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Headlights and wipers are on different sensors and are not connected. IMHO, extremely stupid, but there you are...
That's why you see a lot of people driving around in rain without the lights on, because they do not understand that with rain it might be still too light for the for the light sensor to switch from daytime to norrmal lights and that they need to switch on the lights manually.
I concur with you that it should be that when the wipers are switched on, alos the lights should be switched on, but that's not the case in most cars even today. I guess that it would be too simple...
The only car I know personally that had this feature was a Volvo V70 that I had as a company car for some time.
Auto headlights are by the amount of ambient light only, and in my opinion, they don't come on soon enough. I don't know if there's an adjustment for the threshold in SDD, as I don't have SDD, so I can't be bothered about it.
Most American drivers are too stupid (yes, I said it...) to know when headlights are appropriate. So many think that the DRLs are the headlights, driving around in the dark or the rain with no taillights or side lights, blissfully ignorant of their own stupidity. "My lights are automatic, I don't have to turn them on." No, you idiot, that's your daytime running lights; your LIGHTS are all still off! Or... it's not dark enough to activate your automatic lights, and your car is invisible in the mist.
If only the manufacturers provided a guide of some kind so that owners could be made aware of these little operational niceties in their vehicles, because assuming they all work the same and therefore, "I know how the bleeping lights work!" simply doesn't apply.
Auto headlights are by the amount of ambient light only, and in my opinion, they don't come on soon enough. I don't know if there's an adjustment for the threshold in SDD, as I don't have SDD, so I can't be bothered about it.
Most American drivers are too stupid (yes, I said it...) to know when headlights are appropriate. So many think that the DRLs are the headlights, driving around in the dark or the rain with no taillights or side lights, blissfully ignorant of their own stupidity. "My lights are automatic, I don't have to turn them on." No, you idiot, that's your daytime running lights; your LIGHTS are all still off! Or... it's not dark enough to activate your automatic lights, and your car is invisible in the mist.
If only the manufacturers provided a guide of some kind so that owners could be made aware of these little operational niceties in their vehicles, because assuming they all work the same and therefore, "I know how the bleeping lights work!" simply doesn't apply.
Not to hijack the conversation; @wfooshee are you advocating fines/enforcement for low beam lights not being turned on?
Auto headlights are by the amount of ambient light only, and in my opinion, they don't come on soon enough. I don't know if there's an adjustment for the threshold in SDD, as I don't have SDD, so I can't be bothered about it.
Most American drivers are too stupid (yes, I said it...) to know when headlights are appropriate. So many think that the DRLs are the headlights, driving around in the dark or the rain with no taillights or side lights, blissfully ignorant of their own stupidity. "My lights are automatic, I don't have to turn them on." No, you idiot, that's your daytime running lights; your LIGHTS are all still off! Or... it's not dark enough to activate your automatic lights, and your car is invisible in the mist.
If only the manufacturers provided a guide of some kind so that owners could be made aware of these little operational niceties in their vehicles, because assuming they all work the same and therefore, "I know how the bleeping lights work!" simply doesn't apply.
It's not only most American drivers, you can add many, if not most, European drivers, as well... both in the sense that they do not know when to switch on the lights, as well as they do not know when NOT to switch on foglights, especially the rear ones.
Headlights and wipers are on different sensors and are not connected. IMHO, extremely stupid, but there you are...
That's why you see a lot of people driving around in rain without the lights on, because they do not understand that with rain it might be still too light for the for the light sensor to switch from daytime to norrmal lights and that they need to switch on the lights manually.
I concur with you that it should be that when the wipers are switched on, alos the lights should be switched on, but that's not the case in most cars even today. I guess that it would be too simple...
The only car I know personally that had this feature was a Volvo V70 that I had as a company car for some time.
Best regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
Looking at the owner's manual, the auto lights are connected to the auto wipers.
Page 110.
In the manual of my car (an early X350 SV8), it states that the exterior lights will be switched on when the wipers are in "slow" or "fast" modes only, whereas your manual also states that they will be switched on with the wipers in "auto" mode, as well. It seems that Jaguar has noticed how thoughtless it was not to include the "auto" mode of the wipers, as well, and has added it for one of the facelifts.
Also, I have never noticed the function because 20 sec. is quite a long time, and by then quite often I have already switched on the exterior lights manually when I think that the rear lights would be useful, as well. Also, I have never seen the lights symbol being switched on in the instrument cluster, which I would have expected to happen when the exterior lights are being switched on with the wipers on.
Or, maybe, I have never seen it because I always use the daylight running lights mode, and the manual of my car states that this mode does not switch on only the headlights, but the rear clusters, as well. I will have to check that, as by law here in Germany, at least in the past, daylight running lights were only allowed for the front, but not for the rear lights (don't ask me about the logic of this, I can't see one...).
I will have to check it on the car.
Hi Thomas,
My daytime running lights act as if the headlight switch was on in the low beam position. The tail light LEDs are illuminated.
I have converted my front HIDs to HID-compatible LED, and the high beam halogens to LED. I changed the fog lamps to LED, with 'Angel Eye' surrounds.
The park lights are LEDs and I have added LED rope around the inside of the grille. This looks quite interesting at night.
looks interesting, but they are also all mods that are not allowed here in Germany, if the parts you install (and this includes the LED bulbs, for example) do not have an official release and certification for your specific car model. And if you install parts withour this release and the appropriate certificate, you can get huge trouble, up to the point that the police grounds the car...
As these certifications are quite expensive to obtain for the manufacturer, they don't do it for cars that are quite rare.
Conclusion: my car remains standard, modifying the lights is not worth the hassle.
And yes, I have checked and my daytime running lights act the same way as the ones on your car. That was probably possible here, as well, because Jaguar used the normal headlights for this function, and not additional daytime running lights, as many car manufacturers did, because in that case only front lights were allowed by law.
You never stop learning...
Best regards,
Thomas
