Can you help a B7 Noob with questions.....

[randyp1234]

I bought a 2008 brilliant red Avant last week and have a few questions I'm hoping you all can answer. If/when I have more I'll add them to this thread.

iPod dock in glove box - I assume this is the Audi stock dock. I have a 4th generation Nano and everything appears to work as it should except that the Nano appears to run off its battery rather than being powered by the dock. The manual say it should charge. Any ideas?

Left rear storage area - behind the door of the left rear storage area there is some sort of black plastic box-like thing that appears to be empty. This pretty much fills the storage area making it useless. Can anyone tell me what this is and if it can be removed?

Headlights - I've seen posts around this board about "city lights" and see that these are little bulbs up in the corner, if you will, of the high beam area and come on with the parking lights. What, exactly, is the point of these?

Headlights II - The "Auto" setting. The manual says this setting will turn the lights on when they're needed but it seems that with my car it just turns the lights on or off with the ignition. Is there an optional feature that's needed to make these truly automatic?

That's it for now. Thanks for you help.

Randy

[Gil2.0T]

The headlights in auto will only come on when you need them. Maybe what you see are the drl's. (daytime running lights)

[A4_Ti]

Auto lights - turns on your headlights (halogen/xenon) when it gets darker, otherwise the DRL (daytime running lights) are on.

The city lights are waste of time IMO, when you turn the switch to the weird symbol thing, it turns on the little city light and the 2 side orange markers.

Pull the knob out one click to get your fogs on

Left rear storage area - are you talking about the compartment in the trunk/back-of-wagon area? if so there is a space above it that holds satellite and gps boxs, the rest is empty, enjoy

I don't have the Ipod dock, so no help

[randyp1234]

According to my good friend Mr. Google this will fix my iPod charging problem:

http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-passPORT-Charging-Adapter-iPhone/dp/B001HN6CVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306597647&sr=8-1

[Boxmods360]

For the left rear storage area - if you remove the carpet there are 4 bolts holding that plastic in. If you have sat radio then it would have to be relocated, but there is a good amount of room there.

[randyp1234]

For the left rear storage area - if you remove the carpet there are 4 bolts holding that plastic in. If you have sat radio then it would have to be relocated, but there is a good amount of room there.

No sat radio that I'm aware of. I was going to look closer at that this weekend after some other household chores.

Thanks,

Randy

[Boxmods360]

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q125/boxmods360/rearpanel.gif The screws are torx 30

[randyp1234]

According to my good friend Mr. Google this will fix my iPod charging problem:

http://www.amazon.com/Scosche-passPORT-Charging-Adapter-iPhone/dp/B001HN6CVA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306597647&sr=8-1

Yep - that looks like it'll do the trick. Shows charging now when connected.

[randyp1234]

Auto lights - turns on your headlights (halogen/xenon) when it gets darker, otherwise the DRL (daytime running lights) are on.



So where is the sensor for this?

[a4audi4fun]

So where is the sensor for this?

I think it's in the instrument cluster close to the 0 in the speedometer dial. Easy enough to test - take a rag and just stuff it in front of the cluster and see what happens.

[randyp1234]

I think it's in the instrument cluster close to the 0 in the speedometer dial. Easy enough to test - take a rag and just stuff it in front of the cluster and see what happens.

Not disagreeing with you because if I knew the answer I wouldn't've asked but it doesn't make sense that a sensor to turn the headlights on and off would be in teh dash. But I'll check it out.

[a4audi4fun]

Not disagreeing with you because if I knew the answer I wouldn't've asked but it doesn't make sense that a sensor to turn the headlights on and off would be in teh dash. But I'll check it out.

Take a flashlight and look for a little circular area between the 0 marking and the rectangle that has the odometer reading; I just checked on my B6 and B7 and it's in the same location on both.

[smartass]

Take a flashlight and look for a little circular area between the 0 marking and the rectangle that has the odometer reading; I just checked on my B6 and B7 and it's in the same location on both.

That IS a light sensor, but it's for the dash lights, your car will try to dim dash lights with ambient light, this is standard on all A4's.

The Light sensor for your auto headlights is part of the rain sensor (behind the rear view mirror on the windshield).

All Audi's with Rain-sensing wipers also have auto headlights.

[randyp1234]

That IS a light sensor, but it's for the dash lights, your car will try to dim dash lights with ambient light, this is standard on all A4's.

The Light sensor for your auto headlights is part of the rain sensor (behind the rear view mirror on the windshield).

All Audi's with Rain-sensing wipers also have auto headlights.

Since I don't have the auto wipers then I assume I don't have the true auto headlights. So I was correct in my original post when I observed that the auto feature didn't do anything with the lights other than turn them on with the ignition? I assume this is the standard behavior when you don't have the auto lights?

Thanks,

Randy

[A4_Ti]

Well in my car (Canadian), the DRL lights come on when you start the car and touch nothing. I don't think american cars are required to have DRL's so maybe all lights stay off? I don't know, someone else will be able to tell you.

Back to my car:

keeping the light switch/dial in the straight up position the DRL's will be on all the time, day or night.

Turning the light switch/dial to the auto setting keeps the DRL's on in the day, and switches to the xenon/halogen lights in the night time, I don't know where the light sensor is but it's gotta be somewhere on the exterior of the car or in the headlight housing.