Rear tail light assembly replacement
 

So... we have the infamous issue with one of the rear tail lights (driver side) where the circuit board is in terrible shape. We just want to do as easy a replacement as possible as opposed to resoldering or anything complex. There are a number of taillight assemblies on eBay but I have no idea which ones are decent and which ones are trash. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I bought the led replacements for about 200, they are advertised as having "Philips led" in them

labatt, what year is your X5. The facelift one has adaptive brake light so it will flicker if you put on the LED taillight without the resistor. No problem on the pre-facelift. There's no point to put on a set of non-LED aftermarket taillights.
These are good.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps09c95215.jpg

You're going to have problems no matter which ones you go for (except possibly the LEDs). I did a permanent fix using Mercedes-Benz parts and a tutorial on here. I don't remember it taking too long, and it was the cheapest "fix" my car has ever had.

I have the same ones tmv had on his old 3.0, adaptive brake lights started in 2003 so if you have 2003 or newer you need a resistor in line, but it's no big deal.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/17/9u8agy5u.jpg

It's a 2003 pre-facelift I believe... 4.4. I'm pretty sure they are the adaptive lights - they go brighter when you brake harder. Is there a complete unit I can buy that's pretty plug and play? Manufacturer? I don't much want to pay stealer prices. Thanks!

They are adaptive. I'm a 2003, and can't speak for everyone but I'm having major issues with the facelift tails.

The LED units that I and RB (and others) have is pretty much plug-n-play. You will need to add a resistor to each side. There are post on the forum to list what resistor to use.
Or you can buy them and have it shipped to member closer to you to help with the resistors. You didn't list your location so I don't know if I'd be close enough to help you out.

You could also email [email protected] (Cesar Rowinski) and for 15-20 bucks (its been a while, I forget how much), he makes a set of tap-n-play capacitors for the adaptive brake lights. I put them on mine when I installed and no issues for over 2 years.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...nics-shop.html