Technical Help... I'm getting a "check brake light" message. Center light is out. Replaced bulb ( OSRAM) with Sylvania. Anyone else experience continued problems? Mine will give me intermittent check light message even though the bulb is still good.
The system measures resistance in the circuit. This partially depends on the material of which the bulb base is made. If the bulb base resistance is too high, you will get false error indicators. If you buy your bulbs at the dealer, or get the same type elsewhere, you will have no problem. Unfortunately, I forget which kind works ... A 'workaround' in the E28 community is to add some extra brake bulbs to the rear clusters. We put them into the fog lamp locations inboard of the running lights. So the resistance is never too high unless you've lost most of your brake lights.
Thanks. Stock bulbs are OSRAM and I replaced that with the same from the dealer. It was still intermittent but seems to be working for now... I had heard about the resistance issue but that was after replacing the bulb with Sylvania. I appreciate the help.
The common problem is that the bulb holder starts to melt and the resistance gets high. You can clean the contacts and rebend them.