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      09-01-2022, 06:36 AM   #1
shockpoint
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Drives: BMW E82 125i M sport
Join Date: Feb 2021
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Blackline restoration E82 log

Hi 1addicts!

I've been a lurker for about a year now and I've learned a lot from this forum in terms of servicing for the E82 125i. I like to work on my own cars and motorcycles. I also do a bit of restoration for old japanese motorcycles on the side. Parts are harder to come by so most of it is restoring whatever I have. I have a background in mechatronics engineering but its been a while since I worked as one!

I figured it's my turn to do some DIYs and give back to the community.

This is my first one and I didn't plan to do a DIY at the time so I deleted all the photos so please forgive me!

This DIY is for my experience of restoration of the blackline E82 lights.
I picked up two lights separately. All in all it was a bit of a score - a pair for 200AUD.

Part 1
The left one had a very minor crack on the lateral side. (see the second photo for the crack location)
- If these cracks are not major, they can be layered over carefully with UV-curing transparent dental filler based glue. The one I used was Bondic
- Depending on what your crack looks like, use masking tape as close as possible to the edges of the crack as you can, I'd say about 1-1.5mm. The closer they are the better it looks.
- Once the masking is in place, get some isopropyl alcohol and clean the surface up.
- you can start your first layer of bondic. Go thin, and apply evenly across the crack. Immediately use the supplied UV LED and cure the application according to the instructions - I like to go 3-4 seconds in a given spot, so you can time your wrist movement to go maybe 1mm/sec or something.
- Once the first layer is on, test with a fingernail - it should feel solid like plastic. Repeat the layering another 1-2 times for 2-3 layers in total for best sealing.
- if you're paranoid like me, you can get clear silicone (natural curing type) and smear a thin layer across the cured Bondic layers while the masking tape is still on. Allow that silicone layer to cure over 24 hours.
- In my case, the crack extended into the area where the lens is plastic welded onto the black housing of the lights. In this case, away from the red lens you can use an 2 part epoxy such as Gorilla glue. Apply into the crack and clamp for 24 hours. After this you can layer on with natural cure silicone (natural cure is good because you won't have the risk of the acetic acid harming any electrical components or lens fog). I put about 2-3 layers of silicone to protect against water ingress.

Part 2
The right taillight was from a 135i that was having dim LED light bars. Looking up other DIYs, I found that the solution was to cut into the housing. However, the LEDs are generally quite long lived and given the issues of the standard pre-LCI e82 lights were ironed out by the first build date of the blacklines (?2011), the LED array inside the housing was probably not the issue.

In the first photo, the green circle shows the lamp panel, if you remove this, towards the bottom of the housing you can see a small circuit board about 5x5cm large. This is the LED driver I believe.

In my particular taillight the problem was water ingress because the gaskets were not sealing correctly. In fact, the ingress was from where the white plastic washer was, through the black gasket and down towards the circuit board, as indicated by the blue arrow.

This caused corrosion of the contacts that connected the 2 layers of the board (upper and lower). I know a photo would really help here but sorry! I deleted the photo!

Anyway, I used a multimeter and compared resistances to the board on the working taillight. In my case, the copper leads connecting the two layers of the board were corroded, so it was severely restricting the current flow, resulting in dimmer LEDs.
- if you systematically test traces on the board, you might be able to find problem contacts
- areas of water staining on the PCB itself can also give clues as to which bits might be corroded.

I soldered some single core wire across the contacts (for indepth guides, you can look at PCB trace repairs on youtube, it doesn't have to be that intense but you can do something similar). This got the current flowing again, so the LED bars lit up like new. Make sure you measure the resistance in the new connection and compare it to the rest of the traces on the board - as a rule of thumb try to keep it in a similar range so that current flow isn't too restricted (a less risk of overheating too!)

Summary
- you can use bondic to do minor repairs on cracked lens
- for suspected water damage, look at the exposed PCB on the rear of the lens housing to start. Using a multimeter may also help in revealing areas of poor current flow.

Comments
- not a real DIY in the sense with step by step instructions but probably as a log so that others can see what might be possible; I found that the most helpful information to guide my diagnosis in this case was a random comment in a big unrelated thread that said they swapped out the circuit board.

Hope this will help someone in the future!
I have a few other DIYs I would like to write up but there are more photos so hopefully they are more detailed
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120i, 125i, 128i, 135i, blackline, e82

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