I was playing with my control panel this morning and was determined (to figure out how) to change my personal settings. I kept confirming and it kept asking to press enter, then confirm again. Did it by mistake and figured I had to press up.


Anyway: For the "Headlight Sensitivity 1-4" setting, what does this do? Just popped in my head, is it for the mirror auto-dimmer? Still not sure, anyone know? Couldn't find it in my manual.


I also disabled my seat assist since I keep it all the way back or an inch forward anyway. My friend with an 03 said his forward/rev. stopped working, but then sometimes would. We thought maybe the assist could be wearing out the motor and really isn't needed since we sit so far back. But I love the wheel assist, since I have it all the way out and down as far that I can just see the speedometer.

 

It's for "auto" headlight. Adjusts the sensitivity of the sensor.

Bob

 

Meaning how dark its gotta be before the headlights come on in the auto mode like bob said.

 

oh, thank you SilverBelle. So since I set it at 4, my auto setting will turn my lights on sooner, right?

I remember reading a thread about guys coloring their sensor with a sharpie to turn them on sooner, wonder if their setting wasn't all the way.

 

Can't remember off the top of my head. I'll take a look at mine and let you know.

Bob

 

thanks again Bob.

was just playing with the settings some more. The preset for sensitivity is 3, so I'm guessing 4 means more sensitive, turning lights on sooner.

For the auto off (30-180 sec), I had it set at 30 sec, but I switched it to OFF. Will they go off now right away when the car is off or locked/armed?

Does anyone use the auto lock feature? I think it is "off, 1 min. and 5 min." I'm afraid of locking my keys in, but guess I should never leave it running. Does the timer start as soon as you close the doors, ignition on and off?
I always use the key fob anyways, that the only way to arm it, right?

You would think all of this would be explained thoroughly in the manual, unless all the features are so novel to me, I'm just clueless. Also interested in everyone else's opinion of using or disabling these features.

 

The owners manual is lacking in several areas. Auto (headlight) sensitivity is one. I wrote to Nissan about this and they politely thanked me and said to contact my dealer. Did my dealer write the owners manual? I don't think so.

Anyway from earlier posts, 4 is most sensitive. That is, it would turn on the headlights with the least amount of light at the sensor.

The big issue I found with "auto" headlight feature is there seems to be no delay built in. Therefore, when I pull into the garage the lights turn on even in broad daylight. The problem is the manual advices not to turn on (and off) Xenon unnecessarily (for bulb life).

 

They will go out when you have turned off the ignition and closed the door.

 

I agree totally. There should be a delay. I looked up some sites in regards to HIDs and the recommendation is that they should not be turned on more than 3 times in an hour. Turns out that the lamp needs to cool before it turns on again or you'll shorten it's life, and that really sucks considering replacement bulbs are like $150 each and that you always need to replace both. I have a 10 minute commute to work and I park in a covered garage at home and at work. In addition to that, I drive under two overpasses on my way to work. So that means that if I have auto on, my headlights turn on and off 4 times in 10 minutes. This happens twice a day, 6 days a week. I'd really like to enjoy the auto headlight feature on my Maxima, but it's just not practical without the delay.

 

Not to mention that if you get into the car when it happens to be dar out and turn the headlights to "on" position, they go "on""off""on" as you pass the switch through auto, park, then to on position. Very bad design for HID's IMO.

 

Agreed on that point as well.

 

That was one of my biggest gripes with my '02. I assumed Nissan would have fixed that, but obviously they didn't.

 

the only time the auto bothers me is if I want the lights on, but not dark enough yet. then when turning off lights, I have to pass the auto and it's dark enough to go off, on off.

I keep them off and use the auto when dark enough to turn on.

With having the sensitivity set at the highest level, if they still don't come on when I want, I'll set them at the lowest. I'm sure I'll still have to double turn them off sometimes, but maybe that'll reduce it.

This is why I like fogs independent of low beams, for dusk driving until it's dark enough for the auto to work, eliminating the problem. The law requires fogs to disable when hi's are on. Still allowed to use them without lows. Maybe one day when I have plenty of time and the nerve to try, I'll rewire them.

 

Wow, I never thought about this until browsing back I found this thread. I park in my garage too and they go on when I pull in. Is there no sensitivity setting (1-4) that means "unless it's pitch black outside, the moon has withered away, and all the stars have gone cold and fdark DO NOT turn my headlights on", ??

I don't think that the lights turn on under the 2 overpasses I go through, but since it's light outside, I never thought to notice.

I guess using auto to manually turn them on when dark is the best option eh? And it's the skeptic in me that will say 'This sounds like a burn-out by design because the lights make us profit' sort of thing...

 

One way of getting around the problem of it turning on and off when going From "Off" through "Auto" through "Parking Light" to "On" is to just use the "Auto" when you are turning on your headlights at night. Then turn it back to "Off". If you have it set at it's most sensitve (and especially if you use the Sharpy Marker method) in most scenarios, it will work as a typical Off/On scenario without having to pop it on and off thorugh the parking light mode.

 

ok, turn on at night with "AUTO". If have to use "ON" and it gets darker when turning off, then shut off car then turn to "OFF" or "AUTO" to prevent excessive switching. Drive with "OFF" during day to prevent auto on and off through underpasses or garages.

I know this doesn't solve the convience intended with the AUTO, but should help if concerned about burning HIDs with excessive swtching.

Anyone have preference or reasons why to keep sensitivity set at 1 or 4 with the auto?

 

Nissan should have designed the switch like the on in my father's LHS. You turn the switch to the left (its on the dash) from the center off position and it is in "auto" mode. If you turn it to the right from the off position you get parking lights on then headlights. This eliminates the on off on situation we have. Oh and his car is a 1999 model