# Installed DEautokey DRL LED's



## otbiker57 (Aug 11, 2014)

Nice look, but you lose the parking light function as there are only 2 prongs on each bulb. Has anyone coded to have the DRL's as parking lights, or maybe the turn signals?

Thanks,


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## FLMKVDUB (Nov 11, 2009)

That's because the stock bulbs are dual filament 7443 and deAutoKeys led's are based off the single filament 7440. I know there are 7443 led bulbs out there but not sure if they dim when the headlights are on like the stock bulbs do. Anyway post some pics if you can, i'm curious how they look :thumbup:


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## otbiker57 (Aug 11, 2014)

I had purchased some generic 7443 LED's, but had nothing but problems. Fault codes, blown fuses, etc.

Fortunately, I have VAGCOM and was able to clear the codes.


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

Hey, sorry to hear that, we sell the 7443 model here:
http://deautokey.com/product/2012-beetle-day-time-running-lights-drls-cree-bright-white-error-free

They will work with no errors.

And check out all LEDs for your beetle:
http://deautokey.com/category/leds-for-beetle

Thank you


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

Thanks for the orders - the listing was updated and we are now shipping 7443 and 7440 - it seems the Beetle takes either or.

:thumbup:


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## g-man_ae (Jun 20, 2001)

Just bought and installed deAutoKey's 7443-based replacements. I can confirm that the stock bulbs are dual-filament W21/5W. The LED bulbs turn on with the headlights - so they are installed with the correct polarity (direction) - *but will not illuminate as DRLs*


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

g-man_ae said:


> Just bought and installed deAutoKey's 7443-based replacements. I can confirm that the stock bulbs are dual-filament W21/5W. The LED bulbs turn on with the headlights - so they are installed with the correct polarity (direction) - *but will not illuminate as DRLs*


Hi, we feel the metal prongs on the LED are not making a secure connection with your car's adapter, please remove and bend prongs outwards and then reinstall.

Keep us updated.

Thank you


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## g-man_ae (Jun 20, 2001)

deAutoLED.com said:


> Hi, we feel the metal prongs on the LED are not making a secure connection with your car's adapter, please remove and bend prongs outwards and then reinstall.
> 
> Keep us updated.
> 
> Thank you


On one headlight (since these DRLs are a PITA, more so with every debugging step), I bent the bulb holder prongs inward. I also made sure the bulb's prongs weren't bent. No effect.

In your PM you suggested flipping the bulb 180. Not surprisingly the bulb didn't light up at all.

Meanwhile, I'm putting a lot of wear on the cheap plastic bulb holders VW put in these headlight assemblies.


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

g-man_ae said:


> On one headlight (since these DRLs are a PITA, more so with every debugging step), I bent the bulb holder prongs inward. I also made sure the bulb's prongs weren't bent. No effect.
> 
> In your PM you suggested flipping the bulb 180. Not surprisingly the bulb didn't light up at all.
> 
> Meanwhile, I'm putting a lot of wear on the cheap plastic bulb holders VW put in these headlight assemblies.


Can you please email [email protected] with photo how you bent prongs - you should bend them outwards not inwards.

Bending outwards and then installing will allow for them all to make contact. We are going to see if we have a photo on file to show how this should look, let me get back to you with this.

What you are describing is not an issue we ever had with these so we feel the prongs on the bulb are simply not making a good connection, for flipping 180 - they are polarized but after reading your reply here we realized they were BOTH lighting up, in the private message we thought one was not lighting up at all, sorry for the confusion.


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## g-man_ae (Jun 20, 2001)

If anyone had success with LED-based DRL replacements please share. I've gone through every troubleshooting step with deAutoKey - plus a few of my own - and still have no DRLs. (Again, the bulbs either light up at full power with headlights turned on, or not at all as DRLs.) And because of the repeated bulb removal/replacement in the one headlight (the "experiment," saving the other as the "control"), I now have a worn out bulb holder, too :thumbdown: 

My LED bulbs are going back once I get some new incandescents. I'm also saving up for WinPower's HID replacement headlights; if time = money then the time I spent on these silly little bulbs is worth more than a set of new headlights.


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

g-man_ae said:


> If anyone had success with LED-based DRL replacements please share. I've gone through every troubleshooting step with deAutoKey - plus a few of my own - and still have no DRLs. (Again, the bulbs either light up at full power with headlights turned on, or not at all as DRLs.) And because of the repeated bulb removal/replacement in the one headlight (the "experiment," saving the other as the "control"), I now have a worn out bulb holder, too :thumbdown:
> 
> My LED bulbs are going back once I get some new incandescents. I'm also saving up for WinPower's HID replacement headlights; if time = money then the time I spent on these silly little bulbs is worth more than a set of new headlights.



Please email [email protected] - the full refund is no problem as we said, we do not mind, we are more concerned why it didn't work for you while we never had an issue with many installed, we see you are trying to say it is the LED here and we hope the many who purchased this with no problem can step forward, if we had seen the issue we can help you or try to better troubleshoot. 

For the worn out bulb holder, are you referring to the metal prongs in the adapter that hold the bulb? That has play, you can easily bend those together and that will fix the issue. 

Since you said the prongs have more play now, did you bend them together before installing the LED? We only suggest this as if it lighting up for one feature and not the other it means one of the prongs are not making a clean connection with your car's adapter. 

How you describe your car's adapter sounds like it is too loose to make a connection or the prongs are not hitting the right areas, bending the prongs outwards on the DRL along with pressing the prongs together should fix the issue - here is a better example:

bending metal prongs on LED outwards:










Bending metal in car's adapter closer together:










But again, you do not have to try this if you do not want to, the return is fine.

If you have an alligator clip and 12V battery you can hook it up to each of the prongs and show how it all lights up.

Sorry for the inconvenience


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## g-man_ae (Jun 20, 2001)

otbiker57 said:


> I had purchased some generic 7443 LED's, but had nothing but problems. Fault codes, blown fuses, etc.
> 
> Fortunately, I have VAGCOM and was able to clear the codes.


I don't have VCDS but I can confirm that the DRL fuses blew when I installed LED replacement bulbs. When I went back to incandescent bulbs, they also would not work as DRLs. Sure enough, fuses 5 and 6 (5A DRL fuses in a 2012, in the dash behind the small storage compartment) were blown.


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

g-man_ae said:


> I don't have VCDS but I can confirm that the DRL fuses blew when I installed LED replacement bulbs. When I went back to incandescent bulbs, they also would not work as DRLs. Sure enough, fuses 5 and 6 (5A DRL fuses in a 2012, in the dash behind the small storage compartment) were blown.


Hi, that is new info? Are you able to install them now with prongs bent out with replaced fuse? 

We never seen this issue before, our LED resistors are made to work without issue in the beetle and tested with no problems. We will have to look into this, again the return is fine, just contact us for help.

Thanks


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## g-man_ae (Jun 20, 2001)

Bumping this because it didn't seem worth a whole new thread.

Here's a PSA: Don't both with Sylvania "ultra white" *incandescent* bulbs. They are not meant for an always-on application like DRLs IMO because they use a blue added-on coating that doesn't last, and leads to burn-out in about a year.

Here's how they look new:










And here's a year later:










See those blue shavings in the upper right? That's the coating flaking off. Some of those shavings are inside the headlights now, too :thumbdown:


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## ExtremePowerhouse - Mike (Dec 16, 2016)

g-man_ae said:


> Bumping this because it didn't seem worth a whole new thread.
> 
> Here's a PSA: Don't both with Sylvania "ultra white" *incandescent* bulbs. They are not meant for an always-on application like DRLs IMO because they use a blue added-on coating that doesn't last, and leads to burn-out in about a year.
> 
> And here's a year later:


:thumbdown:


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## deAutoLED.com (Jun 1, 2012)

We have a brand new 7443 LED coming out soon. Stay tuned, we will keep this thread updated.

:thumbup:


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