Only noticed this the other week, and wondered what would cause it. I know the light sensor is located on the windscreen, but I've had a number of instances recently when the lights have activated when driving into direct sunlight.

Only thing I could think of was does the sensor have a light angle monitor ? ie, if the sun is too low in the sky, the sensor activates the lights to improve your chances of being seen by oncoming cars blinded by the low sun ?

Any techies out there got any ideas ?

How fast were you going at the time, speaking from experience of an MY09 Octy vRS, the xenons fire up once you have surpassed 90mph for a few seconds. I take it this isn't what your experiencing?

Nope, strictly within the limit (it's a 60mph zone, but single track with double whites)

Added to which, they stay on, and will come back on even if I turn them "off", leave for a bit, then back to Auto.

You're not going "downsun", at least to the extent that the sensor is always in shade?

Nope, but I'd have to ask why it would make a difference. Surely the sensor should simply be looking for a lux level reading, not trying to be clever and working out whether I'm in bright sunlight but the sensor is in the shade ?

I've seen it happen with other makes and models that, if they're started in deep shade, and driven downsun, the sensor never gets that it's actually a bright sunny day and just never turns the lights off.

...and wondered what would cause it. ... but I've had a number of instances recently when the lights have activated when driving into direct sunlight.

Any techies out there got any ideas ?

Have you enabled ALT? Then maybe this in a special low-speed configuration?

Motorway lights

If the automatic light control* has been switched on and the vehicle speed is over

140 km/h for at least 10 seconds, the side lights and low beam are switched on

automatically.

If the vehicle speed is below 65 km/h for at least 2 minutes, the lights are switched

off.

This is a known issue - there have been lots of postings about it; unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. The xenons on the L&K I used to have were completely unpredictable. Even turning the lights off manually and then turning them on again in bright sunlight didn't stop them staying on. If you stopped the car and turned the ignition off this sometimes worked. In the end I just ignored them.

i think the simple answers is "because the car is too clever for its own good" !!! why do we need auto lights - we have got eyes and arms. when its dark turn them on - its a novel idea that might even catch on !!! LOL

what annoys me is that the coming home / leaving home lights only function when the switch is in the auto position. that is silly as you can enable / disable these functions in the maxi dot so they ought to work when the lights are in the off mode. then you coudl simply ignore the auto mode.

Why do we need "follow me home" lights either? They're quite capable of operating when you're parking up on a road, giving other traffic the impression of a vehicle which may be moving or about to move, even though it actually isn't.

My auto lights work in boizarre ways sometimes too - can drive under a M-way underpass and they come on, come out other side and straight off again. Drive into my garage and they come on halfway in and when I start it in morning and reverse out (fog lights come on when reversing too) then sometimes they don't go off in quite bright sunlight for ages, then I look away and back again and they've switched off.

These I can live with but shame they haven't ever come on in fog yet !!