Recently, the bulb failure warning light has been blinking more persistently. It used to do this rarely and briefly, but now, it consistently stays on whenever I apply the brakes. I've recently replaced the bulb and even cleaned the socket with a wire brush, but to no avail. Fortunately, the left and right brake lights still function properly; however, the center light works only intermittently. The warning light now irritates me, and I've temporarily taped it over. I've searched the archive in this forum, but no real luck. Can someone throw me a freaking bone for this nuisance? Much appreciated. --Ed.

The post below describes the problem, however you need to remove the plastic cover from the light housing, then remove the reflector. If you pull the remaining piece towards the front of the car, the whole light assembly will come out, and then you can clean those terminals and bend them so they make better contact w/ housing.

I also experienced this problem on my '95 850. I removed the cover and the light housing and cleaned the contacts but it still wasn't working properly. I took a mirror and looked at the terminals more closely to find that there had been a lot of arcing and had actually burned a hole in the terminals - just cleaning them still did not fix the problem. I then bent the prongs or contacts on the fixture so they would contact the terminals in a different location where they could make good contact. This solved the problem.

Take the cover off the center brake light and use a knife to scrape all the metal contacts of the bulb holder. It seems fairly common that some of the black plastic in which the bulb holder is attached melts and impedes a good connection to the bulb. It may not be easy to see but if you take the metal parts out, you'll probably find the problem...mine bugged me for months in the same way and I've seen several other posts with similar problems.

Good luck,
Jim