2009 B8 a4 sedan halogen tail light coding (NA)

maquino1985 · Sep 13, 2019

i was attempting to get the coding for NA to work as ROW but after changing the coding on my rear lights my outer bulbs turn all the way off and on when I signal (when the lights are on) rather than dim and get brighter like they normally do.

I tried putting everything back to the stock values i found but it didn’t have any affect on the outer blinkers so I’m at a loss

3 questions:
1) does anyone know what channels I need to change to adjust this back to normal
2) can you point me to the reference table that you use that explains how to decipher the meaning of the decimal/hex values?
3) the coding I used disabled rear fog lights. Not a big deal but if anyone know how to fix that would be great as well.

Here are my channels and current values (if I recall correctly)
195: 10760 (stock 10753+7)
196: 10792 (stock 10785+7)
203: 8782 (stock 8778+4)
204: 8814 (stock 8810+4)

If needed I can pull up the values for the rest of the channels tomorrow.

Thanks a lot

edit: Found all the changes i made in the debug log:

Code:

Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,11272,to,11268,Friday,13,September,2019,19:32:25:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 198,adapted from,11304,to,11300,Friday,13,September,2019,19:32:53:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8778,to,7754,Friday,13,September,2019,19:33:41:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8810,to,7786,Friday,13,September,2019,19:34:04:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 195,adapted from,10753,to,5251,Friday,13,September,2019,19:37:06:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 196,adapted from,10785,to,5283,Friday,13,September,2019,19:37:48:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,11268,to,3588,Friday,13,September,2019,19:38:18:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 198,adapted from,11300,to,3620,Friday,13,September,2019,19:38:38:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 195,adapted from,5251,to,10753,Friday,13,September,2019,19:40:42:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,3588,to,11272,Friday,13,September,2019,19:41:15:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 198,adapted from,3620,to,11304,Friday,13,September,2019,19:41:51:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,7754,to,8778,Friday,13,September,2019,19:42:26:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 196,adapted from,5283,to,10785,Friday,13,September,2019,19:46:13:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,7786,to,8810,Friday,13,September,2019,19:53:48:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 193,adapted from,6,to,0,Friday,13,September,2019,19:55:51:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 194,adapted from,7,to,0,Friday,13,September,2019,19:56:02:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 193,adapted from,0,to,6,Friday,13,September,2019,19:59:42:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 194,adapted from,0,to,7,Friday,13,September,2019,19:59:57:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 195,adapted from,10753,to,10759,Friday,13,September,2019,21:08:49:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 196,adapted from,10785,to,10791,Friday,13,September,2019,21:09:10:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8778,to,8775,Friday,13,September,2019,21:09:29:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8810,to,8807,Friday,13,September,2019,21:09:46:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 195,adapted from,10759,to,10760,Friday,13,September,2019,21:11:45:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 196,adapted from,10791,to,10792,Friday,13,September,2019,21:11:55:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8775,to,8773,Friday,13,September,2019,21:13:19:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8807,to,8805,Friday,13,September,2019,21:13:33:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8805,to,8807,Friday,13,September,2019,21:14:38:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8773,to,8775,Friday,13,September,2019,21:14:50:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,11272,to,11273,Friday,13,September,2019,21:17:51:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,11273,to,11272,Friday,13,September,2019,21:18:33:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,11272,to,11271,Friday,13,September,2019,21:19:01:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 197,adapted from,11271,to,11272,Friday,13,September,2019,21:20:09:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8775,to,8781,Friday,13,September,2019,21:30:31:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8807,to,8814,Friday,13,September,2019,21:32:21:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8781,to,8785,Friday,13,September,2019,21:34:14:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8814,to,8817,Friday,13,September,2019,21:34:32:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8817,to,8814,Friday,13,September,2019,21:38:23:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8785,to,8782,Friday,13,September,2019,21:38:35:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8814,to,8807,Friday,13,September,2019,21:40:15:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8807,to,8808,Friday,13,September,2019,21:41:42:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8782,to,8783,Friday,13,September,2019,21:41:47:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 203,adapted from,8783,to,8782,Friday,13,September,2019,21:43:46:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8808,to,8807,Friday,13,September,2019,21:43:54:63170
Address 46,8K0 907 064 F,channel 204,adapted from,8807,to,8814,Friday,13,September,2019,21:48:12:63170

rlarsen · Sep 14, 2019

Here are the OEM coding for both RoW and NA - so If you use the RoW values, it should work.

So basically it is only channel 197 and 198 you need to change - channel 203 and 204 is the same, it is only the brightness values that is different, but overall it is the same.

maquino1985 · Sep 14, 2019

Thanks Rene. I’ll give those a try but something else must be off.

PS I’ll try to get a video of what my car is doing now in case it’s not clear from my descriptions.

rlarsen · Sep 14, 2019

maquino1985 said:
Thanks Rene. I’ll give those a try but something else must be off. It doesn’t explain why my outer lights don’t blink as usual anymore and instead totally toggle on-off when signaling at night with the lights on.

So im assuming since you say only brightness is different that it is in those first six bits. Does the brightness control also determine whether a blinker fully alternates on/off or just “winks”?

Can you point me to the chart that explains how to decipher the bit values?

PS I’ll try to get a video of what my car is doing now in case it’s not clear from my descriptions.

You should have a PM from earlier today, where I have summed up the bits.

If you have disabled the signal functionality on the tails, then you should still have the dedicated signal bar working - does this still work ?? - on a RoW model it is only this dedicated signal bar that is been used.

Channel 203 and 204 are for the inner part of the tail lights, so they do not have anything to do with the outer.

If you want to see which channel is controlling which part of the tail, then just set the value to 0 (zero) for channel 195-198, and 203-208 - then enable a channel one at a time, and look at the tails.

maquino1985 · Sep 14, 2019

seems like ROW functionality isn't really what I wanted.

What I had is very close to what I want, but for some reason even going back to stock coding when I use the turn signal the outers flash entirely on and off rather than go from an on to an "activated" state (brighter), which is what they did before I changed anything so I'm totally confused why they don't do it even with all stock coding back in place.

Basically I have DEPO LED head lights retrofit into my car but didn't require changing coding to enable them because they had harnesses and resistors.

I want my lights to do exactly what's shown in this video, which is actually what I thought ROW was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxVLJB9FUU8

But I think I have to adapt the halogen bulb codings for this because I don't have the real LED wiring.

Does this make more sense? What do you suggest?

rlarsen · Sep 14, 2019

How do the OEM bulb tail lights work with your current coding ??

Can you post your channel values from 181 to 210 ??

The instrument cluster issue has been seen before, when retrofitting the OEM LED tails, but apparently it can also be an issue with the non-OEM - solution unknown.

maquino1985 · Sep 14, 2019

I don’t have any instrument cluster issues.

I’ve fully messed around with the coding by this point trying all sorts of things such as whatever I could find for OEM NA LED coding (remarkably this one seems to be hard to find anywhere other than some google images that go to threads where the original table/image is no longer available) but nothing seems to cause any problems. The only issue is with the left and rear outer light coding that you can see in the video when I signal with the lights on.

Here’s a video https://youtu.be/jtwukwx2dgY

Coding:
181: 65520
182: 255
183:16383
184:255
185:65535
186:255
187:16383
188:1
189:16383
190:1021
191:16143
192:3
193:6
194:7
195:5255
196:5287
197:11272 (default)
198:11304 (default)
199:0
200:0
201:0
202:0
203:8782
204:8814
205:13
206:45
207:6
208:38
209:0
210:0
211:51214
212:51215
213:13618
214:3

221:51400
222:51400
223:51400
224:51400
225:51400
...
229:51400
230:984
231:985
232:2771

rlarsen · Sep 14, 2019

AFAIK you normally don't need to change any coding, for such aftermarket tails to work - but I'm no expert on them.

I can repost the missing OEM codings for the LEDs - but I don't think you will be able to use them, because they are for the OEM LEDs, and if you do a retrofit from blub to LEDs, the coding will also be different.

If you reinstall your old blub tails - how do they work with the coding you did ??

maquino1985 · Sep 14, 2019

with the halogen outers in, they behave normally. but i'm totally at a loss. the LEDs acted normally before i changed anything and now the behavior is totally bizarre!

I noticed that in addition to the outer bulbs no longer flashing brighter while always remaining ON while the tail lights were on and signaling, they also turn off after braking -> so they go from normal on state, to bright braking state, to OFF, then kind of "fade in" to normal on state.

They definitely never did this before but I didn't change anything else. So how can it be different than it used to be? these are the LEDs I bought and they used to work exactly the way they show in their product video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IacGLQGOobs

I'm totally confused. Unless there’s a secret channel I somehow messed up or corrupted then My next move is to order a pin removal kit, rewire the outer power adapters for OEM LED and code the outers as NA OEM LED and try that. But it doesn’t explain why they mysteriously went from normal to borked nor do I know why this approach would really make a difference since it’s kind of obvious that the adapters this thing comes with do just that.

maquino1985 · Sep 15, 2019

my current codings are
195-3080
196-3112
197-24328
198-24360

this looks pretty good overall. the "middle" (inner) lights have a good delta in brightness between on and active at those settings.

the outers are too bright and don't match the intensity of the inners which annoys me but i cannot find a value below 24000ish that doesn't cause the entire light to turn on/off while the tails are on. I'm pretty sure this has to do with the resistors the aftermarket adapter comes with and if I bought a pin removal tool and repinned the stock adapter for LEDs and used the OEM LED coding it would probably be just right. maybe some other day.

2009 B8 a4 sedan halogen tail light coding (NA)

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