Review of plug and play LED upgrades: low beam (LasFit H7 G2 Pro) and High Beam (LasFit VW-01)

[VernK]

Well now I'm confused. The OP says the low beams throw no errors, but you say they do.

Yours
Vern

 

[740GLE]

That's a bummer, wonder if there was a running production change of units they are hawking via amazon.

 

[Cosmo_TDI]

Here is what happens on my vehicle. This is not all the time, only when I start my car. Mind you the parking brake is on when I start, and this seems to happen only during the day when the DRL's may run, but not the normal low beams. The error / issue goes away if I turn the headlights to ON instead of AUTO. Otherwise, seems to work fine so far.

-Anthony

 

[Zambee500]

Well now I'm confused. The OP says the low beams throw no errors, but you say they do.

The OP has a 2014. I wonder if there were some ECU changes with 2015 (given the different motor) that aren't accounted for by LasFit coding resulting in error codes for 2015s but not for 2012-14.

Anyway, seems like the LasFit for low-beams would work well with the high-beam drop-in LEDs referenced in post #9 of this thread (although I had no luck finding them on Amazon and there is no link in the post other than to his Flickr page). Anyone else tried these, and if so, where did you find them?

Review of plug and play LED upgrades: low beam (LasFit H7 G2 Pro) and High Beam (LasFit VW-01)

I wanted to share my experience with LasFit H7 G2 Pro Series. I saw a video on YouTube about a year ago about LasFit G2 H7 low beam light bulb that fits plug and play for our NMS Passat. The same reviewer then also reviewed the prototype of V2 of the same bulb with improvements over V1. I...

forums.tdiclub.com

 

[eugene89us]

Huh, I am bewildered too at this. Yes, I have a 2014 and there are ZERO errors for plug and play low beams and after the latest high beam iteration, ZERO errors on high beam too. There may have been some changes for 2015 year model possibly. With new engine in it, I presume some additional electronics coding changes likely took place.

If I were to pull the low beam out and lose contact, the car will indeed identify low beam to be out. So there is some type of resistor already in place for the low beam. The low beam, however, is sitting tightly in its place and never has lost contact since my original post in this thread without issues. Maybe reach out to LasFit and find out why my 2014 works error free and yours throws a code? I don't think they changed low beam version, AFAIK.

 

[cjsv7650]

Well darn, I ordered them last week for my '15. My headlights seem unusually bad for these cars and finally got fed up driving home.

Unless the light itself is faulty it shouldn't cause any damage to my car correct?

 

[x1800MODMY360x]

Well darn, I ordered them last week for my '15. My headlights seem unusually bad for these cars and finally got fed up driving home.

Unless the light itself is faulty it shouldn't cause any damage to my car correct?

No it should be good, I can say for the 13' passat the owner before me had Lastfit Low beam installed and never throw a code. But also I think he bend the tabs in the head lights as it locks in very snug.

 

[740GLE]

Well darn, I ordered them last week for my '15. My headlights seem unusually bad for these cars and finally got fed up driving home.

Unless the light itself is faulty it shouldn't cause any damage to my car correct?

yeah the cluster error isn't there because its drawing too much current its there because its not enough.

plug em in and see if they work for you.

 

[scrambld]

Here is what happens on my vehicle. This is not all the time, only when I start my car. Mind you the parking brake is on when I start, and this seems to happen only during the day when the DRL's may run, but not the normal low beams. The error / issue goes away if I turn the headlights to ON instead of AUTO. Otherwise, seems to work fine so far.

-Anthony

Ha....not headlight related. But, I "upgraded" my reverse bulbs to DeAuto reverse LEDs. Occasionally upon srart up iget the bulb error and a message to check (L) rear backup bulb. Goes away when I put it reverse...and bulb works. Everything,and I mean EVERYTHING I've ordered from them came with issues like this. Don't work at all as advertised....

 

[cjsv7650]

No errors on my 2015 so far and I love these headlights. The pictures really don't do them justice. If you told me they were OEM I'd believe it. The cutoff is pretty crisp and the spread is great. No adjustment needed.

If you're on the fence about getting these I'd get them. It isn't even looks- it's safety. So many times I'd driven down a pitch black road and someone wearing all dark clothing in the road I could barely see. Maybe it was just my bulbs but my '89 jeep had better headlights.

 

[tikal]

No errors on my 2015 so far and I love these headlights. The pictures really don't do them justice. If you told me they were OEM I'd believe it. The cutoff is pretty crisp and the spread is great. No adjustment needed.

If you're on the fence about getting these I'd get them. It isn't even looks- it's safety. So many times I'd driven down a pitch black road and someone wearing all dark clothing in the road I could barely see. Maybe it was just my bulbs but my '89 jeep had better headlights.

Thanks for the feedback. Got them from Amazon, directly from them or ... ?

 

[eugene89us]

Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear they seem to work just as well on a 2015 model too.

 

[eugene89us]

Got something new from LasFit in mail today - prototype for rear turn signal light. Supposed to be error free, will test it this weekend, currently running in my 328d, Passat is resting.

 

[tristan81491]

Thanks for your write up and review! I ordered the low beams for my 2015 and put them in yesterday. The only issue is getting a bulb out error on both lights everytime I turn on the car. The error goes away after switching the headlight from auto to ON or if I turn on the car in conditions that make the headlights automatically turn on then there is no bulb out error. Is there a way to disable headlight check on the bulb check or disabling it will disable all the bulb checks? Would like to keep the bulb check if possible.

Other than that, wow what a difference it makes! I wish I had done this as soon as I got the car.

 

[scrambld]

In the second pic can you say glare

OOPS....high beam?

 

[eugene89us]

@tristan81491 I cannot seem to understand why some 2015 have the bulb out warning while other 2015s do not. I understand that there are NO reports for 2012-2014 low beam. So something, somewhere must have changed at the factory.

I looked into coding lights for high beams when the original version was throwing an error. Unfortunately, I came across so many reports of the light module bricking after doing that and apparently people being unable to return coding back to original. Supposedly original log coding numbers were not repeatable when you attempted them back via Ross Tech VCDS. So I dropped that idea completely. Since then, new high beam came out with a canbus that prevented the high beam error. And since I have a 2014, I do not have any low beam error.

Man, I tell you, the new lights are awesome. The low beam is great, but I was riding at night yesterday, and when the high beams were activated on a county road, they lit up the road and the bushes/tree like it was daytime. Much better than my OE high beams on a Bimmer.

I can certainly empathize with your issues with bulb out warning, the high beam bulb out drove me bananas! I have a slight case of self-diagnosed OCD. LOL.

 

[eugene89us]

I have an update on installing LasFit rear turn signal/brake light/tail light LED bulb. There were two versions I tested - the "fancier" version with canbus actually threw a bulb out error. However, a simpler version without canbus worked like a charm. I am not sure why that is the case, but that is the beauty of our German cars - they want to be picky with headlights and high beams, but the tail light decides that it would rather have a simple LED. Here is a video, left side has LED light and right side has halogen. Please be mindful that fine flickering you see if due to camera effect as with most LEDs, there is no flicker to the naked eye in either tai-light or brake/turn signal modes.

 

[eugene89us]

Here is the way the simpler LED looks in the housing of the Passat:

 

[tikal]

I have an update on installing LasFit rear turn signal/brake light/tail light LED bulb. There were two versions I tested - the "fancier" version with canbus actually threw a bulb out error. However, a simpler version without canbus worked like a charm. I am not sure why that is the case, but that is the beauty of our German cars - they want to be picky with headlights and high beams, but the tail light decides that it would rather have a simple LED. Here is a video, left side has LED light and right side has halogen. Please be mindful that fine flickering you see if due to camera effect as with most LEDs, there is no flicker to the naked eye in either tai-light or brake/turn signal modes.

Thank you very much for the detailed report back. I have a 2015 SE. Would the rear turn signal be also yellow color like in the video?

 

[eugene89us]

Interestingly, the LED light module is actually white.... It appears to have a yellowed color like in the video, but it is in fact red, since the white light shines through the red lens. The color actually most closely matches the middle strip, since it appears to be composed on LED modules there. Since LED light is brighter, it seems to create slightly different looking hue on the video. It is still without doubt red in color. I would be curious to see if there are any changes on 2015 model, like we saw with low beam versions in terms of light out warning and hyperflash. Good thing is that L1156 light is only $15 on Amazon, I believe, worst case could always send it back since Amazon returns are pretty easy. So far so good, LEDs work well. I would like to see LasFit version of this light with more LED modules to make it brighter. It is brighter than halogen, but I want it as bright as on newer cars, which sometimes tend to be blinding at night. In my opinion, the goal of these is to increase visibility of braking and turn signaling, so the brighter - the better chance of being seen.

 

[tikal]

Thinking about getting the LasFit H7 G2 Pro directly from the vendor as opposed to going through a middle-man (Amazon).

Thoughts on this?

 

[tristan81491]

Thinking about getting the LasFit H7 G2 Pro directly from the vendor as opposed to going through a middle-man (Amazon).

Thoughts on this?

The LasFit site had a promo for a few bucks off and free shipping. It was about 15 or so less than Amazon when I ordered the low beams a few weeks ago

 

[tikal]

The LasFit site had a promo for a few bucks off and free shipping. It was about 15 or so less than Amazon when I ordered the low beams a few weeks ago

Ok, good deal. Thanks for the update. I will check it out. Somehow I feel to order directly might increase my likelihood of getting the latest version.

 

[eugene89us]

Thinking about getting the LasFit H7 G2 Pro directly from the vendor as opposed to going through a middle-man (Amazon).

Thoughts on this?

Without a doubt would recommend getting the high and low beam lights directly from them. It is also much easier to obtain warranty replacement if that becomes necessary. Just keep a copy of your email, since they cross reference order number.

I mentioned Amazon for turn signal and brake light. It is 15 on Amazon and 23 on LasFit. If you're trying to experiment with that, Amazon is currently cheaper for that. I remember when I first invested in low beams, Amazon was about $5 cheaper, but I still purchased directly from LasFit.

 

[tikal]

Placed the order for a pair of low beam LEDs last night directly through LasFit with the 10% discount, $90 out the door with GPay. Got confirmation of USPS shipment this morning

A few days ago I got one low beam bulb out on the driver's side so, there was an incentive not to procrastinate

 

[eugene89us]

@tikal please let us know if the low beams work without any issues on your 2015. It is strange that @cjsv7650 with a 2015 did not have bulb out warnings while @tristan81491 has reported the light out error issue with 2015. Either something changed around that model year with software coding or something changed with LasFit production. It is very strange. Ordering from LasFit directly will assure you get the latest version.

But in either case, make sure those contacts make a good connection. I tried using thicker ring from the start which caused a poor fit and initially threw the light our warning. Then I placed the original thinner gasket ring back and the light went in more easily and has not made a single warning since I created this thread. Here is to my thinking that bigger is better - well, not in this case. So I am curious if Tristan may have used the thicker gasket which created a weaker connection. I always recommend reaching out to LasFit if errors occur. Just like my plight with high beam warning with original version without canbus, after 2 to 3 iterations, the company came up with a great solution. And I got a chance to be the tester of the variants, quite exciting! Now I got bright LED high and low beams and none show the error. Plus now, I have the brake/turn in LED too without issues. I think the next step as my appreciation for LasFit's efforts is to purchase interior LED lights to support the company that in my opinion went above and beyond. I will report back on that with my findings. One day, I am hopeful the entire car will be equipped with full LEDs, unless of course if the car dies before then. Fingers crossed, will try to get at least 200K out of it (pray for me in 10K miles when I attempt timing belt replacement). Let us know your experience with it, tikal!

 

[Nuje]

For anyone browsing here, I haven't messed with the headlights (my car has bi-xenon), I haven't had any issues with the rear turn and brake light bulbs - swapping them over to red LEDs - 7440 or 7443 bulbs from Amzn (KaTur or Oxilam brand) - no hyper-blinking or "bulb out" errors.
To be clear, there are many cheap turn/brake LED bulb options on Amazon; if you're not paying at least in the $20 range for a pair of brake/turn LED bulbs, they're almost guaranteed to be low-quality and not very bright.

While I appreciate LasFit going above and beyond in working with @eugene89us to get his headlights working properly, I wouldn't want readers of this thread to come away thinking that you have to find bespoke turn/brake bulbs from one specialty supplier to work with our cars (do they have a front signal bulb - couldn't find that on their website; it's a somewhat unusual BAY9S base). Headlights, though - definitely look at them because they're obviously doing some for-real testing.

Personally, even if LasFit was a couple $$ more on the turn/brake bulbs, I'd go with them because of their customer support exhibited here. Given I'm in Canada, though, and shipping (or potential returns) to the US are always a (multi-week) adventure, I'm glad there are other options.

 

[eugene89us]

@Nuje great info, thank you. I was not sure if 7440 or 7443 LEDs would be short enough to fit through the clearance in the trunk position light - I believe there are 3 lights there - two for night light that comes on with headlights and one for reverse light. Do you know if there is adequate clearance in terms of length to fit usual 7440 LED variants? I assume simple lights without fancy canbus is all that is needed, similar to what I did with brake/reverse light? The brake/reverse uses the BY base that twists in. I think the other side that moves with the trunk lid uses the push in 7440/7443 version. I frankly don't understand the purpose of having so many variants. It is almost like VW did this on purpose! Same thing they did with high beam and low beam by incorporating different functions - low beam twists in and high beam clicks in straight. Why???

 

[Nuje]

At least on the GSW, typical (-looking to my eyes, anyway) 7440 LED bulbs fit just fine.
The wagon's reverse light is actually a T20 T15 (larger version of the common T10 that's in many of the interior light fixtures), but the other ones (#1, 2 in the "body" fixture, as well as #3, 5 on the hatch fixture) are all 7440 ( 7443 also works).

Inner (hatch) bulb assembly (L-->R: rear fog (#5 - 7440); reverse (#4 - T15/ W16W); Tail/brake (#3 - 7440).

This is all relatively fresh in my mind because I recently had them all out when I was removing the "turn" signal's (#2) inner red lens so I could put an amber LED bulb in there and get a true "Euro" amber turn signal - and I upgraded the reverse bulb (#4 - and seen in the image above) while monkeying around back there as well.

 

[eugene89us]

That looks really good. They cheaped out on NMS Passat by having it share 1 light for both turn signal, brake light, and night light. No wonder NMS Passat cost a fraction of EU B7. My 2018 328d has a separate turn LED, but for US market, it is all red. It is interesting that when emergency flashers are on and you brake, the only thing that shows others you're braking is the middle light strip while outer are blinking. Dumbest thing to share same light. I feel US should switch to ambers for turn and be a separate bulb from the brake and ambient lighting