MK5 Golf GTI

All Things Mk5 => Mk5 General Area => Topic started by: Bennz on August 15, 2014, 08:32:30 am

Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 15, 2014, 08:32:30 am
I saw on other forums people discussing how to turn the half circle brake lights to full circle. Some suggested a wire connection between bulbs but then they got error message.

Is there a way ( beside upgrading to LED or other forms ) to turn the half circle brake lights to full ? Not after quad brake lights . Only full circle on outside lights

And I was also hoping to see if I can change the fog light bulb with a LED one without any mods? Thanks
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: RetroRaz on August 15, 2014, 08:54:39 am
I read about this a few years ago, I think there may be an option in VCDS where you can turn off picking up the error for a bulb out on the rear lights.

Or i think there may be a way to do it with using a resistor.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: DDM on August 15, 2014, 09:10:06 am
could be a nice mod, but when you do it, just stand at the back with the indicators on with the brake pedal pressed, the indicators will be  really hard to see. could turn out to be more like a hazard. it'll be similar to the audi a3,
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 15, 2014, 09:26:50 am
I would be keen to know the way to do it . I can understand the way it masks the indicator but I would be driving with brakes on for a long time while indicating.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 15, 2014, 10:11:46 am
Iv done this mod when I did my quad rear conversion. It's quite easy to do by bridging the rear bulb holder. An error code will come up if using filament bulbs as the current draw is over limits so you need to use led bulbs that draw less current. If you don't turn off bulb out warning in VAGCOM a light out error will occur - when I did it I ran another curcuit for the missing bulbs so I have bulb out warnings and full circle lights. I'll find the link I put on YouTube
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 15, 2014, 10:14:33 am
All the links here - http://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,77309.0.html
I'll upload how to rewire the rear bulbs holders if you want?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 15, 2014, 10:59:50 am
Thanks for your response . Which LED bulb did you use? Does fit in without any mod? Thanks
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 15, 2014, 11:22:55 am
Got my led rear bulbs from bold sport - error free and working fine for nearly a year  :happy2:
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 15, 2014, 11:36:56 am
Could you be kind and give me the spec of it ? I'm outside of UK so probably need to shop around for it :) thank you

And would be great if you share the wiring part for the bulbs. Does it change the lights when the headlight or fog lights is on and the brake is pressed ?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 15, 2014, 12:13:54 pm
Could you be kind and give me the spec of it ? I'm outside of UK so probably need to shop around for it :) thank you

And would be great if you share the wiring part for the bulbs. Does it change the lights when the headlight or fog lights is on and the brake is pressed ?

Bold-sport.com and search for mk5 golf rear led and it'll come up. They post worldwide.
When I brake the whole circle lights up. I'll upload when I'm back from work how I wired up the rears to work
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: th3_f15t on August 15, 2014, 12:41:22 pm
Isn't this similar to the Skyline mod people do with the Valeo lights? Keeping my eye on this thread as I think it'd be cool as well.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 15, 2014, 01:09:28 pm
I wanted the skyline mod but wanted to keep the ed30 dark rear lense as I prefer it. The link to the how to guide is how I went about it - any help or question ask away  :happy2:
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 15, 2014, 10:08:18 pm
Found the LEDs, so do I need 4 of them to replace the existing brake lights as well? If using the LED bulb and the normal
Bulb would the color be different ?

Is the standard brake bulb ( 08 GTI ) is single or dual filament ?

Appreciate if you can do a how to to get full circle on the outer lights only when using the LED bulbs :)


I was also thinking to replace the front parking lights with LED , plug and play without error. Saw one on the bold sport website but are there other options?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 16, 2014, 09:54:02 am
You will need four in total for the rear lights. Using one filament and one led looks awful as not same colour. If you are going to code out the bulb out warning that's all you'll need but if you want to keep the bulb out feature you will need 2 more LED bulbs. They don't have to be the boldsport ones as they are a bit expensive - just make sure they have resistors built in so they won't come up with a bulb out error. You'll also need two bulb holders for them and a run of cable. I didn't get the chance to upload last night how I rewired it but will try tonight
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 16, 2014, 10:01:04 am
So you mean if I don't any to make any change to the codes I need 4 LED lights in total ? Otherwise with two LED bulbs I will get a warning when I turn the headlights ?

Which bulb holders do I need?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 16, 2014, 10:05:44 am
No you will need 6 bulbs in total to keep the bulb out and the holders. You'll need to find bulb holders for the brake light bulbs, I found them on eBay
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 16, 2014, 10:35:29 am
Seems like too much money to spend . Isn't there a way to program the controller to light up two bulbs at once for the brakes ?

Would be great if you could share photos and description of what you did on yours :)
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Frenzy on August 16, 2014, 12:33:09 pm
Seems like too much money to spend . Isn't there a way to program the controller to light up two bulbs at once for the brakes ?

Would be great if you could share photos and description of what you did on yours :)

He did, it's on page 1, 6th post down.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 18, 2014, 06:55:03 am
That mod is for all 4 lights. I PM'd him so hopefully he can help :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: biffobear on August 18, 2014, 08:53:24 am
all you need is 2 pieces of cable, 4 scotch locks, take the wiring plug out of rear lights on each side, crimp piece of wire with scotch locks between terminals 2 & 3, connect plugs to lights, voila
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 18, 2014, 09:24:05 am
You would get error with above ...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: biffobear on August 18, 2014, 10:10:14 am
you will need to turn off cold lamp diagnosis with vcds
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 18, 2014, 10:25:17 am
Well that's what I don't want to do . Otherwise I wouldn't have posted here ;)

I want to try the two LED bulbs or even with the coding only ( maybe via a dealer as I don't have  VCDS )

It seems US models ( or some ) have the full circle brakes . So could be mixture of codes and the wiring .  I wait to hear back from the kind gent on here first



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 19, 2014, 09:01:27 am
Full circle brake lights
mod 09 (cent. elec.)
coding
long coding
byte 3
X bit 7 "Rear Lights" (1=Back Light/Brake light dimmed / 0=Back Light dimmed)
transfer coding - close -

Has anyone tried this ? I don't have VCDS so can't do it myself .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: RetroRaz on August 19, 2014, 09:10:27 am
Full circle brake lights
mod 09 (cent. elec.)
coding
long coding
byte 3
X bit 7 "Rear Lights" (1=Back Light/Brake light dimmed / 0=Back Light dimmed)
transfer coding - close -

Has anyone tried this ? I don't have VCDS so can't do it myself .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Apparently that only works on US cars. I looked for it once and wasnt there :(
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 19, 2014, 10:41:25 am
Ohhhh ... So the only way is to get 4 of same kind LED bulbs . Wire the two bulbs connector in brake circle and hope for the best to not get error ?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 19, 2014, 08:07:21 pm
Method is as above for re wiring, to my understanding my car could not be simply coded to allow this hence why the re wire was needed. To stop light out warning (if not wanting to code) I ran cables from the unused side light circuit and installed bulb holders in the passenger side boot pocket (behind where the first aid kit and warning triangle live) connected error free LED's (after checking how hot they ran when on for a while - the cheap ones use a big resistor that really gets hot so be careful) then it's all good. Car thinks it's got all it bulbs - well it has, just relocated. My set up has quad lights, quad brake lights and quad indicators with no errors but you can pick and choose which you like. All the wire runs needed are in the how to links I posted but you'll need to watch all of them right through cause I can't remember which part it's on. I will edit the re wire now and upload. Sorry for late reply - I thought you were trolling me at first cause you kept asking the same thing
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 19, 2014, 08:27:56 pm
Thanks for the details :) and sorry I wasn't trolling you , I was confused


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 19, 2014, 09:02:20 pm
Just uploading now mate, saying its got 1 hour left!? The video is only 9mins long!!  :fighting:
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 19, 2014, 09:40:25 pm
How I re wired for full circle brakes without bulb out warning -

If you found it useful don't be afraid to press the thank you button here or like on YouTube - it is appreciated  :drinking:
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: usmangti on August 19, 2014, 11:29:27 pm
How I re wired for full circle brakes without bulb out warning -

If you found it useful don't be afraid to press the thank you button here or like on YouTube - it is appreciated  :drinking:

Hi mate just to be clear, if I just wanted full circle brake light on the outer lights, is it just the mod with the red wire that needs doing?
Cheers
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 19, 2014, 11:55:13 pm
If only full circle brake light yes only the red wire but you will get a bulb out warning light if you don't make the bulb holder extention thingy up.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: usmangti on August 20, 2014, 12:01:04 am
Right get you now.
Great vids btw,  :congrats:
How long does it take you to do a full conversion like that?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 20, 2014, 12:09:16 am
Just the full circle and bulb holder run approx 3 hours - the whole lot I kinda stopped counting  :signLOL:
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 20, 2014, 12:19:56 am
Should have said - before starting this check that the LEDs you've bought don't throw up bulb out warnings. Iv tried a few eBay special that claim error free but ain't
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: usmangti on August 20, 2014, 12:35:24 am
Just the full circle and bulb holder run approx 3 hours - the whole lot I kinda stopped counting  :signLOL:

Haha fair enough mate!

Should have said - before starting this check that the LEDs you've bought don't throw up bulb out warnings. Iv tried a few eBay special that claim error free but ain't

If you do the mod with regular bulbs will it still throw up an error?
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 20, 2014, 01:01:02 am
When I was testing I found that putting two filament bulbs in the brake circuit drew too much power and popped fuses when the extra current for braking was applied. By using LEDs they draw less power so won't blow fuses.
I didn't want to use normal filament bulbs in the extention loom as they get very hot when on and as the loom is run into a cavity I was worried about heat/fire problems
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 20, 2014, 06:30:14 am
Thanks a lot :)
I wonder if using some form of resistor between the second bulb would eliminate the extension mod requirement.
What I don't fully get is why it throws light warning if two bulbs are the same (LED) and they draw the same current at once ? If it because the LED uses less amp compared to the filament bulb?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 20, 2014, 08:13:49 am
Thanks a lot :)
I wonder if using some form of resistor between the second bulb would eliminate the extension mod requirement.
What I don't fully get is why it throws light warning if two bulbs are the same (LED) and they draw the same current at once ? If it because the LED uses less amp compared to the filament bulb?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When researching this I tried all sorts of resistors and things but each time they got too hot for my liking - one set of designed for purpose "error out plug in kit" got so hot I burnt my fingers when testing it. The extention mod was the safest and easiest way I could think of accomplishing what I wanted to do. It took me a fair amount of time and trial and error to come up with this but if it can be improved that's cool.
Two LEDs in line isn't what causes the error light. I don't think you are understanding how the circuit has changed properly. When the pin is cut in the rear bulb holder you have created an open circuit that the car sees as a failed bulb. This means that, if you only do the red wire then connect two LEDs in the rear bulb holders and power on the car will be able to power the rear side lights and brakes as that curcuit is closed but when it tries to feed power to the pin we has cut to do this mod it will fail as the curcuit goes nowhere. This will throw a bulb out and is why a resistor/extention or something is needed.
Hope that helps you understand better
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 25, 2014, 08:54:24 pm
Seems to be a bit of interest in this. I'm happy to do this for anyone interested but please be aware that I am not an electrical engineer or anything like that so I cannot accept responsibility if you choose to use modified rear bulb holders and it causes damage to your car etc. etc.
I'm thinking I'll take on 5 "orders(?)" at a time and for the initial batch will only be doing the full circle brake light mod with or without the wiring for the normal light relocate. First 5 people in I will do it for £25 (plus PayPal fees) which will include postage back to you (UK only!)

What you will need -

What you'll get back

PM me if interested.....

1. Taken
2. Taken
3. Taken
4.
5.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: DDM on August 25, 2014, 10:33:12 pm
I would be keen to know the way to do it . I can understand the way it masks the indicator but I would be driving with brakes on for a long time while indicating.
I get what your saying mate, but only takes a moment for someone to run into the back of you, don't mean to offend or dis the thread but where would anyone stand if it did happen, at a guess i'd think it could void your insurance.
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 25, 2014, 11:49:14 pm
I would be keen to know the way to do it . I can understand the way it masks the indicator but I would be driving with brakes on for a long time while indicating.
I get what your saying mate, but only takes a moment for someone to run into the back of you, don't mean to offend or dis the thread but where would anyone stand if it did happen, at a guess i'd think it could void your insurance.
See where your comming from but the indicator is as visable as its always been when brake lights are on - I'll upload a video when I have a moment to prove it. As far as insurance is concerned you would definately need to tell them, just like you would when any mod is done
Title: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 26, 2014, 01:15:45 am
Would disabling the bulb warning only be applied to brake lights or the entire lights?

I couldn't find the bulb holders on eBay. I saw Ecstuning have the OEM for $10 each but wondered if there is cheaper one.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: MateyGuv on August 26, 2014, 07:26:07 am
I think it would apply to all bulbs but not sure.
For the bulb holder relocate I used something like this - http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=271135669108
Title: Re: Full circle brake lights?
Post by: Bennz on August 28, 2014, 09:42:52 am
Does anyone know if it's possible to disable specific bulb check warning or if you disable it , it will disable the entire monitoring and warning system ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk