reverse lights suddenly stoped working

[mstar]

Does anybody know possible causes of my reverse lights magically stopped working? they was working 1 hour before, i come back and the neighbour says they dnt work!! i am miffed as i have NEVER had this problem before.

also, I have heard (just occaisional talk from mates who have had BMW's) that the lights are a problem on these cars (stop working etc)?

never had this problem before with e36's, anybody got any ideas? before i get ripped of by taking it to a garage and then finding he charge me ££££ for a little thing i could fix myself ghead

[Autotechnica]

This may sound stupid, but have you checked the bulbs? Maybe the contacts are corroded and it caused a short.

Bry

[dutchbmw]

Or the fuse is blown

[325driver]

Back-up light bulbs DO fail, but it is not likely that both would fail at the same time.
I have a 92 325i E36 with a MANUAL transmission and 159,000 miles on it and have had to replace the back-up light switch twice. They are cheap ($11) and not too hard to put in. They are located on the side of the manual transmission (I am unfamiliar how the equivalent function works in a car with an automatic transmission.) Working underneath the car, you just unplug the wiring harness, unscrew the old switch, screw in the new switch and re-connect the wiring plug. As I recall quarters are tight around the switch.


Tom

[mstar]

changed bulbs and fuse nothing :-( some people here say its a switch thing? whats the correct term for this item? and is it expensive. Also why has it happend to my car its only done 70K miles :-(

[TeeUp]

if fuse 26 works fine then i would suspect its your backup light switch.