Auto lights not on back of car

Call me Al

I've noticed quite a few cars lately without tail lights despite their front lights working (not just the DRLs) .
I'm assuming this is the auto function now available on modern cars. Is this a design flaw? It is quite dangerous when it's getting dark and you're on the m50 or another busy road. Ive spotted it on Toyotas mainly but yesterday I saw it on a 2013 mondeo.
Is there a fix for this?

xabi

The fix is people need to turn their lights on!

alias no.9

The fix is for drivers to know how to work their lights.

BTW its quite common on white hyundai's with blue lights on the roof so standards are being set very low.

ednwireland

yes, forgot to turn my sidelights on a couple of days ago (normally i leave sidelights on all the time for some reason id switched them off) so rears were off its a bit of a joke, i beleive VW's can be coded to run rears as well as fronts but its not the standard setup (not sure about my kia).

so im now one of those jerks driving around with no rear lights on

also the led drl's on the kia are so bright you just think your headlights are dirty the dash is lit wehn you dont have the lights on

Call me Al

xabi wrote: »

The fix is people need to turn their lights on!

I appreciate that! Lol.
But I think people seem to forget (or don't know) that the back isn't automatically coming on like the front is.

Zubeneschamali

Call me Al wrote: »

Is there a fix for this?

Yes, code the car to put on tail lights with DRLs.

Change the law to make that mandatory.

kirving

alias no.9 wrote: »

The fix is for drivers to know how to work their lights.

BTW its quite common on white hyundai's with blue lights on the roof so standards are being set very low.

Almost every car on the road is different - there is absolutely zero standard in when lights come in, so lots of the blame lies on manufacturers as well as drivers (and also other drivers who I notice never bother to flash cars with lights incorrectly set).

Scenario: You're in a car with "Auto lights" and "Auto wipers". It's bright out and raining heavily. Your rear lights should be on.

The symbol for side lights is on, your wipers are running.

Are the rear lights on?

Zubeneschamali

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Are the rear lights on?

In my own Skoda? Yes.

In a hire car? I have no way to know without stopping and walking around to the back of the car.

CoBo55

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Almost every car on the road is different - there is absolutely zero standard in when lights come in, so lots of the blame lies on manufacturers as well as drivers (and also other drivers who I notice never bother to flash cars with lights incorrectly set).

Scenario: You're in a car with "Auto lights" and "Auto wipers". It's bright out and raining heavily. Your rear lights should be on.

The symbol for side lights is on, your wipers are running.

Are the rear lights on?

Yes, after three consecutive wipes the lights come on, all of them!! It's irrelevant in my case as I've coded my car for Scandinavian drl's which has fronts and rears on all the time.

zilog_jones

Call me Al wrote: »

I've noticed quite a few cars lately without tail lights despite their front lights working (not just the DDLs) .

If only front lights are on, it is just the Daytime Running Lamps that are on. This is the only allowable situation where no tail lights are required (assuming they're working). Obviously it's not daytime when you see this problem, i.e. they don't have auto lights and haven't bothered turning on their headlights.

colm_mcm

ednwireland wrote: »

yes, forgot to turn my sidelights on a couple of days ago (normally i leave sidelights on all the time for some reason id switched them off) so rears were off its a bit of a joke, i beleive VW's can be coded to run rears as well as fronts but its not the standard setup (not sure about my kia).

so im now one of those jerks driving around with no rear lights on

also the led drl's on the kia are so bright you just think your headlights are dirty the dash is lit wehn you dont have the lights on

Just leave headlights turned on, they should turn on/off with the ignition.
(I’m reading side lights as parking lights?)

Gumbo

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Yes, code the car to put on tail lights with DRLs.

Change the law to make that mandatory.

I drive with both our cars in auto mode.
I also codded the rear lights on with DRL through Bimmercode.
Its a pet het of mine that the rears don't come n with the front!

Call me Al

zilog_jones wrote: »

If only front lights are on, it is just the Daytime Running Lamps that are on. This is the only allowable situation where no tail lights are required (assuming they're working). Obviously it's not daytime when you see this problem, i.e. they don't have auto lights and haven't bothered turning on their headlights.

Ok so this is because of the DRLs and not because of the Auto setting.
The reason I had it wrong is because these front lights seem to be dipped as opposed to being the bright LED DRLs newer cars seem to have.

Thanks for that clarification.

zilog_jones

Depending on the car, the DRLs can be incandescent bulbs, not LED, and they'll look brighter than side/parking lights but are not designed to project the light in any useful way.

Call me Al

zilog_jones wrote: »

Depending on the car, the DRLs can be incandescent bulbs, not LED, and they'll look brighter than side/parking lights but are not designed to project the light in any useful way.

But they can lull people into the false belief that their lights are on, especially in urban areas where there may be street/shop/traffic lighting all around them.

ednwireland

colm_mcm wrote: »

Just leave headlights turned on, they should turn on/off with the ignition.
(I’m reading side lights as parking lights?)

sidelights puts LED drl's on the front and full rear lights on on my kia ceed (walked round and checked all teh settings when i got the car !)

just one day i was driving home thinking id blown a bulb as my lights were that bad and i forgot to put my lights on at all (head somewhere else !) so only had led drls on the front.

like i said the rest of the time i drive with rear lights on

alias no.9

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Almost every car on the road is different - there is absolutely zero standard in when lights come in, so lots of the blame lies on manufacturers as well as drivers (and also other drivers who I notice never bother to flash cars with lights incorrectly set).

Scenario: You're in a car with "Auto lights" and "Auto wipers". It's bright out and raining heavily. Your rear lights should be on.

The symbol for side lights is on, your wipers are running.

Are the rear lights on?

Side lights are not driving lights and there is no universal symbol.

Auto lights, manual lights, any make or model in the last 50 years or more it doesn't matter, if your dipped beams are on, you have a little green light illuminated in your dashboard.

If your dipped lights should be on and you don't see a little green light illuminated, you as the driver need to turn the dipped lights on.

zilog_jones

alias no.9 wrote: »

Auto lights, manual lights, any make or model in the last 50 years or more it doesn't matter, if your dipped beams are on, you have a little green light illuminated in your dashboard.

This is not true, many cars do not have a light to indicate the dipped beams are on.

Cars which have instrument clusters that are always on tend to have this light to indicate side lights (front position lamps) are on:



There is an ISO standard symbol for this (beams of light emanating from a "P") but I don't know who uses this.

The symbol for dipped beams is this:



A lot of cars don't have a light on the dashboard for this, but it is invariably the symbol you'll see for dipped beams on the controls (it's an ISO standard symbol). In modern Toyotas, for example, they'll only show the sidelight symbol when the dipped beams are also on - but no light to indicate the DRLs are on.

Many older cars only have an indicator for the full beams (blue with straight lines). And certainly before the '80s, symbols were less consistent between manufacturers, or they may have been indicated with words.

Tazzimus

Call me Al wrote: »

I've noticed quite a few cars lately without tail lights despite their front lights working (not just the DRLs) .
I'm assuming this is the auto function now available on modern cars. Is this a design flaw? It is quite dangerous when it's getting dark and you're on the m50 or another busy road. Ive spotted it on Toyotas mainly but yesterday I saw it on a 2013 mondeo.
Is there a fix for this?

Yes, people need to know how their car actually works, hard as that seems to be for some people.

alias no.9 wrote: »

Side lights are not driving lights and there is no universal symbol.

Auto lights, manual lights, any make or model in the last 50 years or more it doesn't matter, if your dipped beams are on, you have a little green light illuminated in your dashboard.

If your dipped lights should be on and you don't see a little green light illuminated, you as the driver need to turn the dipped lights on.

My car only has the one light for lights on, regardless if it's dips or sidelights.
I leave mine on auto though and they just come on when it's dark enough, or if it's raining.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

turning lights on ?

easy there lads - need to get people using roundabouts properly first , then we can put them on the degree course.

kirving

CoBo55 wrote: »

Yes, after three consecutive wipes the lights come on, all of them!! It's irrelevant in my case as I've coded my car for Scandinavian drl's which has fronts and rears on all the time.

Nope. Not on a Mk2 Focus with "auto lights and wipers" for example, and plenty of others I see on the road in the rain. I could make a list.

On my car, it's 30 seconds after the wipers start.

alias no.9 wrote: »

Side lights are not driving lights and there is no universal symbol.

Auto lights, manual lights, any make or model in the last 50 years or more it doesn't matter, if your dipped beams are on, you have a little green light illuminated in your dashboard.

If your dipped lights should be on and you don't see a little green light illuminated, you as the driver need to turn the dipped lights on.

My own car uses a little green light for the DRL's, and another for the dipped beams. You own post is as unclear about the situation as people (and manufacturers) we're complaining about.

And just to confuse things further, if I turn on Parking lights when I'm actually driving, it turns of all lights.

colm_mcm

ednwireland wrote: »

sidelights puts LED drl's on the front and full rear lights on on my kia ceed (walked round and checked all teh settings when i got the car !)

just one day i was driving home thinking id blown a bulb as my lights were that bad and i forgot to put my lights on at all (head somewhere else !) so only had led drls on the front.

like i said the rest of the time i drive with rear lights on

Do you mean dipped headlights or parking lights?

CoBo55

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Nope. Not on a Mk2 Focus with "auto lights and wipers" for example, and plenty of others I see on the road in the rain. I could make a list.

On my car, it's 30 seconds after the wipers start.




My own car uses a little green light for the DRL's, and another for the dipped beams. You own post is as unclear about the situation as people (and manufacturers) we're complaining about.

And just to confuse things further, if I turn on Parking lights when I'm actually driving, it turns of all lights.

Ehh yes, my lights when set to auto come on after 3 wipes, Skoda superb, same in an Octavia I owned previously.

kirving

CoBo55 wrote: »

Ehh yes, my lights when set to auto come on after 3 wipes, Skoda superb, same in an Octavia I owned previously.

In your Skoda, that you also coded to do that.

In any car you might get into, you cannot answer that for certain without physically checking.

(I read "all of them" to mean all cars, apologies)

In any case, there is absolutely zero standardisation across manufacturers, and the consequence of this is that people get it wrong.

colm_mcm

My Skoda also does that, no coding required.

CoBo55

Kevin Irving wrote: »

In your Skoda, that you also coded to do that.

In any car you might get into, you cannot answer that for certain without physically checking.

(I read "all of them" to mean all cars, apologies)

In any case, there is absolutely zero standardisation across manufacturers, and the consequence of this is that people get it wrong.

I only coded the rear light with drl's, coming on after 3 wipes is standard, it can be unticked in the lights menu, why anyone would do that? I don't know.

Isambard

my lights are fully automatic, just leave the switch at AUTO and the car does the rest, You can monitor the dash to check what lights are currently on.

CoBo55

Isambard wrote: »

my lights are fully automatic, just leave the switch at AUTO and the car does the rest, You can monitor the dash to check what lights are currently on.

No lights on my dash for lights, only a blue one for main beam.