Exterior but no interior lights?

Do you have daytime running lights? Could you it be them only?

Anyway, if not, it is weird...

Pedro

The ambient level of light is low so your outside lights have come on - this level is taken from the sensor in the rear view mirror next to the on button.

The dash instrument lighting level is taken from a sensor at the bottom right corner of your speedo, it just won't have been dark enough to trigger the dash lights.

This happens sometime with mine and my sat nav, outside lights on which you would expect the nav to go into night mode as they have gone on, but no it stays in day mode as the reading from the dash sensor gets enough light.

Clever cars!

Erm its not trust me!

Your lights don't come on just because of the rain. There IS a sensor that works them from the auto dim rear view mirror.

Iv'e done loads of testing with the sat nav, the two sensors work together. Your outside lights will come on if the ambient light level is low but if the clock pod sensor is getting enough light the instument lights wont come on until its dark/darker.

You will be able to see the sensor in the lower right of the speedo, shine a torch at it when its dark and even if you turn the clock brightness to minimum they will brighten up if a torch light is shined in the sensor! Vice versa if it is dull the clock instruments wont be as bright. This is very noticable with my sat nav to a point of lowering the drivers window you can see the screen brighten with the extra light the sensor gets. Bit annoying as you can't set the brightness and leave it as you want now as the car decides as to the light level.

There is some info on www.navplus.us re this.

Wait for a dull morning and you will see!

Just noticed you have dvd sat nav, go out and shine a torch beam into the sensor and watch your map screen light up!

Taken from Audi Site: 3rd Paragraphs covers rear view mirror and headlights

The rain sensor activates the windscreen wipers automatically if it starts to rain or if there is any other moisture on the windscreen and adapts the wiper interval to match the amount of rain. How it works: light-emitting diodes inside the rain sensor emit an invisible infrared light which is reflected by the outside surface of the windscreen and measured by photodiodes. If the full amount of light returns to the photodiode then the windscreen is dry. A film of water or drops on the windscreen break up the light emitted. As the measuring process is permanent, the electronics can control the wiper intervals perfectly.

The light sensor measures the surrounding light conditions with the aid of a photo cell and switches on the low-beam headlights automatically at dusk. The light sensor comprises the coming home / leaving home function. When leaving the vehicle, the front fog lights, tail lights and number-plate light are switched off after a certain delay (coming home) and switched on when the driver unlocks the doors with the radio-operated remote control or the advanced key (leaving home). The car?s outside lights can thus be used to light the way to the front door or the vehicle in the dark. On the new Audi A6, the time delay before the lights are switched off can be adjusted via the MMI system - for example, to coincide with the amount of time it takes to walk from the vehicle to the house.

The automatic-dip inside and outside mirrors identify excessively bright headlight beams behind the car and darken the mirror glass automatically. An electronic control unit varies the darkening effect quickly and continuously according to actual ambient light conditions.
The automatic dip function makes use of a transparent, electrically conductive material that becomes increasingly impervious to light when an electric current is applied to it. A very thin layer of this material is inserted between the actual mirror reflector and the outer glass.
The mirror also contains two photo-electric cells. One of these faces forward and determines the ambient light intensity, which it converts into an electrical signal. The second is in the rear-facing surface of the mirror, and reacts when a bright light strikes it from behind the car. If this light is very much brighter than the ambient light intensity, the photo-electric cell generates the necessary electrical signal immediately, the electrically conductive layer darkens and the image in the mirror no longer dazzles the driver.
In some models, the automatic-dip inside mirror is available with a light sensor, which switches the dipped-beam headlights on or off according to the ambient light level.

Well the last sentence in my post above explains it!

The rain sensor has nothing to do with measuring light or turning lights on. The rain sensor activates the windscreen wipers automatically if it starts to rain or if there is any other moisture on the windscreen and adapts the wiper interval to match the amount of rain.

How it works: light-emitting diodes inside the rain sensor emit an invisible infrared light which is reflected by the outside surface of the windscreen and measured by photodiodes. If the full amount of light returns to the photodiode then the windscreen is dry. A film of water or drops on the windscreen break up the light emitted. As the measuring process is permanent, the electronics can control the wiper intervals perfectly.

Its just one of those things you have only noticed now, I spot things all the time and most of the time I think something is wrong but its just new technonogy I don't know the car has!