Smoked LED tail lights
 

Yes, yes, another thread about LED tail lights. :tsk: I'm a moderator so you can't :repost: me. :nanana: Seriously, the reason I am creating this new post is because there are so many LED tail lights posts already that I couldn't pick one to resurrect.

I had the "Check Rear Lights" and "Check Brake Lights" errors from my OEM tail lights so I did the soldering fix to repair the burned/pitted spots on the circuit board. That didn't really help as I think the circuit board itself was bad. (Great design BMW!) I got tired of it and did not want to spend the time hard wiring in each bulb so I opted to get rid of them altogether.

I took the opportunity to upgrade to LED tail lights. I read the many posts here and decided to go with eBay seller "zomkspeed". There are many, many other sellers on eBay selling LED tail lights for our X5s and truth be told, I think there are some that are duplicate sellers using different accounts. I went with this one due to positive experience with members here. My experience was also positive. They shipped the next day and since I am in SoCal where they also are, I got the lights in a day. Anyway, prices vary quite a bit but they should cost you about $155 before shipping. They can be advertised as "Euro" or "uses Philips Lumileds". Some sellers mention a brand name. Previous posts have brought up different brand names so I'll clear that up a bit here.

Zomkspeed does not advertise a brand but they sell "Spyder" a.k.a. "Sonar" brand. I have seen people use either name. They are one in the same. I have read that Spyder is the US importer of Sonar lights. Here is the box that the lights were (drop) shipped in. They came very well packaged!

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ights/box3.jpg

Here are the labels on the box.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...hts/box1-1.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...hts/box2-1.jpg

And here is the back of one of the pieces showing the "Sonar" name.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ghts/sonar.jpg

What I think is that just about any of the eBay sellers selling LED tail lights advertising "Philips Lumileds" or "Sonar" or "Spyder" or versions that look like mine are selling the same thing so go with whatever seller you like.

I opted for the red/smoked LED tail lights. There are red/clear, black, and crystal versions too. There are actually also red/smoke and red/clear non-LED versions for quite a bit less money but I wanted the look and function of LED. Link to post by pezho405.

I apologize for the iPhone photos and the fact that the photos aren't that great but I wanted these things on immediately and it was dark out when I installed them. Here are some comparison photos with the stock lights so you can see the degree of smoke on the new ones. I wanted something a little different from OEM but not smoked too dark. These are PERFECT. :thumbup: They have just enough of a tint to look different and cool. They are a huge improvement over the OEM lights and look far more modern. It really updates my X5 and looks awesome on Steel Gray.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ts/corner2.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ts/sides-1.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ts/corner3.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ghts/rear2.jpg

Technical notes:

They were plug and play and I have no errors nor flickering. My X5 is a production date 03/02 so I expected no problems since the only problems reported are with '03 and newer X5s, if there are problems at all. I did not disconnect my battery prior to installation. The only small issues were with one of the plugs where I had to fiddle with the pins a bit and then kind of force it to plug with the X5's wiring harness and the light's wiring harnesses are off the center of the light so they don't run through the best hole in the X5 and requires you so tuck some wires and squeeze them down when installing the corner lights.

The brake/rear lights are nice and bright red LEDs and look terrific. The signal light is also LED and is a yellowish orange and is also quite bright. The reverse lights uses your original incandescent bulb or you can swap that out for the appropriate LED bulb. These are wired for Euro rear fog lights but you have to do other wiring to get it to work.

Bottom line: I am very happy with these. They look great, update the rear of the X5 so much, and for $195 shipped/tax, totally worth it. The best part is no more annoying errors. :D

NEXT MOD:

This is a genuine xoutpost.com license plate frame. We also have laser cut vinyl decals. Contact LeMansX5 for yours!

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ateframe-1.jpg

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6092/6...c4552e48_b.jpg

Hi,do want to sell your old hatch back lights?,I'm looking for those.

Pm sent

You're the only other X I've seen with a Remus. How do you like it? Also let's get some pics with the lights on! :)

Great review, those look great on your X! I'm completely sold on them, and had the same stock tails as you, I just can't decide whether to get the red/smoke or the red/clear ones! I have a Topaz Blue X, wheels are stock silver sport wheels, but I have tinted windows all around.

So if i am correct your turn signal is still a halogen bulb that you swapped from your old tails? I have a chrome 7507 I would like to use with a new set of tails if that is the case.

I wish someone could post pics of the red/clear LEDs on their car...

Awesome, thank you for the info. I have been looking too, and was confused over some of these points. I'm pleased that there is a Euro rear fog light provision.

Leaning towards the crystal version for our gray green beauty up here.


Questions:

1 - How many LEDs in the signal? Is there a diffuser for their light or do the individual LEDs show? The ebay photos never show that.

2 - There have been posts of the pin count/position being different in MY X5's. Which pin position were used on their plug? Does it look easy to move them if needed?

I just installed these exact same lights on my black 2002 4.6is, plug and play,took less than 45 minutes to install. I think you're mistaken about the turn signals, you reuse the old orange bulb, the turn signal is not LED.

I dont know if mine are Spyder or Sonar but I DID purchase mine from the same seller Zomkspeed way back in 2009 or maybe even 2008 i dont remember. The only difference between my and your purchase is mine came with regular non-led turn signal bulbs. I installed the stealth silver bulbs that eliminate the orange color filling the housing when the blinker is off.

I decided to contribute because I wanted to say that two years later all my leds are still fully functional (unlike some other crap u see on the back of ppls cars). I DID try a LED turn signal bulb and they worked great for over a month and then somehow the electronics must've awakened and instituted the fast blink/bulb out error syndrome.

There was some gap/fitment issues with the way the taillight assembly mounted on the car met up with the assembly mounted on the tailgate. The gap was really big but it was remedied with a little drilling/hole widening.

Good luck and enjoy. They look great on your car!

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...z_p5100007.jpghttp://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...l_p7060076.jpghttp://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...hpej4kpaam.jpg

nice writeup - they look awesome. you're definitely right about updating the look of the X.

turn signals are regular incandescent bulbs - two new ambers are included. I would recommend also buying some silver coated amber invisibulbs for turn signals and a pair of superwhite invisibulbs for the reverse lights at the same time. add some LED license plate bulbs and the ass of your X looks practically new.

not worth the money u can hardly notice the difference between stock and aftermarket..:thumbup:

Hey that's my X5 in there too!

I gotta get new pictures of it before it returns back to stock...

I like the LED look! The LEDs make the X5 more modern so it can keep up with the times.

Maybe a little bit OT but: are you allowed to drive around with these German number plates in US? I am seeing them on the front where it seems not to matter what you do - strange for Europe - but you are one step ahead with your setup :-)

Have fun

ThAt first pic was taken a week or so after I got my X the temp plate was mounted in the rear window and not visible in the pic. After the car was registered u can see I mounted the New York plates.

... Now back to topic...

The lights are less than $200 bucks and they provide a tremendous bang for the buck! I TOTALLY disagree with the comment regarding it not being a big difference. What WOULD make an even more significant visual impact however is if the euro fog light was lit when the headlights were on.

I love my Remus! You are correct that there aren't many of us running around. There was another Steel Gray one on this forum owned by SuperGreg who had the same Remus but he sold it. I love the fat quad tips and the sound it different but subtle. :thumbup:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ghts/litup.jpg

I haven't counted the LEDs but they are not diffused so you see each LED when lit. That's part of the beauty, I think. There are 5 pins coming off the LED lights while the BMW harness has 7 slots. There is a little play with the LED light pins so I used a small bladed screwdriver to nudge them. One plug fit no problem at all but the other needed some tweaking because I could see a couple of the pins were sort of bumping into the plug rather than going in the slot. I did have to apply some pressure to get them together.

18 leds per corner.

You are correct about the signals. They came with orange incandescent bulbs already in them and they light up kind of a lighter orange, almost yellow so I thought they were LED. They are indeed incandescent bulbs and I swapped them out for my old Philips Silvervision mirrored bulbs that are probably 7 years old and still flashing. Here they are installed. No yellow showing at all.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d.../silvers-1.jpg

Compared to with the orange bulbs in.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...ts/corner3.jpg

anyone have pics of the clear/red versions?

I told you I researched this to death! ;)

Here you go!

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...s-r0012223.jpg

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...s-dsc02566.jpg

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...s-r0012223.jpg

http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...s-r0012224.jpg

Looks great and goes with your car color. :thumbup: Does anything light on the tailgate lights, other than reverse lights?

If you add my work.:)

Thanks! I do really love it and you are right that it looks great on Steel Gray. I was running errands today and couldn't stop admiring the rear end and the new lease on life. I swear the whole back end looks different now. It's much more updated and much improved.

Yea, yea. Tom you are the mod man! I saw your photo with LED strips in the tailgate lights and thought about trying that too but I'm not as good as you. :thumbup:

Always bet on black.http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...0/CIMG9734.jpghttp://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...0/CIMG9735.jpghttp://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...0/CIMG9737.jpghttp://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...0/CIMG9741.jpg

Thanks for finding those pics! You have sold me on the red/clear for my Topaz Blue truck!


Last question, can you confirm the turn signal bulb is a 7507? I bought a set for my stock tails and want to make sure its the same so i don't have an orange turn signal! :)

Pm sent (personanongrata)

I replaced my stock lights with the same setup. I wasn't too concerned about the looks but i do agree the look good on darker colors. I have a burgendy one and it really compliments the color. But the real reason I did the swap was I couldn't stand the BMW socket setup. I would get intermittent "light out" problems and could never figure out why after replacing bulbs, the holders, etc. These new lights eliminate the whole problem. I think the lights are better made and easier to service.

I just fitted the red/clears to the X today. Man these things are BRIGHT! Blown away when I turned them on tonight to see how they looked. Very pleased. I'm now trying to get the lower tailgate apart to fit the inner lights. I also want to utilize the fog light fittings as additional park/stop lights so I have LED bulbs on order to fit in the light units. Hopefully then a simple wiring job will accomplish my goal.

Please keep us up to date on that, as I would like to do the same (or close, have two extra reverse lights).

mrbmwx5 has done it.

Added LEDs to the tailgate lights. The guy's got skills. :bow:

http://www.xoutpost.com/members/mrbm...2182009096.jpg

can anyone confirm the turn signal bulb on these LED units so i can get some silver ones?

You mean like these?

2x 1156 Chrome Mirrored Silvered Amber Bulb Bulbs Set | eBay

yeah i just wanted to be sure i had the right bulb #, i thought stock was 7507 wanted to make sure the aftermarket tails had the same bulb type!

We replaced our tails with LED's almost 3 years ago (2009) from Zomkspeed and they are still fully functional - $159 back then! Here's a thread with various photos of smoked and clears, installation was very easy!

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...led-tails.html

Just ordered my set from "zsracing" but they have a Zomkspeed pic on the website! The lights are on sale for the next 11 hours at 179 shipped! And I have silver bulbs on the way for the turns and silver ultra white bulbs for the reverse! Looking forward to doing the install on these! :)

I have had my 4.6is for 9 months and since day one I cannot decide to stay stock, or order LED and if LED crystal/red or smoke/red or all smoke. The only reason why I would stay stock is the LED red is a little darker and the stock red matches imola red perfect and I'm thinking a shade of darker red will not look right so for past fee weeks I have been debating the all smoke which oldly I used to HATE and think it made the car cheap. Please HELP and give 2 cents

^^ what about switching the bulbs out with LED equivalents? You may need resistors/caps to make it work correctly though.

on Imola Red just go red/clear, unless you have black wheels

LED or Stock with LED bulbs

Go all LED. I think the 18 LED bulbs lighting up looks more updated than just switching out the bulbs. Besides, I don't think you benefit at all by changing to LED bulbs that are hidden/diffused behind red reflector anyway; sort of a waste of money.

LED Tails for sure!

Persona, how about a write-up on getting the inners to light up.

I wish I could! Those skills belong to mrbmwx5, Mod Master himself.

Come on Tom! Share! Share! :stickpoke

Liking the LED look :thumbup: Just wished someone would come out with a set that's able to accommodate the '04+ adaptive brake lights :(

Ok, what? I didn't know we had adaptive brake lights. So no LEDs.

Get the Lightwerkz capacitors for 25 bucks and you should be set! 04+ guys have used them on the forums before

email [email protected] and plug them into the wiring of the LED tails

The capacitors would only fix the flickering issue. The adaptive brake light still won't work unless the taillight was designed for it.

You're 100% correct.

OK SO I NEED HELP:

I installed my tails last night, hooked everything up, used the capacitors from Lightwerkz, and when I turned on the tails tonight, they don't light up! The running lights on the LED's anyway, the blinkers both work and when I hit the brakes all the LED's light up!


Maybe I should take off the capacitors?


Please help, they look so good on my truck and of course I'm the guy who has a problem with an install!

All connections are fine, everything plugged in as it should. My X is a 2003 model, pre-facelift. Thanks!

Yea maybe take the caps off. Maybe they have the capacitors built in.

Did that and nothing!


Now I unplugged the tails, and find that there are 4 wires from the stock tail light harness and 4 pins on the LED tails, the only problem is that these "pins" on the LED tails don't line up with all 4 wire contacts on the stock tail light harness. I've tried bending them to one side with no success, should I try to move the 2 wires over on the stock tail light harness?


It looks like this on the socket for the tail:

[- - - - ]

And this on the LED socket:

[ - - - - ]



FIXED! UPDATE 9:20 PM (1 HOUR LATER)



All I did was move the blue/green wire from pin 6 to pin 4, kept my capactitors plugged in, and success! Everything works!!!!



BMW, I hate to say it. But you guys are friggin stupid, how many different ways can you wire tail lights for a car that was only made 6 years? I have found at least a half dozen other threads of guys trying to switch halogen tails and have had to move pins around in their wiring harness too!



Either way, all is working and I am happy, and now my X's ass looks phenomenal!

Congrats! I'm sure it is a huge improvement. :thumbup:

I feel your pain on the pins. I wrote about how one side didn't line up quite right. The passenger side was a simple plug and play but the driver's side took some fiddling with the pins. :tsk:

wow good news. Glad you figured it out. Now only if there was a solution for us 2006 guys.

I'm curious why there is a problem w 2006 MY? Doesn't the capacitor fix/resistor fix with a potential pin movement cure problems?

Or are you referring to the loss of the adaptive brake lighting?

Adaptive brakes seem to be lost with this upgrade.

New guy here trying to learn everything. Just got a 05 4.8is this past saturday. Has there been any trouble with these kits on MY 05?

See "lost of adaptive brake light function" on posts above.

HEY OP!


Do me a favor and start your car and tell me if you notice a "flashing/strobing" effect from the LED tails on startup.


My mother-in-law asked me the other day if I had strobes on my tails because she apparently saw a flashing sequence from the rear when I started my car. Interested to know if anyone else experiences this, I started my car last night to get dinner and could see the "flashing/strobing" happening when I started the car.


I have Cesar's capacitors and no errors at the moment (although I did get a random error one day a couple weeks ago), and the lights are working fine with no flickering.

Ricky, got the LEDs in my licence plate lights. When the engine cranks, they flicker, no matter if the lights are on or off. But once the car is running, they are off, or on depending if the lights are on. My light switch is always in the off position when starting. I like to work my lights myself.

Got LEDs in my license lights as well, and they work when the car is running!

I leave my lights on off (never use auto feature) so when the car cranks and starts all my lights are off, and there is no flickering.

However, when the car first started up (after cranking) the other day, the lights almost did a "startup flashing" sequence in the back, at least from the tails. I don't know if the LED's had the same flashing sequence. I will check again later to see if it does it every time I start the car, I'm guessing it's a stupid "cold diagnostic check" that I only notice now that I have LED's in the rear.

I did my LED for 05. Got clear chrome from zomkspeed, I think. They look gangster I regret a bit. Anywho, the ebay seller said it would work for model 04 & up. It did. However. it has light flickering issues which is hard to notice.
I got 4 capacitors from ebay like 2$ each from ebay with same specs. Capacitors are capacitors, folks. Didn't solder them in yet. I will keep you posted when it is done.

I also had to do LED Tail upgrade on E46 by necessities. They are horrible regulating voltage, they all burn out causing weird inconsistent problem. Kudos for BMW...

Not talking at all about flickering while running.


Almost a strobing/flashing sequence just after start of the vehicle, then completely normal operation after.

Maybe it's something we all have and just live with and don't notice, because who really looks at the back of their truck when they are starting it?

Got the set in. $210 to my door was the best I could do on fleabay. Choose the clear/black combo as the others available didn't do it for me.

Had expected far more problems, but thanks to posts like this one, had only minor trouble. The main lights slid in just fine, but the pass tailgate one has one screw hole off kilter just enough to not line up at all.

Have running flickering in one side (!?) the pass parking lights. Interestingly, that was also the only light that needed the solder fix. Have a cap ready to go on today. Will remove the red "fog" bulbs when I reshuffle the setup.

Overall very impressed.

I got the same one last year. I got one for 2005 X5. Supposedly slightly different electrical scheme with adaptive brake light?
Works fine mostly but I could see slight flickering, need to try to put on capacitors I got from eBay.

Eloquently put. That's what I am having... Thanks.

If you are having what I have then I don't think the capacitors fix it because I have those installed. The capacitors fix the "flickering" while the lights are on, aka the difference in voltage from the lights. search youtube and you will see, the flickering while running is different from the "strobing at startup"

Hey there -

Does anyone know if the ebay seller "zomkspeed" is still around. My tail lights are looking faded and I want to upgrade them to LED, but have had bad experiences with ebay sellers. The seller mentioned above seems to be legit as numerous forum members have bought from him with good end results. Do you think I should go for the smoked or clear LED's? My truck is Estoril Blue w/Dark grey style 87's.

Thanks

00-06 BMW E53 X5 LED SMOKED TAIL BRAKE LIGHTS LAMPS LEFT & RIGHT | eBay

I got these a few years back...liked them at first but now they don't work properly.

For example, they work as running lights, but if I brake they don't get any brighter...so the LED strip in the middle lets people know I am braking pretty much. That happened after about 1 yr or maybe more...and I noticed when I was backing up and got close to the garage door, the X didn't give me any warnings...

Smoked to match the wheels. Buy from seller with ten thousands of feddbacks with > 99% positive.

I think the flickering issue with the LED tail lights or the LED Angel Eyes come from COLD MONITORING of the light circuits - the incandecsent bulbs do not react fast enough to the electrical pulses, thus not light up, the LEDs, having a much faster react time, flicker, as the LKM tests the line for a break. Turning off the COLD MONITORING for a specific light will eliminate the flickering without any capacitors. The circuit will still be monitored by HOT MONITORING, when the LKM continues to check the circuit when the lilght is illuminated.

Also, it seems that in the programming, there is a value for LED light (I have to check to see if it says LED tail or LED something else). Maybe that function will allow the adaptive braking function to remain operational...

I have not tried the LED activation in the programming but I have turned off the COLD MONITORING for the LED I use on the factory Angel Eyes in the 4.8... No more flickering.

LED_RUECKLICHT_OPTION - LED tail light option, nicht_aktiv in my car...


I do not have the LED tail lights (about 5 years ago I installed totally smoked ones in 4.6, but did not like the appearance, so I sold them off on ebay), so naturally, I don't have this option checked off... I wonder, what would happen, if that option is checked as ACTIV and there are the LEDs?...

There is no CELIS inside those tail lights, is there?

Hi, I installed new LED taillights I bought from ebay and they are amazing. they are smoked and look good on my black X. If anyone is interested in my old oem taillights or I even have oem headlights(xenon housing, no ballast, clear corner, autoleveling) please pm me.

did you get any flickering on your tailights?......as my boy got the flickers....or maybe its just a hit or miss....

He does not have adaptive tails in his '01 so he should be fine. They're the reason- as far as I have read- for the flickers.

No flickering at all. I think they came with resistors already preinstalled.

My LED light "bulbs" for the AEs were flickering... as a matter of fact, the left one was flickering, and the right one was not... when the same light "bulbs" were on the E39 (the one that I traded in), both of them were flickering.

When I looked into the programming for the E53 I saw that Cold monitoring for left front parking light was activ and cold monitoring for right front parking light was nicht_activ. when I changed the left side cold monitoring to nicht_activ, then the light stopped flickering.

So, while I do not claim that that action was a direct cause, it seemed to be...

I can't tell you how timely the refresh of this post is...I could have written the intro to the original post myself. I am on my second melted (arround brake bulb connector) passenger side taillight, after the original also melted due to arching. Being sick of seeing "Check Brake Lights", I order these from Zomkspeed's ebay store and FedEx should have them to my door today.

I feel very encouraged by the success of fellow owners who have installed these and hope to not see that message again...

Thanks for a great post and thread.

Do you guys have a link to Zomkspeed's eBay store?

i think they also go by the name "zsracing" thats who i used, my lights were phenomenal quality.

Do a search on "x5 e53 led taillight". It says "ZomkSpeed" in the lower right-hand corner of the main photo on the listing. He goes by X3Racing (eBay store name).

I just bought mine over the weekend, and it was his only listing for these at the time. I have been watching them for several months and he constantly relists. You might want to contact them directly (866 number on most of his posts) if you need them ASAP.

I'm not promoting anyone here, just sharing my experience. Many others on eBay have listings for similar items (Some might be exactly the same item), but he has a better price than most, and many here have had a good experience purchasing from this seller and success with his product.

Quick Update
 

I installed these over the weekend and am so far very happy...

Before
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_1486.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_1487.jpg
After...
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_1492.jpg
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_1493.jpg

They were plug and play, as avertised, with one exception, they DO NOT come with backup light bulbs. So before you replace the lenses on your tailgate and replace all the trim, swap the bulbs from your old backup lenses. Unlike myself, you will not have to disassemble your tailgate trim a second time to get your backup lights functioning.

[QUOTE=Ricky Bobby;863387]OK SO I NEED HELP:

I installed my tails last night, hooked everything up, used the capacitors from Lightwerkz, and when I turned on the tails tonight, they don't light up! The running lights on the LED's anyway, the blinkers both work and when I hit the brakes all the LED's light up! QUOTE]

I have read this thread with great interest. I just got in some Spyder LED tail lights from Tunersdepot. Great looking lights. I had everything in and brake and blinkers work fine. No back up or tail lights. I thought I had blown a fuse so spent an hour reading each and every fuse and could not find a tail or brake fuse.

I read about possibly the pins not matching up so will check tomorrow and see if that might be the problem. Any other ideas?

switch the pins around like i did, that was my problem, my blinkers and brake lights worked but not the running lights.

Thanks Ricky Bobby, I just did that and got the running lights working but still cannot get the back uplights to work. I checked the back up light plug and simarly it has space for 3 pins but OEM plug only uses two. I swapped pin 1 to pin 3 since pin 2 is the back up light but could not get it to work.

Any ideas?

hmmm back up lights i wouldnt know, i'd maybe try a different bulb (from your stock lights) maybe the ones that shipped with it are junk?

WOW who woulda thunk it? I bought LED lights and it said it came with bulbs so it is supposed to be a Plug/Play. However the back up lights are not LED and use a standard bulb which it did not come with.

That was an hour of time wasted trying to figure it out. I bolted em in, pluged and you can't really see the bulb while it is mounted. Go figure.

If that is the stupidest thing I do all month, I'l be good. Lights work great especially with bulbs in them. Ha.

That's pretty funny. Especially since this post from Unit107 is directly above yours. :rofl: But hey- good that you can laugh ab it! :thumbup:

glad you got it sorted out and it wasnt anything bad!

do you get the strobing sequence on startup though like i do? my LEDs on the tails flash after the car is started, for bout 2-3 seconds, almost like an ambulance lol.

It doesnt cause any errors and the tails operate fine though so I was just chalking it up to the LKM doing a startup check.

Everything was working fine but when I did get the tail lights working I noticed the right side was kind of doing what you described but went away when I started the engine. I had been slammed at work to get ready to head out of town for a few days so I just parked her and have not checked in several days.

Hi
I have a 04 X5 , do all of them come with the adaptive brake lights? if not, how do you know if you have that function?
If I do have the adaptice brake lights, are there LEDs that don't need the Cap?

Thank you
Jim

stupid question but is there a write up on how to get the inner lights on the tailgate out? The outers are simple but before I start into mine on the weekend thought I would ask.

thanks,
Bill

This thread, post #3 http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...il-lights.html

excellent, thanks!

Hi everyone
I have a 04 X5 , do all of them come with the adaptive brake lights? if not, how do you know if you have that function?
If I do have the adaptice brake lights, are there LEDs that will work or need the Cap or what ever ???

Thank you
Jim

Sorry to resurrect this thread but my taillights are not working. Any suggestions. I checked the pin outs and my wires only run to pins 1 and 2 on a three prong connector while the spyder taillights run wires to all three? I get the "check reverse" lights warning and opened up the back and it looks like bulbs are included.. is there a mod I need to do to the car connector?

spikit,

You must be talking about the back up lights on the tail gate.

If you got them from Spyder, double check and make sure they have bulbs (1 in each side). That particular light assembly is not LED and mine did not come with bulbs. It was few weeks ago when I put mine in but I do rember that it is 3 pin plug but only has two wires going to it. I checked those two wires with a tester and the only thing (that I know of) going to those lights are the back up lights, no tail or brake lights. I am only guessing here but if you wanted tail or brake lights on that you would have to run a third wire and splice it in to your cars brake or tail lights.

Anyone have any input on this?

hey man, i seen your videos on youtube with the X.
how old are you? sound kinda young. and hey ill buy the clear tail lights off you if you still have them.

thanks

Rear light issues, check brake or whatever
 

After the 3rd tail light replacement, I could not purchase the socket that plugs into the assembly, I had to buy the plug, it comes bare, no pins or wires, the pins are sold one at a time the wire color is brown, so I needed to replace one of mine so I copied the color codes then snipped each one off , then after i inserted the lamp assembly, I bought some dilectric grease, thats what was never placed into ever plug that has movement with vibrations all the time, and when is shorts out the pin then you are left with no plug for a lamp to work its only a matter of time before that happens so apply a great amount of the grease into the plug and be sure that all pins are all in good condition!! and then it should be your last time you buy an expensive tail light !!! Good Luck and still asking for my rear wiper fix, my rear wiper works but cant be shut off, is there a relay some where for that rear wiper ?????

anyone selling their old oem taillights?

Damnnnnnnnnn I just threw my perfectly working mint condition ones away. They were in a big box that was taking up too much room in my basement. I kept saying I'd post them then never got around to it. Sorry u didn't ask like two months ago

damn )

hope someone else is going to do the same :)

btw, these tail lights from ebay have an extra connector for rear fog light.

what do you do with it?

I hooked up my rear fogs via OEM methods and have a European headlight switch so mine work like factory

but i can leave the connector as is (not connected) and they will work fine?

Yes absolutely

thanks! will try find some deal on these.

again, nobody selling their tail lights? red/clear.

They will work without the rear fog light function, just like the original ones worked before...

thanks!