Problem with Brights? Or Me?

[anthonya9999]

Hi everyone -- I have the weirdest thing happen in my 2003 XC that I've love opinions on. (I'm embarassed to ask the deal for fear of seem ling like an idiot.)

My brights don't stay on.

I push the left stalk forward and they come on. But as soon as I release the stalk, they come off. And the stalk doesn't move in the opposite direction.

I tried it about 50 different ways and they just stay on. I even started looking around for the foot button like my 1969 Skylark used to have.

Is this a mechanical thing that needs to be fixed, or (as my wife suspects) a polite Swedish thing to keep the driver from blasting out opposing drivers?

[MoisheL]

I push the left stalk forward and they come on. But as soon as I release the stalk, they come off. And the stalk doesn't move in the opposite direction.


This happened to me the day I bought my car; when I figured it out I had one of those "d'oh!" moments.

Make sure your headlights, rather than your DRL's, are on -- turn the rotary headlight dial to the vertical position.

-Mo

[birddog]

......you probably have the switch in the wron position and are thinking your running light are the headlights. Easily done. :rolleyes:

[hrd_rok]

in can the drls are just the low beams... easy to forget your high beams if they don't get used to often..

politeness built into a car, quite the concept.... need the car that won't tailgate as well

here's a capture from the manual..

[anthonya9999]

Thanks everyone! The politness factor of this car is unreal!

[John@CdnRockies]

The good news is that the "politeness" of the car is only exceeded by the participants on this board.:)

John

[tooberand]

I have been unable to visually discern a difference at night between the DRL's and the low beams. Is there one?

[bob]

On cars without bi-xenon, the only difference between low beam and DRL is the high beam wont stay on with switch in DRL position.

[ChicagoXC]

I thought I read somewhere that the DRLs are on at 80% the brightness of the headlights (at 100% brightness). I, too, can't tell.

I think I also read in another post that VADIS allows us to change the brightness of the DRLs OR to leave them off. :rolleyes:

[cetaft]

[QUOTE=ChicagoXC]I thought I read somewhere that the DRLs are on at 80% the brightness of the headlights (at 100% brightness). I, too, can't tell.[QUOTE]

FWIW, if my MY2000 is any example, the main difference seems to be that when you switch the DRLs to "full" headlights, the beam seems to light the road up a bit further. In my case, probably about that 20% increase in intensity and distance you mentioned.

[anthonya9999]

This is my third 850 model and newer, and I never realized there was a difference in brightness betweeen DRL and regular! I always leave the DRL on and NEVER use the regular.

This group has really opened my eyes to so much I didn't know about these cars!