My caddy build and face lift

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KenTDI140
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Re: My caddy build and face lift

Post by KenTDI140 »

I’m not beet yet got a friend who is good with electrics trying to help from what I can tell the led ballast has an earth and a live. Then there is one more wire which goes to the bcm. Which I think is the green with black stripe. What I’m trying to find out is what does the bcm send to the led ballast?????? Is it an actual signal or just a voltage less than 12 volts and another voltage to tell the ballast to dim the led


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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KenTDI140 wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 5:43 pm I’m not beet yet
That's the spirit! Is it really that hard to upgrade to BCM? You might save yourself a lot of time/headaches with this upgrade...

In any case, here is a thread discussing the LEDs:

https://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20340

Try digging up some of MartyPL's other posts on the subject, he did the retrofit without any kits, making his own harnesses. There was more on the subject, but I can't find it right now.

For reference, here is my "how to" for installing the Xenons (with a Kufatec kit):

https://caddy2k.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=25064
KenTDI140 wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 5:43 pmWhat I’m trying to find out is what does the bcm send to the led ballast?????? Is it an actual signal or just a voltage less than 12 volts and another voltage to tell the ballast to dim the led
I expect it's a CAN command, but I don't actually know. I'll try reverting the lighting profile to factory to see what a BCM that doesn't "know" about LEDs does.
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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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Will have a read up on this over the weekend. To upgrade to a bcm I think would probably mean a complete rewire of most of the van as I think that there will be other parts that won’t talk to it but it might be worth looking into


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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Personally I don't think you're ever going to get this working to a "street legal for MOT" level without upgrading the CECM to BCM and fitting the full set of modules etc. I believe you'll fail MOT (with 35W Xenon) if you don't have the ALS (auto-leveling) working.

To do everything properly, it's going to be very expensive, you'll need to upgrade to BCM (which obviously involves buying one), and according to (an old message by) Doc it's a full day's work rewiring for an experienced auto-electrician. Then you've either got to buy or make your own wiring harness for all of the ALS sensors etc. Plus you've got the sensors to source and fit, the ALS module, and whatever modules the Xenons you have are missing. The parts cost (including headlights, excluding BCM) is around 2500UKP (that comes down a bit because the most expensive part is the actual lights). Then you've got whatever other modules and wiring (if any) you need to replace when you upgrade the BCM.

However, it may be the perfect opportunity to become *the* expert in Caddy wiring retrofitting, if that's something that you're interested in... ;)
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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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Lol well there are second hand bcm on eBay for under £100.00 I have the lights and all the three modules that bolt to each light. Personally I wouldn’t care if the auto levelling and curve lighting did not work.
Head light washers are not hard to fit and the motor 5 golf xenon lights never had auto levelling and had the higher powered xenons and a level switch inside the car.
So bcm not too bad to buy may be a second hand loom is a possibility.
If I get chance on Monday I will go into Tps and look at a diagram of the loom for a caddy with xenon lights to see what else it connects too that might need to be changed.


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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Any way changing the subject for a mo. Here is a mod that some of you might like.
After making my new inlet manifold the droning noise from the inlet was much worse than before. It was bad enough before but now it has become really bad.
So I decided to fit an air box and find or make one that my k&n cone filter would fit into.
So looking on eBay I found that the 2.0ltr sdi caddy has an air box with a barrel shaped filter inside it. I then found an add on ebay for a std filter for it with the measurements. It’s perfect for my k&n
So with a small alteration the k&n fits into the air box. And the pulse chamber also fits perfectly under the wing with all the piping. Here are some photos of what I did and the vw parts image
ImageImageImageImageImageImage


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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I’ve done some more research on the lights and I don’t think it will be possible to upgrade to the later bcm as it plugs into the main wiring loom of the van. That loom is £2900.00. So it would mean changing the whole wiring of the van and probably many other things as well
There must be a way to bypass the led module and just supply the led lights the direct voltage to light them up.


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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KenTDI140 wrote: Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:30 am There must be a way to bypass the led module and just supply the led lights the direct voltage to light them up.
LEDs work with PCM (effectively they're flashed on and off very quickly), so it's not just a case of adding electricity like a filament lamp. That's why they have their own controller (LED brightness is controlled by changing the flashing frequency for instance). So, you'd need to supply another controller if you wanted to bypass the LED module. It would be an interesting project if you were a computer software developer to use a Raspberry Pi (or similar) to emulate CAN devices. If you did that you could do many more interesting mods on CANbus cars, the least of which would be to emulate the CAN commands sent by the BCM/ALS modules.

In any case, the LEDs are a minor thing to get going on this project compared to getting the ALS system up and running, getting the lights out of "limp mode", and getting the high beams working. You'd need the above-mentioned CAN emulator to do that (not to mention quite a bit of time with a working Xenon system to capture all of the commands etc.), or you'd need to set up a full working ALS system. It's an unknown (which looks like it's tending towards "not possible"), that you wouldn't even be able evaluate until you'd completely installed all the sensors/modules & wiring. Then there's the interplay between the MFD, BCM, ALS and modules on the actual lights that's unknown. It's tricky enough to get it all working on retrofits with a compatible BCM! It would require, at the very least, CANbus snooping (on a working system) to even get an idea of what that interplay is...
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My caddy build and face lift

Post by KenTDI140 »

anoneamus wrote:
LEDs work with PCM (effectively they're flashed on and off very quickly), so it's not just a case of adding electricity like a filament lamp. That's why they have their own controller (LED brightness is controlled by changing the flashing frequency for instance). So, you'd need to supply another controller if you wanted to bypass the LED module. It would be an interesting project if you were a computer software developer to use a Raspberry Pi (or similar) to emulate CAN devices. If you did that you could do many more interesting mods on CANbus cars, the least of which would be to emulate the CAN commands sent by the BCM/ALS modules.

In any case, the LEDs are a minor thing to get going on this project compared to getting the ALS system up and running, getting the lights out of "limp mode", and getting the high beams working. You'd need the above-mentioned CAN emulator to do that (not to mention quite a bit of time with a working Xenon system to capture all of the commands etc.), or you'd need to set up a full working ALS system. It's an unknown (which looks like it's tending towards "not possible"), that you wouldn't even be able evaluate until you'd completely installed all the sensors/modules & wiring. Then there's the interplay between the MFD, BCM, ALS and modules on the actual lights that's unknown. It's tricky enough to get it all working on retrofits with a compatible BCM! It would require, at the very least, CANbus snooping (on a working system) to even get an idea of what that interplay is...
Ok so as you said it is not possible to get the caddy xenon lights working with the new technology used on the later caddy.
BUT. I have worked out how to get it working by reverting g it back to old style methods.
I have bought some of these led cob lights Image
For each light there are 15 led lights. So with the can bus error canceler and the dimming method I used on my old angel eye rings and a resistor the drop the voltage down from 12 volts I can replace the led system In The xenon lights and wire these up in 3 sets of 3 led each with a correct resistor and thus will work with out a light out error.
Next I will figure out how to operate the xenon shutter and use the std rocker wheel in the cab to change the hight when loaded


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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KenTDI140 wrote: Fri Sep 21, 2018 6:11 pm Ok so as you said it is not possible to get the caddy xenon lights working with the new technology used on the later caddy.
BUT. I have worked out how to get it working by reverting g it back to old style methods
Gotta say, I admire your tenacity. You certainly have your work cut out for you with this! Not sure how much I can help, as I've only done the "official" retrofit.

There was someone in the US that tried to get the height adjustment working on a Passat(?) without ALS, using the wheel on the dash. They got as far as building some kind of CAN emulator, not sure if they ever got it working. I found it by trawling forums for VW Xenon retrofit discussions, but can't remember which one I found it on (could be VWVortex or Rosstech).

I'm guessing you could bypass the "bend" function by removing the cornering modules from the lights and manually moving them into the correct "center" position.

The Xenon shutter I have no idea about, as the BCM can set it to be in low, high and travel modes.

Good luck! :)
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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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Ok well I will try to keep this as short as poss.
Firstly everything is moved by motors, even the shutter as it moves two shutters.
So I first removed the motors that control the bend movement. Then I secured the left and right movement of the xenon with a screw through the plastic frame.
Then I removed the solenoid from my old xenon conversion and removed all the gears and cogs that operate the shutter on the new caddy xenon. Then with hot glue I fixed the solenoid into the xenon casing and drilled a small hole in the one remaining cog so that it could operate the shutter.
Unfortunately the solenoid was not strong enough to work both shutters so I stripped down the light and took the projector off so I could remove the second shutter that is used for driving when out side the UK.
The next step was to remove the motor that moves the head light aim up and down and find a way to replace it with the one that was In My smashed face lift caddy lights.
I won’t bore you with explaining the hrs and hrs of work to carefully make it all line up and work but once I am done everything will work as per the mot regs for my year of van but it will all look like the std vw caddy face lift xenon lights


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

Post by anoneamus »

Impressive! You might want to check up on UK MOT rules (and probably swap out the lights for the std. ones when you're doing an MOT). AFAIK, 35W Xenons need ALS for MOT in the UK...
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My caddy build and face lift

Post by KenTDI140 »

Well the mk5 golf I have which is an 06 model has factory 35 watt xenons and only has head light washers so should be fine.
Real pain in the ass to change head lights for not as that means taking the bumper off.
Will double check today any way but I didn’t have any problems with my previous xenon conversion passing the mot


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Re: My caddy build and face lift

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KenTDI140 wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 9:32 am Well the mk5 golf I have which is an 06 model has factory 35 watt xenons and only has head light washers so should be fine.
Real pain in the ass to change head lights for not as that means taking the bumper off.
Will double check today any way but I didn’t have any problems with my previous xenon conversion passing the mot
Golf 5 has ALS (aka. Range Control), you can confirm here with the Kufatec retrofit kit:

https://www.kufatec.co.uk/shop/en/volks ... olf-5-plus

Maybe you're confusing that with the "bend"/cornering function, which it doesn't have?

UK MOT has stipulations for HID (Xenon) lamps: "MOT requirements dictate that all HID headlamps must be fitted with a washer system and automatic self-levelling functionality". As some members here have gotten passes without washers fitted, it seems to be up to the tester as to whether they would fail it on that or not.

All new cars will have both with the exception that low-power (eg. 25W) Xenons, like on the Caddy 4, don't seem to have that legal requirement (and hence Caddy 4 doesn't have ALS or washers).

It is possible to change headlights without removing the bumper... ;)
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Re: My caddy build and face lift

Post by KenTDI140 »

I have now finished rebuilding the xenon projector with the solenoid conversion and also fitted the hight adjustment motor from my broken head lights. It’s working well and the shutter works great.
ImageImage
I’m just waiting for the led cob’s to arrive from China so I can rebuild the led array with the can bus canceler I used for my old angel eye. This also has an extra wire that gets linked to the dip beam to dim the side light when the head lights are switched on.


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