Bloody sidelights!!!!

BigLee1

It boils my piss when car drivers only use their sidelights when its dusk or generally bad weather when the main lights are better :evil: I even had a go at my Dad yesterday when he followed me home with his on, it doesn`t use any more petrol to have the headlights on SO BLOODY USE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bloody buggering arseholes!!!!

If you drive a car don`t only have your sidelights on, it makes me cross

Thanks for listening

BigLee1

wee wee??? I typed P I S.S!!

thistle_

I was looking something else up in the Highway Code the other day and was surprised to read that you don't need your headlights on at night if you're in an area with streetlights :roll:

plowmar

Just about to say that Thistle.

Those that get me though are those that use front fog lights in good visibility and next to no lights when its misty.

mroli

BigLee - I think it does use more petrol to have all the electronics on in a car than not have them on? I mean, it won't be a lot, but it drains the battery which requires it to be charged, which diverts some engine power?

pinno

mroli wrote:

BigLee - I think it does use more petrol to have all the electronics on in a car than not have them on? I mean, it won't be a lot, but it drains the battery which requires it to be charged, which diverts some engine power?

Almost. <---NERD MODE ON--->The load on the alternator increases with electrical demand. The greater the electrical demand the greater the turning force required from the engine to rotate the alternator. Sometimes up to a couple of Horse Power. The battery simply completes the electrical circuit and provides starting EMF (electro motive force). When the engine is running almost all the current comes indirectly from the alternator. Most alternators produce 12.5 to 14.5 V believe it or not and the battery acts as a stabiliser or crude capacitor so that there is an even delivery of just over 12v to the electrical system. Speshly when engine management systems are fragile and require an even current in case they go pop which often happens when jump starting vehicles.
At low speeds, the engine is not spinning so quickly (unless you rev the bollox off it) and so the demand on the alternator is disproportionate.<---NERD MODE OFF--->

Does not excuse driving at this time of year with the sidelights on. Then again, how many cars have you seen pulling out of a service station in the dark for example, with the lights switched off ?

BigLee1

mroli wrote:

BigLee - I think it does use more petrol to have all the electronics on in a car than not have them on? I mean, it won't be a lot, but it drains the battery which requires it to be charged, which diverts some engine power?

It`s the alternator that puts out the cars electrical power when its running not the battery, thats why you can jump start a car with a very low charge in its battery and it runs

BigLee1

pinarello001 wrote:

mroli wrote:

BigLee - I think it does use more petrol to have all the electronics on in a car than not have them on? I mean, it won't be a lot, but it drains the battery which requires it to be charged, which diverts some engine power?

Almost. <---NERD MODE ON--->The load on the alternator increases with electrical demand. The greater the electrical demand the greater the turning force required from the engine to rotate the alternator. Sometimes up to a couple of Horse Power. The battery simply completes the electrical circuit and provides starting EMF (electro motive force). When the engine is running almost all the current comes indirectly from the alternator. Most alternators produce 12.5 to 14.5 V believe it or not and the battery acts as a stabiliser or crude capacitor so that there is an even delivery of just over 12v to the electrical system. Speshly when engine management systems are fragile and require an even current in case they go pop which often happens when jump starting vehicles.
At low speeds, the engine is not spinning so quickly (unless you rev the bollox off it) and so the demand on the alternator is disproportionate.<---NERD MODE OFF--->

Does not excuse driving at this time of year with the sidelights on. Then again, how many cars have you seen pulling out of a service station in the dark for example, with the lights switched off ?

What a bloody good answer

ToeKnee

I am sure some drivers only turn their (side)lights on so that their intruments light up. I have long thought that the instruments should not illuminate when you only have sidelights on. Sidelights are almost useless.

OffTheBackAdam

The number of times you see a vehicle looming up through the mist, then see the little candle-like sidelights!
They'll be the same drivers, who'll have their rear foglights on at the slightest whisp of mist, even in a traffic jam and sit with their foot on the brake pedal.
Unfortunately, an IQ test isn't required as part of the driving test.

BigLee1

ToeKnee wrote:

I am sure some drivers only turn their (side)lights on so that their intruments light up. I have long thought that the instruments should not illuminate when you only have sidelights on. Sidelights are almost useless.

As a volvo driver my instrument lights are on even if my headlights aren`t `53 V70 dunno if they`re all like that

CiB

mroli wrote:

BigLee - I think it does use more petrol to have all the electronics on in a car than not have them on? I mean, it won't be a lot, but it drains the battery which requires it to be charged, which diverts some engine power?

Lights do use a bit more energy, which all comes from the fuel in the tank but it's nowhere near enough to make a difference, and is on a par with the heating, air-con, heated seats, heated windows and nice stereo that drivers are happy to use. There's no excuse for not using dipped headlights in reduced visibility exactly as the Highway Code informs us to.

People that drive off with no lights are chuffing numpties but they do have the v weak excuse that they've forgotten. Drivers who use parking-lights only should be fined and given points on the basis that they've made a concious decision to switch the lights on but have actively decided that they won't meet the requirements of the Highway Code or whatever and would prefer to be less safe than they feasibly could be. The number of cars that loom out of the fog on a November morning without lights on my rural commute is ridiculous.

ToeKnee

BigLee1 wrote:

ToeKnee wrote:

I am sure some drivers only turn their (side)lights on so that their intruments light up. I have long thought that the instruments should not illuminate when you only have sidelights on. Sidelights are almost useless.

As a volvo driver my instrument lights are on even if my headlights aren`t `53 V70 dunno if they`re all like that

I thought you can't turn the sidelights off on Volvos? So you might find your sidelights on too.

capt_slog

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

The number of times you see a vehicle looming up through the mist, then see the little candle-like sidelights!
.

Yup, makes me cross too. It's good that a lot of cars are now getting LED sidelights, these are making them a lot less pointless.

Like others, I was surprised to find that the highway code says that it is Ok to have just sidelights on in the dark, I'd always considered them to be 'parking lights', as that's all most of them are good for.

What is it with car manufacturers? They've had many years to get this right but they still produce lights on vehicles that look like an afterthought, or the lights are sacrificed in the name of styling, indicators often fall foul of this too.. I saw a BMW the other day where the rear indicators were a tiny strip of yellow surrounded by the red LEDs rear lights, they were just about invisible when the lights were on, I was searching around the back of the car to find them. Which wakner designed those?

Oh, and don't get me started on boy-racers who paint the feckers black :twisted: is there something shameful about red and yellow plastic?

(BTW, The instrument lights on my astra are on all the time, regardless of lights.)

BigLee1

ToeKnee wrote:

BigLee1 wrote:

ToeKnee wrote:

I am sure some drivers only turn their (side)lights on so that their intruments light up. I have long thought that the instruments should not illuminate when you only have sidelights on. Sidelights are almost useless.

As a volvo driver my instrument lights are on even if my headlights aren`t `53 V70 dunno if they`re all like that

I thought you can't turn the sidelights off on Volvos? So you might find your sidelights on too.

You can but it`s a dealer job via the obd2 port I got my local specialist to do mine for nowt

de_sisti

BigLee1 wrote:

I even had a go at my Dad yesterday when he followed me home with his on, ....

What did he say in response to your rant?

BigLee1

It wasn`t so much a rant as a "bloody hell dad, I couldn`t see you behind me with the murky weather and road spray, why didn`t you have your full headlights on?"

Then I removed his sidelight bulbs

crescent

Capt Slog wrote:

Like others, I was surprised to find that the highway code says that it is Ok to have just sidelights on in the dark, I'd always considered them to be 'parking lights', as that's all most of them are good for.

What is it with car manufacturers? They've had many years to get this right but they still produce lights on vehicles that look like an afterthought, or the lights are sacrificed in the name of styling, indicators often fall foul of this too.. I saw a BMW the other day where the rear indicators were a tiny strip of yellow surrounded by the red LEDs rear lights, they were just about invisible when the lights were on, I was searching around the back of the car to find them. Which wakner designed those?
(BTW, The instrument lights on my astra are on all the time, regardless of lights.)

Agreed, the fashion for these high intensity LED light clusters actually results in a less visible turning signal if the surrounding lights are on.
I'm sure my father once told me that side lights used to be positioned on the extremities of the car to show to oncoming vehicles how wide it was. That would make sense I suppose but does not seem to be the case with modern cars.

y33stu

BigLee1 wrote:

As a volvo driver my instrument lights are on even if my headlights aren`t `53 V70 dunno if they`re all like that

I used to work for Volvo, and learned that if you ever see a Volvo driving around with no headlights on ( during the day) then its a police car, as they specify that with their cars. Nice little tip when you're doing over 70 mph on the motorway and see an un-lit Volvo behind you... slow down!

stigofthedump

I've just got my nerd head on.

If the headlights are 100W each, they use 200 joules of energy per second and 720,000 joules in an hour.
Petrol contains 35,000,000 joules per litre.

So to have you lights on for 1 hour you use 1/50 litre of petrol. Petrol is about £1.50 per litre so it costs 3p to have your headlights on for an hour.

An ordinary car stereo is about 200W as well so will cost the same. You might be able to hear them even if you cant see them.

Thank you and good night

Bobbinogs

stigofthedump wrote:

I've just got my nerd head on.

If the headlights are 100W each, they use 200 joules of energy per second and 720,000 joules in an hour.
Petrol contains 35,000,000 joules per litre.

So to have you lights on for 1 hour you use 1/50 litre of petrol. Petrol is about £1.50 per litre so it costs 3p to have your headlights on for an hour.

An ordinary car stereo is about 200W as well so will cost the same. You might be able to hear them even if you cant see them.

Thank you and good night

...but you have assumed the conversion rate is 100% and it will be a much more miserable rate than that.

As an aside, sorry Biglee1 but alternators produce current rather than voltage

Anyway, agree with the post about front foglights on in daylight. I cannot work out why boyracers do that..same goes for the little blue lights that tossers in Corsas/Pugs have... and a significant minority of lorry drivers too for that matter. Mind you, I do like a bit of bling on my bikes

ktuludays

what grips my shit is people who leave foglights on when sat in a long long queue of slow moving commuter traffic.

One stretch that i travel down is approx 3 miles of 5-10mph crawling yet rear fogs are always left on to blind the driver behind. I only use my fog lights if traffic is sparse and i'm not in a built up area. these days the slightest wisp of mist or fog and bang - on they go!