Issue upgrading from 01 yellow to 02+ clear tail lights

[m5james]

So that thread was no help All it did was simply move the brighter bulb from the middle to the bottom. I need to find something where it acts just like stock...both lights dim when the parking lights are on, bottom one is bright when the brakes are pressed. At the moment the bottom light still goes brighter as it should when I press the brake pedal, so I attempted to cut the wire to the middle bulb and splice it w/ the bottom bulb. This made both lights dim, then both go nice and bright when the brake pedal is pressed (I thought that'd look cool anyways, plus more lighting when braking), but naturally it kicked a bulb error on the OBC from the cut wire. I'm considering what could happen if I ground that newly cut wire out (thinking it'll complete the loop of resistance by thinking a bulb is there), but then again that's 12V I'd be grounding out. I'm looking on SpaghettiCoder and WDS BMW Wiring Diagram System - X5 E53, but neither are helping either.

[powers1]

Hi,after looking at your plug and your car being 2001 built,fitting the 04+ tail lights should be plug and play,because you have same plug,harness as the 04+ X5s.No need for OE adpater cables or pin swap,at all!!!!
It was only on 10/2002+ cars that Bmw changed the plug and harness as you can see form my earlier picture and also stated in retrofit OE instructions I am attaching here.As you can see,in the instructions,which cater for pre 10/2002 and 10/2002 cars,the adapter cables are not needed on earlier X5s.Sometimes its needed (see picture ) to trim a bit around the tail light location for fitting the 04+ lights!Did you have to do this on yours? Hope it helps

[powers1]

Originally Posted by powers1

Hi,after looking at your plug and your car being 2001 built,fitting the 04+ tail lights should be plug and play,because you have same plug,harness as the 04+ X5s.No need for OE adpater cables or pin swap,at all!!!!
It was only on 10/2002+ cars that Bmw changed the plug and harness as you can see form my earlier picture and also stated in retrofit OE instructions I am attaching here.As you can see,in the instructions,which cater for pre 10/2002 and 10/2002 cars,the adapter cables are not needed on earlier X5s.Sometimes its needed (see picture ) to trim a bit around the tail light location for fitting the 04+ lights!Did you have to do this on yours? Hope it helps

Dont know why bother sometimes,trying to help some people!!!!!!!!!!!Bloody waste of time!!

[m5james]

I've passed the time frame to when I can edit my own posts, but my reply in regards to just changing the bulb was meant for "lowlows18".

Powers, 9 times out of 10 im replying from my phone since im at work from 12:30pm-1am 7 days a week, so I somehow missed your post w/ the PDF. I'll check it out when I've got the chance, but in the meantime I havent changed anything wiring wise and they're still doing the same euro lighting thing even though the pins do match up just like you say and per the pics I posted. Hopefully something in your PDF will show me something I can change.