E46 tail lights question

[EspritChappy]

Can anyone tell me what I should be doing to sort out this messy tail lights situation I've just found on my second hand e46 (2001 320d). Any guidance would be great!

The left light works fine but has this dodgy looking wire connected to the brown...




The right light doesn't work and I have a warning on the dash, it doesn't have the dodgy looking wire...




Looking inside the cable connector on the broken side it looks like one of the pins has been frazzled and come away...




All the bulbs work, swapping them around gives the same result.

Any advice? Am I looking to replace just the connector with the missing pin on the right? Any idea what the dodgy wire us about?

Any help appreciated

[TheEnd]

The BMW rear lights had a crappy earth, and that is what has happened to your rear lights. The contact resistance at the earth pin has overheated it and burnt it out.
What has been done is a secondary earth from the metal earth rail to the loom.


If you want to tidy things up a bit more, you can solder the wire onto the rail on the light cluster, solder blob on the earth "splice" and put a bullet connector so you can unplug the light if you wish.

Getting it back to factory with new plugs and connections might mean it'll melt the pin again in a few months.

[EspritChappy]

Awesome, very helpful reply thank you!