XSeries-forum

Hi All,

My ageing E70 has suffered somewhat in the rear tail light area. Both inner lights have water ingress causing some discolouration, and the RHS wing light just got broken by a cyclist when I was in stationary traffic. He kindly paid for the cost of an aftermarket replacement, but it got me thinking about changing the look of the rear, as I now need to change 3 out of the 4 lights. I had a look on eBay and found various sellers of a smoked LED bar type light which looks more like the facelifted version of the E70's lights. I actually like the look of these, and I think will look good on my grey X5.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of these aftermarket lights. They all look similar, so I'm guessing they come from the same factory. Suppliers in Latvia are cheaper, but they charge about £30 for delivery and if there is a problem I've got to pay return postage. UK suppliers are a bit more expensive.

Another thing is that some of the descriptions here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283271697908 state that they aren't for RHD use due to foglight position being on the left. Confuses me as there should be 2 foglights on them. I've asked them the question anyway.

Final thing is that I think these have a single brake light each side. OEM/Pre-facelift have one each side, plus an additional pair of brake lights as a backup if a bulb blows, or activate the additional one in emergency braking. I'm not too fussed with this, so I'm thinking that I'd need to code out some of the light checks. I've got Carly so I should be able to manage that.

I was just wondering if anyone here has done this, and have any thoughts (where to get it from to be safe) etc.

Cheers!

Some continental vehicles only have one fog light which may be where their comment is coming from. OEM kit tends to have a bulb holder there, and sometimes the wiring loom too. If the lights are LEDs then the PCB may not have the ‘space’ there to use, or the circuitry to power a fog bulb.

Remember that for anything ordered from Europe and costing more than £135 you will have to pay VAT and import duty on delivery now (below that is at point of sale) - that could push the price up further. I’ve seen warnings in a couple of places about it in the last week. Buyer Beware as the courier will collect the fees.

From memory, the upper (second) brake light also flashes to indicate an emergency stop. Many aftermarket lights as you’ve found don’t have that.

There were several members in here that successfully changed their lights on the E53 but few on the E70. One issue that was reported (with LEDs only) seems to be the brightness of the lamps being less than desired and it being harder to detect braking action as the difference wasn’t that obvious, though that may have changed as the development of brighter LEDs has improved.

One other items to think about - and it varies with insurers - is changing the lights may count as a ‘mod’. Some owners have found absolutely no problems with this whereas some insurers have been absolute arses about it.

Many thanks for your comprehensive reply.

Good call on the customs. I've asked one of the UK suppliers, and they said that the foglight is on both sides; I couldn't understand why they were advertised road legal but only for LHD cars... The only LEDs are for the sidelights. Remaining lights are conventional incandescent bulbs. I'm expecting the car to at least throw an error for the brake light, and that will be for the secondary one.

Anyway on that basis I've ordered it, so will report back once I've fitted them.

Regards,
Rehan.

Hi All,

Well the lights took longer than expected to arrive. It was a UK seller, but they actually came from Poland. While it was taking some time to get here, I asked the seller about them, and they assured me I wouldn't get hit with any import duty.

Here are the results, hope the pictures come through!
Overall the quality for what they are (aftermarket) was about 90% satisfactory, and I'm quite picky. Only reservation is the lamp mount on the back of the lights look a little flimsy. A resistor is provided in-line to the connector, as the units don't have a secondary brake light. The units come with rubber foam gaskets which are good. Fitting them are straightforward after a good cleanup of the old butyl sealant. Isopropyl alcohol worked good for this.

I did have the right indicator fail on me. Wiggled the cable and it's been fine since, so let's see how long it lasts before I need to check the connectors again.

All other lights work, including both foglights. I don't see it being an issue passing the MOT, as they are all bright enough, despite the kind of smoked look to it. Seem brighter than the originals, although mine were weathered!

Cheers!