LED tail light DIY

[TerminatorX5]

Check the voltage regulator/alternator, and also check the battery under a load - it should act as power reserve/capacitor (kind of) to prevent flickering under revving the engine... this low frequency flickering is different from cold/hot monitoring and brake force distribution flickering

[mdubs9]

Thanks for the tips guys.

Looks like I made a huge error and attached a680uf capacitor instead of 6800uf. That's probably the problem.

As for the flickering, could it be a weak alternator or weak battery?


EDIT:

[mdubs9]

Originally Posted by romeokc10

You should have bought the resistors off Ebay that have a wire at each end instead of a bare pin. I installed a set on my X, one of the first mods I did, it was an easy install and with the resistors I used you can install them with simple T-taps connectors instead of going through the trouble of soldering. Plus they look nicer and neater than the ones you have, they come in 25w and 50w, I think I used 25w. My LED tail lights have been on for 4 years now with no problems whatsoever, check out the link below.

2X Load Resistor for Car Turn Signal LED Bulb 25W 10ohm | eBay


EDIT: I just noticed you have a 2005, apparently from everything I've read over the years, BMW changed something starting in 2003, so the 2003 and up models have trouble when installing LED tails, mine is a 2002.

Thanks, but where to the 2 wires from each side all go? I know there should be one (+) and (-), is there just one extra wire on each side?

[Ricky Bobby]

Yes. What are the wire colors on the led tails again? I can check in the trunk later to see where my capacitors are tapped

[mdubs9]

2 Black, 1 Green, 1 Red.

[Ricky Bobby]

If you google search this comes right up:

As promised....this time with pictures

Follow these instructions if your LED tail lights flicker after installation:

1. Use provided red wire tap-in connectors; clamp one on the green wire, and the other on either of the two black wires. This is on the aftermarket wiring side, not on the OEM wiring. We do not want to modify that!
2. Plug in the red side of the capacitor to the green wire, and then the black side of the capacitor to the black wire.
3. Zip tie the capacitor neatly to the rest of the wiring.

The capacitor's can be bought directly from Caesar at Lightwerkz (the capacitors are not on their website but other great stuff is, so check it out):

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: LightWerkz.net
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Attached Images

[ArmyX5]

So,

I installed the capacitors following this instruction and I am still getting a continues flickering. The good news is that the "check lights" error is gone. My next move will be to replace the battery. Is there anything that I am missing?