Upgrading to rear led tailights questions
 

Ok I did a search and need to hear it from someone that has done it. My right rear bulb warning light turned on. I checked and the brake light on the RR does not turn on anymore. I wonder if I have the famous tail light issue and have decided that I will just upgrade to LED tails and be done with it.

I am going to go with these BMW E53 x5 00 06 LED Tail Lights Lamp Red Combo Clear Rear Brake Running Pair | eBay

for 200.00 shipped. The video at the bottom implies they are Spyder Auto.

If I swap these am I going to be freed from the typical tail light problems for good? Thanks in advance.

I have had zero issues with my leds.

Nice Thanks.
I thought about doing the mod using the Mercedes parts, but it is not much more for plug and play LED lights. I thought I had to do the mod with the Benz parts no matter what, to avoid the corrosion/melting parts issues.

Went LED about 3 or 4 years ago in both Toyota and BMW. They are just so bright and look great!!!!

Is this for your 03 or 01? Your 03 might need the capacitors to keep from flickering.

Sorry for not mentioning which one. It is for the 01 auto.

I am planning on doing the 03 5mt as well this year.

03 and up need the capacitors for flickering - also not a complete must, but you should code out the cold monitoring on the tails or the LEDs will do the "startup strobe" sequence - I've had my Spyder LED tails for over 4 years and not a single issue

Thanks for the details. So I am guessing that I need to get INPA or similar to do the coding? Will any capacitor work? Now I am kind of dreading doing the 03 since the Spyder video made it look plug and play. They did not show the capacitor part.

Very few LED mods are truly plug and play with modern vehicles that utilize an LKM. Even our 2011 and 2013 Kia Optima SX's (also use light control modules) weren't happy with LED mods and required capacitors.

Edit: The only reason I have not converted is that I have yet to get INPA, DIS, etc working and to start working with coding.

I also had to swap tail light housing pins on my 03 as they varied between models - Caesar Rowinski @ Lightwerkz will sell the proper capacitors needed - [email protected]

Yes if you want to code out the "startup strobing" you'd need someone with NCS or similar to code it off for you - I had mine coded off years ago when coding other things like the fog lights on with high beams (6 gun salute), rear fogs enabled, seat belt chime off, etc.

I found them (I think) on Amazon for $154. http://www.amazon.com/Spyder-Auto-Cl...lights+e53+bmw

Those are NON LED - they are halogen

OK just to clarify: I will not need to get capacitors for my 01 auto and only for the 03 5mt? Weird. Did they change some electronics after 01?

Correct. They changed the brakes in 03 so that the illuminate brighter when stopping harder I believe.

^^Adaptive braking on 03-up - Josh is right

It looks like this seller will do this for me for my 03:

Thank you for updating us~

For the tail lights, a capacitor can be installed onto the ground and power wires for the parking LED function.

This is primarily due to the adaptive brake function that is equipped in the newer facelift 03-06 model years.

With the 01-03 you will not have an issue with this feature since the adaptive brake feature was not introduced in these earlier model years.

In any case that you were interested in purchasing this tail light set for the 03-06 models, we can pre-install a capacitor into tail light wiring prior to shipment.

This is a service that we can provide to you free of charge at no cost to you.

Please feel free to let us know if you have any further questions or concerns regarding this item.

Sincerely
VIPMOTOZ

Not a bad deal at all. It cost me an extra $30 for the capacitors and I had to install them myself (just clamp style install).

I put these on our X5, they work great. I did have an issue with getting some that didn't have sanding marks on them. They had to send me 3 sets of inner light before I got a set that wasn't messed up.

I have a 2006 with the LED tails ,
no capacitors,
and no flicker;
just changed some values ,
I'm not sure if anyone else has tried it?:
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ght-diy-3.html