Chinese Passat LED tail light retrofit

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
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Springfield, VA
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‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
viperman3 said:
Do any of these mods give a bulb out warning on the dash?
I'm considering this LED tail lights, but don't want to deal with bulb out issues.
No. Recommend you read through both of these LED tail light threads and review how you want to proceed. Installing LED tails is not plug and play. You can install resistors to fool the BOW sensing circuits, or you can run new wires and get into coding Byte 18 and maintain full functionality, use no resistors and not worry about BOW's.
s/no/yes.

There are all sorts of issues with getting LED tail lights to work correctly on a stock US Passat without throwing a lamp out error. You either need to rewire you BCM and change the coding (as vw_norm has done) or use resistors and other methods (additional wiring, trailer light controller, etc., as Jason and I have done) to make them operate correctly and keep the lamp monitor happy.
 

Michel R32

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Location
Netherlands
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Multivan T5
Hi,

I am from the netherlands and i have bought an NAR passat B7 from the USA. i was searching around for led taillights and HID front lights when i found this topic.

In the netherlands, a rear fog light is essential to get it registered. so i've pulled the EU spec scematics and installed a EU spec light switch, made the connections and was happy to see the function light in the cluster turn on. but on the output pin there was already a wire. (Front DRL) now i found a way to reprogram the BCM to output the foglight to a free pin, so the installation of a fog light is possible without using a relay.
 

MikeS_18

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Feb 18, 2005
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Bow, NH
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'03 Jetta Wagon, '13 Passat SE, '64 Ford Econoline
I'm going to short circuit this process and smuggle a whole car out of China. I think it will be both quicker and cheaper than what you guys are trying to do. :) :D:D
 

VeeDubTDI

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‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
Hi,

I am from the netherlands and i have bought an NAR passat B7 from the USA. i was searching around for led taillights and HID front lights when i found this topic.

In the netherlands, a rear fog light is essential to get it registered. so i've pulled the EU spec scematics and installed a EU spec light switch, made the connections and was happy to see the function light in the cluster turn on. but on the output pin there was already a wire. (Front DRL) now i found a way to reprogram the BCM to output the foglight to a free pin, so the installation of a fog light is possible without using a relay.
Please explain how you reprogrammed the BCM. That knowledge will make lighting upgrades much much easier!

Welcome to TDIClub. :)
 

Michel R32

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Location
Netherlands
TDI
Multivan T5
Hi,

sorry for my late response. reprogramming the outputs isn't something that is possible with vcds or a dealer tool.

if you want to have the outputs changed (its also.possible to turn the diagnosis on the outputs off when usin xenon or led)
i can do this for free, only pay for the shipping costs.
 

VeeDubTDI

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‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
Hi,

sorry for my late response. reprogramming the outputs isn't something that is possible with vcds or a dealer tool.

if you want to have the outputs changed (its also.possible to turn the diagnosis on the outputs off when usin xenon or led)
i can do this for free, only pay for the shipping costs.

I figured it wasn't a VCDS thing... But I was hoping you might be more willing to share how you did it. :)
 

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
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‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
I wonder how much shipping to the Netherlands would be...

-J
The BCM isn't very big, so it shouldn't be too bad. The question is which one would we send? The stock one or the highline one that we can't get the keys programmed on?
 

Michel R32

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Location
Netherlands
TDI
Multivan T5
Are u sure the unit is not in transport mode? if it is, the remote control doesn't work.

It actually is the same unit as the one in my NMS passat (i have a 2013 3.6 DSG highline)

is there a place in the usa where they sell used parts for this car? almost all of the parts are different than the ones on the EU version.
 

VeeDubTDI

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‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
US Passats are starting to show up in junk yards here, so used parts are available.
 

Michel R32

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Location
Netherlands
TDI
Multivan T5
Do you know if there is one that is willing to send parts to the netherlands?

I also want to put the led tail lights and hid front lights in my car (every new VW in the netherlands have these, so my passat will look really old without them) but i don't know wich company is the most reliable ( i am a little bit scared to transfer money to a company i don't really know :))
 

Jetta_Pilot

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Joined
Apr 14, 2005
Location
West Hill, Ont.
TDI
2015 Passat Highline TDI Candy White (SEL Premium) long gone 2002 Jetta TDI
Resurrecting an old thread.

Ordered the tail lights on June 29th for US$ 361.66 and free shipping, just arrived today July 7th. Seller "sunnyhid" on eBay has one left as of today
Very fast delivery. Had to pay Cdn $ 32.00 (US$22.00) duty.

Now I'll have to get into the thread and copy and print what I need to know to hook them up.

Tried to test them and find something curious, I can get the back-up light, the yellow turn signal to come on but unable to just get the bullet tail light. Bullet tail light only in the outer lights

Maybe I'll find it in the thread. Two different pins give me what I would call full brake lights.

The inner light has 3 pins and I get

# 1 = tail light
# 2 = Brake light
# 3 = Ground

The outer lights have 6 pins. Not too sure which is ground.


I think it will be a while until I'll be able to install these lights. Having read this thread from beginning to end and printing out any needed info, I have a feeling that there may be differences in the 2012 and 2015 Passat's. I also think the LED tail lights may be somewhat different from the ones described in this thread.:rolleyes:
 
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