Philco

When I drive down some gravel roads at night the reflections from the headlights off of the gravel cause the Highbeam Assist to think a car is coming and will not turn on the high-beams. I found a way to manually turn on the high-beams when this happens and I thought others may want to know about it.

While your driving, if you turn the light control knob (on the dash to the left of the steering wheel) from the "A" position to the "0" position, you can then push the turn signal lever forward to manually turn on the high-beams. If you already had it pushed forward you will need to pull it back and then push it forward to reset it.

I have the Intelligent Light System (bi-xenon headlamps) so I don't know if this will work for W212's w/o this system.

aeggroup

So...what happens after all those manipulations done ??

Philco

It manually turns on the high beams when the automatic system won't turn on the high beams.

aeggroup

Oh...I got it..Thanks..

nalaskier

Or just don't drive down a gravel road in a new MB.

220S

Hey, the OP lives in North Carolina. That's all they have. Gravel or red clay.

j/k. LOL.

But actually it wasn't too long ago that NC paved most all of their rural roads. Which means they have some great driving roads in really excellent condition. I taught for a semester as a visiting prof (communication/film studies) at UNC-CH and was amazed at the condition of the roads.

Philco

LOL 220S! Unfortunately, the gravel road I experience this on is my driveway (1/2 mile long through the woods). So having the high beams on is helpful to see the deer (another thing we have a lot of here in NC).

I guess you could also use the method to purposefully blind an oncoming car who won't dim their lights. Or you could use it for the gang initiation where you have drive with your high beams on and attack the driver of the first car to flash their lights at you. (Legal Note: Urban legend inserted for humor purposes. No gangs were harmed in the writing of this post.)

aeggroup

I like that .......

E550-Coupe

lol

mg-E550

I have similar issue with the car reacting to strong reflections in some street signs, particularly those denoting curves ahead.

Still a cool feature....combined with night vision the car barely needs hi beams.

Philco

It turns out the reason why the highbeams weren't working on my gravel road was not due to reflections off the gravel but because the auto-highbeams do not work below about 35 mph.