When I get in and start up the check monitor tells me the "check rear lights", they are fine. Often the the yellow ABS, traction control and brake lights come on and will not go off. I had the brakes checked and they were fine. I have in the past (right before problem) jumped another car with a dead battery off the rear battery hook up in the trunk. I think this may have casued these issues. Not a good idea, now I have to cope. Any ideas? Thanks.

Have a friend stand in the back and do a full light check, make sure that both plate lights come on the reverse lights, ect, then you might want to remove the ecu, cpu fuse's and dissconect the battery, then wait 20 min. reconect everything. It should reset the codes that light up. Good Luck
Regards,
Bret

I have a 2000 540i and I have recently experiences an identical problem. The "Check Rear Lights" message will appear each time I start the car up for about 2-3 weeks and then it will go away for a while.

Recently, by ABS, Brakes, and DSC lights will be on. Then, sometimes they do not.

I was just wondering if the above solution fixed your problem on your 1999 540i