Cutting out sidelights when dipped beam is on?

demanufactured

Parking lights people.... Parking lights.

CiniO

demanufactured wrote: »

Parking lights people.... Parking lights.

Those lights you are referring to are correctly called "side lights" or "position lights". Not parking lights.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Car manufacturers are all bound by regulations governing emissions, anti-collision/crash systems etc etc yet there appears to be none governing lighting other than the vehicle must be fitted with front rear lights/reflectors. Its about time that the EU/world introduced full time lights that are on always once the ignition is switched on with no option to switch them off.

Many manufacturers have the lights wired so that you can't accidentally leave them on, ie, they go off when the ignition is switched off. (Saab, Subaru, Kia to name but a few) I wish all manufacturers were forced to do the same. I drive with my low beams on all the time, I don't care if its the brightest clearest day of the year or the middle of the night in winter, I always have my lights on. It does absolutely no harm and it increases my visibility to other road users even in the middle of the day in summer time.

I have been driving for almost 30 years and I have never ever in that time driven with only the 'parking lights' on as its completely pointless. If I felt the need to have lights then I want proper lights, not pathetic little weak parking lights.

CiniO

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Car manufacturers are all bound by regulations governing emissions, anti-collision/crash systems etc etc yet there appears to be none governing lighting other than the vehicle must be fitted with front rear lights/reflectors. Its about time that the EU/world introduced full time lights that are on always once the ignition is switched on with no option to switch them off.

But they did.
They are called DRL's and are obligatory on all vehicles first type approved from 2011 or 2012 (can't remember exactly).

jca

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Car manufacturers are all bound by regulations governing emissions, anti-collision/crash systems etc etc yet there appears to be none governing lighting other than the vehicle must be fitted with front rear lights/reflectors. Its about time that the EU/world introduced full time lights that are on always once the ignition is switched on with no option to switch them off.

Many manufacturers have the lights wired so that you can't accidentally leave them on, ie, they go off when the ignition is switched off. (Saab, Subaru, Kia to name but a few) I wish all manufacturers were forced to do the same. I drive with my low beams on all the time, I don't care if its the brightest clearest day of the year or the middle of the night in winter, I always have my lights on. It does absolutely no harm and it increases my visibility to other road users even in the middle of the day in summer time.

I have been driving for almost 30 years and I have never ever in that time driven with only the 'parking lights' on as its completely pointless. If I felt the need to have lights then I want proper lights, not pathetic little weak parking lights.

My car is wired so the lights go off with the ignition. I don't turn them on though as it wastes the battery... Don't ya know..

Del2005

CiniO wrote: »

Sorry, what are driving lights?

Low level lights that only come on with high beam. Opposite of fogs which come on with dipped beam.

jca

Del2005 wrote: »

Low level lights that only come on with high beam. Opposite of fogs which come on with dipped beam.

Never heard of them.

Cee-Jay-Cee

CiniO wrote: »

But they did.
They are called DRL's and are obligatory on all vehicles first type approved from 2011 or 2012 (can't remember exactly).

There you go...Didnt realise that. Thanks

Andy From Sligo

jca wrote: »

My car is wired so the lights go off with the ignition. I don't turn them on though as it wastes the battery... Don't ya know..

My car turns off the dipped beams, leaves on the sidelights (or parking lights.. or twinkle lights or whatever they are called) when i turn ignition off ... and if I walk out of car a little jingle comes out of dash as if to say "ere mate, you've left yer lights on!"

Andy From Sligo

jca wrote: »

Never heard of them.

here you are - heres a tasty looking mini cooper with driving lights (some people call them rally lights)

honda boi

I drive with the parking /side lights on all the time.
Except I use LED parking lights and give a much better light.

Isambard

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

here you are - heres a tasty looking mini cooper with driving lights (some people call them rally lights)

surely driving lights supplement the dip beams and are similarly focused and spot lights such as that mini has come on and off with main beam. Neither of these are fog lights which are diffused beams only used when it is foggy.

exaisle

Isambard wrote: »

Totally pointless, the driver is acknowledging it's dark enough to have lights on but still wants to save money by not putting his dips on.

Exactly how much do people think they save by not putting heads/dips on??

Cee-Jay-Cee

exaisle wrote: »

Exactly how much do people think they save by not putting heads/dips on??

Probably about 4.5 volts...

Just as a real world example. My last car was a 2005 Legacy which has the lights wired to the ignition. I bought the car in April, 2012. I sold it to my brother in January this year. The battery in the car was fitted in June 2010 (it was written on the battery) It is still in the car and has never failed or died. I do approximately 16k kms a year so the battery/bulbs etc have had a lot of use. Having your lights on does not effect the battery, does not effect MPG and does not cause bulbs to fail any more often than if they were only used during darkness.

Mc Love

Lord Nikon wrote: »

DRLs are a nightmare at night-time, as the driver thinks they have their lights on, but they have no lights on the back of the car. Dipped headlights should be on at all times, day and night.

Have auto lights so my dipped beams come on when it gets dark. Every car should have an auto lights switch. I can't figure out the people that get into a car and actively turn on their fogs though.

jca

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

here you are - heres a tasty looking mini cooper with driving lights (some people call them rally lights)

I thought we were talking about standard road going cars.

CiniO

Mc Love wrote: »

Have auto lights so my dipped beams come on when it gets dark. Every car should have an auto lights switch. I can't figure out the people that get into a car and actively turn on their fogs though.

Auto lights are great, but should be improved to turn on not only when dark, but also during rain or fog.
And while turning on during rain is simple enough to implement by taking reading from rain sensor (yet very few cars have it set up like that), but I'm not sure how could they implement turning lights automatically during fog.

jca

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Probably about 4.5 volts...

Just as a real world example. My last car was a 2005 Legacy which has the lights wired to the ignition. I bought the car in April, 2012. I sold it to my brother in January this year. The battery in the car was fitted in June 2010 (it was written on the battery) It is still in the car and has never failed or died. I do approximately 16k kms a year so the battery/bulbs etc have had a lot of use. Having your lights on does not effect the battery, does not effect MPG and does not cause bulbs to fail any more often than if they were only used during darkness.

I think everyone here knows that.
P.s. what does "about 4.5 volts" mean?

Andy From Sligo

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Probably about 4.5 volts...

Just as a real world example. My last car was a 2005 Legacy which has the lights wired to the ignition. I bought the car in April, 2012. I sold it to my brother in January this year. The battery in the car was fitted in June 2010 (it was written on the battery) It is still in the car and has never failed or died. I do approximately 16k kms a year so the battery/bulbs etc have had a lot of use. Having your lights on does not effect the battery, does not effect MPG and does not cause bulbs to fail any more often than if they were only used during darkness.

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

does not effect MPG

I reckon it does, not much but it still does. Have you ever ran your engine on Idle and then turned your lights on for a split second and heard the engine dip very briefly and then get up to how it was, engine has to work a fraction harder whenever you put heavy electrics like lights, fan blower, rad fan, wipers , heated rear screen etc.. it all mounts up. I even read once that driving with your windows open on your car uses more petrol. -

LED bulbs are the way to go, - use a fraction of power or normal bulbs, run cooler, not affected by vibration.

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

does not cause bulbs to fail any more often

I dunno, Halogen bulbs (for the dipped, main beam, fog lamps) are supposed to outlast normal incandescent bulbs by 3 times (if you dont touch them with bare hands) and dont normal blacken (filament tends to burn out before it gets to that stage) so then you normally have incandescent in the sidelights which are around 5watts and because they are little and not much gas in it tend to blacken/silver very quickly, and then you normally have incandescent for the rear light brake/sidelight bulb and flasher bulbs, reverse light, numberplate bulbs and these blacken over time - so if all these were on permanently every time you turned the key, these lights might not last than long , not by filament blowing as such but by getting darkened inside the bulb and not making them as bright as they were intended to be. - Again, LED the way to go on all lights on the car, then no blackening with them, run cool, fraction of power not affected by vibration (normally) - only trouble is that the mass marketing of LED bulbs these days means cheaper electronics being used to drive the LED - so theoretically if you buy a cheap LED bulb the LED itself could last for years and years but the mass produced cheap electronics using to drive (adjust voltage and light the LED) or shoddy soldering tracks or shoddy resistors etc inside the LED bulb - could fail the bulb in no time at all.

Incidentally apparently the reason a halogen bulb does not blacken like an Incandescent bulb and last longer than a normal incandescent bulb is that when a filament in a halogen bulb burns the carbon off the filament attaches itself back onto its filament - when a normal incandescent bulb burns, bits of carbon off the filament fall of the filament and 'stick' to the inside of an incandescent bulb over time, blackening it.

Also if you run a Halogen headlight bulb at around its designed voltage of 12v (if its designed for 12v) then it will work as a halogen .. however if you for some reason you lower the voltage say to around 9v or lower this could make a halogen bulb work in an normal incandescent way because it hasn't the right power to ignite the chemicals in halogen bulb to make it work as a halogen bulb, so by lowering voltage you will shorted the life of the halogen bulb, the filament with fall onto inside of the glass in incandescent mode and you will get a warm white rendering as opposed to a crisp white light the halogen light give.

This may be the case if anyone has halogen lights at home hooked up to a dimmer switch and cant understand why their halogen lights dont last very long as they should do

Del2005

Mc Love wrote: »

Have auto lights so my dipped beams come on when it gets dark. Every car should have an auto lights switch. I can't figure out the people that get into a car and actively turn on their fogs though.

They shouldn't have a switch for auto lights. It should be auto by default, then a switch to dipped. My Dad has auto lights but turns them off!

jca

Del2005 wrote: »

They shouldn't have a switch for auto lights. It should be auto by default, then a switch to dipped. My Dad has auto lights but turns them off!

Why?

Del2005

jca wrote: »

Why?

Because its dangerous driving in the dark without lights!

Cee-Jay-Cee

jca wrote: »

I think everyone here knows that.
P.s. what does "about 4.5 volts" mean?

It was supposed to be a humorous answer to the question "Exactly how much do people think they save by not putting heads/dips on??"

Cee-Jay-Cee

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I reckon it does, not much but it still does. Have you ever ran your engine on Idle and then turned your lights on for a split second and heard the engine dip very briefly and then get up to how it was, engine has to work a fraction harder whenever you put heavy electrics like lights, fan blower, rad fan, wipers , heated rear screen etc.. it all mounts up. I even read once that driving with your windows open on your car uses more petrol. -

LED bulbs are the way to go, - use a fraction of power or normal bulbs, run cooler, not affected by vibration.



I dunno, Halogen bulbs (for the dipped, main beam, fog lamps) are supposed to outlast normal incandescent bulbs by 3 times (if you dont touch them with bare hands) and dont normal blacken (filament tends to burn out before it gets to that stage) so then you normally have incandescent in the sidelights which are around 5watts and because they are little and not much gas in it tend to blacken/silver very quickly, and then you normally have incandescent for the rear light brake/sidelight bulb and flasher bulbs, reverse light, numberplate bulbs and these blacken over time - so if all these were on permanently every time you turned the key, these lights might not last than long , not by filament blowing as such but by getting darkened inside the bulb and not making them as bright as they were intended to be. - Again, LED the way to go on all lights on the car, then no blackening with them, run cool, fraction of power not affected by vibration (normally) - only trouble is that the mass marketing of LED bulbs these days means cheaper electronics being used to drive the LED - so theoretically if you buy a cheap LED bulb the LED itself could last for years and years but the mass produced cheap electronics using to drive (adjust voltage and light the LED) or shoddy soldering tracks or shoddy resistors etc inside the LED bulb - could fail the bulb in no time at all.

Incidentally apparently the reason a halogen bulb does not blacken like an Incandescent bulb and last longer than a normal incandescent bulb is that when a filament in a halogen bulb burns the carbon off the filament attaches itself back onto its filament - when a normal incandescent bulb burns, bits of carbon off the filament fall of the filament and 'stick' to the inside of an incandescent bulb over time, blackening it.

Also if you run a Halogen headlight bulb at around its designed voltage of 12v (if its designed for 12v) then it will work as a halogen .. however if you for some reason you lower the voltage say to around 9v or lower this could make a halogen bulb work in an normal incandescent way because it hasn't the right power to ignite the chemicals in halogen bulb to make it work as a halogen bulb, so by lowering voltage you will shorted the life of the halogen bulb, the filament with fall onto inside of the glass in incandescent mode and you will get a warm white rendering as opposed to a crisp white light the halogen light give.

This may be the case if anyone has halogen lights at home hooked up to a dimmer switch and cant understand why their halogen lights dont last very long as they should do

To refer back to my previous comments, I never changed a rear bulb (brake or tail light) bulb on my Legacy. When I bought the car it was fitted with a set of aftermarket HID lights that the previous owner, who owned the car for 2 years, told me were fitted by the owner previous to him. One of those failed after 4 years so they had lasted 6+ years. The Legacy had an unhealthy appetite for parking light bulbs and they only lasted a month or two at most (its a common problem in BL5 Legacy's and well documented) I fitted new ones before the NCT's but once they died, I never bothered replacing them as I always kept my low beams on and so didn't need them.

Like I said I do approx. 16k kms a year, all short journeys of less than 10km (school runs, to/from work etc etc) I do approximately 5 or 6 individual journeys each day. As the lights were wired to the ignition then they would come on once I turned the key, flicker when the engine was started and then stay on for the duration of the journey. I'd imagine that this would be harder on bulbs than if they were only turned on once the car was started but it didn't do them any harm.

jca

Del2005 wrote: »

Because its dangerous driving in the dark without lights!

Why does he turn them off is what I meant, no need to be a smart arse about it.

Mc Love

jca wrote: »

Why does he turn them off is what I meant, no need to be a smart arse about it.

Yeah surely having the auto lights turned on is much safer

Del2005

jca wrote: »

Why does he turn them off is what I meant, no need to be a smart arse about it.

I've no idea why.

I thought you were asking why there should be no option to turn off the auto lights.

jca

Del2005 wrote: »

I've no idea why.

I thought you were asking why there should be no option to turn off the auto lights.

Sorry about that I should have been a bit clearer.