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v1all1
01-09-2007, 03:30 PM
Can anyone advise please. I'm looking to change my standard tail lamps for the LED version and I'm getting conflicting advice fron 2 Audi dealers.

Audi Camberley have told me that it's a straight swap - I can buy the new lights, take off the originals and put on the new ones and that's all there is to it.
Audi Wimbledon say it shouldn't be done as fuses may start blowing and control boxes overheating. They think that new wiring may be required and basically want nothing to do with it.

Has anyone carried out this upgrade and what was involved?

Cheers

Undercover
01-09-2007, 10:48 PM
I'd be very surprised if replacing bulbs with lower powered LEDs could start fuses blowing. I have LED sidelights in my '99 A6, it was a straight swap. I have heard that some people get "Bulb out" warnings though, if your car does them.

v1all1
03-09-2007, 07:50 AM
I'd be very surprised if replacing bulbs with lower powered LEDs could start fuses blowing. I have LED sidelights in my '99 A6, it was a straight swap. I have heard that some people get "Bulb out" warnings though, if your car does them.


Thanks for that. I think I'd better get in touch with VAG direct for a definitive answer

swatboy79
13-02-2008, 11:16 AM
Hi,

I want to do the same to my Audi A6 2005 model. What was your out come, was it a stragith swap, or did you have issues?

I really do doubt low current LED's would even draw as much current as 1 bulb. As for bulb warnings, well that may be possible?

Cheers
Wes

v1all1
13-02-2008, 11:35 AM
Fitting the LEDs myself was no problem (except that I needlessly took off the tailgate lining) but I got stopped a few times by other motorists telling me that the lights were flashing by themselves. I also noticed that the light pattern was slightly different to what it should have been.
Went back to Camberley Audi from where I had bought the lights and they reprogrammed the car to Highline spec at their Everything now ok. Cheers.

martin4play
13-02-2008, 01:48 PM
:zx11: Why do you want to change them from what was standard on the vehicle when you got it ------the ones on there do the job ,and thats to be seen by the vehicle behind you
Ok when they first bought out the 3rd brakelight you could buy a stick on one for you rear screen ---- great thats for safety :approve: all vehicles have 3 now ----is lada`s still going !
Its like the debate on smoked rear lens ----ok they mite look good but are rubbish when you have a rear rta cause the vehicle did not see you when it hit you !
My other gripe is tinted screens ------ok your car now looks like a funural hurse but you die in it cause you can"t see out of it at night !

Well off my soap box now ! " If it ain`t broke don`t fix it " !

swatboy79
13-02-2008, 01:58 PM
The mirrors i am talking about are audi genuine parts as intended for installation pre-sale as a choice and is become standard. They wont make them if they didnt pass strict tests and cannot compair them to 3rd party knock off's and dangerous smoked lenses.

martin4play
13-02-2008, 02:12 PM
Just my view ---- not if they have passed the standards test !

kerbdog
27-05-2011, 11:21 PM
Fitting the LEDs myself was no problem (except that I needlessly took off the tailgate lining) but I got stopped a few times by other motorists telling me that the lights were flashing by themselves. I also noticed that the light pattern was slightly different to what it should have been.
Went back to Camberley Audi from where I had bought the lights and they reprogrammed the car to Highline spec at their Everything now ok. Cheers.

Old thread, sorry for digging it up :)

I have a A6 C6/2008 and I've just got myself some genuine rear led lights - I'm able to get all the lights working but the LEDs just refuse to light!
I've seen the coding you can do to say its a highline model but when I add the number to the code it does nothing.
Anyone have any tips for recoding for a non-advant A6 C6/2008 going from standard rear to genuine LED rear lamps which have just the LED bit at the top.

I'm half considering getting a multi meter and hard wiring the led section :)

alogbe
28-05-2011, 02:59 PM
I have made some enquiries about fitting LEDs to replace my reversing lights, just because they are so feeble. Both my Audi dealer and an independent car-electrics specialist said that they couldn't be exchanged. But their reason wasn't the risk of blowing fuses; it was that the car's fault-warning system was sensitive to a specific resistance at each bulb, and the lower resistance of the LEDs would cause a warning to show permanently - which means, of course, that it wouldn't be any use as a warning.

I don't know much about car electrics, but I asked the specialist whether it would be feasible to avoid this by fitting an additional resistance in each of the affected circuits. He didn't say it was a dumb question, although maybe he was just being kind. He said he would discuss it with the manufacturer (I think he mentioned Bosch). Later he called me to say that their answer was that it could be done, but only by replacing the entire rear bumper with one from another Audi model, with built-in LED reversing lights. He said that in his opinion it would make the car look weird, and in any case would be hugely expensive. I believe him.

I didn't pursue it. I'm still interested, though, if someone knows a reasonably cheap solution.

joshA6
31-05-2011, 03:11 PM
the coding changes for rear LED lights do 2 main things:

Tell the car that there are no incadescent bulbls (hence abandon looking for resistance) and throwing unneccessary fault codes.
Tell the LED lights how to behave (otherwise you get random lighting displays)

I was originally obsessed with getting these but the novelty has worn off for me.

However, getting the new style headlights with LED strip is now consuming my technical feasibility portion of my mind!

kerbdog
31-05-2011, 03:14 PM
To follow up - I got my 'Highline LED' rear lights working after a little bit of coding.
Seems the coding for my car in the module I was looking at was wrong to begin with so adding the 'Highline LED' taillights code didn't work.

All sorted now - my running lights are still the standard bulbs but the brake lights are the LED clusters. Lost a reverse light and the fog light moved :) other than that, all working.

BUCKINGRAM
08-06-2011, 11:27 AM
I have made some enquiries about fitting LEDs to replace my reversing lights, just because they are so feeble. Both my Audi dealer and an independent car-electrics specialist said that they couldn't be exchanged. But their reason wasn't the risk of blowing fuses; it was that the car's fault-warning system was sensitive to a specific resistance at each bulb, and the lower resistance of the LEDs would cause a warning to show permanently - which means, of course, that it wouldn't be any use as a warning.

I don't know much about car electrics, but I asked the specialist whether it would be feasible to avoid this by fitting an additional resistance in each of the affected circuits. He didn't say it was a dumb question, although maybe he was just being kind. He said he would discuss it with the manufacturer (I think he mentioned Bosch). Later he called me to say that their answer was that it could be done, but only by replacing the entire rear bumper with one from another Audi model, with built-in LED reversing lights. He said that in his opinion it would make the car look weird, and in any case would be hugely expensive. I believe him.

I didn't pursue it. I'm still interested, though, if someone knows a reasonably cheap solution.

The fitting resistors idea will definitely work, I had to do it on my canbus Astra when I swapped all the lights for leds. It is a matter of soldering a resistor equivalent to that of the existing bulbs across the circuit in parallel to imitate them when just the led replacement is fitted. The resistors are very cheap and it isn't as difficult as it sounds.
I had to do a similar thing last week to my A6 as I retrofitted rear parking sensors ( £14.99 colour coded from ebay) and if just connected to the reversing light they would bring up a fault warning on the system so they have to be connected via a single by-pass relay ( £3) so that they remain ' invisible ' . Total price of the reversing sensor system with audible bleep and 4 colour coded sensors + relay £17.99.

If you come on here a lot you would think that every mod is a matter of spending £100's and getting things coded to work etc but they aren't . I've also fitted twin rear 9" dvd's with independent or double screen playback, you can't tell them from a ' factory install' it was a piece of cake and cost £190 plus my labour. I looked into the dension bluetooth conversion as mine is basic mmi but found a motorola kit that only powers up when you are in the car hence never needs charging ( once a month maybe) for £40 and it works brilliantly I'd have been no better off with a £400 dension. I'll get off my soapbox now I just feel that good cheaper alternatives are overlooked on here a lot of the time.

joshA6
08-06-2011, 01:20 PM
which screens did you fit? Have you a link?