MK2 Tiguan LED tail lights + US TO EU coding

[Evaldas]

Good evening guys,

Recently I bought `18 Tiguan Allspace SEL premium from copart auction. Currently it`s on its way to europe. Couple days ago I bought euro style led tail lights, since its different style to US I would like to know if someone attempted to code them to euro spec, also how to code in fog light. Also does connectors is needed to be changed on these lights?

[DV52]

@Evaldas: Hi and a warm welcome to the forum!

I'm absolutely certain that this retrofit has been done in the past - but I'm fairly sure that it has not been done by an Australian because our cars have the steering wheel on the right (meaning "correct") side of the car!

So, with this caveat and with my acknowledgement that replies from others might contradict my words (in which case, ignore my words) - I provide the following high-level points for your consideration (purely for the new rear fog-light):

1. Factory build: From your picture, I'm guessing that this car was factory built with LED tail-lights. If so, the retrofit will be much easier than if this was NOT the case! This is because if this car was factory built with incandescent tail-lights - there will fewer wires in the factory loom from the controlling module (which lives at address 09 on the CAN network) to the tail-light connectors. Hence retrofitting LED tail-lights to cars with factory fitted incandescent tails require more coding work as well as the installation of something called a "cross-wiring harness"!
2. Rear fog-light wires: Because North America Region (NAR) cars do not have a rear fog-light, there will NOT be a wire in the factory tail-light loom for this lamp. So, you need to decide how to manage this deficiency -read my later Notes below.
3. Rear fog-light switch: Of course the factory light-switch on the dash will NOT have a rear fog-light position. So, the light-switch will need to be replaced with a "Euro" version !
4. Coding: The 09 module will need to be told to start operating a rear fog-light. The coding changes will need to include instructions that tell the module about the new Euro light-switch and coding that activates the "Leuchte-set" (explained in Notes below) for the new rear fog-light lamp.
5. Diagnostic device: Both VCDS and OBDeleven can be used for coding changes - but given that you are from Lithuania, I'm guessing that OBD11 is your weapon of choice!
6. New LED tail-light fittings: To borrow a very apt sentence from the "Yankee" Declaration of Independence, not all LED tail-lights are created equal! You don't identify the manufacturer of the new tail-lights - but if the fittings are not true OEM, then I suggest that marketing words on web-pages like "plug-and-play" be ignored! Fact is that some third-party tail-lights are better than others!!

Notes:

• For 2. above: you can install a new wire from the rear fog-light lamp to the 09 module as shown below. In my picture below - the 09 module is called "BCM" & "J519". Or, you can de-pin the tail-light connector and repurpose an existing wire on the tail-light fitting for the rear fog-light. This option will necessitate the installation of a new wire from the same function-lamp on the tail-light fitting on the other car-side to supply power to the lamp that was disconnected by the de-pinning process
• For 4. above: Not specifically a rear fog-light matter - but are you sure that the NAR tail-lights have separate turn-signals (it's not clear to me from the view on your picture)? As you will understand, Australians don't see many NAR models - but it is almost certain that the brake-lights on this "Yankee" Tiggy will also operate as turn-signal lamps. If this is the case, more wiring/coding work will be required to transform the turn-signal function from the NAR arrangement to the EU set-up
• Leuchte-sets live in the 09 module and they are groups of 19 x adaptation channels that start with the name "Leuchte". Each of the 35 x exterior lights on this car is operated by its-own individual Leuchte-set - so there are 35 x separate Leuchte-sets in the 09 module resulting in 19 x 35 = 665 Leuchte channels

Don