taillight. Thank you again so much!

Thank you for the information on these faulty lights. Bought two lights for 11' x3 a year ago and three were out within one year. Fixed all in less than an hour thanks to the tips discovered here.

I followed your steps exactly. Three of my four boards were giving me trouble. They all work now. Thanks so much for making this video. Really appreciated!

Your video has saved me hundreds of dollars! Followed these steps and found a new circuit board online for $35 bucks an voila! Thanks again!

Thank you so much! three of the trail lights went off. I don't have the tools to do these steps; however, I took the three circuit boards to an electrician for soldering and paid $4 for this. It works!!! Thank you so much again. You saved me more than $400.

Add another happy customer. Fixed the driver side LED taillights on my 2011 X3 F25. Saved me hundreds in repair bill. Thanks very much.

Thanks for the tutorial. My drivers side lift gate LED was out. I chased the issue for weeks because after cleaning the connectors it would illuminate intermittently. I was able to remove the lift gate light while leaving it plugged into the car and push on the capacitor to test it. Holding the light in my vise I resoldered the capacitor without having to break off the plastic tab to remove the board. This literally saved me a few hundred dollars!

Thank you for this video! I have a vehicle inspection in three days and today two of these backlights went out. Luckily I had my plastic crowbar and soldering iron close at hand so doing all four resistors was not a big job after all! One tip I have to say about that plastic cover on the trunk, you don't have to remove it completely to get to the light cases out, just pop couple of those fasteners near one of the case you want and you are ready the get it out.

Perfect, exactly as you had described, pulled it apart and low and behold it was the exact Capacitor you suggested, much appreciated. You just saved me a load of money. Thanks again

Great job! One of my taillights failed also. My BMW dealer offered me a new taillight for € 240,-. I tried your method and it was exactly the samen component on the print that needed some soldering. It took me only 30 minutes. Thanks so much1

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VIDEO! The right brake lamp assy and left tail gate light assy LED lights both went out about one month from each other. I just repaired them both in about 30 minutes total time. You saved me serious dough! Thank You, Thank you, Thank you..... BTW - comments below are true about tailgate light assy. You do not have to remove the tailgate's interior panel. Just remove snap-on cover, disconnect/remove light bulb assy, remove the 8mm nut with bracket, and out it goes!

First video I found when I searched, and you identified my exact problem. Thanks - back up and working again!

Very well done tutorial - congrats!! In addition, you made sure to include close-up of the circuit board to make it very clear - a very nice touch many tutorial video forget to do.

Thanks for the video. You do not have to remove the whole "plastic rim" for this job. Once you remove the "plastic bracket," you can easily remove the tail light assembly.

Thanks for the video! Unfortunately I already bought the new case before seeing this video, but it still helped me a lot in figuring out how to pull out the old one, and install the new.

Thanks for showing us. Super helpful. You really don't need to take off the trim for the inside lights. You also don't need to take the board out unless you want to replace it. I just unscrewed the 8mm nut and gave a tap from inside to pop it out. There's a plastic location pin which got stuck and so I had to tap the fixture out

Just want to say a big thanks for this tutorial. I had the exact same issue with one of the rear LEDs. The circuit board is indeed the culprit. I re-soldered the capacitor and lights work again. Its disgusting that for a luxury car, BMW have provided a proper solution for this.

Thanks, took about 10 minutes to fix on my '11 X3. It's crazy how common this failure is. My tail light also had a little corrosion across the metal conductors on the backside of the hatch with the bulbs.