I have, in my possession, OEM LED taillights

For all those who were wondering, it appears the LED taillights being sold by Winpower on eBay are legit.

I ordered them last week for $498 shipped and eBay estimated the delivery date between Jan 7 and Jan 14.

They actually showed up today.

I haven't had a chance to install them yet because I am going to buy connectors to make adaptors so I don't have to cut anything.

But here are the pics...

Cool!

Last I checked the male version of the 4 pin plug found on the DOT outer fixtures is not in the parts catalog.

Keep in mind you'll need to re-route the reverse light to the outer fixture, and use some resistors on the inner fixture to correct the brightness and keep the bulb minder happy.

-J

The 4 pin plug is on the inner light.. I assume that is what you meant?

I have ETKA at my disposal so I will find a connector that will work with the lights even if it means minor modifying. Even if it means changing the connector on the tails to something more US friendly or modifying a similar connector to make it fit..

Thanks for the heads up on the reverse lights..

Hm, that is probably what I meant. I just recall there being one side that wasn't available so I just made adapters by taking stranded wire, cutting it down to just a few strands, tinning the wires, putting them in the body harness connector, and potting them in place. I didn't have to make any cuts to my body harness either

The connectors for the Chinese lights are readily available

I think I posted the resistor values I used in the thread I started.

Edit - 10w 50 ohm resistors to bring the voltage down for the inner fixtures. Hook a 100 ohm resistor up before that though and ground the other side, that will draw 1.2 watts and keep the bulb monitor happy. If you don't want to put that resistor in the trunk lid you could hook it to the connection on the outer fixture where the side marker was... that's looped to the power wire for the inner tail lights.

I used 5 watt 100 ohm resistors in the trunk lid, and strapped them to the structure inside so they would have some heatsinking.

-J

Doing a quick google search on the part numbers on the connectors (1J0 972 732 on the inner and 3C0 972 733 on the outer) led me to passatplus.de

It is a web site that shows pictures of almost every connector and wire that Vw/Audi uses.

I found the 1J0 number (the 4 pin connector) and it's counter part 1J0 972 722.

I couldn't find the 3C0 part number on that site (possibly newer than that site?), but it looks like 1J0 972 723 is going to be a good counter part to the 6 pin connector on the outer lights.

I will try to get more confirmation tomorrow when I get to work and have access to ETKA.

Ok, Here's what I found...

The male Connector to go into the Outer lights is part number 1J0-972-722 and will use 3 of wire number 000-979-133-E.

The male Connector to go into the Inner taillights is part number 1J0-972-723 and will use 2 of part number 000-979-133-E.

The tricky part is finding female connectors for the body harness to plug into.

The 4 pin female connector for the outer light harness to plug into is not available.

So what I plan on doing is buying new bulb trays and hacking them up with my dremel to use as adaptors for the harness...

We will find out this weekend if I am successful.

What about changing the 4 pin plug to a 3 pin? Aren't there only 3 wires there?

Of Course. Thank you.

If I use the same 3 pin male connector (7N0-972-703) that is on the inner taillight, I can use the corresponding female connector (5K0-972-713) and have a true adaptor harness with no dremelling.

Hey Norm,

I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me....

When the running lights are on, all 4 lights light up, Correct?

What happens when you step on the brakes? Is it just the outer two that get brighter or is it all 4?

What about when you step on the brakes and the running lights are off?

I have the wiring diagram for the OEM taillights as well as the LED taillights and would like to figure this out the right way...

The only way to get the Chinese LED tail lights to function *correctly* is to upgrade all of the lighting (headlights, tail lights, and maybe the fog lights), upgrade the BCM to the high line unit with all of the required outputs, and code the BCM for Chinese premium lighting.

There is another option that Jason just pointed out to me - "chip" the body control module to make the outputs behave however you want. You would still have to add new wiring from the BCM to the back of the car.

Without either of the above, you will need to use adapters and resistors, and they still won't function *correctly*.

Call me if you want a detailed report of our hours of research thus far - Jason and I are in the middle of this project. PM me for my phone number. I'd love to chat.

http://youtu.be/wtjde71lBO8

PM being sent...

subscribed

and I just found out my daughter and her family are headed for Hong Kong in 6 months for a three year stint there with Dell! Has me wondering what a complete swap would cost for an OEM set from the dealer there? I will be watching for part numbers/lists/progress.

Total lighting package upgrade is going to run you about $2000 in parts.

This begs for a plug-n-play solution. Watch them be OEM for 2014, lol.

OEM for 2014 sure would make things easy! A bunch of us are going to the Detroit Auto Show on January 19th - there's a thread (sticky) about it in the mid-west regional forum if you want more info - I'll be sure to report back on what lights the Passats are equipped with.

Hopefully VW will have a high trim spec on display and not just a turd-muffin Passat S.

Fixmy59bug said:

Hey Norm,
I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me....
When the running lights are on, all 4 lights light up, Correct?

Click to expand...

YES

What happens when you step on the brakes? Is it just the outer two that get brighter or is it all 4?

Click to expand...

Just Outer lights

What about when you step on the brakes and the running lights are off?

Click to expand...

Just outer lights

Wiring on the rear inner fixtures:



-J

That is on both of them, correct?

Yes, one on each side.

Ok. Got them installed.

Haven't run the reverse lights yet and haven't installed the resistors yet.

Ross-tech suggests changing byte 18 from 00 to A2. What did you change on yours?

I'm still running the stock US coding (which I think is A0). I could try A2 and see what it does.

-J

It seems to have worked for me...

When I first turned on my ignition with factory coding, the bushes behind me were lit up bright as heck.

As soon as I entered A2, the lights dimmed down considerably. All 4 of them.

And the outers do get a little brighter when I turned on the hazards and armed the alarm.

Although, you may have to disconnect the resistors to test it yourself otherwise it may have a double effect.

I just tried A2 and it does not work... the outer fixtures are turn signals only (not parking lights), and it thinks the DS DRL is a brake light. It kills the front parking lights too.

It does make the inner fixtures work correctly as brake lights though. It also enables the directional standing lights. If that is the coding for the Chinese car it won't work here without wiring changes.

-J

That's really weird....

I will double check all of my lights right now.

Damn...

My rear lights work fine.

However, as you experienced, my front drivers side DRL does activate when stepping on the brakes.

I will relay this info to Ross-Tech and see what they suggest.

I would go back to the US coding and use resistors, unless you want to completely re-wire the rear lights and possibly other lights on the car.

-J

I'm not giving up just yet...

That's half of the fun of being a "pioneer"...

How did you wire up the taillights on your car?

I wonder why your taillights react to A2 coding than mine does.

I also ask because I just realized that before I changed my coding, my rear lights were at full brightness and stepping on the brake made very little difference while changing the coding did dim them significantly.

What do you mean "how did I wire up my tail lights?"??? I drew a pretty picture of how I did it For the outer fixtures I connected the pin that drives both the center and ring light

Your car is a 13 so it might be different. Go recode back to A2, turn on the parking lights, and the hazzards. Do the outer fixtures light up as parking lights? If not, they're just turn signals, not brake lights too.

-J

Yes.

With running lights on, if I turn on the hazards, the outer lights flash as they should.

My taillight video

As far as my wiring request, what pin on the body did you connect to what pin on the light?

For example, on my car

T4/1 on the body was connected to T6/2 on the taillight.
T4/2 was connected to T6/3 and T6/5
T4/3 was connected to T6/1

Then on the trunk

T3/1 was connected to T4/1
T3/2 was connected to T4/2
And T3/3 will be connected to T6/6 on the outer light.

I say will be because it has gotten too dark to run the wire so I will take care of it tomorrow.

Is that the same connections you have made?