More lighting thoughts

[TonyFSC]

Hi All,
I have had my Leon for 2 months now and have become familiar with all the controls.
The driving lights are really good; the method of controlling them is bizarre, verging on the ludicrous; are they even compliant with regulations?
I do not have auto lights, but full LED's.

1) You have no indication in drivers eye-line that dipped beam is on. The switch is illuminated but hidden by the hand on the steering wheel.
2) You have audible warning that you have left sidelights on but not headlights. So next time you switch on you may be unaware that you are driving with headlights on. This happens to me regularly now the nights are drawing in.

Wonderful car; poor lighting controls.
Brochure says 'Lights left on warning buzzer', not true.
The ridiculous dimming panel lights have been done to death elsewhere.
Tony

 

[Curtly]

Sounds like you could benefit from the convenience pack lol

 

[Wings988]

I can't understand why they don't have a dipped beam on light in the dashboard. My mk7 golf is the same unless you've got the switch turned to dipped, in auto lights mode no idea if they're on or not. Last week I'd left it in auto and was driving in fog had several people flash me then realised my lights were not on so turned the switch round to dipped.I don't understand why vag don't put this light on the dash especially for cars with auto lights. All the french hire cars, Citroën and pug I've had recently display dipped beam on the dash which is much better.

 

[Snah]

In fog indeed the auto lights doesn't activate the dipped beam because the amount of light the sensor receives is too much to active the lights (during daylight o.c.).
All car brands with this feature suffer from this, just be aware of this and switch them on by hand.
When you have auto lights you can detect they are on or not easily by looking at the red Led's at the ceiling near the rear view mirror. They are only lit when the dipped or high beam lights are on (including the rear lights).
Not forget that when driving with DRL lights only the rear lights are not lit.
From 1st of January 2015 in the whole EU it is for NEW models, not the current models, mandatory to have the rear lights on together with the DRL lights at the front.
But you can achieve this in your current 5F by adapting the software with VCDS.

 

[neil_f225]

I have auto lights but rarely use this setting. It's not that hard to look at the switch and see if they are on and if you need to rely on an auto setting to ensure your lights are on when required then I dread to think how well your concentrating on your driving. Too many "auto" things these days that people become complacent with and blame them for not working properly. My dad just bought a new Leon and the salesman's response of "just leave the lights in auto and you don't need to worry " sums up my opinion. I only use auto setting if I want to activate the coming home lights.Pretty sure if I have my lights on dipped and turn the ignition off then lights turn off anyway therefore you don't need a buzzer to tell you. Only stay on in sidelight position.