Finally had time to do a write-up of my latest installation:
Dark Cherry LED Euro Tails
I've been wanting to grab a set of these for awhile, but $600+ for lights is a tough pill to swallow. Many other mods could be had for that money (jb1, stage 1 tune, downpipe, tint, etc). However, from the moment I opened the box, I had no regrets. These lights look absolutely awesome, and I think they totally transform the rear end of the car. Much more upscale / Audi-esque, and match the LP front lights in looks and utility. I got mine from BEC Autoparts with their adapter harnesses. They were the ones made for VW China by Koito, not the Automotive Lighting European ones. To me this is no big deal -- they are OEM and ooze quality.
Comparison of US spec vs ROW spec outer units:
They just have so much more dimension and depth, even when off. I love the partial tint of the Dark Cherry version, and I think it looks great on Carbon Steel Gray. One last thing on looks -- they come across even better in person vs pics.
Installation:
It was somewhat miserable, I'll be honest. Removing VW trim pieces with clips is
never fun, and I had a few mishaps with the wiring. DAP has an excellent video on the process
<here> that shows how to remove the trim pieces and the basic idea of routing the harnesses (BEC harnesses are very similar). Some tools that will make your life easier are a small flathead screwdriver, 8mm deep socket and ratchet, wire snake/fish tape, electrical tape, zip ties, utility blade, and a flashlight if you don't have adequate lighting.
Where I ran into trouble is trying to make one of the harness connections. The pin terminal wasn't seating correctly in the harness, and after too much finagling it weakened and broke off inside.
I was 80% done with the job, and had all the trim ripped out of the hatch. All I could do was email Ed at BEC and ask if he had it in his heart to ship me a new black wire if I paid for it. Not only did he email me back right away, on a Sunday, but offered to send a whole new left inner adapter for only the cost of shipping.
I would also like to mention at this point that before I purchased I emailed him with some questions, and he got back to me right away with clear and concise answers. Top notch customer service.
So... after a week of driving around with the lights plug and play, with no trim in my hatch (no way I was putting that back on and taking it off again to finish up the job!), the new harness arrived from Canada. Eager to wrap things up, I proceeded to swap out the harness only to find... I needed to re-make several of the connections, which meant undoing some wires. Well, apparently these wire pins LOCK into place once seated, and the only way to get them out is with a special little tool. Frustrated, I used my google-fu and found it is possible to flatten a small paper clip with a hammer to stick in the harness and release the pin flanges. I did just that, and by some miracle it worked, although it took 45 min of struggling just to remove two wires. Cue the swearing and fits of rage.
With my mistakes rectified, I got everything in place, and made it neat. Zip-ties everywhere!
Coding:
BEC provided coding instructions with the lights, which worked flawlessly. They adjusted to the correct dimmwert values of 10 where necessary to provide ROW contrast between running and brake light. Their coding is set up to match ROW implementation where only the outer units act as brake lights. I did some additional coding so both inner and outer light up when braking, as I prefer it that way.
Last thing to do was install deAutoKey LED reverse bulbs to get rid of the bulb-out warning.
Now everything is set up and working the way I want it to. 3 weeks from start to finish and about 8 hours of total work with all the mishaps and redo's, but it was definitely worth it.
Pics:
Shaving down the right inner connector:
My makeshift paperclip tool:
The finished product: