turn signal works intermittently
My guess multifunction switch has failed.
Or
Move to Florida, we don’t need no stinking’ turn signals.
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LOL! From what I’m reading I need rear housing assembly.
All 4 at once? Likely the multi-function turn signal switch itself as @Purebred posted.
Or just one in the rear? THAT is the expensive one… the entire LED tail-light needs replacing!
Move to Florida… or buy a BMW badge and slap it on the rear… BMW drivers don’t use turn signals in any state! 
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From what I’ve observed, turn signals are a BMW option, and most BMW drivers apparently fail to order that optional equipment.
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Had a co worker move to Nashville from Florida, and he said he drove to a few dealers looking to see if turn signals were optional here…
I really enjoy confusing people here cause I use mine… lol
And most, not all, BMW drivers are a different breed of driver… I think it is that they are just car broke… Again not a blanket statement, I had some great customers that owned BMW’s, but most would drown if they looked up in a rain storm… lol
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I have owned two cars without turning signals: 1) 1947 Pontiac; 2) 1948 Dodge
The 1947 Pontiac I purchased in 1961. It did not have turning signals. I bought a turn signal kit from Montgomery Ward and installed the tirn signals.
I bought the 1948 Dodge in 1977 to restore. It was a one owner car and the elderly woman who owned the carcm had driven up driving. I bought a switch from NAPA, but before I could install turning signals, I was offered more than I paid for the car. I took the offer as I found myself too busy with other things to restore the car.
A neighbor inherited a 1951 Dodge Coronet in 1958. The 1951 Dodge did not have turning signals. The neughbor had turning signals installed.
The school buses I rode in the late 1940s through the mid 1950s did not have turning signals. The first school bus, a 1939 GMC with a Wayne body was taken out of service in 1951. The second school bus I rode was a 1946 Chevrolet with a Superior body. The owner/operator had to add turning signals in 1952 by state law.
I believe all vehicles operated on public roads were required to be equipped with turning signals beginning in 1956.
Oddly was difficult to pin down, via google, when cars were required to have turn signals. One source did state 56 for Canada,
many years later for the US.
As far as I know, retrofitting an older car cannot be required.
When amber from turn signal became mandatory 64(?) Minnesota was ticketing older cars that owners added amber to their front turn signals.
Was following a motorcycle that turn signals had failed, he was using hand signals at a stoplight, using his right arm, then it occurred to me the clutch is on the left.
I think that you’re correct, but–as usual–things can differ on other continents. An older co-worker spoke about a trip to Europe in the '60s, and the car that she and her friend rented (a VW Bug, I think) had only “semaphore” turn signals.
Anyway, they were driving on an un-lighted highway at night when their headlights and tail lights crapped-out as a result an electrical problem. They were afraid of being hit in the rear because they were so hard to see, so her friend began “semaphore duty”, and she alternately hit the lever for the left and right signals. Her wig-wag signaling enabled them to get back to their hotel safely, and the next day they exchanged that rental car for one with working lights.
For those who are too young to know what those turn signal lights looked like, this is what would happen when you hit the signal lever:
Sounds like it’s doing what it’s supposed to do 
Well, you haven’t told us any details about what’s working and what isn’t.
Just be careful about following what appear to be common failure points because it can lead down a path that costs a lot of money but may not resolve your particular problem. Sometimes you get lucky…
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I don’t think I ever saw those on Beetles sold in the US.
A web search shows that VW had semaphore turn signals until 1955 in the US.
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+1
While I don’t recall ever seeing them in operation, I do remember the little “slit” in the “B pillar” of very old VWs when I was a kid.
Thanks, I guess the beetles I saw, died lube and oil changes on, and rode in were newer models.