Auto Lights

[Nathan]

Hi Guys

My good freind has an M3 we got talking about Xenons and how much i loved mine. He went on to tell me that he was informed not to use his Auto Lights setting as it overtime will brake the senors that automaticaly turn them on and off, from going through tunals and them going on and then off all the time. Ifsthis true or is it a load of balls? I would hate to shorten the life of my Xenons as I know how much they are to repair/replace!

Many thanks

Nath

[Creepy Coupe]

My auto lights go on/off far less going through tunnels, than they do with that stupid coming and going feature that's fitted.

[Nathan]

I guess that is another time when they do it. You can turn this off tho, well at least in the highline comp you can!

[Teutonic_Tamer]

Hi Guys

My good freind has an M3 we got talking about Xenons and how much i loved mine. He went on to tell me that he was informed not to use his Auto Lights setting as it overtime will brake the senors that automaticaly turn them on and off, from going through tunals and them going on and then off all the time. Ifsthis true or is it a load of balls? I would hate to shorten the life of my Xenons as I know how much they are to repair/replace!

It's not the sensors which you need to worry about - because even if you have the auto lights fuction switched off, the sensor itself will still continue to operate.

You'll probably find that it is actually poor design by BMW (just like their useless control of rain sensing wipers, which uses the same sensor).

What will damage the Xenon/HID capsules, is turning them off BEFORE they have "warmed up" - ie, an extremely short flash of main beam of say less than one second.

On all VAG motors, there is a "delay" function built into the auto headlamp control.  Say you enter a dark tunnel, the headlamps will illuminate immediately, but then when you come out the other end, back into bright sunshine, they will stay on for a short period of time after.

I think you will also notice that on the "coming home/leaving home" function, the minimum time for illumination is 10 seconds, and so shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the life of the bulb.

Incidentally, on my new RS4, I don't have any halogen back-up for the mains, in the same way the Golf does - so they must be confident that headlamp flashing won't have any detrimental effect !!

BTW, they are as cool as fcuk, when they swivel around corners at night   

[Creepy Coupe]

Hi Guys


What will damage the Xenon/HID capsules, is turning them off BEFORE they have "warmed up" - ie, an extremely short flash of main beam of say less than one second.


I think you will also notice that on the "coming home/leaving home" function, the minimum time for illumination is 10 seconds, and so shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the life of the bulb.

Incidentally, on my new RS4, I don't have any halogen back-up for the mains, in the same way the Golf does - so they must be confident that headlamp flashing won't have any detrimental effect !!

BTW, they are as cool as fcuk, when they swivel around corners at night   

Are you saying when you use the headlamp flash function, your Xenon's come on?

[Teutonic_Tamer]

What will damage the Xenon/HID capsules, is turning them off BEFORE they have "warmed up" - ie, an extremely short flash of main beam of say less than one second.


I think you will also notice that on the "coming home/leaving home" function, the minimum time for illumination is 10 seconds, and so shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the life of the bulb.

Incidentally, on my new RS4, I don't have any halogen back-up for the mains, in the same way the Golf does - so they must be confident that headlamp flashing won't have any detrimental effect !!

BTW, they are as cool as fcuk, when they swivel around corners at night   

Are you saying when you use the headlamp flash function, your Xenon's come on?

Yeah.

On the Golf Bi-Xenons, the inner bulb is a H7 halogen, which comes on by itself during the headlamp flash (without the dipped beam on), and also comes on in conjunction with the Xenon when dips are on.

On my RS4 (and other B7 A4/S4s) with "Xenon Plus" headlamps, the inner bulbs are just a 21watt tungsten (just like a reverse lamp), and are only used as DRLs.  Even with all lights off, the headlamp flash fires up the Xenon! 

[Creepy Coupe]

What will damage the Xenon/HID capsules, is turning them off BEFORE they have "warmed up" - ie, an extremely short flash of main beam of say less than one second.


I think you will also notice that on the "coming home/leaving home" function, the minimum time for illumination is 10 seconds, and so shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the life of the bulb.

Incidentally, on my new RS4, I don't have any halogen back-up for the mains, in the same way the Golf does - so they must be confident that headlamp flashing won't have any detrimental effect !!

BTW, they are as cool as fcuk, when they swivel around corners at night   

Are you saying when you use the headlamp flash function, your Xenon's come on?

Yeah.

On the Golf Bi-Xenons, the inner bulb is a H7 halogen, which comes on by itself during the headlamp flash (without the dipped beam on), and also comes on in conjunction with the Xenon when dips are on.

On my RS4 (and other B7 A4/S4s) with "Xenon Plus" headlamps, the inner bulbs are just a 21watt tungsten (just like a reverse lamp), and are only used as DRLs.  Even with all lights off, the headlamp flash fires up the Xenon! 

Intereting, I wouldn't have thought they'd be bright enough for that 1 second blast, live and learn. 

[Teutonic_Tamer]

What will damage the Xenon/HID capsules, is turning them off BEFORE they have "warmed up" - ie, an extremely short flash of main beam of say less than one second.


I think you will also notice that on the "coming home/leaving home" function, the minimum time for illumination is 10 seconds, and so shouldn't have any detrimental effect on the life of the bulb.

Incidentally, on my new RS4, I don't have any halogen back-up for the mains, in the same way the Golf does - so they must be confident that headlamp flashing won't have any detrimental effect !!

BTW, they are as cool as fcuk, when they swivel around corners at night   

Are you saying when you use the headlamp flash function, your Xenon's come on?

Yeah.

On the Golf Bi-Xenons, the inner bulb is a H7 halogen, which comes on by itself during the headlamp flash (without the dipped beam on), and also comes on in conjunction with the Xenon when dips are on.

On my RS4 (and other B7 A4/S4s) with "Xenon Plus" headlamps, the inner bulbs are just a 21watt tungsten (just like a reverse lamp), and are only used as DRLs.  Even with all lights off, the headlamp flash fires up the Xenon! 

Intereting, I wouldn't have thought they'd be bright enough for that 1 second blast, live and learn. 

Perhaps there is a new generation of super fast ballast, to wake the bu&&ers up with a little more viggor !! 

[Nathan]

So just to confirm, do you think having my lights on Auto should have no long tearm effect on my Xenons?

Thanks for the info so far

[Teutonic_Tamer]

So just to confirm, do you think having my lights on Auto should have no long tearm effect on my Xenons?

I certainly wouldn't think leaving the lights on auto would cause any noticeable shortening of the Xenon bulbs.  Afterall, Mercs have been using a similar system for longer than the Golf, and no adverse problems have been reported!

However, I personally have my headlamps on 24/7, day or night (when I'm driving the car, obviously    ), so I don't use that function.  Whilst I think the Auto lights is an interesting idea, you need to bear in mind it doesn't work in rain or fog, so you need to use them manually anyway!

Thanks for the info so far

No worries - keep 'em comming!