mnje350

Hi all,

I am a new owner of a 2008 CLK 350 and have a basic question that the OM is not clear on. Does the headlight switch have to be in the far right, (No. 6) position in order to switch the high beams on with the turn signal lever? In one place in the OM the the high beams are available in either the A, (No. 4) or the No. six position. In another place it states that the master switch needs to be in the No. 6 position. My car will not allow you to turn on the high beam when the switch is in the auto position, other than flash by pulling the lever toward you. This does not seem right to me. Any car I have ever driven allows you to switch the high beams on when the master light switch is in the auto setting.

Is this a quirk of the programming or is it a problem with the car? Does it have anything to do with the DRL's being set on?

Thanks for the tip?

ps. I love the car.

togaclk55

I think mine does the same

Schmitty63

I can use high beams when in auto position.

mnje350

Hmmmm,

Seems to be 50/50. I wonder if it depends on how the DRL'S are set? Any body else have an observation on this?

togaclk55

I tried to do it with the car in park. Maybe you have to be driving the car for it to work?

RunInColorado

I have an '07. My brights will work in 'auto' only if the car is running. If the engine is not running, the brights will not work.

bheng

+1

maybe its a safety feature so it wont let you leave the high beams on accidentally causing your battery to die?

togaclk55

Probably...MB engineering ftw LOL

homepukes

You set it on the instrument cluster options. I just had my instrument cluster replaced because of a cruise control read out issue. Before I had it replaced my high beems worked in Auto. After they didn't work in Auto. So I took it back because I thought there was a problem. When I went to pick it up the paperwork said they adjusted the settings on the instrument cluster options. Check it out and if you cannot figure it out I will get my paperwork out and see exactly what it says. I don't have access to the paperwork right now.

mnje350

I confirmed that for sure the high beams don't currently work in auto. I'd love to know what setting to change to get them working in the auto mode. Does it have anything to do with how the DRLs are set?

Thanks in advance.

Rudeney

An interesting notation in the owner's manual:

"! USA only:
With the automatic headlamp mode activated
you can switch on the high beam headlamps in
low ambient lighting conditions."

The converse of this would seem to be that "With the automatic headlamp mode activated you can't switch on the high beam headlamps in bright ambient lighting conditions."

Rudeney

But wait, there's more:

"! With the daytime running lamp mode
activated and the exterior lamp switch in
position [0], you cannot switch on the high
beam headlamps.
The high beam flasher is available at all times.
For nighttime driving turn the exterior lamp
switch to position [ON] or [AUTO] to permit
activation of the high beam headlamps."

So, with DRL active, position 0 seems to act like AUTO (the low-beams will come on automatically in low ambient light) but the high beams won't work.

mnje350

I read the same passages andwasunsure how to interpret the info. It is clear that the high beams don't work in auto. I just can't imagine why it is designed that way. The Germans usually do this so well.

Anyhow. . .

togaclk55

I tried to activate the high beams on auto while driving this weekend...I could only flash them.
Good to know the reasoning behind this.

Rudeney

I checked mine on the way home tonight (yeah, it's dark now that the time changed back). I do not have my DRL's activated. In the [AUTO] position, I was able to activate the high-beams by pushing the stalk forward.

mnje350

Hmmmm,

I will have to disable the DRLs to see if that solves the issue.

Rudeney

I am fairly certain that the "constant on" (a.k.a. DRL) feature is the culprit here. I was trying to think of a reason for not having the high-beams disabled in auto mode, but I can't figure out the logic. I thought maybe it was to prevent blinding oncoming drivers in the case where your high-beams were left on and the auto mode kicked in. The problem is, the car is "smart" enough not to do this, i.e. if I leave my high-beams on, and turn on the headlights, the high-beam bulbs don't come on. How smart is that? (Well, much smarter than not allowing the use of high-beams in auto mode!)

homepukes

Well, it looks like I threw away the paperwork. So you'll have to mess with the instrument cluster options on your own. But whatever they changed made it work.