LED headlights

nestea

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Location
canada
TDI
2006 jetta
Does anyone know a way to turn off the monitoring for burnt out headlights? I installed some LED's but they do not draw enough power and the canbus controller thinks the bulb is defective. I could live with the error, however as soon as the system detects the lower draw it shuts off the circuit. The led's work well with a 50w resister, however the resistor gets too hot for the inside of the headlight assembly and want my install to look clean and not have the resistor outside the lamp assembly.
I found how to shut off the lamp cold diagnostics under central electronics in vcds, however it not produce the result I was looking for and still triggers the circuit to be shut off. Any idea's other than the resistor solution?
I have researched and found no posts relating to any vcds settings other then the cold diagnostics option.
Thanks
 

SootHappens

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2006
Location
Scappoose, OR
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
I've been down the same road looking for a solution. After much research, I believe it's beyond the capabilities of VCDS. It seems that it can be turned off with a VAS tool, and is called 'warm diagnostics'. I went so far as to buy a (VAS 5054A ODIS V4.1.3) from ebay, but I couldn't get it to play nice with my Win10 computer.

Currently I'm running LED bulbs with a smaller 25w load resistor in my Dynabeam headlights.
 

nestea

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Location
canada
TDI
2006 jetta
Thanks for the reply, I think I will go the resistor route as well. The LED's I got are 30watt each, however they shipped with 50watt resistor/decoder. The 25watt resistors would make much less heat and satisfy canbus. Do the 25w resistors make too much heat to install inside the headlamp assembly?
Thanks
 

SootHappens

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2006
Location
Scappoose, OR
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
Yes, unfortunately the 25w resistors still get hot enough to melt plastic. It's probably best to mount it to something metal. For some reason, my car was happy to keep both lights on with the use of only one 25w load resistor, connected to the passenger side circuit but YMMV.
 
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