Euro Tail Lights in USA

[airborne spoon]

So most (if not all) countries in Europe require the rear turn signals have to be yellow/orange instead of the red we have in the USA. If i were to acquire the euro tail light assembly would it be a 1 for 1 swap easy fit for my Dec 2014 P85D or would i need to get creative in the wiring and solder up a new harness to make it work?

Why do i want this? safety because the yellow/orange has been proven time and time again to be safer than red turn signals, and looks, i like modding my cars.

 

[Cheburashka]

Won't work. Need to reprogram the car to know you have EU lights.

 

[dds28]

Someone in the US converted their lights. Not sure how they got it to work. They owner of the car commented:

No, the modules I made demultiplexed the signals, the software on the car is untouched. No rear fog, just reverse lights (I did not change the tailgate lights, just the outboard ones)

 

[Verranzo]

I'm currently in beginning of the process of doing this myself. Always bugged me to the point where I want to just fix it myself. Right now I still need to get ahold of another EU taillight however.

My plan now is to get to the main control unit and change the signal wiring via relay logic. Got that planned out, just need to solder a board and take apart the dash. Waiting for time and warmer days.

From my research, changing the signals definitely can't be done in software with out rooting the mcu. Last I looked, rooting is possible for MCU 1 but not for MCU 2 (if you got the mcu upgrade).

 

[omega]

Did you guys figure all this out? Would need to do the same for my P85DL...
Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

[Verranzo]

I attempted it about 2 months ago. I rewired all the signals around so the top brake light signal would run the outside part of the taillights, and the front turn signals would run the new amber rear lights, all via relays. Even put equivalent grounding resistors on the old outputs so the controller would still see the original outputs pulling close to the same power. However that was not enough to convince the car that nothing has changed. With everything I tried, the turn signals would sense something was wrong and just blink 2x as fast. Was in a bit of a rush to get it done and put it back to normal. Might attempt it again someday.
Mines a 2017, so maybe the body controller is a bit more fancy and observant than older models.

 

[omega]

I attempted it about 2 months ago. I rewired all the signals around so the top brake light signal would run the outside part of the taillights, and the front turn signals would run the new amber rear lights, all via relays. Even put equivalent grounding resistors on the old outputs so the controller would still see the original outputs pulling close to the same power. However that was not enough to convince the car that nothing has changed. With everything I tried, the turn signals would sense something was wrong and just blink 2x as fast. Was in a bit of a rush to get it done and put it back to normal. Might attempt it again someday.
Mines a 2017, so maybe the body controller is a bit more fancy and observant than older models.

Thanks. I respect Tesla but dont understand why they refuse to help. We paid for their expensive cars, and if I decide to move somewhere else and make all these modifications at my expense, why not helping??? They suck here big times. It's like the phone I buy in US cannot be used in EU...The reason I buy all unlocked.

 

[kg7jo-]

Thanks. I respect Tesla but dont understand why they refuse to help. We paid for their expensive cars, and if I decide to move somewhere else and make all these modifications at my expense, why not helping??? They suck here big times. It's like the phone I buy in US cannot be used in EU...The reason I buy all unlocked.

If the phone you bought is missing a component that is required for EU, will you go after Apple, or Samsung asking them to add the component?

 

[omega]

If the phone you bought is missing a component that is required for EU, will you go after Apple, or Samsung asking them to add the component?

My guess is that if people are successfully driving US Tesla cars in EU, nothing is missing? I'm talking about sw/hw changes for which I'm willing to pay. It's the 21st century. If you buy a product and own it you should be able to use it anywhere on this planet. BTW amber lights are perfectly legal in US, why did they decide to make 2 sets of lights, how is that cost saving? 3 and y dont have the stupid red light anymore, it took them some time to figure out, but eventually they did...If all of us said cant do this or that, gas cars would still be on the road with no dead in sight, and Tesla would not exist. If there is a will there is a way.

 

[Verranzo]

Honestly, I'd assume there is some legal/liability reasons why they can't modify a car to a different specification beyond what was originally sold. Since they've never sold a Model S with Amber Taillights in the US, they can't modify one to use them since it's a configuration that was never verified/tested/sold in the US.

Course, we modifying our cars ourselves is on our own risk/liability, but Tesla even has put lots of work into making sure that doesn't even happen either. I certainly prefer Amber taillights for safety reasons (and aesthetics) and would love to get them on my car, but Tesla sure doesn't make it easy.

Maybe I'll give it another go over winter break.

 

[Verranzo]

Actually now that I think about it again, I found out that the dimmer, running lights that are on the trunk itself also blink when you put the turn signals on (i.e. during the day when your headlights & running lights would be normally off already). Found that very strange and unexpected, but also another signal I'd have to modify and change to get it to look right. Another reason I gave up that time.

 

[P100D_Me]

Serious question (not necessarily a criticism), why do some US car makers persist with this lack of amber indicator lights? I think this is a US only thing from all the travels I've done.

 

[cwanja]

Serious question (not necessarily a criticism), why do some US car makers persist with this lack of amber indicator lights? I think this is a US only thing from all the travels I've done.

Zero consistency with Tesla. Model Y flashes amber. So easily other cars could. And squashes my original thought that maybe there was some regulation that forced it to be red. But nope, US Ys flash amber for signaling.