Hi!

Switched my DRL bulbs for LEDs this weekend. I used non CANBUS LEDs (bought from Hong Kong) and added a resistor in parallel instead. In order to keep the car electrical system intact, I made an adapter with a male and female AMP connector and wiring to the resistor. The resistor is riveted to a piece of aluminium.

Installation

The car DRL supply contact is circled in green, the rear of the DRL is hidden by the aftermarket Webasto heater I installed last year.

The standard comparision picture

Comparision

You will have to guess which side is LED, I won't tell you...

And the final result:

Result

Took me a couple of hours but I think the result was worth it...

The LEDs was about 6€ for a pair, and they only consume 3.5W so there should be no problems with melting lamp sockets.

Hi all!

I too bought a pair of leds for my DRL's and they simply won't work. It turned out that the inner contact is - and the housing of the bulb is wired to the + terminal. And my led lamps don't have the bridge rectifier so they have to be connected the other way arround. Do your Superbs have the same polarity on the light socket? And if so how can you tell when buying the led bulbs that they have reversed polarity?

In order to keep the car electrical system intact, I made an adapter with a male and female AMP connector and wiring to the resistor.

I am thinking to reverse polarity this way. Where did you buy the connector?

Thanx!

Oversc0re

None of the CANBUS friendly bulbs have worked with my Superb SE Plus (June 2011), I have used Alberg's solution and bingo, no errors, no warnings and the LED's are fine. I genuinely tried a set of bulbs from every vendor listed in the thread, no joy with any of them, all of them threw warning lights and maxi dot errors.

Happy that your happy that my solution is genial

Hi Oversc0re, and everybody else!

I too had to reverse the polarity of my LED's, but that was easily done with the adapter cables.

I bought the contacts from DeyTrade Connecting.

This is what I used:

2 each of:

42064500 Sealed Male Connector

42121100 Sealed Female Connector

4 each of:

964285-2 Female Junior Power Timer Tin Plated Terminal 0.50 - 1.00 mm2

2-964301-1 Male Junior Power Timer Tin Plated Terminal 1.00 - 2.50 mm2

8 of these:

963294-1 Blue Junior Power Timer Individual Loose Cable Seal 0.35 - 1.00 mm2

I used a special crimping tool to fasten the contacts and seals to the cables, but it should be possible to do with standard crimping tools too.

You might want to have a look in this manual, to see how the contacts and seals should be crimped.

Make sure you don't have to remove the contacts from the housings, because that is a pain without the proper extraction tool...

Good luck!

Joakim

Thanx for your reply. Due to the time consumption of your solution I decided to go the hard way. I have created a paper clip removal tool as suggested on an excellent site that I can't find any more and with some patience it worked! I have swapped the pins and the leds are now shining.

Thisis also an useful link regarding the connectors (if you want to switch the polarity on your connectors).

Got mine fitted now - will get some pictures at some point. I got them from UltraLEDs.

Very easy to fit and have no canbus errors - although the display sometimes says check left front DRL but if I restart the car it disappears. Will probably just pop it out and re-fit to be sure.

Next job: Philips Extreme dipped beam and Night Breaker Plus for main beam - had a quick look and appears plenty of room to get my hands in. Should be easier than the Octavia!

Just though I would share a few pics of some different led's. These have a double row of smd led's around the base and then a whopping great cree led with a lense and a large heatsink at the top:

And where did you buy those?

Deal extreme - they took a long time to come. They are bizarrely listed as T25 bulbs.

deal extreme

Thanx. At first look this is the allmighty led lamp. But people seem to complain about cree led blinking as the thermal protection of the led driver kicks in due to severe overheating (http://club.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/threadid.978702) Did you notice anything like that?

I've not actually had any of those symptoms from them.

I will keep an eye on them though.

How about this bad boy i found on ebay? Would this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ELIMINATORE-ERRORE-BA15S-P21W-WARNING-CANCELLER-CANBUS-/180637121259?pt=Componenti_elettronici_passivi&hash=item2a0ecfbaeb#ht_2366wt_1037

I suggest avoiding unnecessary loads. They must be properly sized to the led current consumption to avid overheating. Buy a 5W (4W+ should be enough - mine is 4.56W) led and you are error free.

I started this thread 6 months ago i have had these fitted for the last 6 months.

http://www.car-mod-shop.co.uk/Canbus%20white%2027%20SMD%20LED%20BA15s%201156%20382%20bulbs

No problems. Never burned anything. Nothing melted. No errors. Done about 12000 miles. Will buy again if they ever go, nice and white, I have a white car but still look nice and bright. A lot brighter than the originals.

Tried those on my 2011 octy . I keep getting the error popping up in the instrument cluster.

Should i try my luck with these?

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/3821156ba15s-anti-canbus-white-bulbs-p-2346.html

I've had http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/3801157bay15d-anti-canbus-bulb-p-2397.html?osCsid=so73j821bdru2ha6lub5mv2im4 for a couple of months. No error, but they were simply not bright enough. Others were blinking to me all the time so I'm back to incandescent for a while.

Tried those on my 2011 octy . I keep getting the error popping up in the instrument cluster.

Should i try my luck with these?

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/3821156ba15s-anti-canbus-white-bulbs-p-2346.html

deal extreme

Are these sold in singles? I'm a big fan of Cree leds

Are these sold in singles? I'm a big fan of Cree leds

Yes, singles. But before you buy, read the product support forum: http://club.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/threadid.978702

Tried those on my 2011 octy . I keep getting the error popping up in the instrument cluster.

Should i try my luck with these?

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/3821156ba15s-anti-canbus-white-bulbs-p-2346.html

I use these ones now for several months without errors and in my opinion they are bright enough.

Don't like playing with load resistors...

I've had http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/3801157bay15d-anti-canbus-bulb-p-2397.html?osCsid=so73j821bdru2ha6lub5mv2im4 for a couple of months. No error, but they were simply not bright enough. Others were blinking to me all the time so I'm back to incandescent for a while.

On the Octavia the intensity can be changed from 93% to 127% on DRL.(have mentioned this in other threads)

Just a question of seeing if with vcds you have the same option on the superb

Edited 29 January, 201214 yr by alberg

On the Octavia the intensity can be changed from 93% to 127% on DRL.(have mentioned this in other threads)

Just a question of seeing if with vcds you have the same option on the superb

Are superbs more tolerant to drl bulb changes than the 2011 octys? Because all my friends who have tried these LED bulbs have got errors showing up. I just want my drl's throwing white light and not the amber coloured one. The OE bulbs are specified as PY21WSLL (with 'y' standing for yellow). Are there P21W bulbs which wont interfere with the canbus? Or are anticanbus leds the only way to go? Im really not keen on using load resistors.

Edited 29 January, 201214 yr by vinj14

Are superbs more tolerant to drl bulb changes than the 2011 octys? Because all my friends who have tried these LED bulbs have got errors showing up. I just want my drl's throwing white light and not the amber coloured one. The OE bulbs are specified as PY21WSLL (with 'y' standing for yellow). Are there P21W bulbs which wont interfere with the canbus? Or are anticanbus leds the only way to go? Im really not keen on using load resistors.

I myself donnot have canbus bulbs, have normal led bulbs with in-the-back-parallel 5w bulb

Something many have done. ( have also this method on my rear reverse led lights)

Update time, the LED's fitted in the 2nd photo below had started to fail and they looked pants .... in fact they were barely noticeable in broad daylight so it was time for a change:

Ist set and these are awful IMO

MTEC XENON SUPER WHITE (Chrome Style) NATURAL GLASS 382 P21w 12v Bulbs - despite their name there is a fair bit of blue tint to them, (the Mtec is on the left of the picture and the OE bulb on the right):

To the LED's which were much better but after 18 months were failing

For comparison, this is what these LED's are like:

To my current ones, which were not cheap but hopefully a lot better

CREE Q5 382 1156 BA15S LED BULB 9.5W 450 LUMENS

Now bear in mind these were taken in direct (very bright) sunlight, whereas the other photo's were taken on an overcast day, so they do appear MUCH brighter

Gizmo,

How about a couple of these attached to the front corners...

Seriously, if nobody gets any errors then I may invest in a pair, although I have read a number of posts from people with MY12 cars having problems finding suitable LEDs.

Simon

Simon, that's about on par with my Solus LED dive light, albeit mine is waterproof to 100m

So far I have no errors, but I have not driven the car yet with them on, however the car does do it's bulb check without issues, mine is a MY11 though.