When foot goes down on peddle the brake lights dont come on yet the bulbs appear fine

The switch on the brake pedal arm sometimes wears out. The easiest way to get the old one out is to crush it to bits with a large pair if pliers of a small channel-lock. Then straighten the bracket if it is damaged, and snap in the new switch.
If you have an e46 (1999-2005 3-series) the ground on the tail lights tends to corrode in the plug at the tail light circuit board. BMW has issued a recall, but it is a little late because most folks have already fixed them by adding a second ground wire to each tail light. There is a tab on the ground circuit of the tail light that is a handy place to plug in the new ground wire.