Hi all. I have both my wipers and headlights set to "auto". I was wondering if there was a setting somewhere that turned on the headlights when the wipers are consistently on. I took my first long road trip today and it rained the whole way. The rain sensing wipers were awesome and I didn't have to mess with the settings at all.

But when it's raining, it's the law here to have headlights on and it's something I want to do anyway because it's hard to see vehicles in the road rain mist when the headlights aren't on. So I was forced to manually turn them on (then remember that I had them on lol).

 

I don't think you can link the wiper function to the headlights. But if the headlights are set to Auto, then they will turn on if the light outside dims to a certain level. And that sometimes happens when it is rainy. But if is raining outside and it is bright, you have to turn the headlights on manually.

 

I don't know how much it would help you, but you can try to make the auto-light sensor more sensitive.

OR...if you want, you can try and cover the sensor altogether so that your headlights would be turned on all the time when you drive (at least during the rain season). Just "set and forget" kind of thing.

 

No such feature on a Lexus unfortunately. Not sure why, my dad had the feature on his Cadillac back in 1995. Our Jeep has it also.

 

jbm79 is correct, Menu/Settings/Vehicle/Customization can change the amount of light required to trigger the Auto Lights. BTW the lights will turn themselves off (via adjustable delay!) even when you leave them on.

Chevrolet Cavaliers had wiper linked lights too, the joke then was ..."if the wipers are on intermittent...do the lights flash?..."

 

so the law is that ALL cars have to have lights on in the rain? not just cars without DRL? From what I've seen, the ES is highly visible in even heavy rain, as long as the DRL are on.

 

Chevy calls this an added benefit ?

 

From the front, but not from the back...

 

I find the car's sensor not sensitive enough as well so I partially covered the sensor so my headlights would come on when it rained. Which they did, but not in light rain. So I have covered the sensor so my headlights are on all the time, and the problem effectively has been effectively resolved for me.

 

Your daytime running lights are sufficient for the law here in Texas. Has been for years. If you want more light for additional safety, you will have to turn them on manually.

 

I've owned at least a half dozen vehicles with auto headlights. Not one of them, including my 3 Lexus vehicles, has turned the lights on as soon as I think that they should when it is starting to get dark and that is even with the personalized setting set to turn on the lights the soonest. That was true with my 2006 ES, and it is true with my 2013 ES and with my GX. While I wish that they could be set to turn on the lights sooner, especially with most states now requiring headlight usage when the wipers are used, I'm somewhat surprised that Lexus has not tied in turning on the headlights automatically when the wipers are being used. That said, I came to the conclusion long ago that this is just one more of those first world problems with which I will have to live.

 

Ya. I do wish Lexus has auto headlights ON when wipers are ON. Both my '15 E-class and GLA have that function. The headlights would turn ON after a minute or so after detecting constant wipers ON. I also like that these Benzes have a single rear fog light. Here in Florida in the summer, when it rains, it RAINS. I would set my rear fog light ON to alert rear drivers too.

 

This thread is 6 years old...

 

If you're going to do that, just turn the headlight switch to on. They'll still shut off automatically when you turn the car off and leave. I haven't looked at the Carista program for awhile, but if I recall you can adjust the light level threshold for the auto lights to activate.

 

You don't need to use Carista (or have the dealer do it) to change the sensitivity for the auto headlights. Changing the sensitivity is one of the custom settings available to the user in the car's menus.