I like to leave the headlights in the "Auto" position. My question is, is anyone else concerned that over time this could cause some problems? The reason I am asking is because at night, the lights come on when I unlock the car, and then stay on while it is starting. During the starting process, the lights flicker but stay on. Further, when I lock the car, they turn off for half a second and then stay on for the set time delay (15 sec in my case). I guess I am just wondering if this is a design flaw and will eventually burn out the headlight ballasts as they are being turned on and off in rapid succession.

This is just the thoughts that run through my head evertime I get in and start my car when it is dark.

Thoughts?

 

I would doubt it. Every car I have driven that has had "auto headlights" has done this.

 

I always leave my lights set to auto with the sensitivity setting set to Medium. I don't think it'll do any harm but you can always set them to OFF if it worries you that much.

 

you can turn off the set delay time when you unlock / lock the car with the remote.. thats in the MID settings.

 

The big load on the ballast is when the bulbs are cold. Flicking them off and back on quickly does not put that much strain on the bulb because the metal vapors are already heated and the resistance is relatively low. When the bulb is cold, the electrical arc is being conducted by a noble gas (xenon is used in cars) which has higher resistance. The resistance generates heat which vaporizes the metal salts which have a lower resistance than the gas. Once the metal salts are vaporized the electrons prefer to use them since it's easier and electrons are lazy. The xenon gas is the reason your lights are pink for a second when you first turn them on. You'll notice that if you flick the lights off and on quickly that it doesn't do this pink phase, it just goes straight to the blue/white phase.

 

I have no idea what you said, but you sound pretty frickin' smart dude. You must be an engineer. Anyway, I seriously doubt any car company would manufacture lights that have the design defect of not being able to be turned on and off hundreds of times without damage. All cars with auto headlights work the same way, so I'm sure HID xenon lights are undamaged when the auto function is enabled, otherwise they would have removed the function.

 

Haha, software developer actually, among other things. You got the correct gist though, there's nothing to be worried about here. The system works as designed as is evident by the lack of hundreds of posts complaining about failed ballasts. It happens occasionally but there's nothing to indicate that rate is anything beyond what should be expected.