side light confusion?!?!?!

[seyles]

On my 97 8v GTI the side lights light up in the spot light area of the head light cluster. Now there is no problem with them they work fine, but I was sure that when the engine was on the main beam part of the cluster also lit up with the side lights. Not the main beam, I'm not that daft. Well After looking at other GTIs and mk3s with the dual headlight clusters I noticed that they only had the side lights in the spot light area, so I convinced myself that I must be imagining it. I even looked at the circuit diagram in the Haynes manual to see if there were any extra wires.

Well that all changed last night when I saw a R reg 16v with it's side lights on lighting up both the main beam area and the spot light area of the clusters which brought back the memory of mine doing that.

Does anybody know what parts a supposed to light up?

[Overseer]

uhh...

diff between high beam  and low beam?

[seyles]

sorry, difficult to explain, not high / low beam as the bulb in there only has one element. Should have said brightness levels. The main part only has the same low brightness level as the side beams when the ignition is on and the switch is only on the side light first click. I swear mine used to do this but doesn't anymore! I remember being parked with just the side lights on, turning the engine off and seing the reflection of the lights get dimmer and change shape and I know it was nothing to do with the lights being brighter because the alternator was charging.

I think I'm going crazy now!

[8vgti]

My sidelights only light up the full beam/circular part of the headlamp, although I have a vague recollection that this topic was posted somewhere else and someone had replaced some electrical part that meant that the sidelights lit up more of the glas (if that makes sense)....but dont ask me where I saw it  

[richellis]

On my 98 mk3 gti its
Side lights, Ignition on or off- Small bulbs in spot light section
Driving lights- Side lights and bulbs in main part of the light
Full- Every thing!
This is the same as all 4 of my mk3 gti's!