Daytime Running Lights Sensitivity

[ApolloS3]

Hi guys,

Ive read a few posts around about this but havent really found anything of use.

Basically when im driving around and its lightly cloudy but still broad daylight, my headlights come on if i have the switch set to Auto. I regularly pass A3's which have the DRL LED's on full brightness when my headlights are on...

Living in Wales, its always like this so basically my headlights are on constant at this time of year.

Just wondering if anyone knows if its possible to change the sensitivity of the auto lights, i read that the wipers sensitivity also changes the lights, but this doesnt seem to change anything but the wipers.

Secondly, if the headlights dont come on, and the DRL's are on (switch set to Auto), when i switch to sidelights, they stay on, but change to half brightness... does anyone know why this is? or is it possible to make them stay at full brightness?

Cheers

 

[Arjuanamo]

I am in the exact same boat as you mate.I got auto lights and they always turn the lights on even when it is cloudy at 2-3 in the afternoon.The sidelight setting does not do the DRL's justice as they are so dim and you can hardly see them in the day.

I saw a thread on here where you can change the country of the lighting in coding to the Scandinavian setting and it will cause the Sidelight DRL to turn to full brightness .I did this mod and it only resulted in my back lights turning on whilst i am in the auto setting with The DRL's on,so it wasn't that much use .With everyone without the auto lights it changed the sidelight to DRL to full brightness

I couldn't find any other solution other than that.there is one menu in the coding where i need a special security code,perhaps the answer might lie in there.Hopefully there could be a option to change the sensitivity of the light sensor so it allows the DRL's to stay on at lower light levels.

 

[MikeCorleone]

I had the same problem where the only way to get the full brightness LED lights would be to leave the car in Auto and hope that it doesn't think it's too dark and switch on the XENON. I regretted having my car with Auto Lights as the cars without, would have 'DRL' instead of 'Auto' on the light switch..

I member on here, Ash, told me that there is a VCDS setting that turns the FULL brightness LED's on when the switch is set to '0'

So now i drive around in the mornings and late afternoon 4-5PMish with my LEDs at '0' and then when it gets dark, i put it into auto.

 

[MrLapou]

My car with auto setting and LED DRL's does the same. Xenons one when it's not really required.

Good thread. Be interesting to learn if it's possible to configure the LED DRL settings.

 

[A3Kent]

I regularly pass A3's which have the DRL LED's on full brightness when my headlights are on...

Could that not be because they don't have Auto lights and have manually turned the DRL's on?

 

[ApolloS3]

Ive done some more digging and found these settings for VCDS, i do not have VCDS, nor have i used it but i understand the logic...

Adjust LED brightness
[09 – Cent. Elect.] [Security Access - 16] (enter security code. One of the default codes is- 20113)
[Adaptation - 10] -> Channel 3
Set between 5 and 100

Enable DRL Selectable via MMI
[09 – Cent. Elect.] -> [Coding – 07] -> Long Coding Helper -> Byte 3
Bit 5 set to 1

Enable DRL
[09 – Cent. Elect.] [Coding - 07] -> Long Coding Helper -> Byte 2
Bit 1 = DRL via Front Side markers
Bit 2 = DRL via High Beams
Bit 3 = DRL via Fogs
Bit 4 = DRL via LEDs
Bit 6 = DRL via Side markers
Bit 7 = DRL via Tail lights

Source: VCDS & Hidden menu: The complete list (there is a long list with awesome things, but not related to this thread)

EDIT: Just reread it, its for S4 cars, but could still work all the same.

I regretted having my car with Auto Lights as the cars without, would have 'DRL' instead of 'Auto' on the light switch..

I member on here, Ash, told me that there is a VCDS setting that turns the FULL brightness LED's on when the switch is set to '0'

So now i drive around in the mornings and late afternoon 4-5PMish with my LEDs at '0' and then when it gets dark, i put it into auto.

This sounds like exactly what im after. Has anyone done this?

 

[ApolloS3]

Could that not be because they don't have Auto lights and have manually turned the DRL's on?

Yes your absolutely right, as Mike said, makes me wish i didnt get auto lights now, for the sake of one switch rotation.

 

[A3Kent]

There was me thinking that I wished I had Auto Lights with my DRL's. Maybe not then

 

[ApolloS3]

There was me thinking that I wished I had Auto Lights with my DRL's. Maybe not then

You must be one of those A3 drivers i was on about, im jealous, theres you showing your DRL's off and im driving round with headlights at mid day in the sunshine

 

[A3Kent]

You must be one of those A3 drivers i was on about, im jealous, theres you showing your DRL's off and im driving round with headlights at mid day in the sunshine

Doesn't sound cool mate. I thought you would have the option to manually switch to DRL even with Auto lights. Clearly not!

 

[ApolloS3]

Doesn't sound cool mate. I thought you would have the option to manually switch to DRL even with Auto lights. Clearly not!

Nope,

Position 0 - off
Position 1 - Auto
Position 2 - Sidelights ( LED's turn on but barely visible if selected in daylight )
Position 3 - Headlights ( Same as auto basically )

Would happily switch auto to just LED's on at full brightness

 

[NHN]

You can login to the rain/light sensor, its a sub system of module 09 & see if the percentage settings would make a difference to the sensitivity, there were specific car percentages you could select, some wouodnt be valid in my experience, so try your luck & see what occurs.

There are various settings for brightness of lights, so you'd need to look through adaptations & the long coding for anything relevant.

 

[MikeCorleone]

Nope,

Position 0 - off
Position 1 - Auto
Position 2 - Sidelights ( LED's turn on but barely visible if selected in daylight )
Position 3 - Headlights ( Same as auto basically )

Would happily switch auto to just LED's on at full brightness

Through VCDS, Ash, managed to change my: Position 0 - FULL brightness DRL

Only downside is, when i'm in Vigilante mode and the engine is still running, the lights do not turn off now! I sit there in the dark with the brightest LED lights coming from my car! haha

 

[ApolloS3]

Through VCDS, Ash, managed to change my: Position 0 - FULL brightness DRL

Only downside is, when i'm in Vigilante mode and the engine is still running, the lights do not turn off now! I sit there in the dark with the brightest LED lights coming from my car! haha

How often do you need to turn your lights to the off position though, i usually lock my car with the switch still at auto. im assuming when you take the keys out the lights go off anyway?

 

[ApolloS3]

You can login to the rain/light sensor, its a sub system of module 09 & see if the percentage settings would make a difference to the sensitivity, there were specific car percentages you could select, some wouodnt be valid in my experience, so try your luck & see what occurs.

There are various settings for brightness of lights, so you'd need to look through adaptations & the long coding for anything relevant.

Thanks,

Will check it out.

 

[MikeCorleone]

How often do you need to turn your lights to the off position though, i usually lock my car with the switch still at auto. im assuming when you take the keys out the lights go off anyway?

At night before going into the house I would have probably been driving around in Auto.
It's only until the next morning when I get in the car, it might still be a little dark or cloudy, the Auto setting will switch the xenons on... Thats when I switch it to '0' for FULL LED.

Only other problem is that my Coming/Leaving home lights don't work unless the switch is set to Auto.

 

[ApolloS3]

At night before going into the house I would have probably been driving around in Auto.
It's only until the next morning when I get in the car, it might still be a little dark or cloudy, the Auto setting will switch the xenons on... Thats when I switch it to '0' for FULL LED.

Only other problem is that my Coming/Leaving home lights don't work unless the switch is set to Auto.

But then if its at night, as long as you leave it on Auto, the coming/leaving home will still work when you leave and enter the car the following morning, then when you get in just switch to position 0

I really want to do this with mine, any idea how he did it? which Ash was it that did yours? I know a couple

 

[MikeCorleone]

But then if its at night, as long as you leave it on Auto, the coming/leaving home will still work when you leave and enter the car the following morning, then when you get in just switch to position 0

I really want to do this with mine, any idea how he did it? which Ash was it that did yours? I know a couple

It was Ash187, most people who have face lifted their cars to the new front end, have this feature enabled..
I explained to him this problem, he knew exactly what I was talking about and I was shocked at how easy it was to do! Literally a few clicks on the laptop.. But yeah VCDS is required.

 

[ApolloS3]

It was Ash187, most people who have face lifted their cars to the new front end, have this feature enabled..
I explained to him this problem, he knew exactly what I was talking about and I was shocked at how easy it was to do! Literally a few clicks on the laptop.. But yeah VCDS is required.

Awesome, ill send him a quick pm, a friend of mine has VCDS, will let you know how i get on, thanks

 

[grr666]

Are the facelift LEDs supposed to dim when indicating?
I have the auto lights and haven't noticed a difference in brightness
either way. Maybe I need to park facing a shop window and have a play
in the daylight. Exactly what's supposed to happen?

 

[s3facelift09]

Are the facelift LEDs supposed to dim when indicating?
I have the auto lights and haven't noticed a difference in brightness
either way. Maybe I need to park facing a shop window and have a play
in the daylight. Exactly what's supposed to happen?

Yes this is normal for all models with LED DRL-s with or without Auto lights,for example when you turn on the left indicator,the left LED's dim slightly, they don't turn off completely, because it is possible in theory that someone doesn't notice an indicator light in traffic..

 

[s3facelift09]

I had the same problem where the only way to get the full brightness LED lights would be to leave the car in Auto and hope that it doesn't think it's too dark and switch on the XENON. I regretted having my car with Auto Lights as the cars without, would have 'DRL' instead of 'Auto' on the light switch..

I member on here, Ash, told me that there is a VCDS setting that turns the FULL brightness LED's on when the switch is set to '0'

So now i drive around in the mornings and late afternoon 4-5PMish with my LEDs at '0' and then when it gets dark, i put it into auto.

But without Auto lights you wouldn't have Coming Leaving Home function wich is neat, and possible automatic rear view mirror dimming, it is all connected because of the light sensor of the Auto lights..it's better to have all this and do a mod with VCDS to enable DRL's when set on position 0, dont' you agree?

 

[grr666]

Yes this is normal for all models with LED DRL-s with or without Auto lights,for example when you turn on the left indicator,the left LED's dim slightly, they don't turn off completely, because it is possible in theory that someone doesn't notice an indicator light in traffic..

The reason I ask is because mine don't seem to dim
when indicating, I've tried to make it happen when the car is on the drive.
Definitely need to park up facing tescos windows after they are closed and
try them properly. (not had the car very long btw... still learning about it)

 

[Ben2487]

Could that not be because they don't have Auto lights and have manually turned the DRL's on?

Don't think its possible to have full brightness led's with headlamps on when I put mine headlamps on from drls they dip in brightness

Awesome, ill send him a quick pm, a friend of mine has VCDS, will let you know how i get on, thanks

Yea mine is the same no auto lights and cant get walking home lights to work, but if I lock the car with the headlamps on just the drls stay on,
Let me know how you get on wouldn't mind doing this as I've seen Bmw lights come on when they unlock the car.

 

[s3facelift09]

The reason I ask is because mine don't seem to dim
when indicating, I've tried to make it happen when the car is on the drive.
Definitely need to park up facing tescos windows after they are closed and
try them properly. (not had the car very long btw... still learning about it)

They must dim, ask someone to be in the car to turn the indicator's on and off then you'll see the difference for sure..

 

[s3facelift09]

Don't think its possible to have full brightness led's with headlamps on when I put mine headlamps on from drls they dip in brightness



Yea mine is the same no auto lights and cant get walking home lights to work, but if I lock the car with the headlamps on just the drls stay on,
Let me know how you get on wouldn't mind doing this as I've seen Bmw lights come on when they unlock the car.

If you don't have Auto lights you can't enable/retrofit coming leaving home function on 8P platform with LED's, it is possible to do it on 8P with non LED's with some wiring and with VCDS mods (cominghomelights - Audi Retrofit) you can buy an aftermarket coming leaving home modul cheap on ebay but it's not perfect as factory and cannot be compared actually.

 

[NHN]

Yes this is normal for all models with LED DRL-s with or without Auto lights,for example when you turn on the left indicator,the left LED's dim slightly, they don't turn off completely, because it is possible in theory that someone doesn't notice an indicator light in traffic..

Thats not true, the early facelifts still used the 279 ce module & this, although had a tick box, it didnt work well or at all, only the 063 ce modules seemed to allow this to work with any reliability.

 

[Cruiser89]

I tried adjusting it on my A3 a while back and it didn't really seem to change anything. Did it on my A6 Le Man Edit and it worked. The lights don't come on now until its quite dark.

 

[s3facelift09]

Thats not true, the early facelifts still used the 279 ce module & this, although had a tick box, it didnt work well or at all, only the 063 ce modules seemed to allow this to work with any reliability.

I have a second car A3 Sportback that is made in 10./2008. when first facelifts were made with LED DRL's and it has auto dimming when indicators are on..

 

[NHN]

Post your coding of the 09 module then please so we can see whats different with yours, all ones I've worked on didnt work well at all & also stopped working for very strange reason even when coded to work.

 

[s3facelift09]

Post your coding of the 09 module then please so we can see whats different with yours, all ones I've worked on didnt work well at all & also stopped working for very strange reason even when coded to work.

I don't have a VCDS, my friend a mechanic has one. ) What did you mean by this 'the dimming didn't work well' part..? If it worked, how did it work?

 

[NHN]

Meaning it would dim 1 time, then next not, then it stopped completely, so ideally need the coding from yours, to compare with some over here I can work on next week.

 

[Ash187]

right so the position 0 on the headlights can be changed via coding to keep the DRLs on all the time but the annoying thing is that it cant be turned off. you can enable advanced DIS so that it gives you the option to switch off the DRLs in the DIS with a few clicks on the indicator stalks but im not 100% sure if that feature is there on the newer facelift cars.

as for the actual lights this is how it is meant to work:

Cars without Auto lights:
0 - all lights off
DRL - DRL at full brightness
Sidelight: dimmed DRL bulbs
Headlights: dimmed DRL and xenon headlights

Cars with Auto lights:
0 - all lights off
Auto - in daytime full brightness DRL, in the dark (also when it starts getting dark and cloudy) the DRLs dim and headlights come on (same as headlights position
sidelights - dimmed DRL bulbs
headlight - dimmed DRL and xenon headlights

the DRL dimming when indicating can be enabled in VCDS, not 100% sure if this is a default on the newer facelifts.

as for the coding i cant 100% remember where it is on the newer facelift cars as their CE module coding is different to what i have in my car but i would be happy to check it out for you.

also as far as i have seen with all the cars that have auto lights, the default is set to the lowest sensitivity so that the headlights wont come on early but i too have found that it is still too sensitive... unfortunately as i couldnt find a way to make it less sensitive i have just learn to live with it.

 

[Cruiser89]

It is a bit of a balls ache that the main lights can come on quite early some days, but I spec'd my car with auto lights so that they turn on and off automatically and all the other stuff. I'm afraid I can't see the point in coding the car to have DRLs on when set to 0. It kind of goes against the reasoning of what Auto Lights do. Would mean wasted money IMHO.

I will have another try next week when I'm back at work to see if I can modify the sensitivity but like I mentioned before, I don't think it does a great deal on the newer A3s.

I did see an area where you can change the brightness of the LEDs and I think as standard, the % is set quite low (I could be wrong here though as it was a while ago). Going back to the A6 you can change the brightness and currently they are VERY bright.

 

[MrLapou]

Good luck

 

[ApolloS3]

as for the coding i cant 100% remember where it is on the newer facelift cars as their CE module coding is different to what i have in my car but i would be happy to check it out for you.

I have a 58 plate facelift model S3, would this have the coding that you have?

I found a post on here from Paullie, basically you can change the sidelights position, to turn DRLs on at full brightness no matter what time of day. When its set to auto, if the DRL's are on when in auto setting, if you switch to sidelights position, they dim, this sounds like it fixes that: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-...-drls-vcds-mod-3-dr-facelift-a3-s3s-only.html

 

[Lewbo]

It is true it is annoying when main lights come on when its hardly dark, My car is a 2007 s line that has auto headlights and had xenons fitted from factory I have now facelifted it and when my switch is at 0 my DRLS are at full brightness as standard I haven't coded them for that, I can only turn them off with my roller switch which I never do lol plus when my position is at 0 my coming home/leaving home still works as the button for this function on my switch is always set to ON.

So when the lights come on too early in the morning or night I turn them to 0 position and I have full brightness which I am happy about buy kinda defeats the option of auto feature as you have to switch between them think I may have a play with the sensitivity and get them to come on later, will let you know how I get on.

 

[ApolloS3]

So when the lights come on too early in the morning or night I turn them to 0 position and I have full brightness which I am happy about buy kinda defeats the option of auto feature as you have to switch between them think I may have a play with the sensitivity and get them to come on later, will let you know how I get on.

I want to do this but have no idea how, hoping someone can shed some light on this.

 

[MikeCorleone]

It really does defeat the purpose of Auto Lights.
Something I'm glad I didn't really choose or pay for. The car came with Comfort Pack and they didn't charge me for it.

But yeah, living in London, most people won't have any lights on, it's like 3PM!
There I come driving along with all my lights on... It makes me look odd.. My car gets enough attention and busy bodies looking around!

Thats why the '0' position FULL LEDs work best for me.. No rears, just the fronts..
I guess people have differing opinions depending on where they live.
Paullie's thread about having FULL LEDs and Rears at the sidelight position would work better in Scotland than London

Only till it gets very dark, and yes the FULL LEDs can dazzle people at night, do I switch to 'Auto' and have my xenons and dimmed LEDs on... I then park the car, my coming home lights working fine, get in the next morning and because it's light the 'Auto' position still REALISES that its light outside and doesn't switch the xenon on!

So i guess for me, thats the only function I get out of the Auto lights... If it was unto me, I would have given it a miss.. Dimming mirrors are nice, but I got hit and run on my driver mirror and because it's a dimming mirror, i'm forking out £200 JUST FOR THE GLASS!

 

[BenC00]

right so the position 0 on the headlights can be changed via coding to keep the DRLs on all the time but the annoying thing is that it cant be turned off. you can enable advanced DIS so that it gives you the option to switch off the DRLs in the DIS with a few clicks on the indicator stalks but im not 100% sure if that feature is there on the newer facelift cars.

as for the actual lights this is how it is meant to work:

Cars without Auto lights:
0 - all lights off
DRL - DRL at full brightness
Sidelight: dimmed DRL bulbs
Headlights: dimmed DRL and xenon headlights

Cars with Auto lights:
0 - all lights off
Auto - in daytime full brightness DRL, in the dark (also when it starts getting dark and cloudy) the DRLs dim and headlights come on (same as headlights position
sidelights - dimmed DRL bulbs
headlight - dimmed DRL and xenon headlights

the DRL dimming when indicating can be enabled in VCDS, not 100% sure if this is a default on the newer facelifts.

as for the coding i cant 100% remember where it is on the newer facelift cars as their CE module coding is different to what i have in my car but i would be happy to check it out for you.

also as far as i have seen with all the cars that have auto lights, the default is set to the lowest sensitivity so that the headlights wont come on early but i too have found that it is still too sensitive... unfortunately as i couldnt find a way to make it less sensitive i have just learn to live with it.

Sorry to drag up an old thread but I want to enable the DRL's @ Position 0 on the headlight switch - I have the latest VCDS and have looked through all the coding and cannot find this option anywhere. Could you tell me where and what the coding is pretty please with a cherry on top....?