Issue upgrading from 01 yellow to 02+ clear tail lights
 

I've tried searching, even texting a few other member, but I'm not having any luck. I've got an 01 X5, bought some stock taillights off an 02+ X5 w/ the clear blinker corners. They work great, but the upper bulb on each side is staying on as if it's a euro brake light. The lower stays dim and brighten up as expected when pushing the brake pedal, but I need to fix the upper lights before I get pulled or highbeamed constantly. I've tried searching using random keywords, looking through the How To articles, etc but to no avail. I'm guessing it has something to do w/ switching a few wires around in the harness since I can't be the first person that's had this experience.

If you're having issues w/ your stock taillights like http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ation-fix.html, and if anyone wants to pay for shipping on a set of stock, yellow cornered lights, feel free to PM me since mine work just fine.

Hi m5james,
The problem is ,you have facelift 04+ tail lights and the pin positions are different to the pre-facelift or your 01 X5.
All you need to do is this-
Pins to swap when fitting 2004-06 Tail lights in pre-facelit X5-E53 (1999-2003)

RIGHT TAIL LIGHT
6 TO 4

LEFT TAIL LIGHT
1 TO 3

If you need any pics or more info ,let me know.I do this all the time in clients cars:)...no need to buy the OE cable adaptors:)

Unfortunately I don't have anything in either harness for pins 1 or 6. 1st pic is the left side harness (w/ the tape on it), 2nd pic is the back of the taillight plug itself. 3rd pic is the right side harness, but I couldn't get a good shot of the taillight plug itself due to the sub enclosure being in my way, but nonetheless it has the same pins. Both sides are only pinned 2-5.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-related-...-adapters.html - found this thread after searching for the adapters you mentioned, but its a little confusing since both E53 and E70 owners are replying. Nonetheless, i'll give it a try :)

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.

your best bet is to get stock 00-03 sport package tail lights..those should be plug and play

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:)

Considering the deal I got on them vs what people usually charge on eBay, I'll either keep playing w/ the wiring or try putting in a lower wattage bulb to tone it down a bit.

Nice! I did notice mine was weird but thought nothing of it. Thanks!

Update: mine are already wired as above but still have the middle bulb brighter. I have replaced the middle with a smaller 10W bulb and the bottom with a 21W. Still, on park the middle is brighter

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