[ClubBMW]

Hi everyone. It's my 1st post. Be easy on me

I tried to do a search on this but I didn't come up with anything (yet). I have a problem where the ribbon cable that is soldered to the back windshield of my F10 has broken free at several of the traces. I'd like to hit it with a soldering iron but I need to remove the 3rd brake light. Does anyone know how to remove it without damage?

Thanks in advance!

[mgattmch]

I think this post will answer your question:

http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1205237

[zugellos]

It's amazing what a little search on Youtube brings up.
Try this one...

[ClubBMW]

Awesome. Thanks everyone! I was concentrating on those red tabs thinking they popped out but they weren't budging. I didn't think the black side pieces were separate. I'll post my progress on this effort when I get back to the task sometime in the next week.

[EV0LVE]

I guess you're out of warranty huh? I remember mine broke early enough that it was repaired under warranty. I rely don't know why it broke. I just lost am reception, and that's how I found out.

[ClubBMW]

Warranty? It's just out of warranty. Being as such I checked into what it would cost to get the back window replaced and I thought it was quite reasonable... at least for me, as I had a report with the manager. I used them in the past for a repair. $265 installed.

.. but I was determined to make this a zero dollar fix because, if I was willing to spend cash to get it replaced, there's no reason I can't risk trashing the window with a solder gun (I was originally worried the heat might start a crack).

Anyway, on the ribbon cable some of the contacts were unusable so I cut the unusable part off. I then used 400 grit sandpaper to sand away some of the ribbon plastic to expose the traces.

I then used the wires inside a stranded (not solid) core RJ45 Ethernet cable and soldered one wire to each trace. I followed that by cutting the wires to a length I thought I could work with and loaded up the lose ends with solder so I wouldn't have to fight gravity later trying to feed fresh solder onto the window contacts. This was a good time to test for continuity with a meter.

I found out shortly after that I did this all of this on the back side of the ribbon cable by accident so later on I had used hot glue to cover my work and taped a piece of antistatic plastic over it as an additional insulator so it wouldn't come into contact with the window frame. This might be a good idea either way.

At the window I plugged the ribbon cable in to position to locate it properly then taped it into place so I wouldn't have to hold it. I then unplugged it for good measure.

Now would be a good time to cover your back seats and the back deck area under the window with towels - you don't want to burn a hole into anything!

With a screw driver tip (my fingers were a bit to big for this tight area and my fingers aren't big!) to hold each wire against the window contacts I operated the solder gun with one hand and the screw driver with the other. I only had two hands so feeding solder at this point was not a possibility, hence the prior pre-soldering step. Being a job you have to do upside down, the window part didn't come out that pretty so I didn't take a picture of the end result but it worked like a charm after that. If one of the solder joints break in the future I'll just touch it up again.

[snj1013]

Good job!

[ezaircon4jc]

EXCELLENT job!! Looks nice and tidy!