Rear lights connector

[The_Judge_]

Hi, I started getting a rear bulb failure warning on my dashboard and traced it to my drivers side rear indicator. I replaced the bulb and 20 mins later got the failure again so put another bulb in, same thing happened. After more investigation I then discovered a "horror" the previous owner left behind. The brown cable for this bulb has visible signs of corrosion and the brown cable has worn off near the end where its connected to the silver bit that fits into the plastic connector, the cable looks like a right mess. Its almost like when someone tried to replace the bulb in the past and when they removed the whole black cluster with all bulbs in the boot, they twisted the unit too many times and put this cable under too much strain.

The black connector that the individual cables lead into also shows signs of damage and while there is a connector down the middle of the gap, there isn't metal on the outside of this hole in the black connector. All other wires have a metal casing in each of their respective holes. It looks like someone "bent" the central connector in the middle of this burnt out hole by 90 degrees almost so that it makes connection with the brown cable a bit better.

Does anyone know the proper names for this black connector, are they cheap to replace or should I just live with the problem? At the moment, by carefully putting everything back together again and trying not to kink or bend any cables, everything is working properly and there is no bulb failure.

[momo]

Don't replace it! It's a design fault..

See my post here:

http://www.e46zone.com/forum/topic/25287-rear-light-cluster-warning-lights/?p=336638

It's the best fix for it and it'll ensure it never happens again.

[The_Judge_]

Excellent - thanks momo, looks like a simple fix too. I'll get right on it next weekend.