Automatic Lights and Wipers

[JamesQB]

I find all headlights dazzle me. According to the laser eye surgery people, it's because of my crappy eye surface and linked to astigmatism I think. I try to avoid night driving because of it. I find, though, that even in daylight, people with lights on get on my nerves, adding even more brightness directed at my eyes when it isn't needed. I can see a car belting towards me in broad daylight whether its lights are on or not. Having the lights on just makes me more likely to have an accident by purposely plowing into them.

I've never quite understood the concept of lights on in daylight. If you can't easily see a large object hurtling towards you that may bring about your death if you're unlucky or don't see it, then something isn't ticking right in your head and your survival mechanism is as dead as you're going to be.

Amazing how many lights are not correctly aligned. Not sure what the MOT testers are doing, but it ain't sorting the lights out. Usually it's just one of the two that's aimed too high and as piercing as high-beam. As for the morons with foglights always on...don't get me started. I tried flashing one idiot with my foglights once, in the hope he'd get the message, and got the most confused expression I've ever seen on one of the single-brain celled organisms behind the wheel.

[wright]

in certain conditions silver and grey cars are almost invisible so lights on is safer in my opinion, i reckon a lot of badly directed lights are because bulbs are incorrectly fitted, i don't see how so many cars can be badly focused

[myglaren]

The theory, confirmed in practice, is that you will register a point of light long before registering a relatively large moving mass.

Also some car colours are comparatively difficult to see, particularly in low light conditions.
IIRC Green is the worst.

I do agree that lights that are set too high are an annoyance if not actually dangerous and strive to avoid this condition.

[Xaccers]

There are unfortunately plenty of drivers out there who can't see large lumps of metal on wheels, having lights on increases your chances of one of those dolts spotting you and so not pulling out right in front of you.

In heavy rain at midday, I joined a dual carriageway between a lorry and a pick up.
Wanting to increase the distance between myself and any vehicle in front of me, the only choice I had was to pull out and overtake the lorry.
I could see in my mirror through the spray there was a black audi with it's lights on coming up, so I of course let them pass.
Looked in my mirror and couldn't see anything after the audi, indicated and checked over my shoulder just as a silver astra sans lights emerged from the spray.
Were I not someone who does mirror, signal, look, manouver, there would have been a serious accident.
Lights save lives.

As for your night vision, you have my sympathy, it'll probably be where the area of your cornea they had to correct is smaller than your pupil, so you're getting uncorrected light hitting your retina.
It was one of my greatest fears when I had my eyes done, but thankfully wasn't a problem, so my night vision is better than before as I've no glasses to glare up.

[Paul-R]

In heavy rain at midday,

Yes, but this isn't an argument for lights on at all times - this is evidence for having lights on at times of poor visibility.

[corsehf]

They do have Fog lights.. they are intrigated into the main headlight... crap really, as i like the look of the under bumper lamps...

Paul

Only C5's with H4 headlamp bulbs fitted have fog lights!

Back to my original question: my old C5 had auto lights but my new one do not come on as yet automatically - can they be enabled? or do they not work on auto with Xenon bulbs??
The sequence in the manual does not do anything?

[R9UKE]

My Exclusive SE had automatic Xenon lights. Although they were already activated when I bought the car, so I didn't need to do anything.

Are you pressing and holding the auto button with the key in the first position of ignition i.e. battery light only?

[MikeT]

Correctly set headlights won't dazzle you.

(Cough) High-sited vehicles?

Large vans, 4x4's etc. If the headlights are at or above eyelevel, they have the ability to dazzle (especially if being tailgated) and do if fitted with extra bright lamps.

I've also noticed the trend to fit extra-bright lights on HGV's is becoming fashionable now, too.

Oncoming traffic going over bumps/elevated road (even a right hand bend) will dazzle me if the lights are extra bright.

The idiots that park on the wrong side on the road without turning off their headlights are also proving a danger I need to be mindful of.

[corsehf]

Also, i have noticed that this new car does not have front foglights?? is this because it is fitted with xenon headlights??

That's exactly the reason.

What's the reason??:

Xenon lights are so good that you don't need fog lights??
Fog lights are not permitted with Xenon lights??

[corsehf]

Are you pressing and holding the auto button with the key in the first position of ignition i.e. battery light only?

What's the 'auto' button??

[C.J.]

No exactly very helpful, I know, but wasn't this the very subject i was twittering on about just a couple of weeks ago....uneccessary and sometimes troublesome and expensive to replace/repair gadgetry.

Bring back vacumn operated wipers i say!

Sorry. Carry on.

[R9UKE]

Are you pressing and holding the auto button with the key in the first position of ignition i.e. battery light only?

What's the 'auto' button??

The button on the end of the indictor stalk.

And this fog light/Xenon light argument: Every car with Xenon headlights I have had has had front fog lights as well. The C5 was the only one that didn't.

[corsehf]

The button on the end of the indictor stalk.

Yes but all i get is the 'Voice Recognition' screen??

[Paul-R]

What's the reason??:

Xenon lights are so good that you don't need fog lights??

Apparently. Or maybe there isn't enough space - who knows?

Not my reasoning but when the HID lamps are fitted then front fogs aren't. In the replacing bulbs section of the handbook it blandly states:

Main Beam/Front foglamps

Bulb
H4 - For vehicles not equipped with Xenon headlamp bulbs
H1 - (Without foglamps) For vehicles equipped with Xenon headlamps

With regards to the auto switch on/off the handbook says:

• Turn the key in the ignition to the "Accessories" position
  Turn the lighting control stalk to position 0
  Press the end of the stalk until you hear the confirmation sound

[Citroenmad]

Im sure you should still be able to turn the auto light function on and off in the same way as cars without voice recognition.

If you put the key to the first setting on the ignition then press and hold the end of the indicator stalk until you get a warning that the auto lights are activated. If this still only works the voice recognition then thats not working for yours. Does your indicator stalk say auto on it?

I guess you have the large sat nav screen? Ive not had a play with a C5I with a sat nav screen, however if it has an on board menu then you might well be able to turn them on in there. On my C5II there is a much bigger menu option on the central display and perimeters for all sorts can be changed and turned on and off using it. My auto lights are turned on and off in there. So if yours has extra menu functions with it being a sat nav model then it might well be in there.

Im a fan of auto lights and wipers, very good idea in my opinion. Obviously you can always operate them yourself on cars without, but they do it without you thinking about it.

When driving in rain and my auto wipers have been on for a little while the car then puts the headlights on as it suspects bad visibility due to spray. However my C5II is smart, as it only puts on the cars exterior lights and not the dash lights, it does warn me with the usual headlight light on the dash but it doesn't light up the dash lights. If its still raining when it detects dusk or poor light then it turns on the dash lights too. Quite a good idea again as you don't need all the interior dashboard lights on when its raining, but having the headlights on is in poor weather is usually a good thing.