Turning off DRL?

tummelv · 5 May 2013 at 21:30

These things are downright dangerous some times. I thought the whole point of these things was DAY running lights. The amount of times I've seen some stupid new LED headlight Audi coming the other way with his super bright DRL and normal headlights!! :mad:

Disco Boy · 5 May 2013 at 23:00

paradigm said:
What will that achieve? My DRLs stay on with the headlights, and dim with the indicators.

Oh, I thought they usually dimmed/ went off when you switched on headlamps...

stoofa · 5 May 2013 at 23:07

DRL's have a legal requirement to dim at night. So as soon as you turn headlights on the DRL's will dim.
On some cars there are no side-lights.
So you have bright DRL's, dimmed DRL's then become your side-lights and then finally headlights & Dimmed DRL's.

The cable option to switch off DRL's will work on anything that received type-approval before the cut-off date.
Anything released as "brand new" from that date will have that option missing, even from a "cable".

Conscript · 6 May 2013 at 12:27

d_brennen said:
If you can't see a big moving, noisy metal object in daylight then your time has come tbh

How does a car being noisy affect your ability to see it?

What about a dark grey car on an overcast day? Or a car on a rural road in dappled shade?

The point is to help your eye see the object much more quickly and thus reduce your reaction time. Cars aren't usually hard to spot in daylight, no, but they are even easier to spot when running with lights.

rG-tom · 6 May 2013 at 13:42

i cant understand why the default answer in this thread wasn't "it doesn't matter if you can turn them off, leave them on ** Removed by moderator ***"

OllyM · 6 May 2013 at 14:22

rG-tom said:
i cant understand why the default answer in this thread wasn't "it doesn't matter if you can turn them off, leave them on **"

That was my first thought too

mattyfez · 6 May 2013 at 14:24

Conscript said:
How does a car being noisy affect your ability to see it?

What about a dark grey car on an overcast day? Or a car on a rural road in dappled shade?

The point is to help your eye see the object much more quickly and thus reduce your reaction time. Cars aren't usually hard to spot in daylight, no, but they are even easier to spot when running with lights.

Indeed, especially when you get people who refuse to use their sidelights.. When it was snowing a few weeks back, grey car, sleeting, dusk, no lights on..perfect camouflage.. Drives me nuts.

Havana_UK · 6 May 2013 at 19:03

I'm with rG-Tom, but for the record you can turn them off on a BMW via an option in iDrive.

Tom_ed1987 · 6 May 2013 at 19:09

rG-tom said:
i cant understand why the default answer in this thread wasn't "it doesn't matter if you can turn them off, leave them on you fool"

Because some people find blingy look-at-me tat slightly embarassing. I don't think the OP is talking about the DRL's on a 15 year old Volvo.

rG-tom · 6 May 2013 at 20:35

Tom_ed1987 said:
Because some people find blingy look-at-me tat slightly embarassing. I don't think the OP is talking about the DRL's on a 15 year old Volvo.

It's not like it is after market tat , not sure how having something that is the law could be considered embarrassing.

And yes they are indeed a bit "look at me". In fact, it's the entire point....

Rimsy · 6 May 2013 at 23:30

rG-tom said:
It's not like it is after market tat , not sure how having something that is the law could be considered embarrassing.

And yes they are indeed a bit "look at me". In fact, it's the entire point....

I guess some of us still are quite capable of turning on their sidelights when conditions require it and see zero point in having LED's glaring at you in your RVM during the day. Great that that makes me a fool :rolleyes:

Blackhawk47 · 6 May 2013 at 23:42

My DRLs are actually brighter than the sidelights. Useful on a sunny day like today when driving on the motorway as you can clearly look behind you and see cars (the ones with DRLs turned on) when the sun causes a dark shadow.

rG-tom · 7 May 2013 at 02:53

Rimsy said:
I guess some of us still are quite capable of turning on their sidelights when conditions require it and see zero point in having LED's glaring at you in your RVM during the day. Great that that makes me a fool

A) you're inside the car so can't even tell that they are on
B) if you are finding that drls are glaring on a bright day then I suggest you see an optician / doctor, turning your own DRLs off is the least of your concerns !

The benefits of DRLs massively outweigh any downsides, all of which seem to come down to people caring too much about how others perceive them.I had been saying for years that it should be the law for sidelights to be on with the engine, it even helps just to know that a car is turned on....number of times a car at the side of the road I thought was parked and empty has pulled off without indicating etc , at least if it had drls I'd have known it was on and likely to do something.

Maybe having grown up in a country where it was the law anyway and every car had sidelights on by default skews my perception but I honestly cannot see a valid reason not to have them on.

Freefaller · 7 May 2013 at 07:39

I don't understand why you'd want to turn them off. They make you more visible which is a positive in every aspect.

Scania · 7 May 2013 at 11:34

My truck does not have DRL , but, for the reason Tom points out, I always drive with sidelights on (you'd be amazed how many people can't apparently see a 54ft long 14'6" high HGV!)

Never realised the term "fool" was so offensive, I doubt it was written in venom, sonewhat taken out of context there methinks!!