Some of you don't hang out at the vortex so I'll post here what I posted there:
I spent the better part of the day messin' with
byte 18 on my car. Whatever I offer here is in the spirit of experimentation and I am by no means an authority on this stuff - I just like to tinker. Always remember -
your results may vary and you may end up with some unpredictable results.
To give you some background, my
Halogen TDI was built 11-05-2009, apparently in week 45. Week 45 is believed by many to be when VW revised these modules. Those with earlier revisions may not get the results I have. My LED tails are a "non-fog" version with two reverse lights. Initially I coded them to "21", which was provided as a working code. While it seemed to work properly without errors, I didn't like the side marker lights being so dim and the city lights being so bright. I also noted that when the tailgate was lifted, the inner tail lights would go out.
I do not believe this retrofit can be done without some level of coding. Computers just don't work that way. You have to tell them how you expect them to perform. If someone has been successful without coding, I would suspect their entire lamp malfuntion system is not working properly and wouldn't throw codes anyway. Just my two cents.
For reference througout this tirade, changing the byte 18 code to "00" does absolutely nothing. It will apparently hold the last used code, but will NOT change the behavior of the lighting system. Also I have not found any real differences between "xenon" codes and "halogen" codes.
I'm going to list the codes I tried and what I think they mean. There are at least 158 codes to my knowledge but not wanting to blow up my module, I only tried the ones that made sense to me. I'd post the entire list, but I don't want to take responsibility for you coding your car to something like an
Audi R8 with a full LED package or even worse and not being able to get it back. If you know what you're doing, you can find the codes the same way I did.
Before I got started with this experiment, I thought I should test for errors. I unplugged the inner right side assembly and sure enough, got errors for the tail and reverse light. I cleared the errors and recoded to "03", which I believe to be the default coding for NAR vehicles.
03 VW360 Halogen VW360 NAR TFL_0 (North America Region, Incandescent DRLs)
This coding produced the expected errors encountered during the initial install. Possible default NAR code.
04 VW360 RdW TFL_0_LED + LED_SBBR (Rest of World, LED DRLs, LED Tails)
No errors, but the markers were dim again, the right side city light was dim and the left side was bright. Looked pretty funky.
Somehow Dana is using this code, but her module if different than mine.
15 VW360 RdW TFL_0 + LED SBBR (Rest of World, Incandescent DRL, LED Tails)
No errors. Markers up to full intensity, city lights properly dimmed, everything working fine - EXCEPT the left side reverse light was out. FWIW, I think this to be the proper coding for those of you using the "fog" version of this retrofit. I would futher speculate that additional wiring beyond a trigger wire may be unneccessary.
21 VW360 NAR TFL_0_LED + LED_SBBR (North America Region, LED DRLs, LED Tails)
No errors, markers too dim, city lights too bright. Inner tails go out when hatch is opened.
1F VW360 NAR TFL_0 + LED SBBR (North America Region, Incandescent DRLs, LED Tails)
No errors. Markers just right. City lights just right. Inner tails stay on when hatch is opened.
I would bet there is a code that would allow the inner tail lights to act the same as the outer tail lights under braking - that is - the inner lights would light up to full intensity. I'll challenge the rest of you to find that solution. I'm done for the day.
Address 09: Cent. Elect. (J519) Labels: 1K0-937-08x-09.clb
Part No SW: 1K0 937 087 G HW: 1K0 937 087 G
Component: BCM PQ35 H+ 103 0572
Revision: 00103 AE
Coding: 6D180A3E90272A04800800817000858441011F86534D8560648020200000
Shop #: WSC 01357 011 00200
Part No: 1K1 955 119 F
Component: Wischer 19100 21 0512
Coding: 009795
No fault code found.