[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by vomba

I have that instruction in German and it's quite the same. But it confirms that there have to be six wires to the inner connectors and not only five, as it is obviously in AntWrig's adapters.

The sixth wire is for the rear fog, something we don't use in the states.

[vomba]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

The sixth wire is for the rear fog, something we don't use in the states.

Yes, I realized that in the meantime and edited my last post.

[AntWrig]

The car is in the shop getting the charge pipe (s) replaced, and the suspension adjusted. The guy who makes the harnesses also code and he happens to live in my area. So, I will link up with him. He can look at the wiring etc.

I am network engineer and those closest wires come in contact now is either fiber (glass) or copper Ethernet which I don’t even crimp anymore. So yeah, he can look at it and address it.

[PetieD 7]

Originally Posted by AntWrig

Hello all!

I received the lights from paddleshifters and they appear to be oem euro. However my installer is reporting that

Outer works as ECE specs , inner works as US specs

That’s what he says is happening. The amber strips only lights to the outside and not the inside light. I wish I could post a video here.

In the picture you will see the wiring harness, I purchased. I wonder if that may be the case.

have you reached out to the seller/vendor regarding the inner taillights that possibly might be related to “US specs”? You would think this would be a completely set of Euro spec taillights when you placed the order.

[AntWrig]

Yes and the email was rather terse. I can feel like they were offended in my question. I think they are pure OEM parts.

[vomba]

Originally Posted by AntWrig

The car is in the shop getting the charge pipe (s) replaced, and the suspension adjusted. The guy who makes the harnesses also code and he happens to live in my area. So, I will link up with him. He can look at the wiring etc.

Can you post here if the guy could solve the problem and if so, what it was?

[AntWrig]

Originally Posted by vomba

Can you post here if the guy could solve the problem and if so, what it was?

The car is the shop getting the charge pipes upgraded. Once I get it back, I will let you all know.

[CMK]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

Heads up. A lot of complaints about this seller, Abdul. Says they are in stock when they aren’t. Glass shipping notifications. Says they are OEM when they aren’t. He’s changed the name of the company several times and relaunched the website. Goes dark on people.

Is Abdul not the guy you ordered yours from? Sorry, just trying to find the best/most reliable way to source OEM Euro tails. original-autoparts now only sells to business customers, but I do know a guy who owns his own shop.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by CMK

Is Abdul not the guy you ordered yours from? Sorry, just trying to find the best/most reliable way to source OEM Euro tails. original-autoparts now only sells to business customers, but I do know a guy who owns his own shop.

He is and I recommended him after the purchase and the people that ordered from him got nothing but the runaround. Some people waited two months, he went dark on them or they never received there lights. You have no idea how may private messages I received. I got tired of contacting him on behalf of other people. My order wasn’t exactly smooth. He’s the king of excuses.

I did get OEM tails at the end of the day from him, but he’s not an honest guy.

[CMK]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

He is and I recommended him after the purchase and the people that ordered from him got nothing but the runaround. Some people waited two months, he went dark on them or they never received there lights. You have no idea how may private messages I received. I got tired of contacting him on behalf of other people. My order wasn’t exactly smooth. He’s the king of excuses.

I did get OEM tails at the end of the day from him, but he’s not an honest guy.

Oof, I don't envy you, I'm sure that was a PITA. I'll keep looking around. Looks like he's still active on the forums.

I don't even have a car yet, so I'm not exactly in a rush...

[vomba]

Fyi: Baum BMWShop in Germany sell the OEM set online for some 750 bucks. Don't know exactly though whether or not they ship to the states and how much tax and fee this is.

[eric_gm]

This is probably a controversial opinion, but the more I see how the LCI tails work (either OEM or replicas), the more I think they're less safe. The light strips just get brighter which is something rare for a BMW. I've seen a few reviews where people make this observation.

The non-LCI have separate parking and brake lights, which is not only safer, but keeps the tradition that almost all BMW tails have had for the last 50 years or so.

I mean, I still like the LCI version more, but this is a serious compromise, at least to me.

[PetieD 7]

Originally Posted by vomba

Fyi: Baum BMWShop in Germany sell the OEM set online for some 750 bucks. Don't know exactly though whether or not they ship to the states and how much tax and fee this is.

the international shipping is way too expensive…DHL International Service for around $700.00+ though.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by eric_gm

This is probably a controversial opinion, but the more I see how the LCI tails work (either OEM or replicas), the more I think they're less safe. The light strips just get brighter which is something rare for a BMW. I've seen a few reviews where people make this observation.

The non-LCI have separate parking and brake lights, which is not only safer, but keeps the tradition that almost all BMW tails have had for the last 50 years or so.

I mean, I still like the LCI version more, but this is a serious compromise, at least to me.

Not controversial, I’ve heard and read about this concern. I personally think it’s a huge stretch. I driven behind many LCI’s in stop and go traffic and have really zeroed in on this. IDK, you would have to be texting and driving with your head down to not see an LCI car clearly braking.

On a side note, you want to see firsts for BMW in terms of lighting, checkout the new “i” line

[eric_gm]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

Not controversial, I’ve heard and read about this concern. I personally think it’s a huge stretch. I driven behind many LCI’s in stop and go traffic and have really zeroed in on this. IDK, you would have to be texting and driving with your head down to not see an LCI car clearly braking.

On a side note, you want to see firsts for BMW in terms of lighting, checkout the new “i” line

Yeah, I've seen the electric ones and the new G60 and G80 and the tail lights are atrocious. It's a race to the bottom to see which model has the thinnest light strips.

And on that topic of separate brake lights, don't get me wrong. Half of my cars (the Japanese ones) have dual-filament parking+brake lights so it's not like it's something I'm paranoid about, but if I'm given the choice of consciously buying lights with less features (adding the missing fog lights there), I'd probably not do it, just for looks.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by eric_gm

Yeah, I've seen the electric ones and the new G60 and G80 and the tail lights are atrocious. It's a race to the bottom to see which model has the thinnest light strips.

And on that topic of separate brake lights, don't get me wrong. Half of my cars (the Japanese ones) have dual-filament parking+brake lights so it's not like it's something I'm paranoid about, but if I'm given the choice of consciously buying lights with less features (adding the missing fog lights there), I'd probably not do it, just for looks.

I totally get that and honestly, I went with the amber Euro blinkers solely to avoid the welcome light issue. Even though I think they are "cool", the lights look exactly the same when not blinking and who really cares, it's not like we can see them when driving. Good luck!

[AntWrig]

Originally Posted by vomba

Can you post here if the guy could solve the problem and if so, what it was?

The problem was with coding. I went to another coder, and he fixed the issue in under 3 minutes.

I am trying to find what exactly was coded, so I can pass along to you all.

[vomba]

Originally Posted by PetieD 7

the international shipping is way too expensive…DHL International Service for around $700.00+ though.

Nah, shipping via DHL is some 85 $ (80 €) when choosing the adequate package size. And customs is way less than several hundred bucks, though I don't know exactly. Should be worth while questioning the shop; they probably don't ship abroad for the first time.

[vomba]

Originally Posted by AntWrig

The problem was with coding. I went to another coder, and he fixed the issue in under 3 minutes.

I am trying to find what exactly was coded, so I can pass along to you all.

For EU version cars one can do VO coding with HO-word "HELC" (NOT Salapa-element) instead of only coding some new values in a cafd. Not sure if that leads to trouble on U.S. cars due to different wiring (but probably not if you use EU wiring diagram, too).

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by vomba

For EU version cars one can do VO coding with HO-word "HELC" (NOT Salapa-element) instead of only coding some new values in a cafd. Not sure if that leads to trouble on U.S. cars due to different wiring (but probably not if you use EU wiring diagram, too).

I had mine coded by Vic and he edited values in the CAFD. All was working fine so I thought. At some point early after that, I discovered something wasn't working correctly, it was very small from memory. Vic was unavailable in real time and I got impatient and had another coder go in that said he was familiar with coding Euro tails on a US car. He did the VO coding and totally fucked it up. He must have spent two hours troubleshooting it and then deemed my wiring had to be wrong, I knew it wasn't. I paid him anyway. I hit Vic up and came clean on my impatience. He went back in and discovered the VO was coded. I think it took him 10 minutes to get everything right, including the small issue I had. I hit up the other coder to let him know it was fixed in record time. He apologized, refunded my money and then asked me if he could go back in to learn from Vic on what he did wrong. No dice, that's Vic's intellectual property.

Just passing this along. I am not a coder, just know the VO method did not work for me. Also passing this along to beware, coders will tell you they have experience when they don't. I am sure they mean well and are confident they can figure it out, but don't be a guinea pig. Call Vic.

[vomba]

OK; that seems to support my assumption that VO coding Euro backlights may require EU wiring scheme. Perhaps some diy guys may test that in the future.

In European cars, there is another issue with LCI backlights and I-level newer than 23-03 (but only in a few cars). They have to code BFD_L_IS_LED and BFD_R_IS_LED in 5FA9.cafd (=HU_NBT2) to "00" (=NO LED) to avoid error messages related to brake lights. Don't know if that applies to U.S. cars, too.

[w1zk1d]

Does anyone have any long term durability issues (over 2 years) from the knock offs? Please let us know. I just installed Euro LCI sequential knock offs $305 USD with oem trim $160 USD and they look amazing. Installation was easy, just took time. For $465 all in, it was definitely one of the best mods and I've done several.