LED Headlight RetroFit on Older Cars

[EVS Motors]

We would love to be able to do these for our clients in Houston!

 

[bradhs]

Great progress so far! I'm surely interested if you can figure it out. It sounds like CAN to me. I'll email SC and see if they have any info.

 

[Mike K]

Well cool. The interest is coming a bit late but we'll be working on it so happy to see this!

I also have a facelift bumper coming in tomorrow which means we should know before the weekend if the facelift bumper is a bolt-on part.

 

[SevenWithaT]

Well cool. The interest is coming a bit late but we'll be working on it so happy to see this!

I also have a facelift bumper coming in tomorrow which means we should know before the weekend if the facelift bumper is a bolt-on part.

oh nice! This is even better!

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Other criticism aside...

Great points, Mike.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Yep!

CORRECTION - Only face-lifted "Performance" Model S comes with ventilated seat option. No other configurations. So you have to buy a P90D or P100D to get those seats.

 

[SevenWithaT]

Please let us know if you have any progress on the bumper, too.

 

[paul.scott]

I really thought there would be more interest in retrofitting these than there is but for the two of your apparently interested... ;-)

After more investigation it's looking like it's not easily achievable. The classic light is using voltage to determine whether a light comes on. So when you flip your turn signal on that pin is getting intermittent 12v applied to it each time that light should illuminate. And when you turn on your DRLs that pin gets voltage to denote that the DRLs should be on.

With the new lights that isn't the case (sans turn signals). These appear to just receive power and then there is a signal wire that tells them what should be on and when. Incorporating this into an older car would appear to require a retrofit harness and coding at the very least.

That said, the lights do come on when plugged into the classic car and you could likely make them work as-is. The problem is when the lights have power applied to them the low beams seem to come on by default. And you need 12v power at all times for the turn signal to work. So you can't just cut 12v power when want the headlights to be off because then you'll lose the turn signals. So here was my solution:

Pop the light open and run power directly from the classic harness to each component. So for the DRLs you'd run power from the DRL pin on the harness or the old light controller directly to the DRL board in the new light. Likewise with the turn signals. You'd completely bypass the new controller (which appears to only be providing a ground for this light anyhow). The remainder of the light would effectively be power down until you turn on the headlights at which point you'd provide power to the new light's controller which would turn on it's low beams.

There's a bunch of what-ifs here and you'd almost certainly lose your high beams and wouldn't get the adaptive lighting either though the adaptive lighting is a joke on these lights so you're not missing anything.

Full disclosure: there are people way smarter than me that might look at this, realize the stock harness already has the needed CAN connection and determine that all that's needed is some coding and a few pins moved. That's an unlikely scenario given Tesla probably wouldn't just move pins for no reason at all but it could exist. More likely, if they end up offering a retrofit it will be in the form of a new headlight harness and some coding, similar to the folding mirror, parking sensor and TPMS retrofits.

Cliffs: For anyone wondering if this headlight will just plug into the old car and work, the answer is no.

I am very interested in retrofitting the whole front of my car if possible. I just started researching it recently.

 

[paul.scott]

A little update. It appears that the pin the old headlights use for low beam is the pin the facelift headlights use for constant power. Because if I turn the headlights off I also lose the fan in them as well as the turn signal. So that's a fun development.

The turn signal also blinks really fast with the new light plugged in which is peculiar because both the old and new lights use LEDs for the turn signal.

That said, I have a 12V source on my harness that's not going anywhere on the new headlight. So I'm far from having this properly hooked up. Anyone with a copy of the pinout for the facelift headlights? That would really put this to bed for me. I can swap wires in the harness but right now I'm really guessing. I don't want to pay for access to the online manual only to discover that the new headlights aren't in there yet.

So if anyone has access to that I would be forever indebted.

Mike, What year is your car? Mine is a late 2014 with tech package and I have the corner lights that turn on when the steering wheel is turned and the fog lamps turn on when the car is in reverse. So i wonder if the pin out is different from 2013 to 2014 but same as the latest incarnation. Wouldn't the lights have to be connected to the CAN bus for the corning lights to operate?

 

[bredi]

wow. Thank you. I just assumed "Adaptive" headlights were more standard. I didn't realize BMW was so far ahead on this. They truly are amazing.

come on tesla! see the light!

 

[Mike K]

Mike, What year is your car? Mine is a late 2014 with tech package and I have the corner lights that turn on when the steering wheel is turned and the fog lamps turn on when the car is in reverse. So i wonder if the pin out is different from 2013 to 2014 but same as the latest incarnation. Wouldn't the lights have to be connected to the CAN bus for the corning lights to operate?

Does yours work different than my 2013? Because my 2013 also has the low speed cornering lights but I always just assumed those were in the lower capsule with the fogs.

 

[paul.scott]

Does yours work different than my 2013? Because my 2013 also has the low speed cornering lights but I always just assumed those were in the lower capsule with the fogs.

Those are in the lower capsule with the fogs. I also noticed recently that the fogs turn on when the car is put into reverse. I was just wondering if when they did the tech package lighting or went to HID if they changed the lighting pin out then or if they did it with the 2016 models with LED lighting.

I thought although now I realize I was not remembering correctly I thought last years christmas light display included a model S and it was three X's when I looked back at the video where we saw they could get pretty creative with programming the lights. I was just thinking since the car has to know wheel position for the low speed cornering lights that maybe some cars came wired a little different. Since yours has those two the CAN bus connections must be in the lower capsule to tell the light to turn on when turning or turn on the fog lamps when in reverse.

I was thinking sometime in 2013 they went from Halogen to HID Projectors so I was wondering if they changed the wire harness then or if that didn't come until the LED light change.

 

[paul.scott]

CORRECTION - Only face-lifted "Performance" Model S comes with ventilated seat option. No other configurations. So you have to buy a P90D or P100D to get those seats.

I hope they will in time let us upgrade our other cars. I want ventilated seats badly but really don't need the Performance Model. I speed too much as it is.

 

[paul.scott]

Well cool. The interest is coming a bit late but we'll be working on it so happy to see this!

I also have a facelift bumper coming in tomorrow which means we should know before the weekend if the facelift bumper is a bolt-on part.

Did you order it from Tesla or from KarStyle? From what Tesla told me there are a lot of changes behind the bumper. Particularly for Autopilot cars like mine. The Radar is now behind the T higher on the bumper to prevent road debris or snow and ice from disabling it. My AP got shutdown by a moth one day.

 

[Mike K]

Those are in the lower capsule with the fogs. I also noticed recently that the fogs turn on when the car is put into reverse. I was just wondering if when they did the tech package lighting or went to HID if they changed the lighting pin out then or if they did it with the 2016 models with LED lighting.

I thought although now I realize I was not remembering correctly I thought last years christmas light display included a model S and it was three X's when I looked back at the video where we saw they could get pretty creative with programming the lights. I was just thinking since the car has to know wheel position for the low speed cornering lights that maybe some cars came wired a little different. Since yours has those two the CAN bus connections must be in the lower capsule to tell the light to turn on when turning or turn on the fog lamps when in reverse.

I was thinking sometime in 2013 they went from Halogen to HID Projectors so I was wondering if they changed the wire harness then or if that didn't come until the LED light change.

Early cars could have either halogens or HIDs and that was determined by the presence of the tech package. I have nothing other than speculation to go off of but I'm going to assume that they used identical harnesses since the lighting control is in the light and there would be no need to run a different harness for halogen versus HID.

I don't think the newer cars are any different but I just ordered a P85D which will be here in a few weeks so I'll be sure to report on that.

Did you order it from Tesla or from KarStyle? From what Tesla told me there are a lot of changes behind the bumper. Particularly for Autopilot cars like mine. The Radar is now behind the T higher on the bumper to prevent road debris or snow and ice from disabling it. My AP got shutdown by a moth one day.

Tesla. I bought it for my pre-AP 2013 though. I'm not sure I'd want to take the project on with an AP car unless I was to keep the radar sensor in it's original position.

 

[Ingineer]

I can say for sure that the entire production run up to the refresh (2012-2016) had the same headlight wiring, regardless of HID/Halogen. The new refresh lights use the same connector, but a totally different pin configuration with a LIN connection from the Body ECU to control the lights, which is not present on the pre-refresh cars.

It's not yet clear to me if the existing body ECU has this extra LIN output for the refresh lights. If so, then it should be possible to retrofit with just a wiring change.

 

[DillyBop]

i sure wish i could have LED's on my current Tesla!

but i tell you what... the lights on there now ain't too shabby!

 

[Model S M.D.]

Oh man. I missed that. Are they finally putting the vented seats in the facelift cars?

@Mike K @AmpedRealtor

Here are the new premium seats! They definitely kick up the interior a notch. New 'Premium' seats for P90D and P100D

 

[skilly]

If we just want to do an update, and avoid the "hassle" of trying to set up the adaptive component, it seems like this might work. The upgraded lighting comes as HID or adaptive LEDs. The HID would have a signal wire, constant for the LED DLR, headlight, high beam, ground etc. Judging by the first part of this post, plugging in they get some of the lighting to work and no faults, it means that a few of the wires are in the right spot. It would seem that the differences come down to the high beam and the DLR LED.

Has anyone done just a swap for an improved/upgraded look? I found a used bumper (2017) and I'm gonna take a shot at the lighting too...just seems like it shouldn't be that tough as long as you aren't looking for the adaptive.

 

[skilly]

I can say for sure that the entire production run up to the refresh (2012-2016) had the same headlight wiring, regardless of HID/Halogen. The new refresh lights use the same connector, but a totally different pin configuration with a LIN connection from the Body ECU to control the lights, which is not present on the pre-refresh cars.

It's not yet clear to me if the existing body ECU has this extra LIN output for the refresh lights. If so, then it should be possible to retrofit with just a wiring change.

was this ever looked into?