[2phast]

So, the Corvette style tail light mod is common on GTI's and Jettas. Normally you can turn off the inner lights via VCDS but the settings that work on the other cars does not work on the EOS, or at least the year of my car and/or the fact I am in the US..

Had to remove the light and experiment by removing wires. Found out that if I remove the black wire, the center light section goes off. I removed it from the plug and taped it to the back of the ckt board, and can reverse this very easily if needed. The small LED running lights on the side also turn off when removing the black wire, even though they have separate wires going directly to them.

The outer ring is also the blinker and works. Brake light is the center section and lights when you step on the brake.

With the center section off, I also noticed two LEDs that are out, the ckt board had some corrosion, so I cleaned that up, not much I can do about the two led's that are out, except purchase another tail light.

Going to do a video on this Friday when I do the other tail light, hopefully I don't find any more LED's that are out.

 

[aku-aku]

As I understand it, the US spec Eos has the side marker lights built into the rear lights (option code 7R4) - see here. I'm surprised that it needs a wiring change, as the only difference in the wiring diagram is that the US version has the extra LED for marker lights shown in parallel to the tail light.

I'd have thought that you could do it in VCDS by setting byte 12 (rear parking light dimming) to 0 on the CECM, where in other markets it's byte 9.

Idiot question - are your turn signals red or orange? That might explain some of the difference.

 

[2phast]

Turn signals are red, dual color LED's (red/orange) are only on the Euro tail lights.

As for VCDS, I tried all of the options published to disable the center lights. All of the published data was done on Euro lights though. In VCDS its actually Central Elec/Coding/Long Code Helper/Rear Brake Light As Parking Light/DEC1 from 1 to 0.

I referenced this link. Skyline look Tails (Donut mod & marker delete)

Specifically this section, which lists what years and markets VCDS will work on and which need to cut the wire. Of course I tried VCDS first, then resorted to removing the wire.

Euro = vagcom change
US 2007-2011 = snip black wire
US 2006 = vagcom change AND snip black wire.

 

[aku-aku]

Ah, having watched the video on that link I understand why things are so different! The lights are configured completely differently - turn signals in the centre instead of the outer ring, for starters. At least we have howtos for both versions now

 

[2phast]

Actually no, that video shows a complete custom wiring including the addition of circular LED's inside the trunk mounted lights. US spec tail lights have the outer ring as parking lights AND turn signals. The center LED's are normally parking lights AND brake lights. The mod I did just removed the center LED's from being parking lights.

US spec tails have red/red for parking and turn signals, where as the euro lights are red/orange with red for parking and orange for turn signals. I believe the actual color of the lenses on the euros are a different shade of red. Might be some internal differences as well and possibly some wiring harness differences.

 

[aku-aku]

The Euro spec has two different options for the lens colour - apparently the cherry red is the rarer option and therefore people prefer them.

But yes, there must be some internal differences given the fact that you have to cut a wire. I'm also curious as to how things are coded in Central Electrics - whether you need values in byte 13 (use indicators as parking lights) or whether they "just work". Given you cut the wire for the parking lights there must surely be a value in byte 13...

 

[2phast]

The Euro spec has two different options for the lens colour - apparently the cherry red is the rarer option and therefore people prefer them.

But yes, there must be some internal differences given the fact that you have to cut a wire. I'm also curious as to how things are coded in Central Electrics - whether you need values in byte 13 (use indicators as parking lights) or whether they "just work". Given you cut the wire for the parking lights there must surely be a value in byte 13...

The section in VCDS is 09 Central Elec, 00 - Rear Brake Light as Parking Light. It initially is set to 1x1, change to 0x1 would normally disable the center tail light LED's, at least this works on Euro spec cars. Might work on newer US spec cars, but not on a 2008

Also, noticed that this mod triggers the dash bulb out indicator, fault codes for left/rear parking lights. Cleared codes in VCDS but they come back as soon as you turn the lights on. Also went into Cent Elec and turned off Cold Lamp Diagnostics for rear parking lights and also turned off Rear Parking Light Diagnostics, neither turns off the bulb out light.

 

[aku-aku]

Cold lamp diagnostics is for testing the lights when they're not working. You'll get the bulb out warning because you have a wire that doesn't draw any current when it should - you would need to put a load resistor from the black wire to ground to get rid of the bulb out warning. For some reason disabling lamp diagnostics doesn't work on some lamp circuits.

It could also be interesting to test how the lights work by connecting the brown wire to the negative terminal of a 12V power source and each of the others to the positive terminal in turn, so you can see what they each do outside of the car's electronics. I'm assuming that the black wire lights up both the inner and outer rings, and that there's some circuitry inside the lamp that directs some of the power that comes down the black wire towards the centre part of the light.

 

[voxmagna]

It could also be interesting to test how the lights work by connecting the brown wire to the negative terminal of a 12V power source and each of the others to the positive terminal in turn,

Have you tried this aku? I thought they used PWM not d.c and it might not be full load driving @ 100%?

 

[aku-aku]

They do use PWM but at 100% they should be driven at full power, I think.

 

[2phast]

So the fix to the bulb out error was to add a set of Sylvania LED Load Equalizers. One end was connected to the black wire I removed and the other was grounded. This eliminated the bulb out dash display and there are no longer any errors in VCDS either. The load equalizers do get hot, after 30 minutes it was very hot but not hot enough to burn my fingers. I mounted them near the tail lights in a recessed area. They are far enough away from any wiring looms and they are roughly 1.5" away from the trunk liner.

Also, the LED's on the side of the tail lights, which were previously not illuminated are now illuminated.

 

[aku-aku]

Yes, you want to make sure those things are mounted to a metal part of the car and are well away from everything else! You would probably find that a much higher resistance (and hence less heat) would work - you could measure the resistance from the wire you cut to ground. It would also save your battery if you forget to turn your lights off when parked.

 

[Jardo]

Wow so much work for a donut mod.
Very strange that the us market cant be coded. Why would they change that....

Anyway,
I have a german eos tdi from 12- 2006 and i did it by coding. But that wasnt enough for me.
I wanted the inners to be the same just like golf, jetta, passat and every other vw.
So thats where i started my 6 months project. That i like to share with you guys.

I couldnt upload pictures from my phone so i hope a instagram link works

http://instagr.am/p/B94U_zdnv0v/

 

[voxmagna]

When you adapt codes for a V.W, the primary adaptation is to tell the car what local it is and then move to left/right hand/ drive & convertible options. I suspect USA markets will have a USA legal local settings, whereas Germany will be E.U?

I have another newer VAG car that didn't have a large digital road speed display option. Since VAG dial speedos are really hard to read accurately around 30mph to +-2 Mph to avoid camera traps, I wanted that option. I discovered if I told the car it was an Australian model using vcds, I then got the digital speedo.

Country local vehicle regulations exist for vehicle lighting options, I suspect you will need the local option set first before custom changes are visible and can be made. I'm pretty certain fogs aren't acceptable as DLRs and in U.K they still have to work as fogs on the switch. Sensible when you think V.W don't want to make it easy for adaptations to result in illegal lighting combinations. Compare what our USA members have for their 'standard' lighting and what E.U or Aus. cars have as standard.

 

[aku-aku]

@Jardo that looks and sounds like a lot of work! From your Instagram it looks like the donor lights from the Passat don't even fit - and then you had to add LEDs to them. Did you wire those in parallel with the tail lights and have to route the wire through the trunk hinges?

 

[2phast]

Yes, you want to make sure those things are mounted to a metal part of the car and are well away from everything else! You would probably find that a much higher resistance (and hence less heat) would work - you could measure the resistance from the wire you cut to ground. It would also save your battery if you forget to turn your lights off when parked.

My EOS has auto headlights, so they will turn off in a few minutes when the key is removed. As per the picture, you can see they are mounted to the chassis sheet metal.

 

[2phast]

Wow so much work for a donut mod.
Very strange that the us market cant be coded. Why would they change that....

Anyway,
I have a german eos tdi from 12- 2006 and i did it by coding. But that wasnt enough for me.
I wanted the inners to be the same just like golf, jetta, passat and every other vw.
So thats where i started my 6 months project. That i like to share with you guys.

I couldnt upload pictures from my phone so i hope a instagram link works

http://instagr.am/p/B94U_zdnv0v/

You also have different tail lights as well. From researching GTI's and Passats, this is easier to do on EU specific cars, but not on the US spec cars.