Error Free Number Plate LED Lighting - The CHEAP and easy way!

[Qwertypants]

Most of you probably know about this, but I've said I'll write up a quick guide for those who don't!

There are LED lights available with in-built resistors, but they are way overpriced. This is the way I do it, and It's extremely cheap. If you put LEDs in your number plate lights you will get an error message, and the lights will turn off after a few secs. You don't need to buy the overpriced bulbs with inbuilt resistors!!

What you need:
2x 39mm LED lights from Autobarn (example), any colour, fluoro green, white, whatever suits your fancy. ~8$ each.
2x 270ohm 1 watt resistors. (These are available from Jaycar for 49c each)
Soldering Iron + Wire
Optional: Shrink plastic stuff that you cut to shape of your resistor, and use heat (hairdryer) to fit. I did this just incase to protect the resistor from the LEDs heat.

I wrapped it around like so:



Yes my soldering sucks, but It still works

This is what the 8$ ones from Autobarn look like (blue):


Apologies for terrible pic quality!

If your bulbs are going out, double check your soldering. Get it as stable as possible. Also, you can solder the resistors onto the frames themselves, so you can swap the bulbs easy. I will be doing this next time.

---------- Post added at 01:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:07 AM ----------

ps - The 2 pics above have the bulbs in the correct orientation. Judge by the writing on the bulb casing, that is the correct placement.
If your LEDs don't work, just rotate and try again!

[Transporter]

Nice write up.

[kamold]

Good work. I've done a similar ghetto job on mine as I was getting sick of the warning every time the headlights came on.
I used lower resistance resistors though, which I think I will change. I used 22ohm 5w which I think over time will probably generate too much heat when next to the SMD LEDs as well.

Think I'll take them out and use similar high resitance ones as you have.

Will likely keep soldering them to the globes and have some spares if required as its pretty hard to heat up the OEM contacts enough to get the solder to flow...

[Cranks]

Cheers m8!

[thezoneR32]

I bought some white led's from jaycar and they looked like sh&t. The tuner dome ones are hyper white like xenon's and dont throw any codes. $29 isnt that dear for a plu'n'play led that looks good. imo

[JimmyH]

I bought some white led's from jaycar and they looked like sh&t. The tuner dome ones are hyper white like xenon's and dont throw any codes. $29 isnt that dear for a plu'n'play led that looks good. imo

Where did you get the tunerdome ones? According to their website, the dont ship internationally for orders under $100

[kamold]

As far as I can make out there are no available LEDs that are error free with the newer BCMs. Even the vw OEM LEDs will throw an error without correct revision and coding of the BCM.

You need to modify byte 18 of central electrics (the body control module) which is 'protected' now by vw and has been seen to be damaged by incorrect coding.

So on newer cars adding resistors in serial is the only way to eliminate the bulb out warnings.

[benough]

I used lower resistance resistors though, which I think I will change. I used 22ohm 5w which I think over time will probably generate too much heat when next to the SMD LEDs as well.

Are these the ones in a white box? I got some 5W onces from Jaycar and they were so big they wouldn't fit in the cavity...

[kamold]

Yeah the white ceramic ones. I located them up above the LEDs into the bumper.

[benough]

So you took the whole lamp housing out?

I thought of something where you could wire it lower to get some airflow over it.