DRL's Aftermarket headlights and Auto Headlights

[nick9one1]

As the title suggests this is about my A3's headlights.

The previous owner fitted aftermarkets (not sure where from). I also have auto headlights/rain.

The headlights work as expected. when switched to sidelight, only the sidelights(LED) come on. The same for dipped.

When on auto mode and it gets a bit dark, the auto sidelights turn on - sidelight icon illuminates on dash. But outside the car both sides and dipped are on??


any suggestions?!

 

[Ash187]

can you get pics of your headlights.
also from what you described it sounds right...

when you manually put the side lights on at the switch, the sidelights bulb come on (in your case the aftermarket LED lights)
when you manually put the headlight (dipped) on at the switch the headlight bulbs come on with the sidelights dimmed (thats the way it should be)

again when the auto lights come on the headlight and sidelights should come on together.
if it isnt working this way then its something to do with how the aftermarket headlights are wired up

 

[nick9one1]

thats exactly how it works.

but it just didnt seem right to me. when I have the auto lights selected the icons for side lights and dipped beam light up on the switch one after the other when the sensor determines its dark enough to activate them. What I found strange is that when it gets a little bit dark the sidelight icon illuminates but both side+dipped come on. then if it gets darker the dipped illuminates, but of course the dipped are already on. By the sound of it your saying this is normal?

 

[Ash187]

ahhh i get what you mean!
lol right so what the car does is determine if you need your interior lights on... so you will notice that on auto mode the green sidelight icon lights up and indeed the dipped beam comes on. the other lights inside the car however do not light up until it get really dark.
i always notice this when it starts raining in the daytime that the green sidelight light comes on but none of the red lights (on cc unit or stereo) come on until i go into a tunnel.
does that sound right to you now?

 

[gdbarratt]

Sorry to hijack but is it possible to fit new headlights with DRL LED's integrated and have them switch on with the ignition. I was told this was not possible with the auto headlights as they only switch the sidelights on when it starts to go dark.

 

[Ash187]

if you mean the OEM LED DRLs from the facelift cars then that is how they normally work... that is why they are called DRLs (daytime running lights). they switch on as soon as the car does when the auto headlights come on the xenon bulbs take over.

if you are trying to ask if that can be done with aftermarket lights then that is purely down to the wiring of the lights, I know it can be done if wired correctly.

 

[gdbarratt]

Mines an older car without DRL and wanted to fit new headlights with them, but wanted it all to be automatic in with the current system rather than having to move to manually putting side lights on to get LED DRL to illuminate.
Thanks

 

[nick9one1]

Mines an older car without DRL and wanted to fit new headlights with them, but wanted it all to be automatic in with the current system rather than having to move to manually putting side lights on to get LED DRL to illuminate.
Thanks

that was going to be my next question..

is it possible to activate DRL's (just LED sidelights) on the auto headlights through VCDS?

 

[Ash187]

Mines an older car without DRL and wanted to fit new headlights with them, but wanted it all to be automatic in with the current system rather than having to move to manually putting side lights on to get LED DRL to illuminate.

to fit the new facelift headlights you know that you will have to replace the whole wings, bonnet, bumper etc?

 

[Ash187]

that was going to be my next question..

is it possible to activate DRL's (just LED sidelights) on the auto headlights through VCDS?

no you cant do this through vcds as your sidelights are not actual drls, and your are running aftermarket headlights. however you can rewire the sidelights to make them come on with the engine and stay on until the car is switched off

 

[gdbarratt]

to fit the new headlights you know that you will have to replace the whole wings, bonnet, bumper etc?

I was going to use aftermarket ones, somthing like - AUDI A3 03-08 BLACK DRL STYLE R8 DESIGN PROJECTOR HEADLIGHTS (PAIR) | eBay

 

[Ash187]

I was going to use aftermarket ones, somthing like - AUDI A3 03-08 BLACK DRL STYLE R8 DESIGN PROJECTOR HEADLIGHTS (PAIR) | eBay

thats fine then. but as i said in order to get the LED sidelights to work as a drl you would need to modify the wiring

you would need something like this video from 1.55, which will activate the lights with the engine

 

[nick9one1]

Ok, decided to update this thread as I'm not sure I made myself clear enough.

The picture shows an auto light switch and my lights.

When I manually flick it to sidelights (circled in yellow) just the LED's illuminate as they should. When selecting dipped beam (orange) the correct dipped beam bulb and LED's illuminates on the headlight. All good.

If I select auto (green) the headlights seem incapable of illuminating the LED's (yellow) on their own.

When it starts to get dim outside and I have the headlights on auto, I notice that the sidelight icon on the light switch illuminates and I expect the sidelights (yellow) to illuminate on their own. Except they dont, the dipped beam and LED's comes on. Later when it gets darker the dipped beam icon on the switch lights up, and this is when I would expect the dipped beam to come on (except its already on).

To add further strength to my suspicions that something is wrong. I had a play with VCDS last night, and discovered an option to enable DRL's. I turned the option on, saved it and started the car with the headlights in position 0 (off).
Both the headlights and LED's were illuminated.


To me it seems like the Dipped beam is somehow wired into auto headlight sidelights. is this possible? does anyone have a wiring diagram?


Thanks

 

[phil_w]

I'm confused - what year is your car fella? Cheers

 

[nick9one1]

late 2004.

The images are taken from the internet - not exactly the same as I have in the car, although they will do for illustration purposes.

 

[phil_w]

So you have both the auto setting on the switch and the DRL switch as above - but aftermarket LED DRL headlamps?

 

[nick9one1]

no, ignore the DRL part on the image. all I'm interested in is the 'Auto' feature which was installed at the factory.

Ok... Auto headlights are switched on.

Daytime - all lights are off as expected.

Dusk - the sidelight icon on the switch 'illuminates' indicating the sidelights have auto turned on. Outside the car both LED sidelights and dipped beam are illuminated.

Night - the sidelight and dipped beam icons on the switch are 'illuminated' indicating the dipped beam has auto turned on. Outside the car both LED sidelights and dipped beam are illuminated.

 

[phil_w]

Ok - that's how it is as far as I'm aware - from an exterior point of view - both should come on (there's no auto side-lights only) - I'd have to check my interior switch illumination in dusk vs night but I think its the same as you...

 

[Ash187]

Ok so the dusk setting will light up the green sidelight on the switch but on the outside it it will light up the dipped beam and the sidelights...
In the dark at night the dipped beam light on the switch will come on but no Change on the outside...

The actual change between the 2 is that the interior lights do not come on in the 'dusk' setting but do light up red at night. You will notice this as the red lights on the stereo will not be lit at 'dusk'

As for the drl Setting it is working perfectly fine as you do not have OEM headlights with drls do the car will just light up the headlights. There is a setting where you can make the fog lights come on as drls so that would make it look better