Hi,

The reversing lights (and rear fog) on my 2020 Superb scout (similar to most 2019 and later Superb wagons) are much weaker than my last superb,

I've read the posts on the forum about upgrading but they all seeem to deal with the pre 2019 model without the integrated LEDs

has anybody found a way to upgrade or improve them?

 

Or added another rear light?

thanks

They’re sealed lamp units with no bulbs to change, regarding adding a secondary rear lamp this will be a bit awkward and require a canbus/linbus decoder most likely as the signals sent to the lamp are logic level voltages and not physically switching anything so can’t be used for relays without some kind of interface.

Thanks ApertureS, thats what I thought, just hoping someone had found a way

The rear fogs should be fine as they will meet whatever regs they need to.

 

As for the reverse lights, they are only there to let others know you're reversing, not to light up the path for you to see.

 

If there are spare outputs on the BCM, you can probably add an extra light and reconfigure it. Otherwise, maybe a reversing camera will help?

Presumably it's not possible to get at the +ve and -ve feeds to the LED's and run another LED in parallel?  I'm guessing the BCM would flag an error?

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

Presumably it's not possible to get at the +ve and -ve feeds to the LED's and run another LED in parallel?  I'm guessing the BCM would flag an error?

You’d also risk blowing the circuit by putting more current through it than it’s designed for. Not a cheap mistake to make 

43 minutes ago, ApertureS said:

You’d also risk blowing the circuit by putting more current through it than it’s designed for. Not a cheap mistake to make 

 

Figured not butalso figured it was worth asking  😉 

15 hours ago, ApertureS said:

You’d also risk blowing the circuit by putting more current through it than it’s designed for. Not a cheap mistake to make 

Use the existing LED +ve to switch a relay or transistor that drives the extra LED, take power from the 12V supply.

8 hours ago, D402 said:

Use the existing LED +ve to switch a relay or transistor that drives the extra LED, take power from the 12V supply.

You wouldn’t be able to switch a relay as it would only be 1v or a little more. You would have to go through a transistor then through a relay to either a 12v lamp unit or make your own led board and have it’s own voltage regulator and such.

 

And you’ll have to crack open a very tightly sealed expensive unit and that would be a fairly risky thing to do in my opinion.

On 13/07/2022 at 19:15, langers2k said:

The rear fogs should be fine as they will meet whatever regs they need to.

 

As for the reverse lights, they are only there to let others know you're reversing, not to light up the path for you to see.

 

If there are spare outputs on the BCM, you can probably add an extra light and reconfigure it. Otherwise, maybe a reversing camera will help?

Thanks, Meeting regs and being what I want or need can be 2 different things, I have a reversing camera but it's still too dark to really see, It's annoying for me that they've gone to a "let others know" reverse light, I liked the older system which actually provided a useful amount of rear light, 

I switch on the hazards as I reverse, which intermittently doubles the amount of light shining at the back!

3 hours ago, StephenCarter said:

I switch on the hazards as I reverse, which intermittently doubles the amount of light shining at the back!

Not a bad idea! thanks

I've been known to use fog lights for the same purpose. But I will also be adding some work lights under the bumper at some point with a switch in the centre console or via the BCM (probably the former) These are really common here on taxis: https://www.lumise.fi/tyovalot/luminalights-slim-18w-led-tyovalo/p/2020120008/

On 13/07/2022 at 10:45, langers2k said:

The rear fogs should be fine as they will meet whatever regs they need to.

 

As for the reverse lights, they are only there to let others know you're reversing, not to light up the path for you to see.

 

If there are spare outputs on the BCM, you can probably add an extra light and reconfigure it. Otherwise, maybe a reversing camera will help?

I completely missed this comment about bcm outputs. 
 

it’s actually a really good idea and not sure if it would work in practice.

 

This is all experimental but if you found a unused Leuchte channel in the bcm and knew what you were doing you could set it to a reverse output and for a 12v unmanaged output - run this output through a relay and run a lamp at the rear off of it.

it will need to be set to unmanaged else it will monitor current and bring up a lamp fault on the dash.

 

again this is all theory and not sure if anyone has actually done it but I don’t see why it couldn’t be set to a 12v 100% pwm output on reverse sensing all through the cars integrated systems.

it's been done for front high beam driving lights on a regular basis over here.