So something odd is going on. My right side city light (parking light) on a 996 litronic went out. I thought it was the bulb, so I changed bulbs, but no go. I'm not sure if the new bulbs I got are also burnt out (I guess stuff happens, right?) so I haven't tried moving the left one (working) to the right one (not), but that seems a bit far-fetched. All other functions on the light work fine (fogs, blinkers, light itself obv).

Anything blindingly (ha) obvious that I'm missing?

 

have to swap, but make sure you have them in the socket correctly

 

Read the manual

 

Pretty sure it's fairly straightforward - when I swapped the original yellow lights to these PIAA ones, I recall no difficulty, and the left one has worked for almost two years now.

That's... not helpful. What should I read about? Fuses?

 

Try checking the wire connection at the junction box where the whole headlight unit plugs in.

 

This is SO WEIRD. It's working now.

Is there some circuit that deactivates the light when it fails and doesn't reactivate it until it's replaced, car is driven and the fifth moon of Kobol aligns with the seventh moon of Geminon? I didn't do anything since this morning except go for a drive and now all is well.

 

That's called an intermittent connection! It will probably go out again if you don't clean the contacts etc...

 

^+1 make sure the contacts on both the light unit and socket are clean. Use some electrical contact cleaner. Make sure the headlamp unit is securely in place. For litronics, there is a separate control unit that makes the lights fire up. Check that as well. Part 16 here http://www.autoatlanta.com/porsche-p...section=905-03

 

I wasn't being sarcastic. The manual explains the different positions of the switch. You can turn on just the left or just the right parking lights.

 

I assume you arent using a led, a led has to be error free or the system wont recognize it

 

Omg. Seriously? I don't even... I had no idea. Although the light started working, I'm going to read up on that to see how to do it. You think you know a car and then you hear about these oddball "features"... I wonder what the use case for only having one side parking light turned on is?...

Not LEDs, but a good point for sure.

 

VW Forum schlock, but it explains quite nicely.

"In Europe, all cars are equipped with the capability to leave the front and rear parking light turned on, on one side of the car only. This is accomplished by leaving the turn signal switch in the right or left turn position after the ignition has been switched off.

This capability is a safety standards requirement in Europe, and operation of this feature is standardized across all manufacturers, in much the same way that all North American cars have the automatic transmission set up in a PRNDL sequence, or defrost controls set up so that when every control is moved to the far right position, windshield defrost is activated.

Although the entire VW product line in Europe - from Lupo to Phaeton - has had the single side parking light capability for many years, it is only recently that VW has begun shipping Touaregs and Phaetons to North America without disabling this function. So, if you have just bought a Phaeton, and not previously owned a European car that offered this feature, it might be new to you."

 

Huh. The things you learn.

I wonder what the point of it is - when approaching a car parked on a shoulder, you probably don't have time to really see whether it has both sides or only one side illuminated, so wouldn't it make sense to just not bother and turn on everything? Worse yet, you might think it's a motorcycle or something if it has only one light turned on ...

 

The short version: for years, it was cheaper to build not-universally-mandatory features into every car than to build it into SOME cars. Having to deal with two separate switches, the associated controls and markings, plus adding complexity to the manuals, costs more than just standardizing on that feature (and letting the Americans scratch their heads).

I say "for years" because it's become commonplace to use software to hide/show such things...during delivery (or even during build) the buyer's locale is selected and nobody has to wonder about the mysterious parking lights they'd never use. Of course, you still have to build the parts in to EVERY car regardless of whether they're enabled*, so this only makes sense for lights, wire harnesses, and other relatively cheap stuff.

I'm too dumb to even envision all of the crunching that happens to determine when it's cheaper to go this route vs. making the factory sophisticated enough to be able to use locale-specific components in real time...

I need to learn more about Tesla's production. I get the feeling that there are tricks Musk has picked up from here and there, and some others he just made up, going on.

 

When you drive in places where the roads were designed for horses and buggies, being able to illuminate the corners of your car most in danger of crunching probably seems really useful.

Or, you know, for marathon creeper sessions when you want to keep the lowest profile possible (and minimize your battery drain in case the cops come) without getting sideswiped.