LED Reverse lights

[kiwijohn]

Hi all,
I was never happy with the reverse lights on my 2012 Octavia wagon. Today I swapped the bulbs for some LEDs from Jaycar, still waiting for it to get dark to see if they're brighter.
Trouble is it's now telling me to check my reverse lights & a light is on in the dash.
I thought it'd be a simple swap or is there more to it?
Cheers KJ

[Smart1]

Yes there is a bit more to it. Because of the low current draw of the LED's the cars diagnostics think the lamps have blown. You need to use VCDS to tell the car it's using LED's and the problem will go away.

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[kiwijohn]

Thanks for that. I'll see if they're any brighter when it's dark. If they're not I'll swap them back. Hope Jaycar does returns, glad I didn't get the really expensive ones.

[Mysticality]

The really expensive ones may have resistors in them to simulate the same load as an incandescent globe. Ask the Jaycar sales guys to clarify.
You unfortunately cannot change the BCM to see LED reversing lights.
Best bet is something big and chunky off eBay that specifies a wattage (21w or so)

[kiwijohn]

Thanks for that.
They're certainly brighter than standard, but I better take them back while I can.
I also replaced the interior lights with led, heaps brighter now.

[LunchboxVRS]

I got the Philips bulbs and I can confirm they don't bring a fault. They aren't the ones that come with the seperate load resisters though.
They don't have them on power bulbs anymore but there still on eBay.
I found changing to led number plate lights helped better to see with the reverse camera at night. They will need coding.

[kiwijohn]

The Jaycar bulbs say they're canbus compatible & shouldn't give a fault code. I'll look for some Philips ones I think.

[LunchboxVRS]

There some funking things that can go on with putting in led lights.

The build date can have a difference. Different software in the bcm and other control modules.
Sometimes when you put it one light and the compare with a normal will cause a fault so you take it out but if you changed both it may work.
I know some guys with early build 5E didn't need to code led number plate lights but I did. They had to use resister for reverse lights but I didn't.
It's almost a science at times.
My polo gti (2013) needed Philips error free interior lights or it caused a fault and the boot needed a resister full stop. My vrs took any interior light be it from super skoda or Philips including the boot. The super skoda mirror lights didn't cause a fault on mine but they did for others Iv seen on YouTube.

[kiwijohn]

My Nov 2011 build alternated which reverse light was out.
The Jaycar interior festoon LED bulbs are plenty bright, but the cheap T10 wedge bulbs are carp. The boot ones are worse than the bonus ones I got with the Philips Vision Extreme headlight bulbs.