Hello,

 

After a short night drive with my recently purchased Octavia MK2 FL VRS I have noticed that in no more than 10 km I received 5 oncoming flashes from other drivers. I started to debug what could've been the issue, the Xenon AFS Headlights are set up properly as they should be, and since I was only running the main beam, the only possible culprit must've been the DRLs. From what I recon legally, and from what I've seen in many other cars equipped with DRL, when the main beam is on, the drls should noticeably dimm. Well, as you can see from this video of my car, they don't. 

 

Has anyone experienced this issue? Is there any VCDS specific coding that may set up the dimming correctly?

 

Thank you in advance!

You might want to post a full autoscan from VCDS so we can check for any obvious causes.

 

It's quite possible someone has messed with byte 18 and screwed the lighting config. If so, VCDS won't help and you'll need VCP or ODIS-e to restore the stock config.

10 minutes ago, langers2k said:

You might want to post a full autoscan from VCDS so we can check for any obvious causes.

 

It's quite possible someone has messed with byte 18 and screwed the lighting config. If so, VCDS won't help and you'll need VCP or ODIS-e to restore the stock config.

VCDS Autoscan returned no errors at all. The car is as clean as it gets 😔. I know that the guy I bought it from is a director at local Skoda dealership so if you're saying someone messed with byte 18, maybe an engineer from there did. So you're saying there's no setting into vcds to activate drls dimming when main bean is on? 

I was more interested to see the coding as well as any errors that might be there.

 

There are a few things that might upset the DRL but it's a good start to compare your coding to other similar cars to start. If that doesn't show any clear clues, then it's very likely to be byte 18 that's been messed with :)

@WCKD

A video of the front of your car might have helped see what you mean, 

and with the Main Beam / Headlights dipped on, and the Side / Position lights & non dimming DRL's on.

23 minutes ago, langers2k said:

I was more interested to see the coding as well as any errors that might be there.

 

There are a few things that might upset the DRL but it's a good start to compare your coding to other similar cars to start. If that doesn't show any clear clues, then it's very likely to be byte 18 that's been messed with

Will post it as soon as I get the chance to do it again, thank you! 

12 minutes ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

@WCKD

A video of the front of your car might have helped see what you mean, 

and with the Main Beam / Headlights dipped on, and the Side / Position lights & non dimming DRL's on.

A phone camera won't be able to capture the intensity correctly when filmed from the front. For example, when the xenon main beam gets turned on, the camera automatically corrects the intensity and makes the DRL seem they dim a little bit, but in reality they don't. The main idea is that my drls remain on at full power no matter what. 

7 hours ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

@WCKD

A video of the front of your car might have helped see what you mean, 

and with the Main Beam / Headlights dipped on, and the Side / Position lights & non dimming DRL's on.

I have recorded another video showing the issue, as you can see, when the main beam is on, the DRL's won't dim. Proof here

Where did you read the DRL should dip? Mine don’t and I have the same light setup as yours. Above video looks normal. One thing I don’t see your lights doing is the levelling dance when you turn them on which mine do (assuming that is within your setup.)

When Sidelights/ Position lights are turned on the DRL's should dim.

Is there still sidelights that can go on before turning on the Headlights (Dipped headlight & full beam) which are being called 'main beam' here.

10 hours ago, Stevo_m said:

Where did you read the DRL should dip? Mine don’t and I have the same light setup as yours. Above video looks normal. One thing I don’t see your lights doing is the levelling dance when you turn them on which mine do (assuming that is within your setup.)

It's in the EU 🇪🇺 regulations that the DRL's should dip when having the main beam on, since they glare a lot during night time. The main purpose of the DRL(DayTime Running Lights) is as the definition says, that they need to run during day time only, and eventually dim as they go through the night. The Headlights do levelling dance only when the car starts, mine was only on ON position without having the engine started. 

3 hours ago, Roottootemblowinootsoot said:

When Sidelights/ Position lights are turned on the DRL's should dim.

Is there still sidelights that can go on before turning on the Headlights (Dipped headlight & full beam) which are being called 'main beam' here.

I'm sorry, I'm not really familiar with the terminology you're using here. I know only of main beam (the d2s xenon bulb), the high beam (the h1 halogen bulb), the DRL's and the fog lights (hb4). I don't know of any other lights on my Octavia 😂 And the issue is that as far as I know, while having the main beam) the xenon bulb on) the DRL's should dim considerably. 

@WCKD

Do you still have Side Lights (Position Lights) that you can turn on without putting on the Main Beam.?

Do you have 'Parking Lights' you can put on?

 

Head lights  / Main Beam.   Same thing. 

Headlights can be on Dipped Beam or Full Beam.

 

Sidelights / Position lights can come on without the Main Beam / Headlights being on.

 

One Sidelight on front and back is the Parking Lights.  Put the Indicator Stalk down when Ignition off.

 

DRL's  Daytime Running Lights.  But also Daylight Running Lights to be accurate.

Bit of terminology (specific to the MK2 FL vRS):

- DRL will be the LED bars at full brightness

- sidelights will be the LED bars at reduced brightness

- dipped beam or low beam are 'normal' night time driving lights (provided by the xenons)

- main beam or high beam or full beam are only for use when theres no oncoming traffic (provided by the halogen H1's)

 

People use different names for the low/high beam settings which is why things often get confused.

 

Your headlight switch probably has:

- off

- auto (depending on equipment level)

- sidelights

- dipped headlights

 

If the DRL isn't dropping in brightness when you turn the light switch into the sidelight or dipped beam position, something is wrong.

 

I'm assuming the car wasn't sold through the dealership?????????

 

If the seller (Director???) works there and you only purchased the car locally recently, maybe try contacting him and asking him if he can shed any light  on the issue........

28 minutes ago, langers2k said:

Bit of terminology (specific to the MK2 FL vRS):

- DRL will be the LED bars at full brightness

- sidelights will be the LED bars at reduced brightness

- dipped beam or low beam are 'normal' night time driving lights (provided by the xenons)

- main beam or high beam or full beam are only for use when theres no oncoming traffic (provided by the halogen H1's)

 

People use different names for the low/high beam settings which is why things often get confused.

 

Your headlight switch probably has:

- off

- auto (depending on equipment level)

- sidelights

- dipped headlights

 

If the DRL isn't dropping in brightness when you turn the light switch into the sidelight or dipped beam position, something is wrong.

 

Indeed, this is a very detailed answer, thanks for the clarification! Yes, I have the headlight switch you mentioned. I haven't tested with sidelights or dipped beam yet since I like to keep them on Auto. But on Auto, The DRL isn't dropping in brightness when the dipped beam automatically(the xenon) switches on. Will test it tonight by manually switching the lever to dipped beam position, but I recon it won't do any difference. 

Well you learn something every day!

 

Just checked mine out.

 

auto setting: DRLs bright, Main light off as daytime

sidelight setting: DRLs dim, Main light still off

full light setting: DRLs still dim, and lights come on.

15 minutes ago, Stevo_m said:

Well you learn something every day!

 

Just checked mine out.

 

auto setting: DRLs bright, Main light off as daytime

sidelight setting: DRLs dim, Main light still off

full light setting: DRLs still dim, and lights come on.

Yep, that's the normal behavior. Mine remain at full brightness all the time. I just hope there is a setting into vcds that can fix this, otherwise I need to go and make the dealer a visit hoping that they can fix it with Odis. I have read some forums and someone found this picure. I wonder if this will fix it. Will try it out when I'll receive my vcds. 

On 16/06/2020 at 12:32, langers2k said:

Bit of terminology (specific to the MK2 FL vRS):

- DRL will be the LED bars at full brightness

- sidelights will be the LED bars at reduced brightness

- dipped beam or low beam are 'normal' night time driving lights (provided by the xenons)

- main beam or high beam or full beam are only for use when theres no oncoming traffic (provided by the halogen H1's)

 

People use different names for the low/high beam settings which is why things often get confused.

 

Your headlight switch probably has:

- off

- auto (depending on equipment level)

- sidelights

- dipped headlights

 

If the DRL isn't dropping in brightness when you turn the light switch into the sidelight or dipped beam position, something is wrong.

 

Hello, mate, I have recently done an Autoscan of the car. You can check it out here. There's only one error with the aux cable because it was an open circuit since it was not connected to the phone. Otherwise everything is OK. I have to mention that coding the DRL dimming option from the message above didn't have any effect, so I guess the issue is with the byte18 you mentioned. Will hopefully drive it to the dealer on Monday and see if they can help. If you find anything interesting on the Autoscan let me know. Thanks! 

Aside from your VCDS version being massively old and likely a clone which may cause you issues, I can't see anything in the coding that would mess this up. At least it seems to match up with a couple of vRS's I've scanned previously.

 

Very much feels like a byte 18 problem I'm afraid 😞