Does my Octavia have Canbus?

[Curvy]

I'm about to replace the Stream unit in my car - 2006 1.6 FSI elegance estate - with a Hizpo satnav/media player .

 

Some of the wiring options depend on whether the vehicle is fitted with Canbus. Could anyone please advise me whether my car is fitted or how I could find out please?

 

Can anyone link me to a trim I could fit to make it all sit nice and neat? The unit I've bought is here . . . 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HZ92PBU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_ZsY2jkgbhHMts

 

Many thanks :-)

 

[Tilt]

Remove a bulb..................see if you get a warning light.

[langers2k]

@Curvy - all MK2 Octavia's are CAN-bus based. It's important for a headunit as there is a CAN bus message to turn it on/off rather than a dedicated switched live wire. Some headunits are compatible with CAN bus where are others will need an adaptor to create the switched live from the CAN bus messages.

 

47 minutes ago, Tilt said:

Remove a bulb..................see if you get a warning light.

 

@Tilt - that test does nothing apart from show if a car has bulb monitoring on the bulb you've removed. Bulb monitoring does not require CAN bus nor are any bulbs 'CAN bus friendly'.

[Curvy]

@langers2k Many thanks for your help.

[AndyD345]

From what I've read if you upgrade the radio you need to upgrade the CAN gateway or you get battery drain. I'm not up to speed on the exact details but I do have one of the upgraded / updated CAN gateway's ending in a "L" part number. If you need it get in touch.

[Tilt]

A little confused now then................does the lighting system communicate via the CAN bus system, or not???

 

Some say yes whilst some say no (hid planet) and why are there loads of references to CAN bus friendly / compatible bulbs???

And why did i need CAN bus compatible bulbs to work without bulb out warning, in my sidelights???

 

Seems a lot of people may need educating on this....

[langers2k]

12 minutes ago, Tilt said:

A little confused now then................does the lighting system communicate via the CAN bus system, or not???

 

Some say yes whilst some say no (hid planet) and why are there loads of references to CAN bus friendly / compatible bulbs???

And why did i need CAN bus compatible bulbs to work without bulb out warning, in my sidelights???

 

Seems a lot of people may need educating on this....

 

For the sake of this, I'm assuming a MK2 FL Octavia. I'd expect other modern cars to use a pretty similar system although may use other terms for the lighting controller, on the pre-FL it's the CECM and on the FL it's a BCM.

 

The lighting system does not use CAN bus. A stock halogen bulb has no diagnostic or communication ability, it's literally a thin piece of wire that glows when it's hot wrapped in a glass capsule containing inert gas(es).

 

This bulb is connected to a chip inside the lighting controller which is able to monitor the current/voltage that the bulb is using. There are many standard automotive chips for doing this, for instance the VND5E050AK which is commonly destroyed when using aftermarket HID kits. There is a CPU inside the lighting controller that either monitors or communicates with the chip powering the bulb, when the software running on the CPU decides that a bulb is out of spec, it will send a message using CAN-bus. The instrument cluster reads this message and promptly warns the driver a bulb is bad.

 

As you can see, CAN-bus is only used to communicate between different modules in the car, the actual monitoring and decision making is done without any CAN-bus involvement.

 

Now on to aftermarket LED's.

 

An LED has very different characteristics to a halogen bulb. The chip powering the LED will see these differences and the software on the CPU will see it as an out of spec bulb, thus raising the bulb warning and sending a CAN-bus message to highlight the issue.

 

There are two ways to solve this, you can either reprogram the lighting controller to expect an LED or try and create an LED that mimics the characteristics of a halogen bulb.

 

A "CAN-bus friendly" LED will typically try and do the latter, the easiest/cheapest way to achieve this is to put a resistor inside the bulb. Depending how clever the chip in the lighting controller is, it might be enough to fool it into believing the bulb is fine. The downside of this method is that this resistor needs to dump excess energy in the form of heat. Some have gotten so hot they've melted bulb holders, light clusters and even managed to desolder components from the bulb itself!

 

On my Octavia, I've reprogrammed the BCM to expect LED's rather than halogen lighting. This means I can use quality "CAN-bus unfriendly" LED's and not worry about excess heat from unneeded resistors.

[keith1955]

10 hours ago, langers2k said:

 

For the sake of this, I'm assuming a MK2 FL Octavia. I'd expect other modern cars to use a pretty similar system although may use other terms for the lighting controller, on the pre-FL it's the CECM and on the FL it's a BCM.

 

The lighting system does not use CAN bus. A stock halogen bulb has no diagnostic or communication ability, it's literally a thin piece of wire that glows when it's hot wrapped in a glass capsule containing inert gas(es).

 

This bulb is connected to a chip inside the lighting controller which is able to monitor the current/voltage that the bulb is using. There are many standard automotive chips for doing this, for instance the VND5E050AK which is commonly destroyed when using aftermarket HID kits. There is a CPU inside the lighting controller that either monitors or communicates with the chip powering the bulb, when the software running on the CPU decides that a bulb is out of spec, it will send a message using CAN-bus. The instrument cluster reads this message and promptly warns the driver a bulb is bad.

 

As you can see, CAN-bus is only used to communicate between different modules in the car, the actual monitoring and decision making is done without any CAN-bus involvement.

 

Now on to aftermarket LED's.

 

An LED has very different characteristics to a halogen bulb. The chip powering the LED will see these differences and the software on the CPU will see it as an out of spec bulb, thus raising the bulb warning and sending a CAN-bus message to highlight the issue.

 

There are two ways to solve this, you can either reprogram the lighting controller to expect an LED or try and create an LED that mimics the characteristics of a halogen bulb.

 

A "CAN-bus friendly" LED will typically try and do the latter, the easiest/cheapest way to achieve this is to put a resistor inside the bulb. Depending how clever the chip in the lighting controller is, it might be enough to fool it into believing the bulb is fine. The downside of this method is that this resistor needs to dump excess energy in the form of heat. Some have gotten so hot they've melted bulb holders, light clusters and even managed to desolder components from the bulb itself!

 

On my Octavia, I've reprogrammed the BCM to expect LED's rather than halogen lighting. This means I can use quality "CAN-bus unfriendly" LED's and not worry about excess heat from unneeded resistors.

Hi there,.......   Can you remember how in VCDS you told the BCM to expect LED's please.

I am just about to put LED Stop/Tail and Indicators in, and I fear that I will get the warning light, but I have the VCDS system, just don't know where to look.

 

I have been lucky so far.   All Interior bulbs changed with no problems.   DRL's changed with no problems.    Front fogs have resistor packs to smooth out the cornering system as well, and stop the flicker.

I managed, (purely by luck) how to find the number plate light LED light warning in VCDS, and check it.     But I'm flummoxed when it comes to the items mentioned.

Thanks in advance if you can help please.

 

[langers2k]

10 minutes ago, keith1955 said:

Can you remember how in VCDS you told the BCM to expect LED's please. I am just about to put LED Stop/Tail and Indicators in, and I fear that I will get the warning light, but I have the VCDS system, just don't know where to look.

 

Unfortunately, it's not a change VCDS can make. You need to access the EEPROM directly to change the lighting configuration so something like VCP or ODIS-e is needed.

 

If you do get errors, head towards Norfolk and I should be able to help

[keith1955]

9 hours ago, langers2k said:

 

Unfortunately, it's not a change VCDS can make. You need to access the EEPROM directly to change the lighting configuration so something like VCP or ODIS-e is needed.

 

If you do get errors, head towards Norfolk and I should be able to help

 

Wow.   Thanks for the offer of help.      I will see what happens later today, and give you a yell and let you know what happens.  

A little trip up to Norfolk sounds like a good one anyway, so I will see what I can arrange with you possibly for next week or not long after or so.

 

Could you possibly Private Message me your location in Norfolk please, just so I can work out rough traveling times needed from Clacton on sea.  Ta.    ;-)

[Curvy]

Well . . . . I fitted the head unit yesterday and for the money it's a fab piece of kit. It came with a Canbus decoder, a little black plastic box that plugs into the wiring loom supplied.

 

It was an easy half hour job. I just need to order a fascia trim to cover the holes and we're done. 

 

It turns off with the key, so short of having a flat battery this morning when I go out, all is good in da hood!!

[Inza]

On 14/07/2017 at 07:47, Curvy said:

Well . . . . I fitted the head unit yesterday and for the money it's a fab piece of kit. It came with a Canbus decoder, a little black plastic box that plugs into the wiring loom supplied.

 

It was an easy half hour job. I just need to order a fascia trim to cover the holes and we're done. 

 

It turns off with the key, so short of having a flat battery this morning when I go out, all is good in da hood!!

Hi,

 

id like to know how you got on with the replacement? Any issues?

I'm thinking about doing it myself.

 

cheers:)