Do the pins pull right out from the spyder harness? Cause on the OEM harnerss there is 5 wires going into it. I'm thinking your. On the right track

I replied to your PM :)
All pins on tail light connectors,come out individually.You need to pry it out with a pointed tool.A small pointed screwdriver should do it.
These OE 6 pin connectors on either side ,only uses 4 pins,so on these connectors ,all you need to do is swap pins as follows:-
RIGHT LEFT
6 TO 4 1 TO 3

These procedure is exactly the same connection as the OE cable adapter you can buy from BMW,to install facelift tails of prefacelft,albeit at no cost ;)

tried but no dice . swapped driver side 3 to 1 and and passenger side 6 to 4 ? what are the wires colors that should be in each slot ?

sometimes the LCM will kill power to the defective circuit, to prevent a short circuit... since you have the OE tails and the replacements - when you swap them, the OE tails always work? There are only 4 pins on the replacement lights, one of them is bound to be ground, so the other 3 are for the individual lights/light banks... a ground wire on the car harness should be brown without any other marking, can be verified by an OhmMeter... that will leave you with 4 other pins (from the picture looks like 4 pins, could be 3 remaining... the fender tail light (not the one on the bottom hatch) has a dedicated turn signal, a parking light and a brake light, which is 3 circuits... that means, you have one ground and 3 individual circuits on the light that need to be matched to ground and 3 individual circuits on the car...

I agree, this is much more than a plug-and-play should involve, but it is doable - it is not like you have a harness with 25 wires...

Also, are you able to bench test the new lights? to see if they actually work to begin with...

the oe taillights worked before making this switch. still the same prob of the brake light not coming on , i get the error as soon as i hit the brake pedal

You got PM again..Here are the pics (mine)..it really is easy.just swap pins!
Unless yours ,being 2001 is different from the later pre-facelift.

That's the driver side. I matched that up. How bout the pass side?

If your left side is the same as mine,then does it work?If it doesnt ,then its an issue with the spyder tail lights and not the connection.
If the left matches ,so will the right...no ,I dont have a pic for the right side !

Not sure how the wires will matchup when on drver side different plugs being pulled then the passengerbside. Incontact with dt moto hoping they will replace them

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...-lights-2.html

Have a read on above link......Someone with a 2001 and similar issue,but his connectors seem different to yours.
If you check my posts in that thread,you know that the 2001 harness is same as facelift X5s,unlike mine.