Animated tail lights - project opportunity

[whitex]

As part of my retrofitting Euro tail lights project, I ended up doing a bunch of reverse engineering.




One thing that I found was that the tail lights (at least the Euro ones I got) have a live LIN bus active, meaning there is something in the lights that is speaking digital communications to the car.

Unfortunately, those pins are not connected - see PIN #3 for all tail light connectors (4 of them).

Looking at the available settings for the rear BCM (BCM2) which controls the tail lights, there is a setting to enable animated tail lights, as well as test for them (under Drive Links in PIWIS). This leads me to believe that is the four LIN pins were connected to the correct LIN bus pin of the BCM2 (sorry, I don't know which pin), you could code/enable animated tail lights for a Taycan, which would probably look like this.



While personally I have no desire for animated tail lights like the above, I know there are people who like them. So CALLING ALL TINKERERS LOOKING FOR A PROJECT. Take what I found out so far and try to enable the animated tail lights. Things to do:

1. Find out which pin on BCM2 is the correct LIN bus to connect the lights to
2. Wire the four LIN bus connections to the above
3. Code the BCM2 to enable animated tail lights (if you get this far, reach out, I can go back to see where those settings were)

If you need pointers how to get to the light connectors and BCM2, see the retrofitting Euro tail lights project post.

Good luck!

EDIT: if anyone is interesting in pursuing this, let me know. I might have some more information such as which pins of the BCM2 appear to have a LIN bus on them. I would have to dig through some of my pictures and notes to pull that out. This would at least tell you which pins to try to connect to on the BCM2 (you already know the pins on the lights from above).

EDIT2: apparently this was present in the pre-release of the original Taycan, so much more likely that it feasible to enable it on all gen1's at least.

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[trycan]

My 2025 is supposed to arrive sometime in August. I may not do this project immediately, but at some point I'd like to poke around to determine the differences in the Gen 2 from what @whitex discovered above. And, I can post back with my findings if things stayed pretty similar in these tail light wiring setups.

 

[n3ophyte]

I have a spare set of EU tail lights and the rear light strip if anyone fancies taking this animation project on?

 

[bigkraig]

I've been comparing the MY25 wiring diagrams with the MY22 and so far not seeing anything different, but i still have a few more plugs to go through. The Panamera has the same BCM2 control unit, so another option may be to crawl over those and compare too.

 

[whitex]

I've been comparing the MY25 wiring diagrams with the MY22 and so far not seeing anything different, but i still have a few more plugs to go through. The Panamera has the same BCM2 control unit, so another option may be to crawl over those and compare too.

Make sure you're looking at wiring diagrams for a car with the animation option.

 

[bigkraig]

Make sure you're looking at wiring diagrams for a car with the animation option.

AFAICT, they only have that version for the first gen taycans and no other cars. they are really nice and i wish they had them for everything else.

I did find a VIN for a MY25 with matrix lights, which advertise the animation, so i assume that included tail lights. ive got a connection on MX13 A3 and B3 now, so hopefully on to something.

 

[bigkraig]

OK, so if anyone is looking to do this, here is what I have found. It will likely be a few weeks before I am able to work on mine or take any photos.

There are a few permutations of the wiring on 4F0_972_575_D, but I believe pin 7 is either empty or may already be connected to the BCM with the violet/white wire.

All wires are violet with a white stripe, 0.35mm.

Right Tail Light:
Connector part 4H0_973_713_H pin 3 should connect to connector 1J0_972_977 pin 5 on the BCM2.

Left Tail Light:
Connector part 4H0_973_713_H pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_575_D pin 7.

4F0_972_575:
This is the other side of the plug of 4F0_972_575_D. Pin 7 should go to connector 1J0_972_977 pin 5 on the BCM2.

Tailgate Right Side, 8pin connector 982_973_714_A:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

Tailgate Right Side, 5pin connector 4H0_973_713_H:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

4F0_972_575_A:
This is the other side of 4F0_972_483_A. Pin 15 should go to connector 4F0_972_575_D pin 7.

 

[Mimmo]

OK, so if anyone is looking to do this, here is what I have found. It will likely be a few weeks before I am able to work on mine or take any photos.

There are a few permutations of the wiring on 4F0_972_575_D, but I believe pin 7 is either empty or may already be connected to the BCM with the violet/white wire.

All wires are violet with a white stripe, 0.35mm.

Right Tail Light:
Connector part 4H0_973_713_H pin 3 should connect to connector 1J0_972_977 pin 5 on the BCM2.

Left Tail Light:
Connector part 4H0_973_713_H pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_575_D pin 7.

4F0_972_575:
This is the other side of the plug of 4F0_972_575_D. Pin 7 should go to connector 1J0_972_977 pin 5 on the BCM2.

Tailgate Right Side, 8pin connector 982_973_714_A:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

Tailgate Right Side, 5pin connector 4H0_973_713_H:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

4F0_972_575_A:
This is the other side of 4F0_972_483_A. Pin 15 should go to connector 4F0_972_575_D pin 7.

Do you already have more information about this?

 

[bigkraig]

Do you already have more information about this?

nothing yet. I have ordered the connectors from alibaba so I would have fitting pins, but I am waiting on suncoast for a euro light order before I tear into things

 

[Mimmo]

nothing yet. I have ordered the connectors from alibaba so I would have fitting pins, but I am waiting on suncoast for a euro light order before I tear into things

Ok I'm wondering if that's going to work

 

[mystermykee]

Tailgate Right Side, 5pin connector 4H0_973_713_H:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

There's a 5 pin connector? Or is this a typo?

I'll see if I can attempt it this weekend. Adding pins and wiring is so tedious. I have PTSD from wiring the center ambers, and that was only two wires.

 

[bigkraig]

There's a 5 pin connector? Or is this a typo?

I'll see if I can attempt it this weekend. Adding pins and wiring is so tedious. I have PTSD from wiring the center ambers, and that was only two wires.

thats a fat finger. its a 6pin connector. looks like https://www.automotive-connectors.c...coding-ii-vw-restricted.html?___store=english

 

[bigkraig]

There's a 5 pin connector? Or is this a typo?

I'll see if I can attempt it this weekend. Adding pins and wiring is so tedious. I have PTSD from wiring the center ambers, and that was only two wires.

if you want to test out if the LIN has any action on the light, i would start with the right tail light, you should be able to connect A3 directly to C5 on the BCM and run a light test on PIWIS to see if the light animates. its a direct connection so you won't be wasting much effort if it works.

 

[mystermykee]

if you want to test out if the LIN has any action on the light, i would start with the right tail light, you should be able to connect A3 directly to C5 on the BCM and run a light test on PIWIS to see if the light animates. its a direct connection so you won't be wasting much effort if it works.

Thanks for this. I'm trying picture in my head and make sense of your original wire mapping post. For reference, here's whiteX picture of the BCM2 from his euro tails write up. Would you be able to clarify which 17pin and which 32pin BCM2 connectors by color?

Right Tail Light:
Connector part 4H0_973_713_H pin 3 should connect to connector 1J0_972_977 pin 5 on the BCM2.

Answered above. tail light pin 3--->pin 5 on the 32pin connector on the BCM2. Black or blue 32pin connector?

Left Tail Light:
Connector part 4H0_973_713_H pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_575_D pin 7.

Left tail light 6pin connector-->Pin 3 to pin 7 on the 17pin connector BCM2. I'm going to assume it's the black 17pin connector since that controls the left center tailgate light.

4F0_972_575:
This is the other side of the plug of 4F0_972_575_D. Pin 7 should go to connector 1J0_972_977 pin 5 on the BCM2.

There needs to be a wire connecting one of the 17pin BCM2 connectors to the 32pin BCM2 connector? In my case, both of the 17pin connectors already had a grey wire (brown connector pin 7/black connector pin 2)

Tailgate Right Side, 8pin connector 982_973_714_A:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

right center tailgate--->pin 3 goes to yellow 17pin BCM2 connector pin 15.

Tailgate Left Side, 6pin connector 4H0_973_713_H:
Pin 3 should connect to connector 4F0_972_483_A pin 15.

left center tailgate-->pin 3 goes to black yellow 17pin BCM2 connector pin 15.

4F0_972_575_A:
This is the other side of 4F0_972_483_A. Pin 15 should go to connector 4F0_972_575_D pin 7.

I need some clarification on this, please. Seems like we need a wire connecting the two 17pin connectors together?

 

[Mimmo]

Thanks for this. I'm trying picture in my head and make sense of your original wire mapping post. For reference, here's whiteX picture of the BCM2 from his euro tails write up. Would you be able to clarify which 17pin and which 32pin BCM2 connectors by color?

Answered above. tail light pin 3--->pin 5 on the 32pin connector on the BCM2. Black or blue 32pin connector?



Left tail light 6pin connector-->Pin 3 to pin 7 on the 17pin connector BCM2. I'm going to assume it's the black 17pin connector since that controls the left center tailgate light.



There needs to be a wire connecting one of the 17pin BCM2 connectors to the 32pin BCM2 connector? In my case, both of the 17pin connectors already had a grey wire (brown connector pin 7/black connector pin 2)



right center tailgate--->pin 3 goes to yellow 17pin BCM2 connector pin 15.



left center tailgate-->pin 3 goes to black yellow 17pin BCM2 connector pin 15.



I need some clarification on this, please. Seems like we need a wire connecting the two 17pin connectors together?

And did you succeed?

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