Does anyone here know about the fog light in the taillights on the early models? I read about them in the "BMW Restoration Bible"; I believe they may have only came on Euro E30s. Anyway, in the taillight bulb panel, if some of you don't know, there is a blank spot for a bulb, no connectors for it or anything, just plastic, and on the taillight assembly there is a hole with a plastic bar. Well our dad decided to hook up the fog light bulb. He disassembled the bulb panel and soldered a connector to the blank plastic spot and cut out the bar in the taillight assembly and wired it into the wiring harness. By accident he wired them into the brake lights instead of running lights, but they look and work great.

I was wondering if anyone knew about the fog lights in the taillights and if they have done anything like this to their E30. Thanks for any info and help.

Also, when I get some time I will post some pictures of the bulb panel and of the lights working.

Also we added the third brake light as ours did not come with it.

With bulbs out - stock.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2048-1.jpg
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Bulb Panel with added bulb socket.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2051-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2052.jpg
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2054-1.jpg

With the upgrade of the extra bulb with running lights.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2055.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2056-1.jpg
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With the upgrade of the extra bulb without running lights.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2057-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/TrevorCoffee/100_2058-1.jpg
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Theres a write up for this on E39s. The process is relatively the same for an E30 as far as procedure.

You'd need to wire them up and run separate wires all the way to the dash, and then wire it into the fog light switch, or add in a new one for them. Probably could run them straight to a new switch seeing as the E30 is a bit simpler than the E39. Maybe do some trick wiring to make the fog light dash bulb illuminate, I know the US E39s came with another bulb for rear fogs installed in the dash, it was just never used cause we didn't get the rear fogs.

Yea, I have read those write-ups. We didn't want to wire in a switch, so we just wired it straight into the harness...even though they got hooked to the brakes by accident(which we left that way), everything is working fine.

There is also a write up for E36s somewhere; and in the E39 forum there is a tutorial for actually hooking up the back fogs to the brake lights.:buttrock

Post pics of the brake lights with it on, I wanna know if I want to do this.

Wow, that's visible. Better than stock, I might do this now.


If I can find a spare moment, hah.

Just to let you know...we took the extra connectors out of another taillight and put them in ours and soldered a wire from that connector to the brake light wire on the plug that plugs into the wiring harness...sorry if it seems vague, I might try to get some pictures but I don't really want to disassemble the lights again in case they get broken. It's probably the easiest and only way to disassemble the taillight by popping the metal casing out of the plastic tabs in the taillight panel.

All German cars sold in Germany have to have an "extra bright rear RED fog light"

There is a separate button just like you stated that will turn on this very bright light. Most cars only have them on 1 side, the driver side as required by law in Germany. Some cars have them on both.

I personally would only use these in foggy conditions because these lights are very very bright and are very annoying if people use them during the night when it is clear.

Just a thought, it is really not needed otherwise.

They're connected to the brake lights, and do NOT run constantly as I already stated.
Also, they are no brighter. I used the same 21w bulb that the others take. You may mean that it's brighter altogether, which it is, but it's not that big of a deal since they are only on when the brakes are depressed.