# My story on how to retrofit facelift led-drl bi-xenon headlights into an older Phaeton



## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

This is now - finally - the full report on my project of installing the GP2 (Bi-xenon, LED DRL) headlights into my GP0 Phaeton. This surely was a project with sweat, tears and lots of money spent. But all's well that ends well. First, lets look at how the car looks today: 


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Looks much nicer now, I think! But what did it take? First, the mechanical part, not that complicated: 

- First, I sourced the headlights. Got them used from Poland for about 600 euros a pair. These were complete, with all controllers and stuff and in mint condition. I bought them nearly two years ago, so this was quite a time consuming project… 

- Next, there is a minor compatibility issue with the air box. The air box used on V6TDI on models up to 2008 does not have enough clearance for the facelift headlights. The difference is REALLY small, so I guess you could modify the older air box to fit. Yet I ended up buying a new air box. This was about 200 euros if my mind serves me right. Peanuts in this project, as you will see… I am not sure, but think that the air boxes on other models than V6TDI do not need modifications. 

- The headlight connectors. The original lamps have 10-pin connectors, whereas the facelift headlights have 14-pin. You need to make an adapter (alternatively, change the connectors on either end). But this is NOT as simple as soldering an adapter out of a few wires, so hang on! 

Then, the wiring for "basic" functions: 

- The facelift headlights have the LED DRLs, for which there is a separate controller inside the headlight. The controller takes charge of driving the LEDs with proper current. The LEDs have two brightness levels: one for the actual DRL and a dimmed mode for acting as parking/corner light. The controller takes two positive inputs; one is +12V for the parking light, the other is +12V Accessory. Both signals are available from the 10-pin connector so no need to route any new wires. When you turn on the ignition, +12V ACC feed turns on the DRLs. Once you turn the light switch to parking lights or headlights on position, the +12V feed for parking light will trigger the LED controller to dim the led ribbon. No problem here. There's just one minor annonyance: bulb failure monitoring. The led lights do not consume enough power and the car will report a failed parking light bulb. This can be fixed by adding power resistors (in my setup they consume 3.5 watts each) in series with the LED controller (needs to be done on both sides). 

- The blinkers in the original lights are powered by a separate 2-pin connector going from the vehicle's wiring loom to the blinker bulb directly. You will need to reroute the positive blinker wire to the 14-pin connector instead 

- The bi-xenon system of the new headlight has one single light source. The main beam is generated by moving a solenoid-operated, partially blocking shutter inside the beam unit aside so that it exposes the whole beam pattern. You need to use the low-beam +12V supply lead to power the xenon bulb (via the ballasts, of course). Then, you will use the high beam wire to operate the shutter. This works pretty well as the low beams are normally powered together with high beams. (when you have low beams on and switch on the high beams!) But here's an issue that needs to be tackled: the high beam +12V is supplied by the onboard supply controller. It has bulb failure monitoring. The shutter solenoid uses very little power, and this causes the supply controller to report bulb failure. This can be fixed by adding a fairly large resistor (i used a 35W load). This resistor needs to sink a lot of power (read: generates a lot of heat). I screwed it on to the front bumper substructure. Here are the two resistors in place: 


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- Another issue with the bi-xenon setup is how to get the high-beam flash to work. (I mean the possibility to flash the high beams even when you don't have the low beams on). The problem here is, that the new headlights use the high beam +12V signal only to move the shutter. This presupposes that the low beams are on, powering the xenon bulb. This is not the case when you're using the main beam flash while the low beams are off. It took me a while to come up with the simplest solution, but there is one: you will need to add a single pole double throw relay which can well be a part of the "connector adapter" between the headlight and the car's wiring loom. The relay has a pretty simple function: you use the low beam trigger to power the relay's coil. The common pole goes to the xenon ballast of the headlight. The normally open pole goes to the low beam +12V. The normally closed pole goes to high beam +12V. This simple wiring does the trick. Whenever the low beams are on, the relay is pulling and the xenon bulb is powered by the low beam +12V. The +12V remains even if you switch on the main beam. Whenever the low beams are off, the relay is not pulling. The xenon ballast is wired via the normally closed pole to the +12V for high beam. Now, the high beam flash works as intended. If you're really smart, you have realized that in this case there is kind-of too much load on the +12V for high beams: there is the power resistor "emulating" the high beam and now (in the flash mode while low beams are off) the xenon is also powered via this same wire. This should not cause a problem and definitely does not burn a fuse. 

The wiring adapter I made ended up looking like this: 


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A true shady tree mechanic would get the headlights working seemingly OK by doing what I explained above and settle for it. Everything except the dynamic headlight functions would work. Yet this would be illegal setup as the automatic headlight range control is inactive. And it is now, going from this point forward, when things get really complicated… 

My initial goal was to get ALL advanced functionality of the new headlights to work. This includes: 
- automatic headlight range control (this is a legal requirement for all HIDs in Europe) 
- dynamic curve light (the "swiveling" xenon beam) 
- passive curve light (the extra halogen bulbs on both lamps, pointing to the side of the road and activated in tight turns) 

It is here where there are fundamental differences between the old and the new headlights. 

The original headlights have a single controller per headlight. Both are separately accessible with VCDS via the convenience CAN BUS. The left headlight is controller #29 and the right is #39. The controllers have all integrated: the ballasts for the xenon bulbs, the logic for headlight range control, the diagnostic interface, everything… They also have dedicated communication (single wire) with the suspension controller unit, where they get the information from suspension angle sensors. The left and right controllers are completely independent of each other. You can see this driving a Phaeton as you look the headlights moving when you brake harder to a standstill: the lamps do not adjust in a totally synchronized fashion. In a Phaeton with the older dual xenon setup (with two xenon bulbs on each side) there are two controllers, but the high beam controller is "dumb" and is only responsible for powering the xenon bulb. There are no other headlight related controllers in the car. 

The facelifted headlights are a completely different story. First, the headlights themselves incorporate FIVE controllers (not actual "brain boxes" but separate modules with semiconductor components, anyway): 

- LED/DRL controller (as discussed above) 
- Shutter controller (a small circuit board converting +12V to a lower voltage used to drive the shutter coil) 
- Swivel controller (built in to the beam unit, drives the left/right servo and reports the beam angle to main controller) 
- Xenon ballast: this is a "dumb" unit, takes in +12V and pumps out a hazardous voltage 
- the main controller (the actual brain) 

All of these are wired together inside the headlight. There is quite a lot of wiring and connectors in there. 

The problem with retrofit is, that the new headlights are not "stand alone". They do not talk to the suspension controller, neither do they support direct diagnosis via CAN BUS. Headlight controllers from both sides are to be networked (in a "private" single wire CAN network) to a controller called "AFS2 headlight control unit". It is a small box which resides inside the rear parcel shelf ("avionics compartment", is what Michael uses to call it, right?). There is no need to place it in there - it could reside anywhere in the car where it would have the 1-wire connection with both headlights and would tap into the drivetrain CAN BUS. 

So, in my quest for the fully working setup I of course purchased the AFS2 controller. Got the first type, no dice, bought a second one, then a third of a slightly different type… No luck. There was a separate thread (way back in April 2011!) where I got professional help for my attempts to get the AFS2 controller (CAN BUS controller #55) paired with my Phaeton. The thread is here: 

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...er-Controller-Retrofits-or-Controller-Removal 

It just would not work. I tried EVERYTHING. Three different AFS2 controllers. Tried to set up a separate CAN Gateway (three different boxes, actually) and get it to talk with the controller. In despair I even bought a used instrument cluster from a face lifted model and actually installed it into my GP0 car! (can you imagine it did not work?!?) I won't even count, but I spent tens of hours and hundreds of euros for parts in my attempt to get this to work. 

Unfortunately, the conclusion is that the CAN gateway of the GP0 Phaeton does not recognize controller at address #55 no matter what. Its firmware says that the headlights are #29 and #39. The nasty thing is, that the CAN gateway is built in to the instrument cluster. There is no information whatsoever on making any changes to the gateway firmware. It seems like a dead end. 

The only strategy further would have been to come up with a CAN BUS router capable of translating the controller address from #55 to something else that would work with the CAN gateway and then just hope that the AFS2 controller is mostly "piggybacking" the bus and not relying on getting messages addressed directly to it (or the gateway should be intelligent enough to reroute both directions). I did, in fact, look at two possibilities for custom programming such a gateway using specialist CAN BUS development kits but what ultimately discouraged me from taking this route was the fact that the transmission protocol used, called TP1.6 (yes it was still TP1.6 on the facelift!) is VW proprietary and not documented anywhere to the public. The CAN BUS engineers I spoke with suspected that this could be VERY complex undertaking. 

So, by this time I had spent more than a year for my project. And had perhaps a dozen controller boxes of all sorts, bought merely for testing, laying around. Fortunately I got to source most of them pretty inexpensively, mainly from Poland. I called it a day and decided that I would settle for the automatic headlight range control (as it is required by the law). 

It was a sad day when I used my pretty advanced test rig setup on my garage desk for the last time. There were the headlights, in full working order, a working AFS2 controller and a fully working instrument cluster from a face lifted Phaeton "in life support". So I had all the components in place and talking with each other. Unfortunately it was not my car's instrument cluster. For the last time I watched the xenon beams "dance" from up to down, sweep from left to right and then back up. I powered off my test rig and… …permanently glued the headlights beam units into "straight ahead" position by applying some Sikaflex urethane sealant in there… :-( A sad day that was! 

Now it was a good time to let the project rest for perhaps half a year. Fast forward to last Tuesday. It was time to get them installed in my car. 

NOTE: if any of you have the courage and perseverance to explore further on the possibility of retrofitting the AFS2 controller, I would be most pleased to assist with any information I may have. And do remember that if ever you need parts for your test rig, I have plenty to spare  From this point on, my retrofit story is "less ambitious". 

The issue remaining was, how to get the automatic headlight range control working with the new headlights. There is really just one way: you need to transplant the old controllers to the new headlights. Here we have an issue with the fitment. The controller from the old headlight is a single, chunky box of aluminum. It is sitting in a recess at the bottom of the old headlights. In the new headlights, there are two small control boxes, a black plastic one for the main controller and a small aluminum one for the xenon ballast. Both are installed on the xenon bulb opening cover. And there is no recess at the bottom of the headlight to install the chunky old controller into. 

Tools needed: a fine toothed saw, metal scissors, a sheet of thin aluminum, aluminum staples, some more Sikaflex urethane sealant. I guess the photos are pretty self-explanatory… I cut away most of the cover material and fabricated a new mount for the controller from aluminum: 


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Finished the seams with some Sikaflex and this is how it looked all put together: 


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This surely wasn't the most elegant way to retrofit the controller. The controller is now "sort of" permanently glued to the back cover. The back cover is mounted to the headlight body using the original screws, it is not glued in any way. Should the headlight controller ever fail and need replacement, separating it from the back cover will take some time… But I felt that the generous use of Sikaflex sealant was justified, as it is not nice if the seams let in the water and you get a pretty moist headlight then… 

There is VERY little clearance behind the headlights. I had to test fit the headlights several times and cut away more and more of the back cover material to make the controllers sit in "deeper" in the headlight. There was also some issues with getting the two connectors of the controller accessible from inside the headlight. But, in the end, they fit well. 

Last, but not least, there is a need to do some serious modifications to the internal wiring of the headlights: I had now tossed away two controllers and replaced them with a single one. There were literally a handful of now useless connectors inside the headlight. And even though one of the remaining connectors fits the headlight connector, the wiring was all wrong… 

A good thing is, that the vertical adjustment stepper motor is identical on the old and the new lamps, so it can stay in place. The wiring to the controller is, however, totally different… I took a kind of shortcut here, being tired and anxious to get all in place. I simply cut out a part of the wiring loom from my old headlights (rendering them unusable, but I was not going to give up on this project now, anyway!). 

This sorted out the wiring between the controller and the servo. All the other wires going to the 14-pin connector at the headlight needed to be rewired. Here you have to be creative as you will need to re-use the can-bus wiring for different purposes (instead of can-hi and can-low signals you now have separate signal wires for DIAG, suspension controller and so on…). You can pretty much do the wiring in any way you like, as long as you take this into account at the separate 14pin to 10pin adapter you plug between the headlight and the car's wiring loom. 

One COULD pull out the 14-pin male connector from the new headlight and replace it with the 10-pin connector you could steal from the original headlamp. It is not easy to get off either of the connectors from the headlights (they are sort of permanently clipped on) and I had already bought the necessary connector adapters. (in fact it was a xenon retrofit kit for Audi A8 by Kufatec which had just the right connectors. It did not cost too much and was good for parts). 

I guess you got my point, but to make sure: the goal is to reduplicate the original wiring between the xenon ballast/controller connector and the 10-pin connector of the car. You will do this by rewiring the headlight internals and the 14pin to 10pin adapter in any way you like, as long as the signal wires at the controller and 10-pin connector match. This was a relatively simple soldering task, yet you need to remain cautious at all times to get it right. A proper factory wiring diagram (of both the old and the new headlight wiring) was of great assistance. 

This is what the rewired internals looked like: 


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Yes, I did solder the wires together. Crimp connectors do not fit in there and I was simply too tired to detach and reposition all pins on all connectors. I hope the solderings last… 

FINALLY it was time for the easy part: with all these preparations done, it was time to install the headlights into the car. This was - at this stage - a plug and play exercise. The process is explained in many earlier posts (on dual xenon retrofit, for example) that I won't bother here. As you surely guessed, everything works perfectly. No bulb out warnings, nothing. There is just this slight feeling of incompetence in my head. I guess I will never get over the fact that I gave up on the adaptive/swiveling lights. 

End of story. I have not included part numbers, exact wiring diagrams and such. I hope this post will give you an idea of what needs to be sourced and done. I would be glad to add details if anyone's interested. 

Personally, had I understood the complexity of this retrofit project beforehand, I probably would not have bothered. To give you an idea, the last "stage" of this project, which I undertook this week, consisted of simply doing the modifications I had planned and pretty much tested beforehand (and which you can read from my story above) and installing the new lamps to the car. I count, hmm, about 25 intensive working hours. 

Jouko


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## tomasty (May 24, 2011)

What a great job!


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## wouterjansen60 (Aug 27, 2011)

Wow, what a work, but well done Jouko, thx for the extensive description. 
Wouter


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## Itzmann (Jan 16, 2006)

Jouko, 

No-one has undertaken modifications as sophisticated as yours. :thumbup: 

Much admiration here.


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## perfrej (Dec 24, 2009)

Oh my! 

That was quite a story! If I were to undertake this I would probably find that there is no room in a W12  

/p


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## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

Thanks for the comments, guys! 



> If I were to undertake this I would probably find that there is no room in a W12


 In a "next iteration" it would make sense to fit all modifications inside the facelift headlight, perhaps except for the load resistors. This way the retrofit would be pretty much plug and play and there would be nothing extra to find space for in the engine bay. One could also custom-fabricate "more professional" back opening covers to facilitate the older control units. As you could "carry over" almost all electronics from the original headlights, you could use "cheap" facelift assemblies with most of the control units ripped out of them. It certainly would be possible to come up with a simple "retrofit" kit with "guaranteed fitment". Anyone? ;-) 

Jouko


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## laser21 (Jan 25, 2012)

wow, that is a huge job you did!!! 

even without the curve light its amazing! 

thanks for the detailed story! 

Lukas


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## Expoman (May 15, 2011)

Jouko, 

That's quite a project, well done. 

Next time you have 25 hours to kill in SW France let me know......... 

Cheers, 
Steven


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## cata1569 (Jun 25, 2012)

*Jouko*

Nice job! 
Chrome parts of the fog lights are changed you? 
Cata.


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## WillemBal (Nov 20, 2010)

Excellent job, Jouko. Probably the W12 has even less space for installation of these face-lift headlights. 

Willem


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## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

> Chrome parts of the fog lights are changed you?


 Yep, the front end has been "facelifted" including the chrome trim bits. I might mention that adding the chrome bits is quite simple in fact: As I have understood, people have usually replaced the body-colored plastic trim pieces as a part of the installation (as the parts manual says you are supposed to). In my experience that is really not necessary. It was easier to use the old (painted) foglight trim pieces. You just cut out the part of the old foglight trim piece being replaced with the chrome piece, glue the old and the new part together with some Sikaflex (my favourite, as you know by now...). This way the only new parts you need are the three chromed pieces and the install is a 30-min job. No need to paint anything. 



> Probably the W12 has even less space for installation of these face-lift headlights.


 Possible. Although the facelift headlights are a same part for all engine types. The clearance issue was with the back cover of the headlight and the car's front fender. And there isn't a way to put much more than perhaps a few wires inbetween those two. There are a few wires in there in the V6TDI, they do not cause any issues. Don't know about W12. 

The issue with the "old type" V6TDI air box is, that it extends a bit too far to the side of the vehiche, towards the space occipied by the headlight. It is a question of one centimeter, at most. 

Jouko


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## jyoung8607 (Feb 14, 2006)

Amazing work! Makes me want to order a set. Like you, I'd be super disappointed to not get the cornering lights, but you still got a nice step forward. 

If you ran into ANY useful data on CAN-BUS interactions, I'd be interested. I have the VW SSPs, but they mainly talk about the electrical interfaces, and say virtually nothing about protocol-level information, about TP 1.6/2.0 or DDP or BAP. 

My "fun" project this winter will be a bunch of CAN-BUS reverse engineering on my Phaeton. I'm interested in a car computer project to replace the ancient-tech Infotainment center, but to even see if that's feasible, I have to figure out all the data flows between it and the entire rest of the car first. This task is somewhat related to what I do for a living, so I'm confident I can slog through it, but it'll still be a ton of laborious stimulus-response mapping. ANY docs out there would make it easier. The best I have is someone who figured out how to roll up the windows in his Jetta, which is actually kind of a good start. 

Jason


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## PGrace (Feb 1, 2012)

jyoung8607 said:


> Amazing work! Makes me want to order a set. Like you, I'd be super disappointed to not get the cornering lights, but you still got a nice step forward.
> 
> If you ran into ANY useful data on CAN-BUS interactions, I'd be interested. I have the VW SSPs, but they mainly talk about the electrical interfaces, and say virtually nothing about protocol-level information, about TP 1.6/2.0 or DDP or BAP.
> 
> ...


 Jason, you should start a unique thread for this request. Tied into this headlight thread will not get you the fullest exposure.


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## PGrace (Feb 1, 2012)

*Awesome job!*

Congrats on a tremendous retrofit project! 

I would caution you--My understanding is your HIDs are usually not on (not used as DRL) and that when you need to "flash" people during the daytime, you are flashing using your HIDs, from cold-start. 
If this is true, then you are using HIDs for something they can't do well, i.e., turn on from cold. They will not last long if used this way. That's why no car manufacturers use HIDs for this purpose. High beams in HID-equipped cars are always bi-xenon (always on) or a Halogen bulb (which has no problem starting up many times.) 
One solution is to not flash people with your brights. Another is to run the HIDs as DRLs, so they would always be hot (just the shutter would move). Third, be prepared to replace the ballasts frequently. 

Really cool setup though, I love your result.


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## snapdragon (Aug 8, 2006)

PGrace said:


> Congrats on a tremendous retrofit project!
> 
> I would caution you--My understanding is your HIDs are usually not on (not used as DRL) and that when you need to "flash" people during the daytime, you are flashing using your HIDs, from cold-start.
> If this is true, then you are using HIDs for something they can't do well, i.e., turn on from cold. They will not last long if used this way. That's why no car manufacturers use HIDs for this purpose. High beams in HID-equipped cars are always bi-xenon (always on) or a Halogen bulb (which has no problem starting up many times.)
> ...


 I have to correct you there, many manufacturers such as Mitsubishi use xenon for flashing and that is the only choice, also Audi A6, A8, Q7 of 2005 onwards. This doesn't seem to have any detrimental effect on running gear or luminaires despite what was always preached beforehand.


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## jyoung8607 (Feb 14, 2006)

PGrace said:


> Jason, you should start a unique thread for this request. Tied into this headlight thread will not get you the fullest exposure.


 I'm not really looking for full exposure. The topic has been covered in general before. I was asking Jouko if he turned up anything new and interesting in his CAN bus research. The problem he was trying to solve is similar to the one I'm working on. I mentioned my project for background, not to threadjack. 

Jason


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## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

> If you ran into ANY useful data on CAN-BUS interactions, I'd be interested. I have the VW SSPs, but they mainly talk about the electrical interfaces, and say virtually nothing about protocol-level information, about TP 1.6/2.0 or DDP or BAP.


 You got that right. The only "slightly more detailed" SSP is SSP269 linked here, but I am sure you were already familiar with that. There seem to be no protocol related information published by VW (not even to their dealer network) as it is not "needed" for normal repairs and maintenance. 

There are quite a few companies who seem to have a pretty good insight into automotive CAN BUS and are offering products & services for these kind of projects. Some that I have found: 

- EMS Dr. Thomas Wünsche (http://www.ems-wuensche.com/): can supply custom made hw & sw, including can bus routers but warned me about the manufacturer-specific protocols making things "substantially more complicated" 

- Kufatec (www.kufatec.de) are in aftermarket product business and really seem to have a good insight into the VAG protocols as they make can bus attached devices for nearly anything. Very competent tech support for anything they sell. 

- And of course Sebastian Stange (he's also active on this forum) from Ross-Tech, makers of VCDS. He even helped out my project here on this forum (there's an older thread somewhere) 



> many manufacturers such as Mitsubishi use xenon for flashing and that is the only choice, also Audi A6, A8, Q7 of 2005 onwards.


 That is correct. VW uses this very same setup in recent models. These include my EOS (hmm, it's not new anymore, from 2007) and the facelifted Phaeton. So this is the OEM setup with the newer headlights. Technically speaking, PGrace is right, but this does not seem to stop the manufacturers from rationalizing the number of components used... And yes, I am actively trying to improve my manners in traffic by avoiding flashing, honking and hand gestures...  

Jouko


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## cata1569 (Jun 25, 2012)

jkuisma said:


> Yep, the front end has been "facelifted" including the chrome trim bits. I might mention that adding the chrome bits is quite simple in fact: As I have understood, people have usually replaced the body-colored plastic trim pieces as a part of the installation (as the parts manual says you are supposed to). In my experience that is really not necessary. It was easier to use the old (painted) foglight trim pieces. You just cut out the part of the old foglight trim piece being replaced with the chrome piece, glue the old and the new part together with some Sikaflex (my favourite, as you know by now...). This way the only new parts you need are the three chromed pieces and the install is a 30-min job. No need to paint anything.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## CLMims (Jul 13, 2007)

Hi Jouko, 

Thanks for the excellent write-up on your retrofit! I had been following your earlier post (where you were trying to get the CAN Gateway to communicate with the AFS2), and was very interested to see how it would turn out; I was curious about the different types of controllers you tried - were they all part number *7L6 941 329 A* ? 

The reason I ask is because I had some luck getting a 2006 ROW Touareg Bluetooth module (Address #77) to work with my 2004 NAR Phaeton, and I was wondering if you might have tried an older, non-A-suffix controller, such as from a 2005 Touareg or 2006 Passat (which might have CAN TP 1.6 and still work with the headlight). 

Below is a cross-reference from ETKA for the controllers: 

Vehicles that use the newer AFS2 controller (part # *7L6 941 329 A*): 
2006 - 2011 VW Eos 
2008 - 2011 VW Passat/4Motion/Santana 
2008 - 2010 VW Phaeton 
2008 - 2011 Audi A5/S5 
2009 - ____ Audi Q5 
2007 - ____ Audi Q7 
2010 - ____ Audi RS5 

Vehicles that use the older AFS2 controller (part # *7L6 941 329*): 
2006 - 2007 VW Passat/4Motion/Santana 
2008 - 2008 VW Passat/4Motion/Santana 
2003 - 2005 VW Touareg 
2006 - 2007 VW Touareg 


I had thought about tackling this retrofit, but was considering trying to use the 2006 Touareg cornering-headlight controllers and (hopefully) connect them to the facelifted Phaeton headlight parts. Below is a comparison of the headlight parts (Phaeton-specific parts in red): 

Ballast for gas discharge lamp: 
2008 PHAETON = 4L0 907 397 (also used in 2006 Eos) 
2006 TOUAREG = 3D0 907 391 B 

Control unit for DRLs: 
2008 PHAETON = 3D0 907 397 
2006 TOUAREG = (N/A) 

Range control adjustment motor: 
2008 PHAETON = 3D0 941 295 
2006 TOUAREG = 3D0 941 295 

Power module for cornering light: 
2008 PHAETON = 7L6 941 329 A 
2006 TOUAREG = 7L6 941 329 

Gasket: 
2008 PHAETON = 3C0 941 119 A 
2006 TOUAREG = 3C0 941 119 A 

Retaining plate: 
2008 PHAETON = 3C0 941 405 
2006 TOUAREG = 3C0 941 405 

bulb holder for turn signal: 
2008 PHAETON = 8Z0 953 053 
2006 TOUAREG = 7L6 953 053 

halogen 'long life' bulb: 
2008 PHAETON = N 103 201 02 
2006 TOUAREG = N 103 201 02 

Gas-discharge bulb: 
2008 PHAETON = N 105 661 03 
2006 TOUAREG = N 105 661 03 

Control unit for cornering light: 
2008 PHAETON = 7L6 907 357 C 
2006 TOUAREG = 7L6 907 357 C 

Bracket for cornering ECU: 
2008 PHAETON = 3D0 959 497 
2006 TOUAREG = 7L6 907 462 A 


(Just additional food for thought if anyone wants to experiment!)


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## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

> I was curious about the different types of controllers you tried - were they all part number 7L6 941 329 A ?


 Your part number is for the control unit built into the headlight, you must mean 7L6 907 357 A, which is the actual can bus connected AFS2 controller from under rear parcel shelf? 

I have/had three different AFS2 controllers at hand for testing: 

7L6 907 357 A (from pre-facelift Touareg, never used in Phaeton) 
7L6 907 357 C (used in facelifted Phaeton and facelifted Touareg) 
5M0 907 357 B (from Passat/EOS, surely uses TP2.0, but is used in OEM setup with the same headlight controllers as in Phaeton - this box was a loaner from my EOS! ;-P) 

I did get all of these versions to "pair" with the headlight controllers and work OK in my "test bench", but none of them would pair with the car's CAN gateway and therefore show up in the drivetrain bus. 

I have NOT tested the older 7L6 907 357 (non-A-variant) controller. This is because the non-A variant was dropped and superseded with A-variant back in 2007. And then, the A variant was superseded with C back in 2008... This means that they sort of have to use the same protocol. As the non-A variant was never used in any car with the controllers built in the Phaeton headlights, I felt it was not worth the try to source a fourth box...  

It surely wouldn't hurt to try if anyone has access to the older box! 

Jouko


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## CLMims (Jul 13, 2007)

Hmm - I guess I was short-sighted on which parts could have different CAN versions! Is there a way to check the ECUs (cornering light, power supply module, etc.) to see if they have TP 1.6 or TP 2.0 (or is there a cross-reference table somewhere?) 

Apologies in advance if I'm totally missing the point, my CAN BUS knowledge is very weak! I was trying to take the approach that worked for me in the past, but perhaps there are too any pieces in the puzzle for a Touareg-to-Phaeton curving light retrofit to work. 

I know it's been discussed before on the attempted RNS850 retrofit, but what would be needed to "upgrade" a GP1 car to CAN 2.0 (or is this even possible?) I think you mentioned replacing the instrument cluster/CAN gateway, but this did not get the curving lights to work - I wonder what else needs to be swapped out.... 

By the way, I did a quick search on ebay.de for the non-suffixed part; just from looking at the Hardware version on the parts, it appears it "resets" with the suffix A parts, from H09 to H01 - could this indicate the switch from TP 1.6 to TP 2.0? 

Touareg non-suffix AFS2 ECU 
7L6 907 357 - *H09* - SX010 
7L6 907 357 - *H09* - SX015 

Touareg AFS2 ECU with suffix A 
7L6 907 357 A - *H01* - SX014 
7L6 907 357 A - *H02* - S0001 

Passat AFS2 ECU with suffix B 
5M0 907 357 B - *H01* - SX024 

Current Touareg/Phaeton AFS2 with suffix C 
7L6 907 357 C - *H04* - S0136


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## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

> I guess I was short-sighted on which parts could have different CAN versions!


 Not to worry! The key issue here that one needs to take to account is: 

In "old" Phaeton both headlights (the controllers inside them) are wired to the car's bus (actually not to the can bus, but to the OBD diagnostic port via K-line and to the suspension controller via a separate signal wire). So in the case of the "old" Phaeton the headlight controllers are "master" controllers but not actually part of the drivetrain can. 

In the "facelifted" model the headlights also have their internal controllers (that was the part 7L6 941 329 A) but both headlights are - in this case - coupled with a single-wire can bus to the AFS2 controller (7L6 907 357 A) under rear parcel shelf. 

In this setup, it is only the AFS2 controller which is then wired to the drivetrain can bus. The headlight controllers are "slave" controllers for the AFS2 box. Mating the "slave" controllers worked with all AFS2 controllers I tested, but none of the AFS2 boxes would pair with car's drivetrain can. 



> Is there a way to check the ECUs (cornering light, power supply module, etc.) to see if they have TP 1.6 or TP 2.0 (or is there a cross-reference table somewhere?)


 Therefore this is a "non-issue" if I may call it that. The bus between headlight controllers and AFS2 is "proprietary" and headlights cannot be connected to the drivetrain can directly (they usedifferent data rate and 1-wire topology as opposed to the faster 2-wire bus of the drivetrain). All the other components inside the headlights (except for the main controllers) are pretty "dumb" so they are not bus-interfaced even to the AFS2 controller but slaves of the headlight controller. 



> I think you mentioned replacing the instrument cluster/CAN gateway, but this did not get the curving lights to work - I wonder what else needs to be swapped out....


 My "sort of desperate" move, replacing the instrument cluster with the facelift version, COULD and probably would have solved the AFS2 pairing issue. I did get, however, such a variety of warning beeps, lights and errors in all possible controllers installed in the car that I quietly swapped back the old cluster and cleared up all (tens of) errors from all controllers. While quietly thinking how lucky I was that it did not break up anything permanently...  



> By the way, I did a quick search on ebay.de for the non-suffixed part; just from looking at the Hardware version on the parts, it appears it "resets" with the suffix A parts, from H09 to H01 - could this indicate the switch from TP 1.6 to TP 2.0?


 Very difficult to say... The route I would probably take is to find out when did Touareg change its bus version and if it affected the version of AFS2 controller. It is a bit unlikely that the letter suffix makes a difference, though, as the later parts have superseded the older version. So, if you are to replace a failed non-letter revision in an older Touareg, VW will deliver you the B-revision part. 

The easiest way to really find out would be to buy a part and test. It is a pity I have already disassembled my nicely retrofitted AFS2 connector from the engine bay. It wasn't quite so easy to find a good place to "tap into" the drivetrain bus in a location, where the AFS2 unit would fit nicely. There was a perfect place in there, right next to the wiper motor. 

I am still confident that the curve light functionality is very much possible to get to work as long as the AFS2 pairing issue is solved. But I sort of feel it is time for me to "pass along the torch" ;-) 

Jouko


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## CLMims (Jul 13, 2007)

Jouko,

Thanks again for all of your insight into this experiment - I don't know if I don't know if I have enough time/money/patience to "take up the torch" but I agree that it seems like it should be possible somehow - I wonder what would happen with a Touareg instrument cluster "brain transplant" swap?!?!?


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## Don_Cochon (Aug 25, 2012)

Hello Jouko 

Thank you very much for showing this way to retrofit the facelift headlights. You did a very good job. 

For about half a year I’m also thinking about retrofit my 2007 Phaeton GP0. 
In a German forum I also found a threat about retrofitting, where I think the same modification was used like you did: 
http://translate.google.de/translat...p0-zu-gp1-mit-tfl-scheinwerfern-t4022237.html 

At first I had the same idea like you to get all the features of the new headlights including the static and dynamic bending light. But your information about the need of the AFS2 controller let me think about only get the look of the new headlights and only the “old features”. 

But to retrofit the headlights I need some more information from you. 
I looked up the exploded drawing for both the old and the new headlights. At the old headlights there is one controller for the high beam and one for the low beam: 
SOURCE: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?2828054 









On the exploded drawing you can also see these two controllers on position 2 and 3: 
SOURCE: http://www.vagcats.info/base/vw/3/2162/258/9/24071 









So which of those two controllers are needed? I think maybe the one for the low beam, because in the new headlights there is no high beam but only the shutter? 

Also I don’t know which one of the controller in the new headlight contains the controllers for LED DRL controller, the shutter, and the xenon ballast? 

On the exploded drawing there are two “electronic boxes” on position 2 and 9: 
SOURCE: http://www.vagcats.info/base/vw/3/2163/631/9/14060 









You can also see those two electronic boxes on the picture of the back of the new headlight: 
SOURCE: http://www.ebay.de/itm/370507941434 









Can you please send me the wiring diagrams for the two headlights? I think I will add a “rewire electronic box” between the 10 pin and 2 pin connectors of the car and the new headlight with don’t matter what connector (and of course the external resistors like you did). Maybe in this electronic box I will also include (in on next step) a controller for the static and maybe the dynamic bending light. 
For static bending light there exist some simple controllers, e.g.: 
http://translate.google.de/translat...module.de/produkt_P11268_Abbiegelicht_V5.html 
For dynamic bending light Hella did develop a module which unfortunately is no longer available or I cannot find it. You can search the internet for: Hella DynaView or Hella DynaBeam 

Axel


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## jkuisma (Nov 23, 2009)

Hi Axel! 



> In a German forum I also found a threat about retrofitting, where I think the same modification was used like you did:
> http://translate.google.de/translate...-t4022237.html


 Yep, I also found that thread - it has good info - right after I had completed my own install...  The Germans had their headlamps modified in Poland but the wiring was not ready-made right. I don't think the mechanical modification is that complicated - would not pay for someone to do it if the wiring is not sorted out at the same time. 



> So which of those two controllers are needed? I think maybe the one for the low beam, because in the new headlights there is no high beam but only the shutter?


 Correct. In the new headlight there is just one xenon bulb and the controller for low beams has the headlight levelling electronics built in. You won't need the high beam controller. 



> Also I don’t know which one of the controller in the new headlight contains the controllers for LED DRL controller, the shutter, and the xenon ballast?


 There are three distinct controller "boxes" in the new headlights. The only "box" you will need to reuse is the LED DRL controller, that is part number 3 in your picture. There is a small circuit board inside the headlamp, used to drive the xenon shutter (not shown in the image!). That is also needed for the install. Make sure the seller has not ripped it out in case you buy used lights without controllers. 



> Can you please send me the wiring diagrams for the two headlights? I think I will add a “rewire electronic box” between the 10 pin and 2 pin connectors of the car


 Yep, will do a writeup soon. Do note that you will need to rewire the headlight internals, too. And therefore there is no definite "right" way to do the 10>12pin conversion as it all depends on how you decide to rewire the headlight internally... But, honestly, this isn't too complicated. 



> For dynamic bending light Hella did develop a module which unfortunately is no longer available or I cannot find it. You can search the internet for: Hella DynaView or Hella DynaBeam


 Interesting! I had seen dynaview but did not know that there had been a real dynamic aftermarket kit (as the DynaBeam seems to be. Although it comes with the headlights and they were halogen (!)). It would be pretty easy to make the static curve light (additional halogen bulb) to work by using such a kit. Only issue being that it will need quite a lot of extra wiring around the vehicle and I believe you'd be running out of available connector pins on the 12-pin headlight connector (although just one pin should suffice if you place the controller elsewhere in the vehicle). By the way, I am unsure if the analogue speed signal (GALA) is available in the Phaeton at all - this might be an issue with the kit! 

Would be interesting to hear on your progress on this project. I'm slightly tempted to add the static cornering light functionality to my car as well. It isn't as useful as the dynamic curve light (my personal opinion) but still nice to have. 

Jouko


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## Zaphh (Jul 5, 2008)

The Phaeton uses GALA to control car radio volume, if I am not mistaken (it is in the driver settings options), so I guess you could use the signal to control the headlamps if you find where to tap it... 

P.


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## Jorgsphaeton (Sep 8, 2009)

I picked up this project too. And already got a question. I try to light up the drl without controller. I will use another controller later. I thought I could connect 12v to the leds directly with the 2 black wires comming directly from the leds. But that doesn't work. Who does know how I can connect them to 12v without the controller? Wat does the original controller do with the 12v?

Jorg

Verstuurd vanaf mijn Xtouch met Tapatalk


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## johnnyjiang (Feb 24, 2014)

Much appreciated if anyone can take few pictures of dual xenon wall demo with and without the high beam on.

Johnny


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## Jorgsphaeton (Sep 8, 2009)

Can somebody send me the wiring diagrams for the headlights for a 2004 and 2007 version?

Jorg


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## Jorgsphaeton (Sep 8, 2009)

Today I finished my retrofit to the 2007 headlights. I took the old controller and wiring and placed them completely inside the new headlights. Added the wiring of the drl and connected the turnsignals to the inside wiring. Afterall a time consuming job but worth it. My modifications are also, adding cornering lights with "abbiegelicht v5" and the old style turnsignalbar inside the drl bar with leds from "exled". To catch the highbeam/flasher problem I connected the shutter and also used the new style turnsignal bulb as flasher. So without the lights on you will see the innerside light as a flasher.
With the drl module version 2b from exled the drl will turn off when the turnsignal is used.

One problem though. The cornering lights gives a voltage peak when they switch on. Just enough to give a bulb warning, even with warning cancellers, so I want to disable the bulb out warning in vcds. Is that possible and how. Everything is led now so they lasts a lifetime.

Thanks jorg

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## Jorgsphaeton (Sep 8, 2009)

Problem solved by powering the cornering lights via 12v after ignition. I took 12v from the headlights but that gave a voltage drop on the parking lights.

Jorg

Verstuurd vanaf mijn Xtouch met Tapatalk


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