I finally swapped my North American (NA) 2018 SQ5 tail lights with a second hand rest of world (ROW) pair I sourced via eBay Germany. The following process should work on NA 2018-2020 Q5 and SQ5 models.
My motivation was to get the amber turn signals and to decouple the brake lights from the turn signals.
Costs
- Actual cost without selling original tail lights: $930 USD
- Estimated cost including sale of original tail lights: ~$470
- Estimated cost including sale of original tail lights + VCP tool: ~$220
My DIY approach with second hand tail light units sourced from Germany at ~$580 USD + the Vag Con Professional (VCP) programming tool at $350 cost around $930 USD.
Assuming that I can sell my original NA tail light units for $460 for the pair (UPDATE: I actually sold each original tail light for $230 USD + shipping via eBay), the net outlay in parts cost will be ~$470.
If I can transfer ownership of the VCP unit and sell it for, let's say ~$250, then I'm looking at a net cost for this upgrade to be ~$220.
If you’re not keen on rolling the dice by purchasing second hand ROW OEM Q5/SQ5 tail lights, I recommend that you contact Alex at Europrice to source new ROW OEM lights, coding instructions and a VCP unit if you don’t have one. I believe he offers the VCP tool at a discount when you also source a set of new OEM ROW tail lights through him.
ROW Tail Light Units
ROW tail light part numbers:
80A945093B
80A945094B
The second hand pair I purchased on eBay Germany cost about $580 USD including shipping and took about two weeks to get to me. They are in excellent cosmetic condition. (More on the actual amber LED performance below).
(The NA tail lights are the same part numbers, but with an “A” in place of the trailing “B”).
Male Connectors
The position of the wires in the connectors appears to be the same for NA and ROW tail lights, but the connectors are not compatible. Note in the following picture that the tab on the left side of the tan NA male connector does not line up with the slot on the left of the ROW female connector:
connector-mismatch.jpg
Fortunately, you have several options ranging from simple to more complicated depending on your interests:
1/ Remove the incompatible tab from the NA male connectors: Use a utility knife to remove one thin blade from the each of the NA male connectors so that the connectors will fit into the ROW female connectors in the ROW tail lights. The slightly modified male connectors still snap into place. When you compare the NA male and ROW female connectors, it should be obvious as to the thin blade that you can shave off.
Since I got tired of waiting for the ROW male connectors that I ordered (see next option), I started with this approach.
Here's a result of using a utility knife to shave off the offending tab:
tab-shaved-off.jpg
2/ Order compatible male connectors and replace the NA male connectors: The part number is 8W0971636B. You’ll need two. They might cost anywhere from $8-$14 depending where your source them. It’s a part that’s generally available in the US.
You'll need the proper tools to swap the connectors.
As I mentioned above, I ordered these connectors but I probably won’t bother using them because option 1 was so simple and still results in a solid connection.
3/ Make a short adapter harness: You could source the female connector for the NA tail light, the ROW male connectors, and some proper wire to make your own plug and play harness.
Coding
Without doing any coding, the ROW lights functioned just like the NA units except for the amber vs red turn signals. The brake light will illuminate along with the turn signal.
I was hoping that, like the B8s, I could simply use my VCDS unit to make some programming changes to avoid turning on the brake lights when the turn signals are active. That’s not the case. After a lot of researching and consulting with Alex of Europrice, it became clear to me that you need to use a tool like VCP in order to send the right parameters to the module that controls the tail lights. Apparently, VCDS can not yet send parameters to modules.
This was a $350 “investment” that I was hoping to avoid. But Alex was great in that he had VCP units in stock and got one to me in two days.
OK, so the final step was the actual coding.
Use the VCP Activator to download necessary ".zdc" file
Using the VCP Activator program, you can download .zdc files that contain predefined codes and parameters for different modules. After some trial and error, I found that the file BCM2_q5_4n0907064am.zdc contained the necessary magic to separate the brake lights and turn signals.
1. Start Activator
2. Connect your dongle. Ensure that you have an active VCP subscription.
3. Select Filemanagement
4. In the text entry box, paste "BCM2_q5_4n0907064am.zdc"
5. Select "Download selected"
vcp-zdc-file.jpg
Use the VCP System program to upload the settings
1. Start VCP System program
2. Select "Guided Functions"
3. Select "Apps" on the lower right
4. Select "Upload parameter data" and "Next"
5. Select "Next" several times
6. Select "Open ZDC file"
7. Select the .zdc file you downloaded earlier
8. Under "ECUs", enter "46" in the text box to select "Central Module Comfort System"
9. Under "Data to upload" select the 7 files of the form "DATA_720x_LAMPCONFIG_EU_CONFIG" where “x” has values 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, A, and D.
10. Select "Upload selected data"
After the data has been uploaded, the turn signals should operate independently from the brake lights.
vcp-zdc-datasets-to-upload.jpg
Here's the result of the datasets having been applied to the module:
vcp-zdc-datasets-uploaded.jpg
BTW, even without swapping your NA tail lights for ROW, if you have access to VCP, you should be able to perform this separation with your red turn signals.
Results
So, am I satisfied with the result? Sort of. I’m happy to have turned off the brake lights when the turn signals are active and to have more visible amber rear turn signals.
I’m not as satisfied by what appears to be the design of our progressive rear turn signals in general.
A few years ago, I did a similar swap on my MK7 Golf R. In that case, the OEM euro amber tail lights have a modern light tube effect in which you can’t see the individual LEDs.
With the Q5 tail lights I purchased, I can clearly see each LED when the turn signals are active. I.e, in person, there’s not much of a light tube effect. To me, it’s more of a 2012ish look as compared to the rear red running lights and their very modern light tube effect. Here's a picture of how you can see the individual LEDs:
leds-visible-example.jpg
I swapped back my NA tails to compare and found the same result: the individual red LEDs are also visible when active.
The funny thing is that when you take a video of the lights in action, you get a progressive light tube effect. Consequently, my thinking is that this is just how the 2017 (2018 NA) - 2020 tail lights are designed. See the videos linked to at the start of the post for examples of how the turn signals have the light tube effect when recorded via video.
It would be helpful for any ROW B9 Q5/SQ5 owners to confirm that they can see the individual amber turn signal LEDs rather than a progressive light tube effect. That at least would help confirm that I didn’t get a defective or older pair of ROW tail lights. (Although I’m not aware of any variations in the ROW B9 2017-2020 tail lights).
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Originally Posted by ckamps
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