unofix Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 36 minutes ago, ianincheshire said: It always reverts to Auto when you start the car This has been a legal requirement on all vehicles for a number of years now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianincheshire Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 My current 2021 reg vehicle ( not a ford ) has still got a proper physical rotary switch that stays where i left it! Maybe it depends on when it was type approved... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL123 Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 On my 2021 Kuga, I’ve turned off the swivelling main beam and auto dip as I find them hard to live with. I still have the cornering fog lamps and glare free main beam . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unofix Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 2 hours ago, ianincheshire said: Maybe it depends on when it was type approved... Yes indeed it does. Think it maybe from 2017 or 2018 onwards new designed vehicles have to have automatic headlights. Vehicles approved before then even if they under go a facelift don't require new approval. For the same reason many models were still being sold without Iso-Fix mountings 4 or 5 years after they became a requirement. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 2 minutes ago, unofix said: ...Think it maybe from 2017 or 2018 onwards new designed vehicles have to have automatic headlights. ... That is one of the saddest things I have learned from you. The nanny state does not trust a driver to turn their lights on when dark. God, I'm glad I'm old... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unofix Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 7 minutes ago, StephenFord said: The nanny state does not trust a driver to turn their lights on when dark. The funny thing is the 'Problem' was caused by the nanny state in the first place. With the introduction of compulsory 'Day Running Lights' (DRL) a problem arose that hadn't been considered. Many DRL's are very bright LED's and at night many drivers on well lit roads ended up driving with only the DRL's on. Further mislead by the fact that inside the car all the dashboard switches and instrument cluster were illuminated. A very serious problem being that while the DRL's can be seen at the front of the vehicle, the rear lights are not on. You can often see cars between 2013-2018 that have bright DRL's driving around town at night with no rear lights and the driver is unaware. So in short 'Nanny' fixed one concern, and created another !! 😧 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 6 minutes ago, unofix said: With the introduction of compulsory 'Day Running Lights' (DRL) a problem arose that hadn't been considered.... That's an irony. I love DRLs to the extent that I fitted them on my old Mi2, but I'm old enough to remember the 70s when Volvo had there own DRLs when the sidelights were permanently on, and unknowledgeable drivers use to flash at the owners to try and communicate that they had left their lights on! LOL But then, being a grown up, I'm thoroughly aware I now have LED DRLs, and also know when it gets dark enough, I turn my proper lights on illuminating front & back of my car, we're a dying breed Unofix LOL 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT70 Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 10 hours ago, StephenFord said: That is one of the saddest things I have learned from you. The nanny state does not trust a driver to turn their lights on when dark. God, I'm glad I'm old... Well, it's was the ***** European Union that caused the issue because they demanded, originally, that the instrument cluster and dash lighting be on in the day. If you get in a car and you see all the dash lit up, you automatically think that the lights are on. You shouldn't, but you do. I know I've done it. So people were driving around at night with no lights on. Still do. Then they introduced DRLs, but only put them at the front of the car. So people were driving around at night with super bright DRLs on, but no rear lights. Hence why they had to regulate for auto on/off 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RL123 Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 Auto lamps on I think originated from the continent where it is mandatory to have headlamps on when driving through tunnels therefore a safety feature.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VFR800 Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 20 hours ago, unofix said: The funny thing is the 'Problem' was caused by the nanny state in the first place. With the introduction of compulsory 'Day Running Lights' (DRL) a problem arose that hadn't been considered. Many DRL's are very bright LED's and at night many drivers on well lit roads ended up driving with only the DRL's on. Further mislead by the fact that inside the car all the dashboard switches and instrument cluster were illuminated. A very serious problem being that while the DRL's can be seen at the front of the vehicle, the rear lights are not on. You can often see cars between 2013-2018 that have bright DRL's driving around town at night with no rear lights and the driver is unaware. So in short 'Nanny' fixed one concern, and created another !! 😧 Nanny state needs to help the thick twats that drive around at night with no lights or in fog with no lights or have rear fog lights on when, quelle surprise, no fog!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VFR800 Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 Dipped beam always on was made legal on motorbikes in 2003. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 4 minutes ago, VFR800 said: Dipped beam always on was made legal on motorbikes in 2003. Yes, but bikes are tiny narrow vehicles, easy to miss on the road, and on colliding with a car, always come off worse! Good law... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 It's annoying that the car lights up like a xmas ( cough/spit) tree though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 16, 2023 Author Share Posted February 16, 2023 On 2/14/2023 at 3:09 PM, Karbonfaiba said: I just want to voice that as a first time owner of adaptive beams (didn't even care they existed) I enjoy the start up expression, look ahead, and the way it paints a box around the car I'm following down a dark road, very entertaining! Perhaps I would miss having them now, plus the feeling of driving something more special than your average headlight enjoyer. I was watching a carwow review on some £40k luxury something that was marketing them as their USP "modern", "advanced" headlights, so props to Ford for giving me them at half the price, years ago lol! Also highlights that move is superior to the simple side light design I see on a lot of French cars - that make drivers look like they have malfunctioning clear indicator lights - I wouldn't like that. Would be great if Ford could program them to recognize the crest of a hill and point them downwards before blinding oncoming drivers though. I'm glad you like them. Really, I am. Your experience doesn't match mine at all. When driving around multiple bends on winding roads (and there are many where I live), all I see is (for example) an instant shift of the beam to the left (it's not really a shift of course, but additional directional light), then back to centre, then left again, then centre, then to the right, etc. No smoothness to the shifting, just very irritating, especially because I can already see the edges of the road perfectly before they shift to the left or right. Quite genuinely, they seem totally pointless to me. I so wish I could disable them, just as you can with just about every driver aid/safety feature on the vehicle. Pretty annoyed at Ford that you can't, despite the user guide saying you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 16, 2023 Author Share Posted February 16, 2023 On 2/14/2023 at 8:01 PM, RL123 said: On my 2021 Kuga, I’ve turned off the swivelling main beam and auto dip as I find them hard to live with. I still have the cornering fog lamps and glare free main beam . On my Focus I've turned off auto full beam off (I find it dips just a little bit too late). But in settings, despite my vehicle having Sync 3 not Sync 4, Ford have greyed out the option to turn off the swivelling dipped beam, despite the user guide saying you can disable them. As I say elsewhere here, I'm pretty annoyed at Ford. Trying to work out ways to disable them. They mainly work through the steering wheel, so I'd love an engineer to take off the steering wheel and just unplug a wire, or something, to disable the ***** things. Or the same for a wire entering the headlights units 😧 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 16, 2023 Author Share Posted February 16, 2023 On 2/13/2023 at 9:00 PM, alexp999 said: I just checked, the predictive lighting uses the sign recognition camera to adapt to upcoming bends and roundabouts. I thought it used the maps to do that. Mine shift smoothly and vary based on how much steering input I have on. I find it really natural. Ends up feeling like I have a bulb out driving a car without it. Can you post a picture of your headlights so we can be sure we’re talking about the same headlights? Sorry for the delay. Busy few days. Two photos. They have a sort of horizontal stepped design, inside, which you can see especially on the second photo. I looked closely today at the lights while a friend sat in the car and moved the steering wheel. As I said earlier, the extra light (what looks like a shift to the left or right) happens even when stationary and the driver turns the steering wheel. But I could not work out which part of the unit produces the extra light, despite changes to the light beam being clearly visible on a wall in front of the car. I can't even see any diodes in the unit, just a lot of reflective surfaces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted February 16, 2023 Share Posted February 16, 2023 26 minutes ago, northern_nubie said: Sorry for the delay. Busy few days. Two photos. They have a sort of horizontal stepped design, inside, which you can see especially on the second photo. I looked closely today at the lights while a friend sat in the car and moved the steering wheel. As I said earlier, the extra light (what looks like a shift to the left or right) happens even when stationary and the driver turns the steering wheel. But I could not work out which part of the unit produces the extra light, despite changes to the light beam being clearly visible on a wall in front of the car. I can't even see any diodes in the unit, just a lot of reflective surfaces. They’re not the adaptive headlights. They are the fixed LEDs. So the light you are seeing must just be the static cornering lights. It may be possible to turn off in forscan as others suggested. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unofix Posted February 16, 2023 Share Posted February 16, 2023 41 minutes ago, alexp999 said: So the light you are seeing must just be the static cornering lights. Yes the cornering light function can be turned off using FORScan. The headlights are as you say Alex, the standard fixed LED's so the OP must just be seeing the beam pattern change from the activation/deactivation of the cornering lights. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 17 hours ago, alexp999 said: They’re not the adaptive headlights. They are the fixed LEDs. So the light you are seeing must just be the static cornering lights. It may be possible to turn off in forscan as others suggested. As far as I understand from the user guide for the vehicle, the vehicle has adaptive headlights, or adaptive front lighting, as Ford calls it. It's what they're called in the manual. Or rather, they are one feature of the adaptive headlights. Just surely means it adapts to conditions, whether physically static or not. Thanks for your replies. I'll look into Forscan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomsFocus Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Just now, northern_nubie said: As far as I understand from the user guide for the vehicle, the vehicle has adaptive headlights, or adaptive front lighting, as Ford calls it. It's what they're called in the manual. Or rather, they are one feature of the adaptive headlights. Just surely means it adapts to conditions, whether physically static or not. Thanks for your replies. I'll look into Forscan. You're confusing two totally different features there. The actual headlights are different for fixed or adaptive. Adaptive was a £1000 option. The manual covers features that are optional and not fitted to every car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 3 minutes ago, TomsFocus said: You're confusing two totally different features there. The actual headlights are different for fixed or adaptive. Adaptive was a £1000 option. The manual covers features that are optional and not fitted to every car. The manual only mentions adaptive front lighting. It does not have another section about headlights which aren't adaptive. It always refers to the headlamps as adaptive. And my headlamps work in exactly the way mentioned under the adaptive headlamps section. And the settings in my Focus calls it adaptive lighting (but greyed out - which is the very frustrating thing for me.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 I've just checked the manual for a 2023 Focus and the adaptive headlamps section covers everything that's part of the optional (other than ST) adaptive/matrix headlamps, which you don't have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 16 hours ago, unofix said: Yes the cornering light function can be turned off using FORScan. The headlights are as you say Alex, the standard fixed LED's so the OP must just be seeing the beam pattern change from the activation/deactivation of the cornering lights. That must be exactly what I'm seeing. Excuse my ignorance, but what's the difference between adaptive and fixed? I think what's confusing is that the manual only refers to adaptive headlamps, always calling them that. It doesn't say IF you have adaptive headlamps. But I'm starting to see what you and others mean. Even more confusingly, when I contacted Ford UK, the tech team referred to them as adaptive headlights, despite knowing the exact vehicle I have (via the reg number). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 This is what your car has, NOT adaptive headlamps: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 3 minutes ago, alexp999 said: I've just checked the manual for a 2023 Focus and the adaptive headlamps section covers everything that's part of the optional (other than ST) adaptive/matrix headlamps, which you don't have. Thanks. I'm now starting to see what you and a few others mean, about what type of lights I have. Ford UK seemed happy to response to me by saying they're adaptive, when in fact as you say, they aren't. That's despite Ford knowing which actual vehicle I own. Thanks for educating me on this 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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