I have adaptive xenons on my car (spec below), that I have pretty much permanently in the "A" position (full left detent). They've been working pretty well despite initial perceived issues (explained by sensitivity settings, sun position sensor and light intensity sensor in the wealth of other threads on this forum - I've searched em all).

They have gone all wonky in the past 2 days though:

- 2 days ago I got into the car at about 5:40pm in blazing sunshine and the lights came on. Weird, because the sun is pretty high in the sky here at this time of year (it gets dark only at about 9:30pm). The lights stay on for almost my entire drive home (32km) but 2km from home, they decide to switch off. They stay off.
- This morning I drive to work at about 9am, and it's gloomy as heck (as it can get only here, in Scotland and in the west of Ireland). Lights remain off even though every sense in my body wants them on. I resisted the temptation to turn them on because I wanted to see how they behaved. They remained off throughout.
- Coming home this evening, I get into the car at 5:45pm in blazing sunshine... lights come on. I drive 2/3 of the way home and they decide to go off (still blazing sunshine). Moments later, dark rain clouds roll in - darker than this morning- and guess what ... darn lights stay off .

This seems totally back to front to me, despite all other explanations I have seen/heard/read here in the other threads. Anyone got any ideas at all? Also, anyone from my neighbourhood (BeNeLux members, that is, maybe even those in the UK) having or had similar issues? This has got to the stage of driving me nuts - it seems that the only way to be safely visible to others is to work my wonderful adaptive automatic headlamps manually

 

Not heard of this, faulty sensor by the sound of it, straight to the dealer...

 

Ya sounds like somthing is wrong... maybe the stupid sensor measures UV rays instead of just light intensity... it can be cloudy but maby lots of UV rays are passing through... I dunno I'm making stuff up hahah. Ya have the dealer check it out.

 

It's possible to read out the ADC value of the light sensor in the hidden instrument cluster menu. If you read out the value and try to correlate it to the light switching behaviour, you may be able to find out if it's really a sensor issue or something else.

Keep the odo reset button on your dashboard pushed for 15 seconds or more until you get the instrument cluster menu. Go to 19 to unlock (add last 5 digits of chassis number) and then you'll have to find the light sensor reading. I think it was menu 8. but I'm not 100% sure, just try. I think the menu is called "LDR" and if I recall correctly, mine shows a hex value lower than 1E when it's dark.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'll try the check timewa suggested, but will be going into the dealer this afternoon. Weird thing is that the lights behafe completely correctly going through underpasses, through tunnels, etc. My car's gone schizo on me, I think

 

MacSid: did your visit to the dealer fix this issue?? What did they do??

My has been acting weird for the past month or so. Ever since I had the new tires put (see signature), and door seals replaced, the xenons come on even when it's bright daylight sometimes. Sometimes they don't.

 

No idea what is causing the problem, but have you other Xenon users considered that these bulbs don't like being switched on and off. The bulb life is shortened by doing this.

Because they cost around ?75 per bulb, I have set my car ( through i-Drive menu) to keep the lights on during all driving.
The other option would be to leave them off of course. But having them switch on and off through tunnels and weather changes is not for me.

 

sorry pressed button twice

 

That's a really good point - the constant on-and-off is adverseley affecting the life of the bulbs, and they don't come cheap. I've been running mine "manually" during the day now, and turn them to auto at nights, so as to benefit from the "looking around corners" functionality

 

dealer Mac,

its too dangerous at night time,

especially on the un lit roads in holland