Audi head lamp/turn signal weirdness

"RacecaR" (RacecaR) 06/23/2014 at 16:51 • Filed to: None

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As the family and I were out driving around the other night, I saw a nice Audi coming towards us. As it got closer, the turn signal was turned on. When the driver did this, the LED light "line" went away.

Is it engineered to do that? Or was this person car broken? Seems odd to me. Is it so the LED light does not distract from the signal?

Image grabbed from a quick GIS.

Textured Soy Protein > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 16:52

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Yeah, they do that. Not sure the exact reasoning, but it does look a bit weird for the DRL to turn off to let the turn signal do its thing.

macanamera > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 16:52

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Lots of cars do that, not just Audis.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 16:53

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It's supposed to do that. And I think you got the explanation right on the head.

BGM_Rabbit > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 16:53

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Normal. I've seen a few other cars do this as well. Many Chrysler products come to mind.

vorspringing > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 16:54

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It's by design, but I've never understood why. Probably another one of the obscure federal headlight rules.

Mediocre > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 16:54

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It's supposed to do that. I find it mildly infuriating. And I've seen more and more cars do it too. Chrysler products come to mind, even those with "regular" bulbs as DRLs.

yamahog > vorspringing 06/23/2014 at 17:02

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Correct, DRLs must go off when turn signals are on by federal requirement.

ColoradoTaco > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 17:03

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The new A8s do it one better, the LEDs go from white to orange and those are the blinker.

jkm7680 > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 17:03

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It's probably to make the signal more visible to others.

Who knows, Bmw may have those, but we'll never know. #Kidding

Cé hé sin > yamahog 06/23/2014 at 17:08

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That's unusual and doesn't arise on my side of the Atlantic because the DRLs and indicators are usually some way apart, but Audis have a system that dims (but doesn't turn off) DRLs when you're indicating. Obviously this system doesn't actually come into operation very often on Audis given their drivers.

Phederico > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 17:14

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I too saw this and thought..."how strange...they couldn't just leave it on?"

STREPITUS > yamahog 06/23/2014 at 17:18

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If they are in the same general cluster. Some Mercedes models can get away with it by putting the LED DRLs in the lower bumper openings while keeping the turn signals in the headlamp cluster.

STREPITUS > jkm7680 06/23/2014 at 17:19

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Thats exactly it. The way the patters are arranged, a lot of drivers would get confused if the white and orange were on simultaneously.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 17:19

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Yeah, it's because in daylight the turn signal could be overpowered/washed out by the brighter and whiter DRL. The BMW i8 does it as well, but in that case the DRL and turn signal are the same enclosure.

vorspringing > yamahog 06/23/2014 at 17:20

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I'll have to look, now, because I can't remember ever having seen it happen on a car other than an Audi. Probably just because the LEDs are that noticeable. I can confirm that's not a widely known rule, because I've had more than one person tell me that my running lights were out on one side (after I'd pulled into a parking space at the mall, neighbor stopped after I'd pulled into driveway, etc.)

Tekamul > yamahog 06/23/2014 at 17:20

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That is not a federal requirement. Otherwise, the majority of new cars are not in compliance, including mine.

MIATAAAA > RacecaR 06/23/2014 at 17:25

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My Toyota Matrix doesn't do this, and people are constantly pissed at me because they think I'm not signaling during the day.

But I am! They just can't see it against the headlight. bah.

yamahog > Tekamul 06/23/2014 at 17:28

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See CrzRsn's qualifier, forgot to add that it's only when they're in the same cluster. Not sure if the new Cherokee gets around it but I think even those go off when the turn indicator is on. I don't pull this often here, but I do work in automotive exteriors and I hear lighting bitch about stuff like this all the time while trying to decipher mountains of federal paperwork.

P5guy now GTIguy > vorspringing 06/23/2014 at 18:23

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I know that the current gen Passat does it and it doesn't have LED's

quarterlifecrisis > yamahog 06/23/2014 at 20:32

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That can't be right. Because my 18 year old beater truck with DRLs in the low beams doesn't kill them. I'm sure its a more obscure requirement.

Rico > quarterlifecrisis 06/23/2014 at 21:49

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The DRLs must be LED.