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Can anyone tell me what sidelights are for on modern cars? Their presence allows misguided drivers to use them in fog and rain when dipped headlights would be better. I haven't used my sidelights alone in all the time I've owned my current transport (7 years)Why do we have them?
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1. Parking on unlit roads
2. Because the construction and use regulations demand it
Otherwise I take your point!
Gareth
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Parking where there are not streetlights?
I used mine this morning when driving to work. The red needle against a black background on a VW dash makes the speedo difficult to read at times.Was not dull enough to use headlights.
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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When towing, I'll frequently use the side lights in broad daylight.
Sounds illogical but having had cars overtake and try to pull in where my trailer is (despite it being big and obvious) I don't take the chance.
Usually pointless and and unhelpful putting headlights on in these circumstances (as I only get flashed "you've left your lights on mate").
I've got a vintage car that never origially had sidelights, only heads and tail so I don't know when the requirement came in. Post 1930 unless said car was built illegal (actually not unknown!).
I think it was 1954 you were compeled to have double tails and no my knowledge this is the one bit of regulation that is retrospective.
Not that it answers the question!
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Not having an edit, I should of course have said, "cars overtake the car behind me".
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Sorry to go off-thread, but please please tell me what "Glaikit Wee Scunner" means?
It sounds like one of those conversations we from south of the border have with Glasgow taxi drivers, as in:
Me: Railway station please!
Driver: Glaikit Wee Scunner???
Me: Err, just the rail station, please.
Driver: Glaikit Wee Scunner!!!
Me: Can I just go to the railway station? I have a train to catch?
Driver: GLAIKIT WEE SCUNNER!!!!
Me: Pardon?
Driver: Oh - the rail station! Why didn't you say?
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not dull enough to use headlights?? I almost always use my headlights, even in broad daylight - in fact I think with some (swedish) cars, there is no way to turn the headlights off. I have actually noticed that while I have been driving round with my headlights on all the time there has been a sharp decrease in the number of people who cut me up. It makes you more visible and I personally have never been dazzled by properly aligned headlights on dipped beam...
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Having a car exactly the same colour as the road I tend to have dipped headlights on whenever it's even slightly dull. Often I'll set them to "4 passengers and luggage" setting though, just in case I'm annoying other drivers.
Anyone who has seen the sidelights on an E34 5-series will know they're not worth bothering with.
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Me too. I had several silver-grey (my favourite colour) cars including my current Omega and at the first sign of a cloud or two I put my dipped headlights on. Otherwise I know from personal experience that in overcast and/or wet conditions I'm always the last to be noticed.
Chad.
P.S. Yes and the E34 sidelights are pretty rubbish - though the E39 angel eyes are great IMO. I seem to notice that newer cars have smaller but more intense side lights which aren't too bad.
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Patently,
GWS is indeed a Scottish phrase.
Meaning roughly 'stupid small sickening person'.
However I use it in a friendly sense of abuse.
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Meaning roughly 'stupid small sickening person'.
So I was not far wrong, then? :o)
Thanks!
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I personally have never been dazzled by properly aligned headlights on dipped beam...
I think the operative phrase there is "properly aligned" that discounts about 70% of the road using public and all Audi drivers
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i seem to remember in the late eighties there was the dim dipped(?) lights that prevented you from driving around on side lights, they seem to have disapeared(?) from modern cars.
Also if you look at the current Renault Megane hatchback rear side lights you can hardly see them either, they are so slim and small with hardly any light coming out of them. Dreadfull in heavy rain/spray.
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i seem to remember in the late eighties there was the dim dipped(?) lights that prevented you from driving around on side lights, they seem to have disapeared(?) from modern cars.
They were prohibited by the EU because some countries required them and other didn't - so they standardised on not having them.
Many years ago I had a Capri where the lighting was contolled by push buttons that were interlocked so that the headlights came on whichever button was pushed. You had to then push the headlight button to turn them off if you only wanted sidelights.
What drives me mad is people who drive in (quite dense) fog with sidelights only - they obviously think that headlamps don't help them see any better so aren't needed.
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There is a room for a re-think on the design of sidelights and perhaps make then more into a halfway house between what they are now and the use of dipped headlamps. The snag with dipped beams is, they are not dipped to the nearside. So on a motorway they can shine on the mirrors of those in an inner lane. Long ago, when I was keen driver, I wired my two headlamps in series via a relay and had a dashboard switch for such occasions.
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....and I personally have never been dazzled by properly aligned headlights on dipped beam...
Come on I dare you to mention foglights!
:-))))))
Chad.
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Sidelights are useful to me...
When I want the instruments illuminated during the day.
I'm parked on the road at night where the car could be hit.
When in a traffic jam at night or similar
When driving or stopped on the wrong side of oncoming traffic so as not to dazzle them.
Punish the idiots, not the lights!
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yeah, and they're useful in the Mersey Tunnel too (the old one not the newer one, where the lighting is brighter) because it lets you see your instruments but doesn't dazzle everyone. There used to be big signs saying no headlights or something - they seem to have gone now, but then so have the traffic lights (long ago, I must be getting old).
.... but you can listen to your radio all the way through now. Now, that's something that really impresses me - how does that work then?
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I thought that if the light is poor then dipped lights not just side lights are required?
IRCC "Why are you driving on side lights only ?"
Reply "Cos the light level is poor."
"Then you are nicked"
If this is true then pulling up, leaving the engine running and switching off dips could be illegal although I agree it is polite.
The old UNO had a really stupid design of lights. When you were on dipped beam and switched the engine off it turned the lights off.
My old Sierra has the dip dim lights but I drive on dipped beams and of course never on sidelights.
I think flashing to say your lights are on has disappeared in the last few years mostly because Volvos and Saabs have conditioned people to not bother.
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The old UNO had a really stupid design of lights. When you were on dipped beam and switched the engine off it turned the lights off.
I would guess the Uno had an extra setting you may not have been aware of (since my 145 has it, and I think it uses the same switchgear as the Uno)
You can press a button by the ignition barrel and turn the key back one extra step, which allows parking lights to be left on.
I think it's a fantastic system. It means it is utterly impossible to accidentally leave your lights on when you leave the car, but without having to resort to those buzzers and bells which make me want to rip the dashboard out of a car, they're so annoying.
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Oh I forgot. The other stupid idea on the UNOI would guess the Uno had an extra setting you may not have been aware of (since my 145 has it, and I think it uses the same switchgear as the Uno) You can press a button by the ignition barrel and turn the key back one extra step, which allows parking lights to be left on. I think it's a fantastic system. It means it is utterly impossible to accidentally leave your lights on when you leave the car, but without having to resort to those buzzers and bells which make me want to rip the dashboard out of a car, they're so annoying.
Why on why have a fiddly system that leaves your DASH lights on when all I wanted was parking lights.
Sorry I would sooner have a buzzer than be left vulnerable with all lights off when I switch the ignition off.
The UNO went to scrap last month so one less on the road.
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The UNO went to scrap last month so one less on the road.
Lemme guess.... Had enough of rebuilding the rear brakes every 3000 miles? Standard "feature" on the Uno.
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>> The UNO went to scrap last month so one less Lemme guess.... Had enough of rebuilding the rear brakes every 3000 miles? Standard "feature" on the Uno.
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Never had a problem in 40K. Just replaced the external balancer spring. Got a good MoT each year after the odd bit of effort.
It was a shed. Bought for a few months for offspring to pratice on and then did not go away.
Rust got it surprise surprise. Cross member rotted. It was patched once before but was expensive due to removing drive shaft etc to get to, plus rot in a cill.
Only TLC and ignoring cosmetics kept it going.
It even finished up with a "mini" style door pull - string.
I suspect the value of houses in the road has now gone up.
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.... but you can listen to your radio all the way through now. Now, that's something that really impresses me - how does that work then?
You had a CD on?
Magic?
More likely, a thing called a 'leaky feeder' - a run of co-ax like cable from one end to the other that leaks the radio signal.
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It seems that all the sensible reasons for sidelights involve use when the car is stationary, which I would not necessarily quarrel with.
What I really can't understand is people who have made a decision to switch their lights on because visibility is poor, but only their sidelights. You only have to look at oncoming traffic to quickly realise that sidelights can't be seen until the vehicle itself is also visible!
I don't get so mad with people who have no lights on at all - they're just forgetful or unperceptive.
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Come on I dare you to mention foglights!
I'm thinking about joining the police just so I can bust these people.
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The highway code says you should drive on sidelights with certain exceptions...then dipped should be used.
Lighting requirements
93. You MUST
use headlights at night, except on restricted roads (those with street lights not more than 185 metres (600 feet) apart and which are generally subject to a speed limit of 30 mph
use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 201).
ensure all sidelights and rear registration plate lights are lit at night.
Laws RVLR regs 24 & 25 & RV(R&L)R reg 19
94. You MUST NOT
use any lights in a way which would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road users
use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves to avoid dazzling other road users.
Law RVLR reg 27
95. You should also
use dipped headlights, or dim-dip if fitted, at night in built-up areas and in dull daytime weather, to ensure that you can be seen
keep your headlights dipped when overtaking until you are level with the other vehicle and then change to main beam if necessary, unless this would dazzle oncoming traffic
slow down, and if necessary stop, if you are dazzled by oncoming headlights.
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