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Taurus and Transit tail/running lights


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Just spent a week with quite a bit of driving in the northeast and one observation is that there seem to be a higher than usual number of late model Taurus and Transit that have no tail or running lights illuminated after dark. Headlights are at a normal brightness (one Taurus with high beams on near Utica), but when you came up behind them - no lights, not even license plate lights. Anyone else notice this? And could it be a driver issue?

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I leave my lights in Auto mode. ('13 F150) It works very well; only turning it off if I'm idling.

 

I'm assuming those vehicles have a similar feature?

 

Probably but only if you leave it in the auto position. These could be fleet vehicles which can be ordered with factory DRLs.

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Probably rental, or new Fords that have DRL's (in most '15MY+ you can enable DRL's yourself in the message center)

On top of that People don't leave the switch in Auto mode, most rental cars places turn the headlight switch to off from auto. Ford also doesn't use either the Words AUTO or the Headlamp with an A in it picture on the headlight switch in the US. They use a bulb with A in it picture so people might not know what that means.

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Good explanations, as the only other vehicle I saw with no tail/running lights was an old rusty Buick, and they have known issues with bad grounds. It suprises me that DRLs have such brightness, as they are usually 1/2 to 2/3 brightness of low beams.

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Good explanations, as the only other vehicle I saw with no tail/running lights was an old rusty Buick, and they have known issues with bad grounds. It suprises me that DRLs have such brightness, as they are usually 1/2 to 2/3 brightness of low beams.

They are reduced output high beams. Brightness is perceived due to the higher bulb angle

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I thought I was seeing a lot of burnt out LED strips on Audis, etc but they actually turn off the DRL on one side when the blinker is active. I don't know if that's due to DOT regs or something else.

 

With the LEDs being so bright, it's hard to see the blinker if the LEDs are on, so they turn them off. I'm glad they do that, because I have seen a couple where you couldn't even tell the blinker is on. Don't remember what kind of vehicle it was though.

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With the LEDs being so bright, it's hard to see the blinker if the LEDs are on, so they turn them off. I'm glad they do that, because I have seen a couple where you couldn't even tell the blinker is on. Don't remember what kind of vehicle it was though.

I've seen this on several makes and models, though it seems to be worse on the CUVs. Several times I've had un-Christian thoughts about drivers not being able to use their turn signals only to discover that they were, in fact, using them when they got into the turn and the headlights/running lights were no longer in a position to overpower the signal lights.

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I've seen this on several makes and models, though it seems to be worse on the CUVs. Several times I've had un-Christian thoughts about drivers not being able to use their turn signals only to discover that they were, in fact, using them when they got into the turn and the headlights/running lights were no longer in a position to overpower the signal lights.

 

Ha ha, I've had similar thoughts at those times! :)

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Its a DOT regulation to interrupt if the DRL if the Turn-signal is on if visibility requirements are not meet. '15 Fusion does this, the Mustang even does it with the accent light even though they don't meet DRL requirements. The Escape doesn't need to because of where the Turn signal is in relation to the DRL.

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What is the requirement? The only reg I know is that you can't have more than 4 lights on at the same time (lows w/fogs or brights only where the brights are both high and low bulbs on at the same time). That's why your fog lights go off when you activate the high beams on most Fords - if they were left on it would be 6 on at the same time. But since you can have brights and the turn signal on at the same time I assume that's not the reason here.

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