VCDS coding question

[amstel78]

A few weeks ago, I performed the code modification for blinking brake lights and hazard lights when ABS kicks on. I finally got around to testing it this afternoon and it didn't work. I have an icy road in front of my house and figured that's the best place to see if the coding change did what it was supposed to. I asked my wife to stand behind the car while I drove it a few feet away and hit the brakes hard. ABS kicked on due to the ice but my wife said that the brake lights and hazard lights did not flash like I thought they would.

Does the car have to be going above a certain speed and have the ABS activate before the brake lights and hazard lights flash? When performing the test I described above, I was going less than 10 mph.

Here's a screenshot of how I have byte 16 in VCDS coded. Everything looks correct as far as I can tell. Furthermore, other subtle coding changes like comfort turn signal blinker count (changed to 5) as well as fog lights on with brights work.

Thoughts?

P.S. Bit 0 above is not checked although comfort turn signal blinking does work on my car. Is that bit unnecessary since the option to activate/deactive this function is already user-adjustable in the MFD?

 

[20IndigoBlue02]

yes, it has to be above a certain speed, I forget what speed.

 

[amstel78]

yes, it has to be above a certain speed, I forget what speed.

Wow, that was a fast reply. I was still editing my post above, lol. Anyway, I was under the assumption that the flashing hazard and brake lights would activate whenever ABS kicked in. I guess not.

How about Bit 0 above? Any reason why mine came unchecked from factory and comfort blinking still works? In fact, I tried turning that option on and while the ECU accepted the coding change, it did not have any effect. In fact, the only way it seems for me to turn off comfort blinking all together is via the MFD. I don't want to turn comfort blinking off, just curious as to what Bit 0 in my case actually does...

 

[20IndigoBlue02]

can't answer the Bit 0.

But... I've had the emergency blinking via turn signals work on real panic stops... ie slamming on the brakes for a last second deer crossing

 

[amstel78]

When the blinking via turn signals is activated during an emergency stop, do you see the indicators flashing in your gauge cluster?

 

[20IndigoBlue02]

yes, I see and hear it.

 

[amstel78]

yes, I see and hear it.

Thanks, good to know. I'm going to have to give this a shot on a deserted piece of dry road one day. I was beginning to wonder how one would know that this particular coding change worked unless there was someone else watching or you set up a camera.

 

[EvilEvo]

Yep, it has to be above a certain mph. I had mine flash at me while bedding in my new 6 piston Tarox brakes. ABS wasn't even kicking in when the lights started flashing, I was just braking really hard.

 

[amstel78]

Yep, it has to be above a certain mph. I had mine flash at me while bedding in my new 6 piston Tarox brakes. ABS wasn't even kicking in when the lights started flashing, I was just braking really hard.

Nice. Got pics of your BBK?

 

[Black11TDI]

It has to be above 30 and sense a panic stop if you let off the gas then hammer the brakes fast it will do it. If you delay too much between it I have had a 50/50 chance of triggering it. Nice thing to have, I nearly hit a deer a few weeks ago, and a friend that was following me said that it really gets your attention when they flash in the dark..


I never figured out Byte 0 myself either, but I checked it and it accepted it, I was told it slows down the blink rate of the turn signals the faster you go but never been able to prove it.

 

[amstel78]

It has to be above 30 and sense a panic stop if you let off the gas then hammer the brakes fast it will do it. If you delay too much between it I have had a 50/50 chance of triggering it. Nice thing to have, I nearly hit a deer a few weeks ago, and a friend that was following me said that it really gets your attention when they flash in the dark..


I never figured out Byte 0 myself either, but I checked it and it accepted it, I was told it slows down the blink rate of the turn signals the faster you go but never been able to prove it.

Thanks for the info. I'll test it out one day on a clear road.

As for bit 0, that's interesting; I guess your explanation about what it does makes sense since it specifically mentions highway.

 

[EvilEvo]

Nice. Got pics of your BBK?

Yeah but I need to get better pics.

 

[amstel78]

Very nice. Are those 18" wheels? What about the rears?

 

[EvilEvo]

Very nice. Are those 18" wheels? What about the rears?

Nope. 17x8 et45. I put 8mm spacers in the rear. I would have preferred et35 but oh well.
The rear brakes are still stock. I was going to do the 2010 GTI rear brakes or R brakes but it is almost $600 to do the GTI and close to $800 for the R. Not worth it IMO. The pedal is as solid as a rock and I haven't noticed the brake balance messed up too much. It feels a bit more front biased than my S4 with 350mm 6 pistons up front and 300mm rear, but it stops damn well. This is just my DD, I just hated how the stock brakes were so spongy and felt like they didn't want to stop at all. I bought the GTI front upgrade, but got a great deal on these so I am going to sell those now.

 

[amstel78]

Nope. 17x8 et45. I put 8mm spacers in the rear. I would have preferred et35 but oh well.
The rear brakes are still stock. I was going to do the 2010 GTI rear brakes or R brakes but it is almost $600 to do the GTI and close to $800 for the R. Not worth it IMO. The pedal is as solid as a rock and I haven't noticed the brake balance messed up too much. It feels a bit more front biased than my S4 with 350mm 6 pistons up front and 300mm rear, but it stops damn well. This is just my DD, I just hated how the stock brakes were so spongy and felt like they didn't want to stop at all. I bought the GTI front upgrade, but got a great deal on these so I am going to sell those now.

Very nice. Thanks for the info on wheel sizes. I was looking for a BBK that would fit under the OE 17" Salamanca's. Not sure if offset would be an issue, but I didn't want to go up to an 18" wheel. I was thinking of first replacing brake lines, pads, and fluids (which is what I did to my M3 and was a great improvement over stock), but may just go your route plus SS lines. What sort of pads are you running? Also, how much was the front set if you don't mind me asking?

 

[EvilEvo]

These should fit under the stock 17" Portos, but I haven't tried yet. Once it gets a bit warmer I'll test fit. These are 330mm rotors with 6 piston calipers. I did SS lines up front and have SS lines in the rear but didn't have time to put them on when I put the front brakes on.

I'm just running the stock Tarox pads right now, but I might look for a different pad because these dust so much.

Brand new these Tarox brakes sell for $3300, but I got them with 2k miles on them for $1100. It was a deal I couldn't pass up.

If you want to just step up to GTI brakes, I have everything brand new that I want to sell. Brand new GTI rotors, new GTI carriers, new SS Lines, new Hawk Ceramic Pads, and new TyrolSport Caliper Stiffening kit. I think everything together was around $500, I'd sell it for $400

 

[amstel78]

What's the diameter of the GTI front rotors? I'm assuming the stock calipers bolt right to the GTI carriers? I don't know much about the GTI brake setup... I was actually thinking about the R kits for a BBK, but those required 18" wheels or larger to clear the caliper.

$400 is a great price, but I'm strapped at the moment... spent a ton of money for Christmas gifts for my kids and wife.

LOL.. I threadjacked my own thread.

 

[EvilEvo]

What's the diameter of the GTI front rotors? I'm assuming the stock calipers bolt right to the GTI carriers? I don't know much about the GTI brake setup... I was actually thinking about the R kits for a BBK, but those required 18" wheels or larger to clear the caliper.

$400 is a great price, but I'm strapped at the moment... spent a ton of money for Christmas gifts for my kids and wife.

LOL.. I threadjacked my own thread.

The GTI rotors are 312mm compared to 288mm for the TDI. The caliper is exactly the same they just use a different carrier, so yes our caliper bolts right their carrier.

I personally think the R kits are a huge waste of money. They are $1100-$1200 or so and they still a stock sliding caliper. They are also really really heavy. I would do the Boxster Brembo caliper with GTI rotors in heartbeat over the R brakes. Those will fit under 17s, just need a spacer to clear stock wheels. You get a much nicer fixed brembo caliper for less money. I was going to do that, but then I found these Tarox brakes and just said screw it and spent the extra money.

 

[amstel78]

Back to the original point of this thread; I went out and tested the emergency brake light flashing mod again today, this time at varying speeds up to 60mph. I don't think it worked. I also have the hazard lights programmed to blink when the brake lights are supposed to flash, and I did not hear or see them activating.

Is there something I'm doing wrong or missed with the VCDS coding? My ECU is also flashed; could that be preventing this function from operating?

Edit: found this info on another site. Does this sound accurate? If so, then the braking condition must be pretty severe before this feature activates. I n my case, I hit the brakes hard at 60 mph on a wet road; hard enough for the ABS to activate and the car to slide a bit but still did not notice my hazards come on.

"For the lights to flash the following parameters must be met
• Deceleration has to be higher then 7m/s² and
• for a duration longer then 700ms or
• the ABS must be active for more then 2 seconds.
Once one or both of these requirements are met the indicator lights will flash until the parameters are no longer met."

 

[EvilEvo]

Back to the original point of this thread; I went out and tested the emergency brake light flashing mod again today, this time at varying speeds up to 60mph. I don't think it worked. I also have the hazard lights programmed to blink when the brake lights are supposed to flash, and I did not hear or see them activating.

Is there something I'm doing wrong or missed with the VCDS coding? My ECU is also flashed; could that be preventing this function from operating?

Edit: found this info on another site. Does this sound accurate? If so, then the braking condition must be pretty severe before this feature activates. I n my case, I hit the brakes hard at 60 mph on a wet road; hard enough for the ABS to activate and the car to slide a bit but still did not notice my hazards come on.

Being tuned shouldn't have anything to do with it. I know I can make my hazards flash really easily with my BBK now. The hazards will come on even before the ABS kicks in. But the difference in stopping power between the BBK and stock brakes is massive.

When I did the track day with the stock brakes, the hazards never came on.

 

[amstel78]

Your BBKs are most likely stopping the car a lot quicker than the stock brakes did, thus going past the 7m/s² deceleration threshold set somewhere in the ECU.

Anyway, I just wanted to confirm the programming changes worked, but I guess I'm not going to be able to recreate those conditions unless I'm at highway speed.

 

[03_01_TDI]

Very nice. Thanks for the info on wheel sizes. I was looking for a BBK that would fit under the OE 17" Salamanca's. Not sure if offset would be an issue, but I didn't want to go up to an 18" wheel. I was thinking of first replacing brake lines, pads, and fluids (which is what I did to my M3 and was a great improvement over stock), but may just go your route plus SS lines. What sort of pads are you running? Also, how much was the front set if you don't mind me asking?

Are you quickly and fully stabbing the brakes? These are for emergency -oh ****- I need to stop.

 

[EvilEvo]

Are you quickly and fully stabbing the brakes? These are for emergency -oh ****- I need to stop.

Your BBKs are most likely stopping the car a lot quicker than the stock brakes did, thus going past the 7m/s² deceleration threshold set somewhere in the ECU.

Anyway, I just wanted to confirm the programming changes worked, but I guess I'm not going to be able to recreate those conditions unless I'm at highway speed.

Yeah, my car stops MUCH faster now.

I know you quoted Amstel, but I am not stabbing the brakes really quickly when I do it. Just easing into the brakes and then pushing down harder and harder, at the point where I start to throw the passenger into the dash is when the hazards come on, lol.

 

[amstel78]

Are you quickly and fully stabbing the brakes? These are for emergency -oh ****- I need to stop.

Yup, did that several times at varying speeds up to 60 mph. I push in the clutch and stomp the brake pedal quickly and hard but still no dice...