LED Bulbs in US R Tails

[dc/dc]

Has anyone swapped out the stock bulbs for LED in the stock US housings? If so, from where did you purchase them? Obviously, the stock Euro tails look awesome, but I'm not prepared to drop nearly $1k for tail lights. I would simply like to have the brighter light and longevity of LED (my Infiniti spoilt me), but it is hard to find ones that will fit the hole without modification and also not produce an error.

[FenderR]

I picked up Cherry Red OEM Euro LEDs from BKS Tuning. They have a special since they can direct order from Hella for $629 including harnesses and shipping. You'd probably pay that in repairs after screwing up the bulb harnesses trying to get LEDs to work in the stock housings...

[dc/dc]

I picked up Cherry Red OEM Euro LEDs from BKS Tuning. They have a special since they can direct order from Hella for $629 including harnesses and shipping. You'd probably pay that in repairs after screwing up the bulb harnesses trying to get LEDs to work in the stock housings...

I wouldn't expect that I would have to modify the harnesses as the bulbs usually will fit the socket, I'm more concerned about them fitting through the hole in the housing and errors from the lowered resistance.

Although, $629 seems a whole lot better than what I'd seen before.

[FenderR]

You'll probably get a bulb out error on your MFI. Don't know if VAGcom can fix that one. I know it's pretty plug-n-play with the LED tails. I just put them on and haven't reprogrammed but they work fine. Also, I'd be weary about the amount of light that an LED would produce in the halogen housings....I could imagine it may be either extremely dim or extremely bright depending on the LED and the voltage...gah just get the OEM LEDs will you?! They look SO good on our cars:

[VWPDX]

I could be wrong as sm not a lighting engineer. I thought the oem LEDs achieve their desired effect with multiple LEDs over the entire perimeter of the taillight. The traditional incandescent lamp is centrally located and uses a reflector to magnify its presence/visibility. Just plugging a LED may not have the desired effect.

Sure, I used the safety of faster on LEDs to justify my purchase. However, the real reason most of us bought them were the appearance. Even with the tails off, the oems really make the rear sleek. If you just replace the bulbs, you are still left with the bulbous tails.

If you really want LEDs pay for the oem. Look for another group buy if you want the darkened tails.

[FenderR]

I could be wrong as sm not a lighting engineer. I thought the oem LEDs achieve their desired effect with multiple LEDs over the entire perimeter of the taillight. The traditional incandescent lamp is centrally located and uses a reflector to magnify its presence/visibility. Just plugging a LED may not have the desired effect.

Sure, I used the safety of faster on LEDs to justify my purchase. However, the real reason most of us bought them were the appearance. Even with the tails off, the oems really make the rear sleek. If you just replace the bulbs, you are still left with the bulbous tails.

If you really want LEDs pay for the oem. Look for another group buy if you want the darkened tails.

[dc/dc]

I could be wrong as sm not a lighting engineer. I thought the oem LEDs achieve their desired effect with multiple LEDs over the entire perimeter of the taillight. The traditional incandescent lamp is centrally located and uses a reflector to magnify its presence/visibility. Just plugging a LED may not have the desired effect.

Sure, I used the safety of faster on LEDs to justify my purchase. However, the real reason most of us bought them were the appearance. Even with the tails off, the oems really make the rear sleek. If you just replace the bulbs, you are still left with the bulbous tails.

If you really want LEDs pay for the oem. Look for another group buy if you want the darkened tails.

If I can find the right bulbs, they should be as bright or brighter than stock. I would need one of the bulbs that has many diodes wrapped around a cylinder to duplicate the output of an incandescent so that the light hit the reflectors in the housing.

Anyway, it seems like just going with the OEM Euros is the best way to go based on the feedback from everyone.

[FenderR]

Depending on the state and the brightness, brighter bulbs may get you pulled over if it ended up blinding somebody behind you.

[Angina]

get the LED tails. LED bulbs in the stock housing would look stupid.

[FenderR]

As we've said in this forum before and will say it again: if you can afford a 35k+ vehicle, we'd hope you can afford to mod it the right way

[dc/dc]

As we've said in this forum before and will say it again: if you can afford a 35k+ vehicle, we'd hope you can afford to mod it the right way

I absolutely can, but that wasn't the point of this thread.

[Icer Jo]

Your wanting to replace the incandescent bulbs with led bulbs. for the whole rear correct? Its been done though it doesn't change the light out put by much Unless you can get some super bright plasma LED's if they have them for the rear. The only one thats really affected are the turn signals being more crisp and the reverse lights being more white/blue depending on the color you go with. But the actual Brake lights wont change much, just instead of seeing a typical bulb you will see a led bulb.

And Yes Golf R Tails on a Golf R or any Golf for that matter is the best way to go ^_^
Cheers and have a

[HardKnox]

I picked up Cherry Red OEM Euro LEDs from BKS Tuning. They have a special since they can direct order from Hella for $629 including harnesses and shipping. You'd probably pay that in repairs after screwing up the bulb harnesses trying to get LEDs to work in the stock housings...

Is this literally a plug & play solution? Or is there some wiring, a resistor, a switch and vag-com to make this work? If I can buy the whole shebang for this and literally just swap the housings, I'm down. Otherwise, erg.... I still haven't tried my hand at my homelink mirror...

[Rdurty2]

You will definitely get bulb out errors and the bulb out dash light running LED's in place of the stock bulbs.

There is also a chance that the LED's will not even turn on due to the ECU looking for a specific voltage/wattage. With LED's using such little power they might just flash and then the ECU is like wtf there are no bulbs here and throw a bulb out error. The ECU is looking for a bulb of a certain voltage/wattage. You could MAYBE get around this with running resistors, but it's a pretty crappy solution.

Due to this the ecu will probably not keep the LED's on.

Unfortunately on Mk6's VW removed the ability to turn off cold diag's for exterior lights. By turning off cold diag via vagcom the ECU would not check for bulbs out, but we do not have the ability to turn this off. It doesn't even show up in vagcom for Mk6's.

The cold diag test checks at startup of the car for the brake lights. When you turn on your headlights there is another cold diag test.

In other words...if you go ahead with this it will not turn out good, or even close to how you expect it to.

[dc/dc]

You will definitely get bulb out errors and the bulb out dash light running LED's in place of the stock bulbs.

There is also a chance that the LED's will not even turn on due to the ECU looking for a specific voltage/wattage. With LED's using such little power they might just flash and then the ECU is like wtf there are no bulbs here and throw a bulb out error. The ECU is looking for a bulb of a certain voltage/wattage. You could MAYBE get around this with running resistors, but it's a pretty crappy solution.

Due to this the ecu will probably not keep the LED's on.

Unfortunately on Mk6's VW removed the ability to turn off cold diag's for exterior lights. By turning off cold diag via vagcom the ECU would not check for bulbs out, but we do not have the ability to turn this off. It doesn't even show up in vagcom for Mk6's.

The cold diag test checks at startup of the car for the brake lights. When you turn on your headlights there is another cold diag test.

In other words...if you go ahead with this it will not turn out good, or even close to how you expect it to.

Good info... This car sounds almost as electronically controlled as my last BMW. LOL.

[FenderR]

Oh it is lol. But the benefit is that this thing actually feels like a sporty car...the newer 3 series are crazy heavy now!

Good info... This car sounds almost as electronically controlled as my last BMW. LOL.

[VWPDX]

Is this literally a plug & play solution? Or is there some wiring, a resistor, a switch and vag-com to make this work? If I can buy the whole shebang for this and literally just swap the housings, I'm down. Otherwise, erg.... I still haven't tried my hand at my homelink mirror...

You just swap the housings and place the provided harnesses in between the original cable and the new leds. No wiring is required. It will function fine but will give you errors until you use vag com.

[FenderR]

Yup - it took me all of 20 minutes to do the swap...just make sure you have a fairly long 8mm bit to unbolt the inner tails in the hatch. Somebody did a nice picture based walkthrough on here or golfmk6...google that stuff buddy

You just swap the housings and place the provided harnesses in between the original cable and the new leds. No wiring is required. It will function fine but will give you errors until you use vag com.

[dc/dc]

Oh it is lol. But the benefit is that this thing actually feels like a sporty car...the newer 3 series are crazy heavy now!

Yeah, I had a '08 335i, which was fairly sporty feeling, but I needed a manual to drive the damn thing. LOL

[HardKnox]

You just swap the housings and place the provided harnesses in between the original cable and the new leds. No wiring is required. It will function fine but will give you errors until you use vag com.

Thanks, I somehow got the impression that it was more complicated than that.

[wingman75]

I was really hesitant about going for the LED Tail lights because I had no experience with VAG software and its use, with concerns for "what-if" it gets screwed up? I decided to go for it and participated in this site's group buy (OEMs) with a final cost of about $649 to my door. I put the word out there for assistance with VAG and finally found a local VW'er who would help me. I always think it is worth going for the OEMs over knockoffs and that was what this group buy offered. The mechanical part of the install (removal and installation of the four lights) took about 30minutes. Piece of cake. I watched my "assistant" simply plug in the cable under the steering wheel and execute the change process (I bought OEM Tails without Fog lights). I own a 2012 Golf R. The change was made from the value of 20 to the value of 21 in byte 18 in the proper screen and everything worked out perfect (10 minutes). Total Install 40 minutes. Again. Piece of cake. I slipped the guy $20 for his time and garage space, said thanks and was on my way. No regrets and happy with the results. There is very good install information on this site and VAG instructions as well. If you are at all interested, I'd look for the group buy on this site as think they are, or will be starting a new one.

[dc/dc]

I've contemplated going half on a VAGCOM with a buddy of mine that has a 2012 CC that wants to do some coding too, so maybe this will be my motivation. LOL

[gtivr6kido]

...If you really want LEDs pay for the oem. Look for another group buy if you want the darkened tails.

...If you are at all interested, I'd look for the group buy on this site as think they are, or will be starting a new one.

So, when is the next group buy?! Darkred/tinted

[Icer Jo]

Theirs one in the works/open thread if the guy didn't already close/give up. Seemed like few where interested.

Sent from my E4GT

[gtivr6kido]

Theirs one in the works/open thread if the guy didn't already close/give up. Seemed like few where interested.

Couldn't seem to find it.

[FenderR]

Justin there's one on golfmk6 but they may have already closed it. You really only got a shipping discount. Just get em! I can code them for you I just coded mine last night. Also got rid of the lock beep and added remote comfort windows up and down haha. Pretty much anything you want VAGcom'd I can do