Brake Light Leak Problem: Z3 trunk gets soaked everytime it rains or washed, water condensation in trunk... Old style trunks: (96-99 BMW Bulletin -German) Sun, 29 Oct 2006 Harvster writes on Z3 Rides email list This is for a 99 with the old trunk style: Your problem is a worn gasket that seals the third brake light. The gasket part # is 63 25 8 389 735 There were two screws to remove. Do not let either drop into the trunk top. You will never recover it and it will rattle. Remove the wire harness. The light is held on with plastic clips integral with the light. Snap out the light and replace the gasket. You might want to smear some silicone grease on it for better sealing. When you replace the light, make sure you snap in all of the plastic clips. The screws will not do this. You have to use finger power. When they are all snapped in, replace the screws(don't drop them) and plug in the wire harness. Sun, 07 Jan 2007 Brian W writes on bmw-z3 email list Regarding the third brake light, while this is not going to help in the casewhere the plastic is broken, be aware that after that area is disturbed, unless the person is very careful, the gasket can easily be compromised. It can be as simple as a speck of dirt caught between or rolled over at an edge. The good news is that it usually doesn't have to be replaced. Just remove the brake light with a Torx, T8 I think. Carefully clean the gasket and the surface around the outside of the brake light and re-install. Listen for a "click" when the two separate plastic pieces snap back into place. New style trunks: (after 99, such as BethR's '00 Z3 2.8) oldlightwithcover Before: Beth's Trunk Lid Brake Light (leak, water condensation in trunk) Beth writes: Old Light with Cover newlightassembly After: Trunk Lid Brake Light New Light Assembly sidebyside Beth writes: What my light looked like with the compressed seal and the bad shape the screw seals on the cover are in, compared to what the new light seal looks like with uncompressed seal. oldlight Before: Compressed Seal Beth writes: the compressed seal and the screw seals in bad shape newlight After: New Seal on New Light Beth writes: I still have to fix the screw seals, and am going to try AC O-rings to see if I can find some that will do what I need them to do. Thank you to Ed at Bimmerbum.com for my replacement light and the O-ring suggestion! Note to anyone with the newer trunk light: if you replace the light due to the seal problem, you will most likely need to also replace those 3 screw seals on the cover. So far, have not been able to find replacement seal part without buying the cover, thus the a/c o-ring work around. I will let everyone know if that "seals the deal" (yes, stupid pun intended!) of the rest of the condensation in the trunk lid! - Beth

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