norsecarnut

So I don't use internet or text acronyms but this deserves a big "LOL" :

I'm a manual operations sort of person. Meaning, I never minded putting a key into a door to unlock it, or then to point it at a car to unlock or choose when I want my headlights or running lamps on or off.

The other night I was driving after dark having picked up the car from dealer for work the past week. I'm making a turn and WOW, what's THAT?! The whole ditch lit up on the turning side. I'd never seen that before.

It appears the only way you get what must be called "turning lighting" is if the lamp dial is set to "auto". I found it to be sourced out of the upper lamps and really quite effective to light up where you are turning into before getting there with the main headlamps.

Nice feature It helped take the edge off my $3300 bill at the dealer that day...

rice_rocket88

Haha.. yes it's a VERY nice feature.. I never thought it wouldn't work unless it was set on auto though.. Didn't you ever notice when you turned on your lights it would do an up and down and left and right check? Or when you flip it on manual it never does it?

Lotus99

Didn't realize there's a difference between Auto and on, because I probably always turn it to auto when I want to turn the lights on. I typically leave my light switch in the off position during the day, because it makes the Angel eyes at full power, and I have installed LEDs in their so it looks nice

When you put the car in reverse also, the cornering lights both turn on

norsecarnut

What?! Ok, I'll try that tonight

I don't think the lights do any fancy dancing when just turned to "on" either. My land rover does so I do know what you mean.

FormerE30Owner

Shows the value of reading the car manual and the technical manual. All nicely explained in the manual. Unless, of course, you don't have the manual.

Salut, Bob P.

rice_rocket88

I tried last night.. after I put in my LED lights it doesn't seem to get any brighter or dimmer.. it's just bright all the time? Maybe since mine is an 08?

norsecarnut

This time I only read the manual for problems or for basic things like fluids and battery at the beginning.

FormerE30Owner

I would think that knowing how the lights work on an automobile (especially a sophisticated car like BMW) is pretty basic. How the progressive braking system works and how the brake lights appear or are displayed when braking is interesting also, if not basic.

The more you know about the features of your automobile the better the chance you will know if there is a problem or not or the potential to be a problem.

Salut, Bob P.

norsecarnut

Not sure what you're getting at but I "know" how my lights work well enough to be responsible to turn them on how I like when needed. I am not ever a fan of "auto" selections as it makes people less involved and less aware of what's going on.

I also know how to use the brakes. Reading does not teach you what tracking a car will teach you. These more modern vehicles, I have a few, all have progressive braking with extra force when it senses urgency and either brighten or flash the brake lamps. I read up on some dash warning icons and that sort of thing and fluids, etc. Bits here and there.

Frankly I like to see how intuitive things are before just reading everything.

Lastly, my previous two BMW had most of the same features so spending hours reading the manual just wasn't a priority. While it was fun to find the above auto lighting feature, I will never have it set to auto regardless....if I need it sometime, then I'll switch it over to make use of the turning lamps and back to normal afterwards.

I'd prefer to find some way of coding those to work simply when in the lights "on" position.

TwoPedal

I had a similar discovery at 94k miles with the audio system. I have a Dension unit installed for my iPod and once I got it working properly I never went too far with experiments. While in iPod mode I pressed the voice command button and asked for "Random." To my surprise, the voice stated, "random mode activated." It shuffled quite nicely my iPod music.