[aku-aku]

I'm fitting some Narva LEDs to the projector lamps. They're the same as the Philips Ultinon LEDs (Narva is a brand of Lumileds, which is Philips's LED lighting joint venture); aside from showing the bulb out warning they seem to be well made - they have wire braid heatsinks and small control units so everything fits in the headlamp housing as it should. Once I get everything working the way it should I'll post more on this - of course in the UK they would only be legal if the car is fitted with headlamp washers, but they do seem very good.

 

[aku-aku]

Yes, having looked around the world of cheap Chinese headlamps I realised that not only was it not possible to see through all their fake power output and lumen ratings, but even if I did find some that were actually at least as bright as halogens they would probably either not last or not fit! These should last well (at least until the next generation of LED lighting is out and I want an upgrade!), and they're designed for projector lamps. I have another LED modification I'm looking into so that I don't have to run with the new LEDs on all the time (headlamp rules over here say lights on 24/7), but I'm trying to find a DRL mode that will work on the parking light circuit with the headlamp switch in Auto... hence the thread about CECM versions!

 

[aku-aku]

I just finished installing the switchback LEDs for indicators/parking lights. I'll write up how that went at some point. The front fogs are still the regular halogens, which I'm not bothered about since I seldom use them.

Regarding the DRLs, the behaviour you describe is the standard behaviour, and it's configured in the CECM (or, for a 2012, BCM - body control module) coding. Default is that DRLs are low beam with 71% brightness; you can switch the DRLs to use fogs rather than low beam, and you can switch between Scandinavian mode (all lights on) and US mode (headlights only, only on when the handbrake is off). I'm hoping that the new CECM I have on order will behave correctly with the DRL dimming and will allow an option of 0% so that my parking lights will work as DRLs. Apart from anything else, what with the resistors on the low beam and all the wiring, the headlamp housings are quite full, and avoiding the heat generated by having low beams on would probably be beneficial!

 

[aku-aku]

In which aku-aku learns the lesson "don't buy cheap Chinese tat" for the 94th time...

The switchback indicator/DRL bulbs that fit in your indicators just aren't compatible with VW electrics.

There's a kind that have been around for a while now, which have a big cheap resistor and a rubber gasket to fit into the bulb housing. I tried those, and the DRLs go off after a few seconds when the engine is on. Mysteriously, with the engine off they behave just fine.

There's a new kind which fit into the bulb socket and have three thin (and presumably flimsy) wires that go out to a fancy-looking block that is presumably just a slightly fancier resistor, and a cable for the DRL input. I tried those, and the DRLs stay on correctly, but the indicators blink very briefly and sometimes flash white when the engine is on. Mysteriously, with the engine off they behave just fine.

In short: don't bother with the two kinds in the pictures. The mk5 electrics don't support them and basically don't know what LEDs are, so anything that is more complicated than just an LED will need to have been designed with the mk5 VW in mind.

That said, there's another kind which doesn't have the extra resistor box - so in a few weeks' time it'll be time for another "don't buy cheap Chinese tat" update

 

[aku-aku]

The latest package from China arrived... and I can report 50% success!

These bulbs have all the electronics built in, with one thin wire coming out that has to be squeezed through the bulb fitting. The wire is much, much thinner than in the picture, so it's not a problem fitting it - though I do worry about the insulation not being thick enough. The wires have bare ends, so I attached a spade connector to join on to the wires I'd left in from previous attempts.

Unfortunately, as you can see in this video, one of them doesn't work properly so they're sending a replacement. When that arrives, if everything works, I'll be able to give them a longer-term test.

 

[aku-aku]

Next part of my story... I tried fitting some X3 LEDs to the fog lights - they claim "no CAN-bus errors" but the bulb out warning showed up. Despite having a big heatsink, these would also fit on the main beam, so I was disappointed that they didn't work out.

This thread is quickly turning into a rogue's gallery of what not to get - I guess I'll keep it that way, and if I ever get some success I'll post a new thread with the recommendation.

 

[aku-aku]

I am using 50 watt (each) LEDs on my high beams. I get the blinking but not the bulb out. I don't know about coding, but is the cold diagnostics causing the blinking?

Cold diagnostics causes the blinking, yes. All LEDs I've tried (main beam, fog, parking lights) do the blinking on ignition on.

 

[aku-aku]

Which bulb and holder is the easiest to play with? I don't fancy messing with fogs in the front bumper, been there and not so easy to remove as they say.

I would say the H7s in the high beam are the easiest to get to and remove - you can probably pull the connector off the bulb without removing the bulb.

The problem with emulation is I might fool the system to think it see a normal bulb, but it won't then tell you if the led replacement has failed, is that something you can put up with?

I suspect that failing LEDs would not be reported anyway, so that's no problem for me.

 

[aku-aku]

At long last, the replacement combined DRL/indicator has arrived - see this post for what they are.

One thing I'm considering in order to make the setup a little more road-legal is to figure out if there's an unused contact on the headlamp connector that I could use, so that I could wire them to the xenon shutter contacts (unused on a car with halogen headlamps, of course) and get correct DRL behaviour - the EU rule says that DRLs should go off when headlamps go on; they're currently run off the parking light circuit so that doesn't happen. The xenon shutter feed also has the benefit of not having bulb monitoring, thus making it an ideal candidate for LED lighting

My quest for reasonably-priced LED replacements for the fog lamps and the full beam goes on - I have been trying and returning several more kinds, all of which claimed they were error free and all of which resulted in bulb out errors - except one set of H7 LEDs, which had no bulb out warning but which were a little too big for the housing, touching the back of the cover when installed. The fog lamps will be harder to solve as they should be fanless - it's not so bad having a fan inside the lamp housing, but in the dirt of the engine bay I suspect it would be prone to early failure.

This is the LED that had no bulb out warning, but which sits too close to the back of the main beam housing. The beam pattern on this is much more focused than the halogen - it has a very bright spot in the middle of the beam and virtually nothing else. The standard halogen bulb spreads the light much further. I'm now trying some other LEDs from the same manufacturer that should be a full centimetre shorter behind the fitting, and hence should fit without any issue - but finding LEDs that have a suitable beam pattern when installed in reflector lamps, fit in the housing and don't cause errors seems to be something of a tall order.

 

[aku-aku]

I don't have a picture of the Infitary bulb. It was in the high beam that it didn't fit.

Pictures of my Narva LEDs in the projectors are here - the third picture along is the LED in the projector housing; to help you orient the picture correctly, the orange connector is the indicator.

 

[aku-aku]

For those of you who want combined indicator/DRLs that are actually DRLs, here's what I found out about how to run the DRLs over the xenon shutter connection without making any holes in your headlamps or modifying any existing wiring. (DRLs are only DRLs if they are only on at daytime, not at night, and not when low beam headlamps are on - at least in the European Union. And when it's raining, you must have low beam on and not DRL.) This information may also be useful to those who want to retrofit DRLs outside the headlamps but want them to behave correctly.

Note that DRL over xenon shutter is only available on certain versions of the central electrics control module (CECM) and early versions of the Eos will likely need an upgrade. This information only applies to early versions of the Eos with mk5 electrics with halogen headlamps. If you have the later electrics with a single body control module (BCM) you will probably have more and better options for installing DRLs.

Having investigated, pin 4 on the halogen headlamps is currently unused. It should be possible to wire a connector to pin 4 on each headlamp from the xenon shutter contacts on the CECM. The left side is pin 6 on connector D (confusingly labelled T11c on wiring diagrams) and the right side is pin 5 on connector A (confusingly labelled T11b on wiring diagrams). The pins on the CECM are 1.5mm Micro Timer contacts a 1.5mm version of MCP contacts and the pins on the headlamps are 2.5mm JPT contacts. For the headlamps you will need both male and female connectors; for the CECM plug female connectors only.

It is possible to get to the headlamp socket without removing the headlamp - the socket can be pulled out, and is held in place by tabs on the top and bottom. I inadvertently removed mine by levering the plug when trying to remove it - it may be easier to push through from the inside of the headlamp. The headlamp socket has a purple secondary lock for the connectors which needs to be slid across in order to add the pin. The plug also has a secondary lock on it, and it has a rubber bung where the wire for vacant pin 4 should be inserted. This can be pushed out from the pin side with a fine screwdriver.

 

[aku-aku]

I now have an LED solution for the high beam housing. These cost under US$10 for the pair, and they fit nicely in the high beam housing without touching the plastic edge and don't throw any bulb out warnings. I tested them on a hot day, and they got quite hot quite quickly and the fans were audible from inside the car. Since this is for high beam, though, I think these will be OK: you only need high beam at night, and I don't do the kind of driving where high beam is required for extended periods. We'll see how long they last, but given they won't be used that much I think they should be good for my use.

The light source is bigger than the same-size-as-the-halogen LEDs that the expensive Narva LEDs I have in the low beam have, and that probably leads to the beam pattern being different (larger) than the halogen bulbs. I believe the same manufacturer has a slightly more expensive version with the smaller light source that should be good for low or high beam and have a beam pattern close to the original. Overall they're a very cheap upgrade and I'm looking forward to trying them out in earnest. Just the fogs to go (and fixing the DRLs so they work properly) before the upgrade is complete.

 

[aku-aku]

As for the fog lamps - given my success with the Infitary LEDs above, I decided to get the HB4 version of the ones above that wouldn't fit in the main beam housing. It's a tough job to find fanless HB4 LEDs, and since Infitary have mastered the art of convincing the CECM that their LEDs are working bulbs, under $10 got them the same colour as the rest of the lights. Honestly that was the most annoying one, as the cornering lights were a different colour to everything else, and now they match.

Fortunately, the updated CECM I installed uses PWM to fade the fog lights when switching cornering lights off, so they dim correctly.

 

[aku-aku]

I ended up getting some HB4 bulbs with fans because I got tired of trying fanless ones and finding they don't work. The reason I wanted to go for fanless is because they're in the open engine bay rather than behind covers that protect them from dust and water, and fanless bulbs should be more reliable. The ones I got were under $10 so cheap enough not to care, though.

The projector setup I have (Narva LEDs with Philips decoders) cost about £70 in total - I think it's worth paying for a decent brand for your low beams, as those just have to work. For the high beams I have some Infitary bulbs with fans, as I figure that high beam doesn't get that much use. And for those I have been through so many different bulbs, ordering and returning until I got some that both work and fit properly.

Regarding avoiding bulb out warnings, you can only disable the "cold" diagnosis on startup. If Carista has the option to do long coding, you can use it. If not, you'd need OBDeleven. If you're into this kind of tweak, OBDeleven is well worth the investment. The names can be confusing - only an official OBDeleven dongle (with the upside-down car logo on it) will work with the OBDeleven app.

 

[aku-aku]

I believe it might be possible to get rid of the warnings if your car is based on the mk6 electronics (white display in the dash), which requires a PC with software to manipulate the firmware on the body control module. The mk6 electronics also have options LEDs in certain positions like DRLs (on a separate circuit to parking lights). On the mk5 electronics (red display) the only thing you can do is add something to the circuit to fool the electronics. Dumber "decoders" are just resistors; the Philips ones I have are, I think, a little smarter than that, as they don't get that hot and are suitable for mounting inside the headlamp housing.

 

[aku-aku]

At long last, the replacement combined DRL/indicator has arrived - see this post for what they are.

One thing I'm considering in order to make the setup a little more road-legal is to figure out if there's an unused contact on the headlamp connector that I could use, so that I could wire them to the xenon shutter contacts (unused on a car with halogen headlamps, of course) and get correct DRL behaviour - the EU rule says that DRLs should go off when headlamps go on; they're currently run off the parking light circuit so that doesn't happen. The xenon shutter feed also has the benefit of not having bulb monitoring, thus making it an ideal candidate for LED lighting

Finally I have this setup properly working! These details apply to a pre-facelift Eos with halogen headlamps and a Central Electrics module with a 3C8 part number and 30 bytes of long coding - others may not have the option to run DRLs over the Xenon shutter or side indicators. There is indeed a spare pin in each headlamp connector, so there is no need to drill holes in the headlamp housings; similarly, no existing factory wires are modified - two new connections are made. You will need to feed the wires through the rubber grommet behind the Central Electrics module into the engine bay.

It requires a wire running from Central Electrica connector D pin 6 to the spare pin on the left headlamp, and from connector A pin 5 to the spare pin on the right headlamp. The Central Electrics connectors are 1.5mm MCP and difficult to come by (I got mine as wire tails on a salvage connector); the headlamp connectors 2.8mm JPT and are the normal used-everywhere kind. Then you need a wire in the headlamp socket from the unused pin to the DRL wire of the combined DRL/indicator bulb.

You will also need to wire a warning canceller in, otherwise the bulb out warning will come on when you first indicate with the DRLs on! One way to do this is to get W5W warning cancellers, modify them to pass the positive connection straight through from the plug to the socket, connect the positive side to the DRL wire, and plug them in in-line with your parking lights.

Having installed them, there is just some long coding to do, to configure the DRLs to be Scandinavian style, and to run over the Xenon shutter connection. By default, they will switch off when low beam is on. If you want them to stay on, or your garage is dark and you want to test the lights without moving the car, you can toggle byte 2 bit 5 (“DRLs as parking lights”) to switch them on together with low beam.

Those with Xenon headlights could use the side indicator connections (left A pin 8; right D pin 9) but you also have to swap the fog and reversing light connections (B1 <-> B4) and code for this.

A handy summary of all your DRL options (in German) which I used to check my other sources is here.