DieselDave

Those of you with pre-facelift Q7's with bi-xenon headlights looking to get LED DRLs may find this interesting.

Couple of days ago I installed (allegedly) CANBUS friendly LED DRL bulbs. And, they did work for a day without throwing any error codes. Today though, I got a bulb error for each DRL. Was about to send them back when I had an idea to switch the coding of the headlights to LED DRLs.

Having done that, the lights no longer throw bulb errors and, a bonus, they stay on when the headlights are on. This is now operating as if it was the LED strip found in the RS6 headlight unit, except, instead of having to change the headlight units, or go for the V12 upgrade, you simply need to buy a pair of LED DRL bulbs to replace the existing filament DRLs.

Nice!

One thing though, I may have lost the AFS function but I'm not sure about that as it's difficult to tell in daylight whether the lights are moving or not.

Don't know if this will work for every Q, but mine's a UK 07 with bi-xenon and AFS. Also not sure if it's necessary to use CANBUS friendly LEDs or whether the normal, and cheaper, non CANBUS friendly bulbs will do the same thing.

Plus, as the coding is the same for an A6, it may well work on those too.

Just thought I'd share...

Charger2Q7

Nice, any pics? And what is AFS?

iconoclast

i have e-code (uk) headlights and would like to swap the standard strip of indicators at the bottom of the bumper to the LED ones found on the v12... anyone here know if it is plug and play? (by coding in this method mentioned above)

DieselDave

That strip on the V12 is the DRL. Indicators are where the DRLS would be on a standard Q. At least that was the case. There may be a newer version which has swapped them round.

Regardless, it wouldn't be plug 'n play as there is no code in the lighting module for LED indicators. That would require a new module which supports the LED indicators.
There is only coding for LED DRLs in the pre-facelift Q.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow.
AFS is the swivelling headlight when turning a corner. I forget exactly what AFS stands for. Someone will know I'm sure...

iconoclast

thank you. better left alone then, not worth it to pay all that money and have to start splicing wires and chopping up bumpers.

DieselDave

So, for anyone interested, here are the pics.

Notice in the shots with the headlights and foglights on, the sidelights in the bumper are not being used.

Changing the coding has meant the DRLs being used as sidelights, hence the reason they stay on with the headlights. Now that means the only lights on the bumper are the indicators.....perhaps it's time to swap that unit out for the LED indicators..

Dipsta

hey fella they lookk grreat, i'm havin a bit of a dilemma, having just picked my q7 up yesterday i had already purchased some s6 drl led's, however when connecting them to the standard single 1156 filament bulb, i get a bulb warning error.

Thats the least of my worries however, as i had seen this https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2692505
i thought great piece of ****, however his car must have been a petrol non turbo as on the osf, behind the small grille and under the indicator there is a intercooler, thus i dont have the depth to mount the light, i was going to install the s6 led's under the fog light on the lower of the bumper, but feel this will look poo and be a waste of time.

so DieselDave, how easy was it to programme your q7 to turn the stock 1156 ba15s to let the compuer know they are now led's? and have you lost th adaptive xenon?

my car is a july 07 sline 3.0tdi, will mine work in the same way and will the dealer do this? im off to the dealers on tuesday as its getting programmed for the new towbar im having fitted.

sorry for the pronunciation and poor spelling i have just broke mi leg and am fairly high on morphene.

thanks for your help

DieselDave

Very easy to re-code with VCDS. Module 09, 4th digit from 3 to 5.

Don't know if I've lost AFS yet, haven't been out in the dark. Not bothered if I have though.

Dealer might do it for you, depends how friendly they are. My local dealer wouldn't do that sort of thing.

phillips2024

bringing this one back...

i have an 09 q7 and like the idea of the LED DRL bulb. Where did you get these bulbs? what size?

in addition, im going to swap out my fogs for some hoen endurance fogs. what size bulb does the q7's fogs take?

thanks for answering my noob questions

Hasser

here is mine i did today.

DRL bulbs are 382 - P21W

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/382...-led-bulb.html

these are the ones i have installed.

this is the left side, you need to unscrew the cap to gain access to the bulb holder.





the bulb holder just unscrews and pulls out.
to accept the LED bulb i had to change the polarity, so you need to swap over the two cables running to the holder. if you dont do this the bulbs will not work. all you need to do is pull of the white plastic connectors and change them round.