Now there was a sticky with some info posted about this a while back, but it seems to have disappeared into the ether never to be seen again, and the amount of times I answer this question I thought may be time for me to have my own little thread for it, so I just have to link to this instead, if the mods don't approve, then just get rid or it, really just here to save my time and to help the members out.
Now the only exterior lights that I don't have as LED's that are worth doing are the FOG's, mainly because I like the use of my fogs and secondly I not really bothered to get them fitted as I would hardly use them as DRL's anyway - But here's the guide to fit them courtresy of GazzaC - Fog Tutorial
This Thread will help all versions of the mk5 inc the vans and estates, will even help the zafira B owners as the wiring is am sure the same, may have another rear light for the rear seats/boot, but hopefully someone can confirm that.
Note: the interior bulbs are just the courtesy lights, the map lights are not switched on, so its just the lights that will be used when the car is unlocked and the doors opened.
The lights are all crisp white, which tends to have a blue tint when the photos are taken, but you can get them in any colour depending on your needs, obv the exterior lights have to be white or yellow for legal reasons.
Now here where it gets interesting, in the old stikied thread it was stated that the rears had to be canbus bulbs, but I don't think this is the case, I do agree that the rear courtesy lights are on the canbus system, but you don't require Canbus bulbs in the rear courtesy cluster, only interior bulb I found that required to be Canbus was the boot bulb strangely enough, will explain how to get non canbus bulbs to work below and what causes the canbus to trip using non canbus bulbs.
Right as we know the canbus system monitors the mk5's electronic circuits and is there in place of the trust fuse, and in some cases is more reliable than a fuse, but in others its more frustrating. But basically its actually the rear bulb holder itself that causes the problems with the canbus system when using both canbus and non canbus bulbs, as it tend to create a short circuit over the contacts.
Now as you can see the top plate of the holder like the bottom plate is solid, and as such can only be either +ve OR -ve not both, but on canbus bulbs that are printed on the boards, if you were to lay them flat, you will see the 2 contacts, one has to be +ve and the other -ve, now what this does when placed into the holder is create a short, triggering the canbus system off, the same goes for the non canbus that have the wire's on the bottom of the holder, as what will normally happen is that there will be too much wire on them so its wrapped around to the other side.
Now to combat this is easy enough, if you look on the std 501's that you take out, you will notice that there is only one contact per side( the +ve on one, the -ve on the other) all you have to do is simply mimic that on the bulb holder of the LED 501's like so -
And it should stop the canbus from triggering due to causing a short, now obviously you can't do that on canbus bulbs but what you can do is mask off, half of the contacts so it mimics the std 501, now what you have to be wary off is that some canbus bulbs have a resistor either side of the contacts that links them, which is also known to still trip the canbus system even when masked off.
ok, now i will warn you, my paint skills are super awesome and that the following images will amaze all
Can see where it exits the base, just near my finger, there will be a similar exit on the other side for the other wire.
Now hopefully they clear it up, if not, will try something else.
Now all is correct to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing, now as they are ebay links they will most definitely expire over time, and if they do, just ask and I'll provide new ones, but they will give you an idea as to what you are looking for.
Any questions/comments, just ask, will try and answer them.
Can someone confirm that the pics above are working, as they are working on my end but been trying something new with them and not sure if they are working publicly, and had a comment in another thread of them not working?
ah right cool, nothing i can do with the loading unfortunately AFAIK, without uploading them as a smaller format and linking them again, but will have a little poke arounf photo bucket and see what i can find.
Right that should be that sorted, was linking them in there original size, so removed that vit of code from the IMG links and they seem to be loading quiker, and are working on tapatalk on my phone now.
Just beware of the rears, the last 4 paragraphs of this guide shows how to fit them and not trigger the canbus and its all down to the bulb holder wires.
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