spilok

The menu of my '08 E350 has the option of leaving the lights on all the time (I have the Zenons). I think it's a great safety feature, and I'm inclined to do it so that my Wife and Grandkids have that extra margin of safety.

But I'm curious..how many of you turn on this feature, and of course, realize that the life of the headlights will be comprimised over time. What is the "effective" life of these marvelous lights? I'd rather buy new ones if they burn out, and be assured of the safety that is potentially a significant factor. Additionally, are these bulbs covered under the Mercedes Warranty should they fail within the 4 year, 50,000 mile period?

What are your feelings on this, fellow forum members?

Stan

lkchris

http://lightsout.org/

spilok

Hmmm. Interesting. The car I had before this E350 was the Lexus LS430. You really had no choice, because a dimmer light (not the Zenons) came on always when driving the car. The safety statistics on this car were quite remarkable. I notice that most GM cars also have this feature.

I like to hear more on this.

Stan

Untertürkheim

DRL do not actually improve safety, and they are extremely annoying. I find the "auto" setting to be extremely conservative so that my lights come on before I think of doing it.

sosh

Agreed!! I too find DRL's annoying and unnecessary. From what I have read there is statistically no safety advantage. As for the lfe of the units, everything has a finite life. If they are left on the life in years will be shorter. Canadians have mandated DRL's so they must do it to be legal.

calgary

AS you get older, and your vision deteriates, you appreciate the DRL more and more. Of course you have to replace them sooner and I know for certain the Canadian MB Warranty does not cover them. How about the US?

MB Fanatic

To the OP. I have them turned on in every car. Hey if it makes my car more visible to idiots driving, the better IMO. Besides DRL have been statistically shown to improve safety. Xenon bulbs will actually last longer than halogen anyways so this is a moot point. Plus having 3 young girls plus my wife in any of the cars is a good reason tom make them a little bit safer.

Polar Bear

I guess I am one of the few that have them turned on "Constant" in the IC. If it does enhance safety by a small margin, it is worth it.

Diesel Benz

On the contrary, so far looks like the majority using lights always on, I do.

pinebaron

Lights always on!

Vik888

DRL was a sales gimmick I think GM or someone came up with to sell more cars. Others followed.

In AUTO, the W211 already turns the headlights on way before 30mins prior to sunset as required by US law.

spilok

Looks like an almost even split for "on" or "off" so far.

Stan

Gnaigle

Mine are off, but set on automatic.

Diesel Benz

Be careful out there, you will see others but someone might not see your car...

There was a study long a ago about lights helping other cars see you and avoid accidents at day time. I would not be able to find the results but it was pretty significant improvement, mainly at city areas. Later on a few European countries made it mandatory to drive with lights on all the time.

amdeutsch

Your location in Europe probably will benefit more. As you get further south ............
Also, here in the US you will find a lot of older GMs that used the highbeams on cars as DRLs. GMs thinking was that switching them in series on a 12 VDC source would be best. Little did they think that beam pattern and the usual misadjustments would blind oncoming traffic.

Benz-O-Rama

DRLs on in every car I own and every car in the past, that's had this feature. Really, what's the point of not doing it? You'll probably never burn out an OEM Xenon bulb while you own the car. And if you do, the price isn't high enough to warrant not using them. Furthermore, when I rode a motorcycle, I would ride with the high-beam on during the day, and switch it back to dipped beam at night. These aren't the same high beams that are on bikes today, those can really blind the crap outta ya!

jallison12

This is a question on insurance forms. It wouldn't be there if it was not used in rating the premium. So, I think insurers think this is a safety feature.

I switched on DRL thinking the little lights would come on. When I saw it was the main headlights I switched it off again. Don't need *that* much light.

djmallya

Keep it simple; use auto.

Subster

Hate to bump an old thread but how abouts would I turn off my DRL? I turn the knob on the left and all 4 lights on the front stay on, only when i Pull the knob the fog lights come on.

Diesel Benz

Actually some funny reading that I had missed from this thread before you bumped it up.

Can you first clarify what do you mean when turning the knob on the left? Are you turning the knob on the left to the left (counter-clockwise) or to the right from the "0" position? If you have the switch at zero, you can set DRL on from the cluster menu.

Considering the comment about different needs for DLR from south to north, the average is everywhere the same. At equator you have 50% of the time daylight and 50% night. At the North Pole (or the southern equivalent) you have 50% of the time daylight and 50% night. I guess you know the difference behind the average but the point is that northern Europe got mandatory DLR all around the year, even during long summer days.

There is some progress within EU on this matter, it looks like mandatory RDL lights are coming to the whole of EU. Car manufacturers have already got better prepared for this too with more modern implementations of DRL lights, mostly LEDs.

I guess I did not comment this link early in the thread showing people opposing mandatory DLR lights. Now that we have had this rule for years, I would say everybody takes it the same as wearing seat belts. Can you remember how people opposed mandatory use of seatbelts, I believe the US was leading with their driver airbags optimised for no safety belts. Today it is difficult to find a sensible person who considers safety belts a nuisance only.

morten

hej
lives in denmark light always on . has to . have zenon .have had it for more than 2 years and 77 000 km and still working fine. car has gone 392 000 km . always with lights on but i dont know if prieverus owners har repl bulbs .
morten

novae500

i just set my dial to auto.

chokaay

I've set the DRL to CONSTANT in my 2002 C240 from the first day I got it, to the day I sold it. After 104,000+ miles, I still had not had to change a single headlight bulb yet (and these were halogen bulbs, so theoretically xenons have an even longer lifespan).

In my experience, having the DRL ON cut down on the number of crazy drivers pulling out within 5 feet ahead of you cutting you off, or pulling out in front of you when they are going 40+ mph BELOW what you're going and forcing you to brake hard or change lanes to avoid hitting them (both on the freeway and on surface roads). In fact, it reduced incidents by more than 50% (from about 5-8 incidents per week, to 0-2... which I've tested three different times by turning my DRL's to MANUAL for a couple weeks each time). Of course, in Cali we probably have more crazy drivers on their cell phones, doing their make-up, or doing other distracting actions while driving just by the sheer number of cars on the road... but I'd like to think that the DRL's helped prevent a few accidents (or at least the POTENTIAL for accidents to happen) by minimizing the number of IDIOTS pulling out right in front of me when there's obviously not enough space, when they're obviously either going too slow, or both!

And generally speaking, aside from cars, there is a reason why motorcyclists turn on their lights in the daytime... otherwise they wouldn't do it, right?

gaazmon

I have the lights on OFF during the day. Once it gets a little dark, I put it to AUTO. If I need the fogs, move it over to the ON position. When I get home at night, just put it back to OFF for the morning.

220S

HID lamp wear is affected more by on and off cycling. The firing up of the gases is what apparently can wear them out. I think it might be the ballasts and not actually the bulb (I can't remember) I have a report somewhere that I'll try to find and post.

So either leave them on all the time, or leave them off all the time (only turning them on when it gets dark, of course.)