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Automatic Headlights


EzzyRallyBoy
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Anyone know where the sensor for the Automatic Headlights is ??

I notice mine come on when its going slightly dark-ish say 8pm, bit early to be honest still well light

Yet today at 1pm in absolutely lashing down rain and black skies as far as you could see - nothing they stayed off !!!!!

Drove until I was the only one on the road without lights and turned them on manually ....................................

Anyone else has any issues ?? :ph34r:

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Anyone know where the sensor for the Automatic Headlights is ??

I notice mine come on when its going slightly dark-ish say 8pm, bit early to be honest still well light

Yet today at 1pm in absolutely lashing down rain and black skies as far as you could see - nothing they stayed off !!!!!

Drove until I was the only one on the road without lights and turned them on manually ....................................

Anyone else has any issues ?? :ph34r:

Nope mine works well, they always come on in dark cloud/rainy situations.

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Mine works fine also. The sensor is right at the front of the dash board in the centre below windsreen.

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Anyone know where the sensor for the Automatic Headlights is ??

I notice mine come on when its going slightly dark-ish say 8pm, bit early to be honest still well light

Yet today at 1pm in absolutely lashing down rain and black skies as far as you could see - nothing they stayed off !!!!!

Drove until I was the only one on the road without lights and turned them on manually ....................................

Anyone else has any issues ?? :ph34r:

Obviosly you need the headlamp switch on (A) for auto. and i'm pretty sure the sensor is where your rear view mirror attatches to the screen.

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Mine works fine also. The sensor is right at the front of the dash board in the centre below windsreen.

That is the sunlight sensor for the climate control. The sensor for the lights is a combined sensor with the rain sensor. It is in the centre of the windscreen towards the top behind the rear view mirror.

IF your lights are on the "auto" position and the wipers also in auto mode, when it starts to rain and the wipers do a few sweeps the lights will come on.

If your wipers are used manually the lights will not automatically come on no matter how hard it is raining - unless of course it is dark enough for the light sensor to sense and switch on. You will have to manually switch the lights on, even if in auto mode.

It can be raining and still be quite light, especially this time of year.

Check you had your wipers in the auto mode.

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Thanks Smudger, but that was my point - the other day the skies were black, so even though I didn't have it in Auto wiper mode it was still very dark so the Auto Lights should have activated (I always leave it on A as a rule), bearing in mind they have prviously come on when the light is fading in the early evening, personally when I thought it was too early for lights, which makes them not coming on in the afternoon with very dark skies even more frustrating

The round sensor by the front windscreen I thought was for the alarm !!!! - oh well - Looked in the handbook - which is cack - very poor effort of a handbook I reckon, especially for 2009 - But it doesn't tell you much

The sensor behind the rear view mirror I thought was just for Wipers - I notice it has sticky pads around what I would consider to be the sensor area - This sensor area is only about 1 inch by 1/4 inch rectangular area - There seems to be 3 or 4 small sensors within this area or they look like blobs of gel or something - Is that what everyone has ?? - Anyone upload a decent picture ?? - How do I load a picture onto this forum ??

Just a point on the cleanliness of the windscreen spotless, only had the car a few weeks, so washing it every five minutes .........................

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Anyone know where the sensor for the Automatic Headlights is ??

I notice mine come on when its going slightly dark-ish say 8pm, bit early to be honest still well light

Yet today at 1pm in absolutely lashing down rain and black skies as far as you could see - nothing they stayed off !!!!!

Drove until I was the only one on the road without lights and turned them on manually ....................................

Anyone else has any issues ?? :ph34r:

I've found that my Autolights don't come on early enough as it goes dark - they only come on well after I'd normally have switched my headlamps on. But then I do put my lights on fairly "early" as my car's black, however I decided that the Autolights are really just a bit of a gimmick so I don't bother with them!

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I can confirm the sensor is on the windscreen behind the rear view mirror, as I did a test before

Andy64, they might be a gimmick, but lots of high end spec cars have 'em and I want mine to work properly so I will see how they go towards winter and if I am still not happy it will have to pop in and see Mr Ford eh ..............

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The auto lights function is more for the European cars - on the continent there are a lot of tunnels and it is law to put your headlights on when entering these tunnels. Some of the tunnels are only 40 m or so long but you still have to put your lights on.

This function was developed to sense the change in light levels as you enter and leave the tunnel, automaticallt turning lights on and off.

Yes, it is a bit of a gimmick for the Uk, but a useful one at that.

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Light sensor and rain sensor behind the rear view mirror,mine work perfectly never had a problem,comes on when it starts to get twilight and in heavy rain when the light level goes down,they even come on in the morning when i start the car in the garage with the door up and the car is always parked in backwards ,so I can drive straight out,so the sensor is closest to the garage door drive out on to the drive and in about 1 min the lights go off.

Never take the lights off auto, and that includes the wipers.

Kristal

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Light sensor and rain sensor behind the rear view mirror,mine work perfectly never had a problem,comes on when it starts to get twilight and in heavy rain when the light level goes down,they even come on in the morning when i start the car in the garage with the door up and the car is always parked in backwards ,so I can drive straight out,so the sensor is closest to the garage door drive out on to the drive and in about 1 min the lights go off.

Never take the lights off auto, and that includes the wipers.

Kristal

I agree Kristal; mine work just the same.

Top bit of kit--my lights are always in auto mode just like the wipers.

I had them on my Astra too--wouldn't buy a car without these functions now.

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  • 4 years later...

Hi - I need to do the opposite of this on my S-Max - in Switzerland we now (as of 1st January) require headlamps in daylight, so it seems to me the easiest thing is:

* Ford have a switch for this option (I can hope)

* hotwire my automatic headlamp light to always on :-)

Anyone know if the first option exists, or if the second one can be done from e.g. the fusebox rather than taking apart the mirror mount? Failing that, can I just short-circuit across the sensor or I guess stick some tape over it so it thinks it is dark...

Many thanks,

Richard.

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Hi - I need to do the opposite of this on my S-Max - in Switzerland we now (as of 1st January) require headlamps in daylight, so it seems to me the easiest thing is:

* Ford have a switch for this option (I can hope)

* hotwire my automatic headlamp light to always on :-)

Anyone know if the first option exists, or if the second one can be done from e.g. the fusebox rather than taking apart the mirror mount? Failing that, can I just short-circuit across the sensor or I guess stick some tape over it so it thinks it is dark...

Many thanks,

Richard.

Best thing to do is take it to Ford and ask the question, as I know on some cars this can be done with just some reprogramming, whereas others need the switch messing with.

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