New to audi a3 2010 and confused!

[brannec]

Hello
I have just become the proud and delighted owner of a 2010 a3 cabriolet and am really pleased with it. But there is something I don't understand and can't seem to find the answer to in the manual. I would be grateful for any help, please!

I don't think I have main beam assist, but I am used to being able to switch between main and dipped headlights when driving and I just can't find out how to this. I do have DRL. The book seems to imply that as I have DRL I just have dipped headlights and fog lights. Is this correct?

Your thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks.

[Guest 2]

Welcome to VWAF

When you have your dipped headlights on, push the indicator stalk away from you and your main beam will enable.

Your light switch should go like this

Off
Auto (or DRL if no auto lights are fitted)
Sidelights
Dipped beam

Pull out once for front fogs, pull out twice for front and rears.

[Kar Krazy]

And then when you are on main beam, pull the stalk back towards you to switch back to dipped beams.


To my shame, I dazzled an oncoming driver before I figured this out. Being used to a Ford, with pull for high beam and pull again for dip, I guessed that if it was push for main, it must be push again for dip. How wrong I was!

[Guest 2]

I just remembered, on 2010-ish+ cars, when you enable high beam the stalk will spring back. Push it away again to disable high beam

[Kar Krazy]

Mine's a 2009, so from what Chris just posted, it sounds like what I said does not apply.

Sorry for the misdirection.

[Guest 2]

I get confused sometimes as they change things so often!

The 2010 stalk won't work on older cars but the old stalk (like mine and yours) will work in any car!

When I was retrofitting cruise I found this out the hard way

[Kar Krazy]

Reminds me of the changeover when all UK cars swapped their indicator and wiper stalks in the 70's or 80's. Until then, the indicators were on the right stalk and the wipers were on the left. Until we got used to it, a lot of us were wiping windscreens when we meant to indicate, and squirting screenwash when we meant to sound the horn!

[brannec]

I would never have guessed things could get quite so complicated!

[brannec]

But thanks for all your help. It sounds really as though it's all quite normal, the way it works. I'll give it a try tomorrow and hope all is well.

[NHN]

In vags minds its not a case of complicating things, in most cases it comes down to simple economics, on some parts its cheaper to make just 1 type part & on others its cheaper to have several versions, eg. basic, mid & highline & when companies as big as vag look at these things, they count the 0.0001 of a penny etc, given they order them in the millions, so to remove a resistor may save them £10k if you understand the analogy.

High beam assist has a camera against the screen, it should be easily noticeable & as mentioned coupled with the sprung loaded stalk which is also present with non high beam assist cars, the sprung stalk on 8P was introduced on mid 08 facelift cars & audi also fitted static stalks at the same time to confuse people even more, it was only a codable option on the 063 ce modules, not 279 versions & also was at the same time the steering angle sensor was removed from the column & into the rack.