TundraRoads

Was following my wife up to brunch this morning. Pretty good snow coming down. Not a single light on her car, all other cars have bright red lights.

Dealer had originally said to just set lights to Auto and DRL or whatever necessary would come on. Clearly not the case. When we got to brunch we played around a bit. Turning the lights on manually wasn't looking very bright at all, though at least the rear lights were on. Tried rear fog light - 4 LED's on the lefthand side don't show up very well. Dealer's going to take a look at it early next week to see if something with the sensor is busted.

Our most recent cars all seemed to function much better in auto mode with bright rear lights in anything less than sunny weather.

Anyone else experience this? Anyone else concerned about others ability to see you in foggy/snowy/rainy weather? Other experience with auto vs having to remember to manually turn lights on in marginal weather?

Thanks,

Scott5000

For conditions such as snowing in the daytime, I would manually switch the lights on all the time just in case. It would be hard for any sensor to pick out the difference between daylight and bright white snow during the daytime hours.

YYZ-E55

Exactly. Unless you have the wipers activated such that it triggers the headlights, you've got to enable the headlights manually.

jtorrebl

Ive never seen an auto function operate the rear fog lights. They only turn on the headlights. All euro cars have a rear fog switch that has to be turned on manually.

TundraRoads

Every car we've had with Auto, operated all lights.

What is the purpose if it doesn't turn on the rear lights with the headlights? When it gets dark you have to remember to switch from Auto to On so that your rear lights come on?

newyorktoLA

no mercedes vehicle will turn on all lights in the auto setting during the day. Setting the switch to auto will only turn on the LED strips in the bottom bumper or for older Mercedes with fog lights, the headlights. The tails will only come on at night.

jtorrebl

I wasn't clear. I meant the rear fogs. No car's auto function turns on the rear fogs

DC-IT

+1 Full agreed.
I also have auto-lighting issues with my 2011 ML350 but my problem was the headlights and tail lights would turn on at random in bright daylight almost every day when all other vehicles on the road only have their DRL on.

There appears to be no solution for this.
This is a big disappointment!

And I posted on the W166 forum a while back to see if the 2012 ML has the same issue. See this thread.

I wonder if you notice this also happening with your ML?

jtorrebl

To be clear again, the post earlier as about auto turning on rear fog lights, not the rear night time lights. No car can turn on the rear fog lights automatically, since it's a rare use lighting and not routinely necessary.

DC-IT

The OP clearly states that the Auto-light did not turn on the tail lights when it was supposed to as evident in his noticing that all other vehicles on the road at time had their red tail lights on.
It was only turned on when he manually did so with the switch.

If that is the case it's a mulfunction as auto-lighting should turn on both the headlights as well as the rear tail lights when it gets dark.
That is the case in all vehicles with Auto-lighting.
In the case of the W164 and I believe also the W166 the lighting is fixed to Auto setting and you can't even turn it off manually. Thus when my ML randomly turns on the headlights + tail lights in bright daylight it would have been useful if I can manually turn it off.
But you can turn it on manually if you want to.

jtorrebl

OK, I thought he was asking why his rear fog lights didn't turn on with auto, these uninteresting threads are sometimes skimmed by me and I may miss something. sorry

DC-IT

Apology not needed.
I just wanted to clarify the OP's post.
Hopefully it's a glitch or maybe the lighting sensor needs to be replaced.

When my lease is up, I may want to get a W166.