Led tail light issue
 

I have a 2001 e53. I have just fitted new led tail lenses. All are working but i have noticed that the top tail light is brighter than the bottom. It looks like the brakes are on but the brake lights are at the bottom with the bottom tail light. Also my car has a 4 pin connector whereas the leds have 5 pins. The box states they are the perfect fit for my car. The original lights worked fine. Has anyone else had this problem. Any help would be appreciated.
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3...TS%20ONLY.webp
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3...AL%20copy.webp
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3...0BRIGHTER.webp

Looks like you have a few wiring mods back there (with the additional LEDS in the lower bumper).

Not all X5 E53 cars have the same tail light wiring - there are a number of variations based on the model year. There is no such thing as an LED tail fitting that will work correctly on all X5 E53 cars...

I think your best bet will be to un-pin the connectors, then put the pins in one at a time until you get the result you want. Maybe study the wiring diagram (for your exact model year etc.) first...

HI,Yes i made sure i got the correct lights for the right year. just dont understand why 1 light would be brighter. all work other than that.

I bought new after market non LED tail lights that said plug and play, bahahaha not. I had to figure out the wiring myself to get them to work or my brake light would be on all the time just like yours. Your going to have to figure out what wires are for brakes,continuous on for lights ,and make sure signals are working correctly too. It will be trial and error ,but they should work. Good luck.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Xoutpost.com mobile app

The 01 uses dual filament lamps for all four tail lights but only uses the low power filament for the upper lamp. I rewired mine to use the brake filament for the top lamps because I have some replacement light fixtures that have the filament wired for that ability.

As you noticed the plug on the harness is short a pin for this capability. I rewired my light fixture to supply power to the brake filament to top lamp and my car all four lamps light for brake. I tried to do the same for my wife's but the bulb is not wired to the high power brake only the low power run filament.

The lower lamp only uses the high power filament iirc, using pwm to change the brightness (I could have these backwards), this is why you often see different brightness between top and bottom lamp for the run lamp on e53.

It sounds like the designer for your tail light fixture did not take into account the weird wiring of the e53

Does the top lamp get even brighter when brake is applied or do they all become the same brightness?

With some luck you can hopefully figure out how to rewire and get run power and brake power to the correct places without having to exchange the whole assembly.

If the circuit is designed to output low brightness @ reduced voltage and full brightness at 12v, you should be able to wire the top lamp in parallel with the bottom lamp and get four run and four brake lights like I have.

You will have to disconnect the top run light ckt which runs at full voltage expecting a low watt filament

they all become the same brightness.

thanks for the advise. looks like thats the way to go

thanks for all the advise. well that is what i will do. can i just confirm that the black wire out of the lamps is the earth?? pretty obvious but thoughts id ask as i only have a 4 pin plug but the lenses are fitted with a 5 pin which includes a 3 way black wire.

well after a lot of messing around i have now got them all working as they should but there is a difference.
the only way they would all work normally was to take out the lights wires and not use them at all. everything still works including the parking lights/ (not sure how)
the lights are now all the same and the brakes work on all four lights.
if i connect the light wires, all lights automatically become brake lights. go figure.

So was it an issue with your Brake Force Display? Error leaving it in "constant on" or connections reversed?

Sent from my SM-A730F using Tapatalk
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b5406f9115.jpg

Not sure what model year that came from but the'01 has no power to the brake filament of the top lamp so cannot do the extra light trick.

I rewired my brakes lights to always use all four but only could do this because I have a replacement set of tail lights. (made in 09 I think).

You wired as I described above; parallel wire of the run/brake wire (from lamp 1) to both lights.

The wire to lamp 2 is full voltage always. The wire to lamp 1 is b lower voltage for run, full voltage for brake.

Fortunately the LED circuit is compatible with the way that works.

Can you share the model you bought in interested in upgrading to LED tail.

hi. they were from amazon. brand: eagle eye. £207.61

LEDs don't work well with pulse width modulation. You should be able to code the LCM for LEDs and some other parameters on how the brake and tails lights work.

I'm glad you got them working. I usually just lerk around these forums, sometimes I'll put some input in that hopefully helps someone out. I definitely dont know everything about these BMW,'s . I'm still learning myself. It's like a hobby owning 1 of these older X5's.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Xoutpost.com mobile app

Depends on the design of the LED module. Just need a capacitor to even the voltage out or have fast enough pwm so you don't see the blink. Seems this lamp assembly works ok but without video hard to tell if they blink.

I have led rear turn signal and in hazard blink mode, you can see the pwm blink but not during normal turn blink.

yes i got them working but noticed today when i went out that because the light wires are not connected, i am going to get the warning up on the dash everytime. any way i can stop this?

Your talking about the warning for a burnt out bulb?

Sent from my SM-G950W using Xoutpost.com mobile app

Led tail light issue
 

You have to program the LCM to not look for bulbs at start up else people put high watt resisters in the circuit to fake being bulbs 6 Ω for the 21w filament, 24 Ω for the 6w (top lamp) filament.

The 6 Ω resistor will get very hot make sure it is Isolated from things that care or you can use some jb weld and glue it to the sheet metal to duct the heat to the body

Damn! That’s a good idea! I always attached mine with a heat sink clip or fabbed up a bracket - JB is WAY easier [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

yes it says check tail lights

rewired again today and noticed that even if i only connect the lights wire, they are still as bright as the brake lights and thats without any other wires connected (other than earth of course.)
is ther a way to stop them being so bright as i guess there too powerfull for the led lights

You cannot connect the "run" wire it's not compatible with your setup.

You can wire a high watt 24 Ω resistor from run wire to ground and that will eliminate the error for the run lamp but no guarantee on the brake lamp.

The idea is that it's metal filled epoxy so should have decent conductivity. I use fancy thermal epoxy for LED lighting but that is way overkill

Simply code out the error checking....

If youI have the coding hardware I don’t even have that


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

can i not just put a resistor into the light circuit and if so what resistor do i need.

start off by reading the comments that tell you EXACTLY what you are asking :rolleyes:

get your facts right. all it says is
6 Ω for the 21w filament, 24 Ω for the 6w (top lamp)

how the hell does that answer my question?????
the lamps are led (der) they are both the same bottom and top so how does that tell me which one i need????????
the light circuit and the brake circuit are different wires and can be wired to either top or bottom, therefore i still don't know which resistor i need.
the 6 or the 24?????? I only need it for the light circuit as the brake/run circuit works fine.
is the light circuit the 21w??? or is that the brake circuit????
We're not all as clued up as you on electrics you know.
Don't bother answering things if your gonna be a sarcastic idiot. as you can see i have followed this thread all the way and know exactly what it says.

My man...you're calling me an idiot...and you're the one that can't read? :rofl:

fact #1 read post twenty...like "Exactly what it says"

Maybe someone else can spoon feed you the info if you don't want to read it...good luck


BTW, welcome to the forum :rolleyes:

thats the one i QUOTED you moron. maybe you need to learn to read.
read my last post properly. as no20 states
"people put high watt resisters in the circuit to fake being bulbs 6 Ω for the 21w filament, 24 Ω for the 6w (top lamp)" "Exactly what it says" as you put it.
both led's top and bottom filaments are the same. no seperate 21w and no 6w top lamp.

now read mine n get your facts right. my run/brake circuit is fine.

i need to know which one for the light circuit (seperate wires to brake/run,) and that no20 as you say does not tell me which 1 to use as both led circuits are the same. it describes them as normal lights circuit. I NEED THE LIGHT CIRCUIT TO LIGHT UP JUST LIKE THE RUN CIRCUIT DOES ON THE BRAKE WIRES. not as clever as you thought you big headed idiot.

since I'm the idiot...you figure it out no? :thumbup:

lol i already have. too scared to read it properly i see

You have used a couple confusing terms that don't match standards.

You have been calling the "run/ning" light circuit the "light" circuit they are all light circuits.

The run circuit runs at full voltage and is incompatle with your lighting. Wire a 24 Ω resistor from that wire to ground.

You may still get an error because the brake lamps also don't pull enough power in which case you would need to wire a lower resistance resistor in parallel to the BRAKE circuit (which is actually run/brake circuit. ).

I would need to know what amount of current the circuit pulls when lighting both top and bottom to know the correct resistance to emulate the 21w filament but people usually use 6 Ω. It likely needs closer to 8-10 Ω but only trial and error will determine what level will prevent the error.

The problem is two fold:

1) you don't have run wire connected at all the car correctly identifies this as a blown filament.

2) the brake circuit has too low of resistance even when doubting up the lamps, so it will likely see this as a failing filament.

If you know the wattage of the LEDs or can measure the current going to get fixture when the brakes are applied I can do the math to tell you the proper resistor.

A 6 Ω resistor at 12v is 24w! That's similar to a small soldering iron so it needs to be a special metal resistor and should be touching metal to pull the heat out.

If you only need 10 Ω, the power drops from 24w to 12w or half so it's worth figuring out what is actually needed.

With any luck simply doubling up the lamps (which you did) will trick the car into thinking the lamp isn't blown.

I guess all I saw was

I nEEd I NeEd I NEED

Glad you sorted it out, proving to all the internet how many of the smart you have

ok well firstly thanks for the proper reply. sorry for the confusion.
i gather you mean the run circuit is the main back lights?
if they are incompatible then why are they in the connector? (never had a set of these before)
They are the ones, when connected, that are as bright as the brake lights so i guess thats where the full voltage comes in.
So why cant i put a resistor in that wire to lower the full voltage??

Also, the brake circuit (run/brake circuit) is absolutely fine and works perfectly without any resistors. Doubled up as you said. No warnings about brakes. The ONLY warning i get is because the main run circuit is not connected to anything.
Thats how ive got it wired at the moment and all lights/ brakes etc are working perfectly.
What i needed to know was about putting a resistor in the main run circuit so that i could connect the light fitting properly without any alarms going off.
hope i explained this right.

how many of the smart you have???????????
what the hell does that mean??? is it english??
grow up child. you've proved to the internet that you cant read and showed yourself up. amazing how others got the jist.. didn't hear you mention what was compatible or not or it depends on led voltage etc. dum ass

:popcorn:

Run the resistor between the + and ground on that plug. Warning will go away as the resistor acts as the connection and is emulating a bulb. Easy as pie, a quick google will give diagrams too. I don't even think you have to plug the harness back in if you don't want.

https://content.instructables.com/OR...bounds&frame=1

Edit: You can see my resistor install here above the fuse box.

https://i.postimg.cc/ht47P2pJ/20190131-165251.jpg

Hey Boost! What’s happening!?

sooooo....I guess you didn't figure it out huh?

thanks. looks a good place to put it.
i will have to connect the run wire to the lights as the earth is all one on the original light connector. Or is there another way?

d**khead, i figured out what size resistor which is what i asked. told you you couldn't read.

Soo....you still need help then??

I'm confused, you figured it out or you can't figure it out?

You figured out a part of it?

Just ask Andrew to come over and do it for you already, don't be shy. We're all friends helping friends no?

grow up you little child. not reading properly again. i only said i figured out what resistor i needed. i didnt say anything about figuring out how to wire it in. obviously didnt read. go back and try again. so you carry on making yourself look a prat.

DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME A PRAT!!!!!

I'm learning to speak millennial

All good Happy. Just staying entertained... :thumbup:

The resistor goes between the run wire which you don’t have connected and the earth / ground. you’ll probably have to add a piece of wire because you do want to attach the resistor to the metal bodywork.

thanks for that

Just keeping something else AW said in mind also, be sure to insulate that resistor, it will her hotter than heck when the lights are in use [emoji106]. - easy fire hazard for sure.


Sent from my iPhone using Xoutpost.com

I measured one once. Think it was about 250 degrees. Definitely mount it to a metal surface and keep away from things that don't like heat.

The good news is this solution only needs lower power resistor about 6w vs. 24 but it runs all the time so definitely glue to the car body or on the right side can be in the airflow. You don't want to insulate it that will make a little oven. You do want to protect it from touching things that won't play nice with 200+ °F

i have some jb weld to attach it.