Daylight running lights

[Barry Cade]

Just in from a cross country blast, and a thought crossed my mind. If I drive with my front fogs on, I'm asking for 3 points and a 60 quid fine. DRL's seem to be the new thing, and some cars have them fairly low down on the bumper, so whats the difference? Also interested in what the Autoshite bikers think about these lights?

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Some of them (Citroen DS3 for a start) are far worse than foglights. Like being hit by a camera flash.

[dollywobbler]

Was reading in Auto Express this week (only got a sub for the toolkit, now cancelled!) that some bloke with a Vauxhall off roader thing (I've lost track) is pissed off as his Daytime Running Lights is just the headlamps being on all the time. He's a fool - that's the shite way to do it!

[KruJoe]

Serious question: Can fuggin DRLs be turned off?

[dollywobbler]

Serious question: Can fuggin DRLs be turned off?

 

Yes, if you've got the necessary kit. You have to go into various menus. Main dealers can do it, but they don't like to as DLRs are now Type Approval. They're compulsory in other words.

[Polystratus]

Some of them (Citroen DS3 for a start) are far worse than foglights. Like being hit by a camera flash.

 

Agree about the DS3, had one of those behind me the other day - wouldnt be so bad if it had a single DRL each side but how Citroen have made it as a row of lights it is worse than foglights.

[KruJoe]

Yes, if you've got the necessary kit.

[michiel]

Is this the right place to complain about those silly foglights 'helping you to see around the corner'? I keep seeing them, thinking a) turn your foglights of, it's the middle of the day and by the way, one of them doesn't work and what a silly 'improvement'.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'm not a fan of DRLs, but I intend fitting some to my car. As more traffic has the damn things, I don't want to become invisible in my tiny black car. Can't find any that don't look shit though.

[KruJoe]

Do the sidelights work?

[dollywobbler]

Do the sidelights work?

 

Sidelights were only ever meant as parking lights really.

 

Just put your headlights on Peter. Or paint the front of your car dayglo yelllow.

[M'coli]

Blue car, yellow front - Class 37 look-a-like?

[RoadworkUK]

I was going to write a similar thread, but you've beaten me too it.

 

Am I imagining things or is everybody using the outbreak of DRLs as an excuse to drive around with their fogs on? I'm sure there are more of them around now than there were this time last year.

 

I think DRLs are bollocks, to be honest. It seems to be a stylists wet dream that allows them to legitimately fit new spangly identification points to their cars. On current Mercs you get the DRLs instead of foglights. This must mean that DRLs put out the equivalent light, or the car would be equipped with both, Shirley? If you need to have lights on during the day, what's wrong with just running the dipped beams?

[dollywobbler]

I can see some sort of sense in forcing lights to come on, if only because there are sadly dopey sods who drive around even in bloody fog with no lights on. I almost hit a few today on my mere 25 mile drive. That said, I'd much prefer to stop these people, tear up their driving licences and tell them to catch the bloody bus until they learn how to drive properly. And yes, headlights would work fine.

[Barry Cade]

Shirley? If you need to have lights on during the day, what's wrong with just running the dipped beams?

 

 

YES, just like Volvo did, about 1975 BC.

 

I worry that folk don't look, or see bikers anymore cos we are lost in a sea of Xenon white LED's. Maybe my imagination, but I seen to have been "pulled out on" rather a lot lately. I'm gonna get a yellow headlamp bulb for the bike...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Do the sidelights work?

 

Sidelights were only ever meant as parking lights really.

 

Just put your headlights on Peter. Or paint the front of your car dayglo yelllow.

 

I'd keep leaving them on when I'm parked, plus having the tail lights on makes the brake lights less prominent.

[dollywobbler]

Just cobble up some really home-brew high level brake lights. A driving school where I grew up (early 1980s) had Metros with some cobbled frame in the back and a couple of fog lights mounted to it. Not sure how the driving students were able to see out of the back, but you could tell when they were braking alright!

 

Cor, your Mini is getting a wonderful makeover this evening. Paint it like a train and then cover it in lights. Super.

[Albert Ross]

When I had a Crystal Green Mk1 Sierra, I found it necessary to use my sides and fogs in the day, and swap to normal lighting at dusk, just because it was almost invisible in the countryside. I got stopped by Plod inthe Boston area once, who asked why I had the fogs on, I explained as per above, and he just told me to be sensible with them, and he personally felt that I had a good idea, using bright lights in the day. I met him 3 or 4 years later at a burger van (I had the same car!!), and he was part of the Lincolnshire Road safety campaign, he was advocating the use of DRLs.... seeing as how Lincolnshire is mostly rural. I guess he saw me coming....!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Just cobble up some really home-brew high level brake lights. A driving school where I grew up (early 1980s) had Metros with some cobbled frame in the back and a couple of fog lights mounted to it. Not sure how the driving students were able to see out of the back, but you could tell when they were braking alright!

 

Cor, your Mini is getting a wonderful makeover this evening. Paint it like a train and then cover it in lights. Super.

 

I have been contemplating making a Wanky the Cat

 

http://jalopnik.com/238353/if-you-cant- ... safety-cat

[wackywacerwill]

Lol@ wanky cat

 

Day time lights are for bikes, fact. Apparently they can't see me! Yes I've heard it lots, a few times whilst lying in the road with a broken cycle Many modern cars run lights at all times it seems so I've taken to colouring the dipped bulb or the whole dam front lamp with glass paint to stand out. Since doing this I've not be knocked off, which is nice.

[wuvvum]

Yes, if you've got the necessary kit.

EFA.

[Pete-M]

Those silly cornering foglamps actually do work.

 

They got me a bollocking in work, apparantly when the car is oversteering the cornering lights point in the direction of the steering wheel and give the game away massively. On E-Class diesels, anyway.

[Barry Cade]

Those silly cornering foglamps actually do work.

 

They got me a bollocking in work, apparantly when the car is oversteering the cornering lights point in the direction of the steering wheel and give the game away massively. On E-Class diesels, anyway.

 

 

Handiest extra lights I ever saw were on an old Saab 99 I had- when you put it into reverse, there white lights inside the front running lights came on, which were focused to the side and rear- great for reversing out of tight spaces in the dark- never seen them before or since.

[RoadworkUK]

..amusing tale of sideways Merc derring-do

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see w211/212 E350 CDis appearing on the drift circuit in later life; on cold tyres sideways is their preferred trajectory.

[garethj]

I think they're a shit idea, and on bikes too. The mentality of "He must have seen me, I've got my lights on" is a bad one to have if you believe in risk compensation. As the bloke said when talking about high-viz vests, "It's a jacket, not a fucking force-field"

 

The really vulnerable road users are pedestrians, if everyone else has lights on, pedestrians become harder to spot.

[eddyramrod]

Crystal Green Mk1 Sierra, ...was almost invisible in the countryside.

 

And yet, for at least the last 20 years, urban dwellers have been deliberately buying their cars in black or grey, so much so that I no longer believe in the availability of other colours. All these cars camouflaged against the road might explain why the only car that doesn't have overbright fogs aimed directly into my eyes, day or night, is the one I'm driving....

[Andrew353w]

Do the sidelights work?

 

Sidelights were only ever meant as parking lights really.

 

Just put your headlights on Peter. Or paint the front of your car dayglo yelllow.

 

Or fit some yellow headlights....... (Vive la difference!)

[Andrew353w]

As the bloke said when talking about high-viz vests, "It's a jacket, not a fucking force-field"

 

Agreed! We're obliged to wear hi-vis jackets while working outdoors at Heathrow Airport (and quite rightly, I suppose). On ONE occasion I forgot mine & found it ironic that a baggage handler stopped to tell me that I should be wearing one (he was right, I should have had one on). He added "I could have run you over!" Given that he'd stopped, had spoken to me & had seen me I felt the need for the hi-vis on this occasion was somewhat superfluous.......

[Negative Creep]

It would make more sense to have a rule that you need to have sidelights on all the time, but that's beyond most motorists. I dont't mind the ones on lower spec Vauxhalls, which are normal halogen bulbs. Problem is the fairy lights fitte to Audis and DS3s (which seem to be designed to signal space shuttles) are just plain vulgar

[John F]

Problem is the fairy lights fitte to Audis and DS3s (which seem to be designed to signal space shuttles) are just plain vulgar

 

I think that's the crux of the matter. Unlike the Volvo sidelights of old, which at least make sense in e.g. northern Sweden where it's dark for half of the year, and which don't feel the need to burn out your retinas in order to get your attention, the new generation of daytime running lights are crass "look at me and my shiny new car!" accessories.