LED Number Plate Lights That Work!

[Clazzer]

For anyone interested, I ordered these last week after someone else on here recommended them. They arrived today, took less than 5 minutes to fit and...

Blow me, they work without throwing any errors. They look the bomb as well. My car is a 2012 (1P1) and from what I've read the canbus systems started getting really sensitive on the later MK II's hence why I'm impressed. They come with a canbus resistor attached to an adaptor that just plugs into the original connection along with the light fitting and hey presto!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310907959322?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[Speed-FReek]

Do you get any disco strobe lighting effects from them when you first turn on the ignition (this is when the cold diagnostic check sends pulses to the bulbs to check their resistance)? I guess you won't be able to see this yourself unless you are backed up against a wall or garage door in the dark, or if someone checks for you.

 

[Clazzer]

I'll check in the morning, it's still pretty dark when I get up. I did read about that in the other thread that these were in IIRC. if I don't get chance I'll get one of the lads at work to check for me. I don't mind if they do the strobing thing on start up as long as they are constant afterwards. I'll report back.

 

[lajohnz]

Mine haven't thrown any errors

 

[Dan FR]

Had mine in for nearly 18 months without any errors, gave up finding a set of sidelight bulbs though.

Every set i tried would throw up an error if i left the lights on auto and they came on with the ignition, before starting the car.

 

[Speed-FReek]

I'll check in the morning, it's still pretty dark when I get up. I did read about that in the other thread that these were in IIRC. if I don't get chance I'll get one of the lads at work to check for me. I don't mind if they do the strobing thing on start up as long as they are constant afterwards. I'll report back.

It's the initial strobing effect that shortens the life of the LEDs and ultimately kills them which is the reason some people find they end up having to replace the LEDs they've fitted with new ones at periodic intervals.

If you do get the strobing effect and you have VCDS (or know someone who has it), the following two coding values for the BCM appear to be a potential resolution for this although I've not tested them as I don't currently have LED number plate lights on mine. At a guess, switching on Bit 7 of Byte 17 and switching off Bit 6 of Byte 23 will probably solve all the issues. This also means you should even be able to use LEDs that aren't CAN BUS error-free ones and that don't have a resistor hanging off them. These coding values may not be applicable to all BCMs but they are certainly present on my facelift car which has a 5K0-937-087-R BCM...

 

[indyr]

Hi Speed-FReek et all,

Out of interest, do you have the original part numbers for the number plate lighting? A bit off topic, as my Cupra R is kicking up an 'Check Number Plate' Warning alert on the dash once the lights go on - it is very intermittent and can't find any direct threads on the forum.

I checked the back of the car and it all seems to be functioning fine, not sure if something else is causing it but was looking to replace the bulb units to see if that remediates the fault (hope they are not that expensive).

I've have never changed the plate bulbs since owning the car from new...

 

[Dan FR]

Change the bulbs first, unlikely it'll be the unit itself... Or better yet buy the LED replacements from eBay. Mine are still going fine years later and are on all the time (sidelights come on with ignition)

 

[Speed-FReek]

A recent bump of this thread has reminded me to add a conclusion to post #6 in this thread regarding the VCDS configuration settings for the license plate bulbs for cars with a PQ35 BCM.

Back in May this year I did some extensive testing on these settings with both standard incandescent bulbs and non CAN Bus LED bulbs fitted, the results of which can be found on the Ross-Tech forum in this post and also this post. The full thread containing those posts can be found HERE.

The bottom line is that if you fit non CAN Bus LED number plate bulbs (ones without load resistors) and/or you want to ensure that you get no strobing effect on the bulbs when they are switched on (which can happen with the CAN Bus bulbs), then you need make the following BCM configuration changes in VCDS to prevent the bulb check warning lamp from illuminating for the license plate bulb circuit. Just to reiterate, this is only for cars that use a PQ35 BCM:-

1. Enable (Tick) Byte 17 Bit 7 -> License Plate Light w/o Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) [LED Light]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Disable (Untick) Byte 23 Bit 6 -> Lamp Monitoring (Cold) License Plate Lamps active