Nice tutorial! I’m a total lay person. But with a pick / flathead, some patience, a little cursing, I changed out all my lights in about an hour. Thank you!
If the tail lights leds were not red you would have a much higher foot candle reading than the stock halogen. That red led means its filtering out all other visible light, hence the lower foot candle reading. To get similar output the lumens of the colored LED have to be exponentially higher to offset light filters. Good stuff man, I like the scientific approach!
Then how do you account for the first measurement of the tail lights being identical? Maybe that’s the base lighting coming from the license plate light? To my eyes it just didn’t seem to have that much impact and I should have considered disconnecting it.
I found it easier to remove the 8MM nuts on the tailgate than negotiating with the holder clips above my head. Also the lights are pulse width modulated which will skew your lumen reading. After LED conversion there is no doubt the lights are brighter. I went with red LED as well. After conversion i felt the parking lights were too bright and I dimmed them through ODB11 so when braking the brightness change is more eye catching. My parking lights were bright enough to be perceived as brake lights when other drivers eyes would compare to other cars on the road. I want my brake lights offensively bright to push back on those tail pipe sniffers. I highly recommend getting OBD11 scan tool if you are going to play with lighting. There is so much more you can customize in your car. I converted my headlights to LED and had to dim DRL high beams to 10% as people were flashing me for high beams. Take the money you would spend extra for to get canbus lights and get a programming tool. In colder climates, I recommend canbus lights as they do throw off a little warmth and can assist with lens deicing. I was able to take 15 amps of load off the alternator from ditching incandescent bulbs.
DeAutoLED is Okay. Alternatively, I have found that a 2 pairs of Red (7440R) Sylvania Zevo's work amazingly in my 2015 GTI (stock rear housings). They just work without hyperflash or dashboard errors. And you can find them at your local O'Reilly's or AutoZone. They definitely throw more light than OEM. And there is definitely a big difference between 'tail light' and 'breaking light', adequately simulating a dual filament halogen bulb with the all the benefits and style of LED's. From my experience, no other bulb does that better in particular. Therefore this would be my recommendation. The DeAutoLED is a solid choice. But the fact that they emit less light than halogen during braking is a little bit of a dealbreaker for me. In my opinion, get the sylvania's zevos.
Good honest review and happy to see you actually measured output, which confermed what I notice on others light swaps using DeAuto bulbs, the fact is the DeAuto tail /brake lights are not brighter. I swapped out the backup lights and that made a huge difference when backing up especially looking at my head units display screen. I honestly don't care about color differences, like you said we might not notice the difference. And for the price ($84) the tail and brake lights are not worth it IMO.
Thanks for the feedback. It is not always about the brightness. These LEDs also light-up quicker which allows other people to have a faster reaction time - this is much safer. Also, the deeper red color gives it a more uniform upgraded look but also it is much more noticeable to other drivers which makes it safer. These are popular for these reasons and a lot safer than halogens.
Fantastic video thank you made a massive difference when changing my bulbs. I opted for the Philips x-treme Ultinon Gen2 but went for white instead, they do make a massive difference and error free which is a bonus.
@@Vaguh hi Adam can I ask what setting you put the dimmwert down to? I’m having a similar issue with my tails the brake lights just aren’t bright enough against the standard running function. Also did you change the Lasttyp settings to reflect the LED bulbs as opposed to halogen?
@@colinjbell8505 Hey, I haven’t tried playing with any of the bulb settings for these and honestly I never thought about it. Maybe I will soon. Let me know if you figure out any settings that seem to improve the output!
@@Vaguh hi Adam no worries will do I’m looking into coding the brightness of the tail light down from the standard 28 to 20 to see if it helps against the contrast of the brake light. There seems to be a lot of how to’s on the net and the OBD forums so will see what difference it makes
@@Vaguh I have added both the four (five) brake light via the apps on OBD and I also coded the tails to 20 from 28 and the brakes are now standing out so much more now. Central Electrics>Adaptation>31347>Leuchte20BRLA71>DimmwertEF20 or DimmwertCD20 (depending what has the value of 28 next to it as it may be different for US/UK) and change from 28 to 20>slide to write/confirm For the other side look for Leuchte21BR RC8 and repeat the steps above. Job done.
Hi man! I really liked how you explained how to remove the tail lights, i have a lamp broken and i'm trying to replace by myself, can you tell me the code of that lamps? Thanks so much!
Have a question.. I installed aftermarket led for my turn signal n brake lights but they r not working unless I put the factory ones back on .. any ideas how to get them to work
It could be a resistance issue and I’d be surprised if they don’t work and are from DeAutoLED. They have great customer service if you reach out to them. If you didn’t get them from DeAutoLED, the only thing I can suggest is to return the ones you got and visit DeAutoLED’s site.
Sorry, I’m not sure how canbus LEDs would impact the system. From a quick search it sounds like they could be used on interior lighting, but exterior lighting may cause issues due to monitoring. I’m not sure how or if coding could take care of that. These ones from DeAutoLED work awesome, have no errors, and no coding required.
I don't know the specifics on how they make these bulbs, but I've never had any errors on my dash for them. I'm unsure how hot they get in comparison to the halogen bulbs I replaced, but I haven't had any issues since installing.
These LED lights are too much. I really hate all these super bright lights everywhere now. Blinding headlights and excessively bright tailights. These really cause vision problems for other drivers.
I’m hyper aware of this. I think there are a lot of people that just throw in something that fits without understanding the impact to other drivers. Especially with LED daytime running lights or headlamp replacement bulbs. Fortunately the output on these bulbs is similar to the halogen units so I feel comfortable running them without people hating me.
any issue with the reverse lights flickering? i installed the deauto once and mine flicker for a sec on start-up due to an apparent cold dianostic problem
Interesting. I’ve never experienced that. Have you tried reaching out to DeAutoLED? They have super awesome customer service and they might replace them for you.
@@Vaguh i have and they responded within 30mins. its something to do with the car's coding from what i understand. trying to see if other VW owners have had the problem and know a fix. thanks for responding :)
I didn’t think it would add any value to the video since the the turn signals are the same lights as the tail/brake. What kind of information are you looking for?
@@Vaguh trying to find a goo set euro tail lights for my 2016 GTI, question tho, can a Mark 7.5 original tail light fit a Mark 7? As I love those original tail lights
@@Gr83stMistak3 They can fit, but I believe it requires a new harness and some coding. Check out www.shopdap.com/ I think they’ll have what you need and some content on their RUclips channel covering the upgrade.
I think I'm following... but in the inner tail light there is a single bulb that makes both the center dot and "L". Then another bulb for the outer tail light that does the same. Does that make sense?
First of all nice video. I would like to know what dimensions the stock lamps have. Then I would like to know how i Can purchase the LED Lamps. Your link to the shop is not working
Thank you! What dimensions are you specifically interested in and for which lamps? Brake/Tail or Reverse? I still have the old bulbs so I can measure them, but they are very similar dimensions. I'd say they are the same width, but the LED is definitely longer. Oops, there was a typo in the link to their site. Here is the corrected link: deautokey.com/
I would like to change all the lights. Reverse. Break and if its possible the turninh indicator light. Thank you very much for your help. It would be very nice if you let me know which leds i will need
@@ioannis.papageorgiou If you have the same car as me, the MK7 Golf R with OEM tail lights, then get this brake/turn/tail kit that comes with all (4) of the bulbs: deautokey.com/product/mkvii-gti-complete-brake-osram-led-kit-bright-error-free-plug-play For the reverse you'll want this: deautokey.com/product/mkvii-gti-bright-10pc-cree-led-reverse-kit-error-free-plug-play
The reverse light is great, but the brake and turn signal are not only a waste of money but actually Dangerous. There is not nearly enough contrast between the running light and when the brakes come on.
Thanks for the input, Gary. I don't think the brake/turn is a total waste, but the difference from halogen is much less drastic than the reverse bulb. I disagree about them being dangerous since I can see in day and night that they have plenty of contrast between running and brake lights. I'm not sure that comes across on the camera. Have you tried these or some other options you recommend?
@@Vaguh Ah okay thanks. I found out the Golf TSI does have have a seperate amber bulb for each of the indicators. Same bulb as the others (7440) but just a different colour.
@@Vaguh well I put led for head lights from DDM tuning. But DDM does not make high beams for my MK7. I guess cause I have the bulb with the day running lights. They would have to do a special modification to get the high beams to work. Once you do this you can’t go back to OEM lights. No thanks. Guess I have to keep looking.
Thanks for asking - we also have a lifetime warranty if you do see any issues we have you covered. Many times when people ask this question we do notice they are comparing it to other LEDs they had installed that didn't last very long or only had a 1 or 2 year warranty.
It is a bigger change than most might think. This is something you use daily and the first thing someone behind you will see - the brighter red color is a lot more noticeable and makes a difference in safety. Thanks
Dude! I'm a mechanic and was more so watching for the final result, but what an awesome tutorial. Super easy to follow and very in-depth. Bravo man.
Thanks! I’m glad even a pro found something like this helpful!
Nice tutorial! I’m a total lay person. But with a pick / flathead, some patience, a little cursing, I changed out all my lights in about an hour. Thank you!
Hey! Thanks for stopping by and I'm glad you found it helpful!
If the tail lights leds were not red you would have a much higher foot candle reading than the stock halogen. That red led means its filtering out all other visible light, hence the lower foot candle reading. To get similar output the lumens of the colored LED have to be exponentially higher to offset light filters. Good stuff man, I like the scientific approach!
Then how do you account for the first measurement of the tail lights being identical? Maybe that’s the base lighting coming from the license plate light? To my eyes it just didn’t seem to have that much impact and I should have considered disconnecting it.
I found it easier to remove the 8MM nuts on the tailgate than negotiating with the holder clips above my head. Also the lights are pulse width modulated which will skew your lumen reading. After LED conversion there is no doubt the lights are brighter. I went with red LED as well. After conversion i felt the parking lights were too bright and I dimmed them through ODB11 so when braking the brightness change is more eye catching. My parking lights were bright enough to be perceived as brake lights when other drivers eyes would compare to other cars on the road. I want my brake lights offensively bright to push back on those tail pipe sniffers. I highly recommend getting OBD11 scan tool if you are going to play with lighting. There is so much more you can customize in your car. I converted my headlights to LED and had to dim DRL high beams to 10% as people were flashing me for high beams. Take the money you would spend extra for to get canbus lights and get a programming tool. In colder climates, I recommend canbus lights as they do throw off a little warmth and can assist with lens deicing. I was able to take 15 amps of load off the alternator from ditching incandescent bulbs.
DeAutoLED is Okay. Alternatively, I have found that a 2 pairs of Red (7440R) Sylvania Zevo's work amazingly in my 2015 GTI (stock rear housings). They just work without hyperflash or dashboard errors. And you can find them at your local O'Reilly's or AutoZone. They definitely throw more light than OEM.
And there is definitely a big difference between 'tail light' and 'breaking light', adequately simulating a dual filament halogen bulb with the all the benefits and style of LED's. From my experience, no other bulb does that better in particular. Therefore this would be my recommendation.
The DeAutoLED is a solid choice. But the fact that they emit less light than halogen during braking is a little bit of a dealbreaker for me. In my opinion, get the sylvania's zevos.
Thanks, Chaz. All the way down to the part#! super helpful and efficient - great job
Great tutorial! This was my first bulb change and you made it super easy to follow
First! 🙃 Love the science Adam is bringing to the table with his meters in these light videos.
Thanks! And you may be "Only!"....lol. It helps that I already have a nice light meter at the ready.
You could possibly adjust the Dimmwert values in the Leuchte channels to get some more brightness.
I like it bright! Will have to look into that!
Good honest review and happy to see you actually measured output, which confermed what I notice on others light swaps using DeAuto bulbs, the fact is the DeAuto tail /brake lights are not brighter.
I swapped out the backup lights and that made a huge difference when backing up especially looking at my head units display screen. I honestly don't care about color differences, like you said we might not notice the difference. And for the price ($84) the tail and brake lights are not worth it IMO.
I’m glad you found it helpful! Thanks for your input!
Thanks for the feedback. It is not always about the brightness. These LEDs also light-up quicker which allows other people to have a faster reaction time - this is much safer. Also, the deeper red color gives it a more uniform upgraded look but also it is much more noticeable to other drivers which makes it safer. These are popular for these reasons and a lot safer than halogens.
Fantastic video thank you made a massive difference when changing my bulbs. I opted for the Philips x-treme Ultinon Gen2 but went for white instead, they do make a massive difference and error free which is a bonus.
Happy this video was helpful to you!
@@Vaguh hi Adam can I ask what setting you put the dimmwert down to? I’m having a similar issue with my tails the brake lights just aren’t bright enough against the standard running function. Also did you change the Lasttyp settings to reflect the LED bulbs as opposed to halogen?
@@colinjbell8505 Hey, I haven’t tried playing with any of the bulb settings for these and honestly I never thought about it. Maybe I will soon. Let me know if you figure out any settings that seem to improve the output!
@@Vaguh hi Adam no worries will do I’m looking into coding the brightness of the tail light down from the standard 28 to 20 to see if it helps against the contrast of the brake light. There seems to be a lot of how to’s on the net and the OBD forums so will see what difference it makes
@@Vaguh I have added both the four (five) brake light via the apps on OBD and I also coded the tails to 20 from 28 and the brakes are now standing out so much more now.
Central Electrics>Adaptation>31347>Leuchte20BRLA71>DimmwertEF20 or DimmwertCD20 (depending what has the value of 28 next to it as it may be different for US/UK) and change from 28 to 20>slide to write/confirm
For the other side look for Leuchte21BR RC8 and repeat the steps above.
Job done.
Hi man! I really liked how you explained how to remove the tail lights, i have a lamp broken and i'm trying to replace by myself, can you tell me the code of that lamps? Thanks so much!
The Stock ones were very weak deAutoLED have a great replacement for the Glove Box and the inside hatch light as well.
Yes they do and I have them both. My favorite of all of my lights from them is the hatch.
Great detail on the bulb change - excellent
Thank you for the reverse bulb suggestion
No problem 👍 Hope you like them as much as I do!
Quite an improvement
Thank you for the fantastic Video
Have a question.. I installed aftermarket led for my turn signal n brake lights but they r not working unless I put the factory ones back on .. any ideas how to get them to work
It could be a resistance issue and I’d be surprised if they don’t work and are from DeAutoLED. They have great customer service if you reach out to them. If you didn’t get them from DeAutoLED, the only thing I can suggest is to return the ones you got and visit DeAutoLED’s site.
Thank you!! Your a life saver!! 😘
Glad to be of service! How did it go?
Would i get an error on the instrument cluster by just replacing reverse lights with canbus LEDs? No coding needed?
And what about the others?
Sorry, I’m not sure how canbus LEDs would impact the system. From a quick search it sounds like they could be used on interior lighting, but exterior lighting may cause issues due to monitoring. I’m not sure how or if coding could take care of that. These ones from DeAutoLED work awesome, have no errors, and no coding required.
Super !
Mk7 Golf TSI reverse light housing pulls straight out. It’s slightly different.
Good to know! Did you upgrade?
That's actually really surprising... I definitely thought the output would have been much greater with the LED brake lights
Right? Not what I was expecting. You know I had to triple check that I was seeing the right numbers and measuring correct.
Great vid, thanks
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
What’s the name of the led for the brake light’s? 7440 or 7443?
Hi, question... dont you have canbus error on the dash with these bulbs? Do they have a resistor inside? Do they get hot?
I don't know the specifics on how they make these bulbs, but I've never had any errors on my dash for them. I'm unsure how hot they get in comparison to the halogen bulbs I replaced, but I haven't had any issues since installing.
@@Vaguh can you post a link ? I want them to. The reason i dont buy leds for rearlights is because i am afraid they will get to hot and they fail
@@kvmods deautokey.com/ These guys will almost always replace any failed product without question in case anything ever happens. Go for it!
These LED lights are too much. I really hate all these super bright lights everywhere now. Blinding headlights and excessively bright tailights. These really cause vision problems for other drivers.
I’m hyper aware of this. I think there are a lot of people that just throw in something that fits without understanding the impact to other drivers. Especially with LED daytime running lights or headlamp replacement bulbs. Fortunately the output on these bulbs is similar to the halogen units so I feel comfortable running them without people hating me.
any issue with the reverse lights flickering? i installed the deauto once and mine flicker for a sec on start-up due to an apparent cold dianostic problem
Interesting. I’ve never experienced that. Have you tried reaching out to DeAutoLED? They have super awesome customer service and they might replace them for you.
@@Vaguh i have and they responded within 30mins. its something to do with the car's coding from what i understand. trying to see if other VW owners have had the problem and know a fix.
thanks for responding :)
@@Kevin-hm2di What coding have you done? Stock tail housings?
@@Vaguh just stock coding and tail lights. might be an option in OBD i need to find now that i think of it
Yeah I have the same problem
while installing break light, what did u install, white led or red led?
The brake/turn LEDs are red.
Why didn’t you demonstrate the turn signals
I didn’t think it would add any value to the video since the the turn signals are the same lights as the tail/brake. What kind of information are you looking for?
@@Vaguh trying to find a goo set euro tail lights for my 2016 GTI, question tho, can a Mark 7.5 original tail light fit a Mark 7? As I love those original tail lights
@@Gr83stMistak3 They can fit, but I believe it requires a new harness and some coding. Check out www.shopdap.com/ I think they’ll have what you need and some content on their RUclips channel covering the upgrade.
I was hoping for the same thing! Curious if the LEDs have a more modern crisp on/off flash than the factory bulbs. Assuming as much.
The intensity of the light is probably going off of total light and LED is red spectrum only.
The inner part of the light uses the same bulb? Or is that a different process?
I think I'm following... but in the inner tail light there is a single bulb that makes both the center dot and "L". Then another bulb for the outer tail light that does the same. Does that make sense?
First of all nice video.
I would like to know what dimensions the stock lamps have.
Then I would like to know how i Can purchase the LED Lamps.
Your link to the shop is not working
Thank you! What dimensions are you specifically interested in and for which lamps? Brake/Tail or Reverse? I still have the old bulbs so I can measure them, but they are very similar dimensions. I'd say they are the same width, but the LED is definitely longer. Oops, there was a typo in the link to their site. Here is the corrected link: deautokey.com/
I would like to change all the lights. Reverse. Break and if its possible the turninh indicator light. Thank you very much for your help.
It would be very nice if you let me know which leds i will need
@@ioannis.papageorgiou If you have the same car as me, the MK7 Golf R with OEM tail lights, then get this brake/turn/tail kit that comes with all (4) of the bulbs: deautokey.com/product/mkvii-gti-complete-brake-osram-led-kit-bright-error-free-plug-play
For the reverse you'll want this: deautokey.com/product/mkvii-gti-bright-10pc-cree-led-reverse-kit-error-free-plug-play
The reverse light is great, but the brake and turn signal are not only a waste of money but actually Dangerous. There is not nearly enough contrast between the running light and when the brakes come on.
Thanks for the input, Gary. I don't think the brake/turn is a total waste, but the difference from halogen is much less drastic than the reverse bulb. I disagree about them being dangerous since I can see in day and night that they have plenty of contrast between running and brake lights. I'm not sure that comes across on the camera. Have you tried these or some other options you recommend?
XTR LP reverse light system plus reverse light LED's...
Light ‘em up!
Have you ever had issues with the reverse LED’s flickering?
I haven’t ever had flickering issues. Do you have some that are doing that?
I do when I turn on my lights and my turn signals .. just keep flickering
@@RSRivera613 were you able to contact deAuto LED for rectifying issue? I haven’t received a reply when I initially contacted them.
Did these new bulbs affect your yellow/orange indicators too? Or do they use different bulbs.
There are no yellow/orange indicators on the rear of the Golf R. If you have a different model, perhaps they could replace them.
@@Vaguh Ah okay thanks. I found out the Golf TSI does have have a seperate amber bulb for each of the indicators. Same bulb as the others (7440) but just a different colour.
What lights are you using for the high beams for your head lights. Great video.
All OEM in the head lights. Have any recommendations?
@@Vaguh well I put led for head lights from DDM tuning. But DDM does not make high beams for my MK7. I guess cause I have the bulb with the day running lights. They would have to do a special modification to get the high beams to work. Once you do this you can’t go back to OEM lights. No thanks. Guess I have to keep looking.
@@stevegwilliams Interesting. In my R the high/low beams are the same bulb. Good luck!
how has the quality/reliability of the deautoled LED brake/turn bulbs held up in the last year since you've installed them?
Absolutely zero issues. I’ve heard the same from many other folks.
@@Vaguh thanks!
Thanks for asking - we also have a lifetime warranty if you do see any issues we have you covered. Many times when people ask this question we do notice they are comparing it to other LEDs they had installed that didn't last very long or only had a 1 or 2 year warranty.
Do you have the spec for the original bulb for the brake light and signal light?
What do you mean by spec? The bulb type? The brightness?
@@Vaguh yes sir. the bulb type
@@alvintan6689 I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head. The simplest way to check for this information is by using the Sylvania bulb-finder tool.
looking good but to expensive for this small change.
Appreciate the feedback. I don't disagree.
It is a bigger change than most might think. This is something you use daily and the first thing someone behind you will see - the brighter red color is a lot more noticeable and makes a difference in safety. Thanks
That's all that's holding the taillight in? Wot
Yup! I guess that’s all it needs.