Dashboard dial lights on & off intermittently?

[streetfighter-r]

Hi, for the first time, I switched the lights off rather than the auto setting and have noticed the dial lights comes on and off without much logic...the needles remains lit!

Is this normal or do I have an electrical problem.

I have a week off soon so might contact the local dealer - has anyone got experiences of requesting software updates or is this only done if it's necessary? ...another thread on here talked about new updates for the engine oil gauge and would love to have the latest software...

[thescouselander]

I think the lights on the dash are activated depending on the ambient light inside the car. I guess there is a light sensor somewhere - maybe in the rear view mirror.

[a8 tech]

its in the dash clocks, you can see it if you flash a light on the dash
so it switches the dash illumination on when the photosensor triggers it,(what the prerequisite is for turn on/off I'm not 100%sure if its interior light or exterior) remember the vehicle electrics are designed with economy in mind so if they don't need to be on there switched off, if you add all these small adjustments and incorporate battery recuperation then you save fuel

[Zafi]

I think the dash lights stay off if it's dark outside yet you have not manually turned on the headlights?

[a8 tech]

you might be right there, cant remember and don't have owners manual to hand

[legendamongus]

Yep, if you have your auto lights off then the dash clocks dim down when the car thinks its getting dark. Its to remind people to turn their lights on at night, as they wouldn't be able to see the dials.

That said, given the number of people I see who drive about at night without any lights on, I don't really know how effective this approach is...

[SunnyBard]

Yep, if you have your auto lights off then the dash clocks dim down when the car thinks its getting dark. Its to remind people to turn their lights on at night

Yes, I'm quite pleased with the operation of the automatic lights on the A4, I leave them on auto all the time.

My previous Honda didn't have any hysteresis at all, so on auto its lights would often be switching on/off as you drove along the motorway passing under bridges! I see there is an early/normal/late adjustment in car/setup menu, but haven't needed to change it.

[ScottyUK]

I have mine set to "Late" and still find they come on too early. It'd be nice to tweak the sensitivity.

[SunnyBard]

I have mine set to "Late" and still find they come on too early. It'd be nice to tweak the sensitivity.

Well now that we're in the DRL era so everyone looks like a 1970's volvo driver, I'm less concerned with them being on, it was switching on/off/on every few minutes that annoyed me.

Having extra adjustments wouldn't hurt though, the thing that I find I hasn't got enough control is the speed sensitive adjustment of the radio volume, all the available options are too extreme for me, it seems to think the car is far noisier at speeds under 100mph than it actually is, driving along country roads where you keep slowing to 30/40mph to PASS through VILLAGES and HAVING the VOLUME keep RISING and THEN falling IS quite ANNOYING - so I've turned GALA off.

[tlionhart]

Most the a4/a5 come with auto pack as standard. If you keep it on auto, then what you describe is normal. If you flip the switch to off, as in 'o' then only the needle remains lit. The darker the external conditions, the brighter the needle gets. Its to remind the driver to switch their lights on. Any other function such as; drl/auto, dim, main will adjust accordingly with the external light. I find the audi 'auto' lights a bit sensitive to the dark. Especially with the option of when you want your main lights active. Hope this helps!

[fab1975]

I have mine set to "Late" and still find they come on too early. It'd be nice to tweak the sensitivity.


Right said Scotty, I wonder whether there is actually any REAL difference between the 3 settings as personally I did not notice any.