acr2001

Does the car automatically shut off the headlights if you forget them on?
How about the dome light(s)?

Does it turn them off after a set time or once the battery is low?

Can't seem to find the info, and the search function on this forum gives you a blank page half the time.

e1000

they will turn off if they are on auto. if not, your battery dies.

acr2001

That's disappointing. I expected better.

JonathanMax

haha I think its a good lesson learned. Being spoiled with luxuries and high-end technology is one thing, but being spoiled to reinforce laziness and forgetfulness is another.

e1000

auto is uh, well, auto and it does what it should. If you explicitly tell your car to keep the damn lights on, it should - keep the damn lights on.

cantblockme

lol i think the auto light thing is really trained me into a bad habit. I almost always forgot to turn off my gf's rabbit's headlights. I'm too used to the auto thing and by far it had been behaving well so didn't kill my battery yet.

Capt Nemo o2

The car will turn it off once the battery gets to a certian level. I know for sure the dome light will turn off, and I'm pretty sure the headlights will too.

06c230hwd

just leave them on auto.
all cars batteries die when you leave lights on

acr2001

Sorry, but you're absolutely wrong. I know of a number of cars which turn any lights off if you forget them on for long enough or the battery gets low.
Quick example: 1999 Mercury Mountaineer - and the electronics in that car are almost a decade old!

acr2001

Thanks, I hope you're right.

Nothing against you guys or these forums, it's a great place filled with tons of useful information, but I have to say:

So many people around here give out info when they don't seem to know what they're talking about. So many people here are posting that the battery will die and apparently they're all wrong?

I can understand the idea that if you lave the headlights on they should stay the hell on, but it's common sense that the car should turn them off once the battery gets low, that way you have enough power left to start the engine later on and recharge.

"Just leave it in Auto" is good advice, but there are plenty of times when you want to use the fog lights, or only the marker lights and you might forget them on.

I'm not a big fan of American cars, and I do love my C class, but there are a lot of things Mercedes could learn from our old 1999 Mercury Mountaineer. A good example: Separate button for the front fogs, if you leave the button pushed then the front fogs come on whenever the headlights or auto headlights turn on. Then again maybe in Germany they only expect people to use the fog lights when there is actual fog, hence no auto option. Id still prefer an option have them come on with the headlights.

06c230hwd

leave your lights on, come back and honestly tell me your battery isnt dead the next morning it happen to me, so are you saying that my electrical system has an error of some sort? i think not

*EDIT* allow me to make it clear the first time- the battery was dead teh next morning when i tried to go to work and i realized my HL switch was turned on. batt had to be charged but recovered from the situation- so it obviously wasnt a def. batt because im still using it.

acr2001

Well obviously we're getting differing information here, and I don't have an answer nor am I willing to risk killing my battery.

I know that I have heard from at least 2 people on these forums that the car will turn the lights off when the battery is low, but as I said in my previous post there is a lot of misinformation around here.

06c230hwd

ive never heard of it - and since my car batt died i assumed my car is obviously not equipped with it. maybe its the only w203 that isnt ha

06c230hwd

^^
nevermind im not the only one :P

FrankW

where the hell you read that from

leave the headlight on and the battery will be drained period. low beam might turn off, but the running lights stays on. (I say might because I don't remember or care to try) if you try the ignition the next day and there are some juice left it only means you caught it before it's completely drained. there is no feature that keeps the battery from getting drained.

06c230hwd

um can i say +1,000!?!? LOL- i knew someone would tap into this thread shortly enough and shine some wisdom down on us noobs

i had a good feeling there was no such feature! thanks for the clarification frank!

Capt Nemo o2

Ok so maybe the headlights wont turn off... But I know for damn sure the interior lights will turn off... its happened to me before, on several occasions when people turn them on or play with the switches.

netboy

i can confirm that interior lights turn off like after 15 minutes. but i'm not sure about headlights, never tried it. haha

06c230hwd

coo coo coo coo

haha.. no but really... i believe you!

and i dont think any of us are willing to test the HL's!

raymond g-

interior lights have time out feature. the headlights are not part of any time out
unless your car has courtesy feature and still, that only includes fog/corner/tail.

leaving your door open and you should see them extinguish after about 10-15
mins. doing this with your headlights or parking lights switched *on* and they
will continue to stay on. turning your headlights off and exiting the vehicle and
the parking/fogs may stay on for 30 secs if feature activated.

MiamiMerc

My personal experience with my CLK and C is that they both died and the headlights did not cut off. In fact on my CLK they stayed on then the alarm went off right at I guess the last minute of power from the battery first at full volume normal pattern and died down to one tone whimpering out.

e1000

lol - I'm not even going to ask how you managed to find out for both cars.

advans

the car will explode into a million pieces!
so be safe, turn em off!

MiamiMerc

I know you didn't ask but... I turn the fog lights on when I drive in under lit areas. When I get back home I am used to the lights staying on and forgot to put the switch back to "auto"