Driver's side reverse light. Anyone connected it?

[Newkidontheblok]

The LED strip lights were a quick install. 20 minutes. However, without a trailer connected, I'm getting the warning light for a blown bulb. The CANbus is polling the wiring, detecting the reversing lights but not finding the rest of the trailer lights is my guess. With a trailer on tow, no problem.
The lights are not bad, but my son in law went one better and installed some King's 4 LED reversing lights. Angled out slightly on both sides, they're perfectly set up for viewing farm gates in the dark. One of the perks of being a heavy vehicle mechanic I suppose is having this sort of kit 'just laying around so I used it'.

[Peter Jones]

Wiring them like that you will have also disabled your off road mode button. Better off to wire them to the tail light or the interface plug under the dash.

[Dinogzav]

Wiring them like that you will have also disabled your off road mode button. Better off to wire them to the tail light or the interface plug under the dash.

What Peter said. He is a guru and used to (maybe still does?) make pigtail looms for such accessories. As I said Net4x4 has some nice options. I have no affiliation with him but his products are generally very good quality.

[Peter Jones]

What Peter said. He is a guru and used to (maybe still does?) make pigtail looms for such accessories. As I said Net4x4 has some nice options. I have no affiliation with him but his products are generally very good quality.

Yep, still making looms. Brake controller looms are keeping me busy at the moment. Everybody is towing vans!
Getting quite a few requests for the ALKO ESC anderson plug setups too now.
Haven't made any spot light looms for a while, guess VW finally fixed the headlights!
Pragmatic Racing - VW Amarok and Motorsport Electrical Looms is my website.

[Newkidontheblok]

The LED strip lights worked a treat BUT the CANBUS doesn't like the fact that reversing lights ping and other trailer lights don't when you don't have a trailer connected. When a trailer is on, the warning light for lamp failure goes out. Otherwise, it's on.
I'm going to try some resistors connected across the other lights to simulate a load to trick the ECU into sensing trailer lights that don't exist.

[zerofunds]

I teed off the reverse light bulb wiring and ran a cable to the park bulb, there is a red lens cover in the light you need to remove. Works perfect and I can see down my drive at night now.

[Newkidontheblok]

Hmm.
Still getting that Lamp Failure light on the dash after connecting my reversing lights through the trailer connector. Tried a resistor shunt to simulate higher current draw but didn't have the desired value resistor in my box of spares. Ideally, a 6 ohm/5 watt resistor would simulate the average incandescent bulb.
However, NET 4x4 have a $49 kit that involves splicing into the wiring loom on passenger side where the reversing light is, and looping some flexi conduit and wiring to the driver's side and connecting up to the fog light. Kit includes matching pair of white LED's. Just like zero funds solution.

[Newkidontheblok]

Fixed it myself without spending $45 on a kit.
Resistors and relays running through the trailer harness still resulted in a Lamp Failure condition.

Instead of wiring from the trailer harness, I wired my additional strip lights straight off the reversing light wire. If you are going to mount higher wattage LED's, like the Kings reversing lights, you may want to run this set up through a relay as the increased current draw may trip an error condition.


Remove tail lamp. After removing the two screws, bump it to the left with the palm of your hand to release it.


Wire on far right is reverse


Strip wire and connect. Or use an auto elecky's quick connect crimp to join two wires without soldering.


solder


Tape and route wire through harness clips


With vehicle in reverse, check lights


There should be no error conditions. The Lamp Failure light would appear here.

There you have it. In reverse, lights on both sides, no error conditions. The LED's don't draw enough current to trip an alarms.

[Newkidontheblok]

Update.
Problem: Wiring the reversing lights into the trailer socket wiring triggers an error condition for lamp failure when you don't have a trailer in tow.
Solution: Knock out the passenger's side tail light assembly, solder a wire onto the parking lights, and run that down to your LED's. Not enough current draw to trigger any errors.
Testing: Had one lamp failure error since doing that and it was only temporary - went on when signalling to overtake but it reset on the next start.