No auto-off headlights on 2010 Sport (contrary to mazdausa.com)!

M

mrbenji

Member
Just bought a 2010 Mazda5 sport auto after extensive research. My two test drives were in daylight, so I was annoyed to realize after my first nighttime drive (post-purchase) that the headlights don't have auto-off! I was sure I'd seen in a couple of places that this was standard on all trim levels, so I went hunting.

Indeed, even Mazda's own Mazda5 site clearly states that while the GT is of course the only model with HID, both the Sport & Touring trims come standard w/ "Halogen headlights with auto-off feature" -- it's actually the first feature listed when you expand the "Exterior" section of the specifications page linked above.

My window sticker lists "Halogen headlights," but not "Auto-off"... although on the website there's no mention of halogen headlights w/o auto-off, so even if I'd pored over the sticker I wouldn't have thought anything of it. The owner's manual describes two different light control stems, one with an "Auto" setting and one without... mine has no "Auto," but again, didn't read the manual until after I brought the car home.

I definitely do not have auto-off... the car beeps incessantly at me if I open my door with my lights on, and I've tried leaving them on and locking the car, but 3 minutes later the lights had not gone off. Also, the owner's manual warns against leaving the headlights on if you have a light control without an "Auto" setting.

Anyway, I've contacted my dealership and Mazda customer service (800-222-5500), since I think they should honor what their official site says and retrofit my Sport for auto-off. I've had both personally verify that the website states the Sport has standard auto-off headlights, and I've had the customer service rep note that in my file. Hopefully I'll hear back from them soon, and will post what they say.

If (as I'm now fearing) this is a website error, it's only a matter of time before they change the website -- so I figured I'd get the word out so other 2010 owners can get their foot in the door and hopefully get a free fix/upgrade.

Anyone out there have a 2010 Sport with auto-off? Can anyone with 2010 Touring confirm whether they've got it?
 
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they cannot retrofit HID onto a halogen system, it is not US DOT legal. HID has to be from the factory. check your VIN, since the feature you seek may be a mid-year refresh or even deleted option depending on when your vehicle was made.

also if youre in canada im not sure of the HID specs. but i once read that DRL is standard on canadian cars which negates the use of some HID systems on certain cars.
 
i would at least ask for an explanationas to how the system is supposed to work. it may be a mid-year refresh feature, with the car you purchased a pre-refresh model. (a possibility, at least)
 
I admit I like the idea of auto-off, so I can run the low beams as DRL, but to be truthful, I am fairly certain that what makes plastic light sheathing turn dull is actually heat from running with the lights on, whether daytime or night driving. My Subie was left w/lights on & the plastic dulled, as did my Ram, but my Accord (same south-facing driveway w/no shade & full sun) had NO sign of dulling, although many similar generation Accords have plenty dull lenses. My Accord almost never had the lights on.
 
While the availability of automatic headlights may or may not apply to current model year 5's, they were standard equipment on all Canadian 5's, at least in 2007.

At the end of the turn-signal stalk, the headlight switch has a number of settings (off, parking lights, on, auto). When switched to auto, the headlights (and all other exterior lights) come on if both the engine is running and it is dark enough to activate the lights. Shut off the ignition and the lights go out - no need to even touch the light switch. In fact, you must not change the light switch setting, unless you want ordinary manual control of the lights.

The DRL's have nothing to do with the auto headlights, except that when its dark enough to activate the auto headlights, the DRL's are deactivated.

As for HID's, they are not available from the factory on Canadian Mazda 5's.

And thats the way that song ends :)
 
The Mazda website always has something wrong on it. When I bought my 2008 model I wanted a stick. The website showed a stick as only available on the sport models. A call to customer service confirmed that.

Two months later while at the dealer for maintenance I find a Touring model on the lot with a stick. Leather steering wheel, shift knob, fogs, etc... I was pissed.

I call back to MazdaUSA with the VIN of that particular model and then they decide that a stick on a Toruing model IS available....

Bastards....
 
So, to clarify, I'm *not* saying I should have HID lights. The website says the sport & touring models have HALOGEN lights with an "auto-off feature." I believe *most* cars with halogen headlights have auto off... even the POS Chevy Cobalt rental my insurance provided before we got our 5 had auto off.

To the person who asked, I'm in California, not Canada, so no DRL requirement. But re: the headlight lenses, I'd way rather replace those in a few years than do without daytime headlights (which I believe can definitely help avoid accidents) or risk forgetting to turn on my headlights, say, at dusk.

Anway, "all's I'm saying" is that when you're talking about a purchase as big as an automobile, Mazda should damn well make sure that the official specifications on their website are correct, and make it good (within reason) when a customer has purchased a car based on inaccurate official information!
 
Yah that's weird your 5 Sport wouldn't have auto lights. Hopefully they do retrofit it in.

I've always asked dealers if I can get a certain trim level with stick that isn't listed as available with stick, usually it's a no but sometimes it's worth a shot. Some dealers may do this.
 
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njaremka said:
i would at least ask for an explanationas to how the system is supposed to work. it may be a mid-year refresh feature, with the car you purchased a pre-refresh model. (a possibility, at least)
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mrbenji said:
So, to clarify, I'm *not* saying I should have HID lights. The website says the sport & touring models have HALOGEN lights with an "auto-off feature." I believe *most* cars with halogen headlights have auto off... even the POS Chevy Cobalt rental my insurance provided before we got our 5 had auto off.

To the person who asked, I'm in California, not Canada, so no DRL requirement. But re: the headlight lenses, I'd way rather replace those in a few years than do without daytime headlights (which I believe can definitely help avoid accidents) or risk forgetting to turn on my headlights, say, at dusk.

Anway, "all's I'm saying" is that when you're talking about a purchase as big as an automobile, Mazda should damn well make sure that the official specifications on their website are correct, and make it good (within reason) when a customer has purchased a car based on inaccurate official information!
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like i said, it might be best to ask mazda how the "Auto-Off" feature is supposed to work.

ask mazda: are they supposed to turn off when i turn the car off? if i leave them on, are they supposed to turn off before the battery dies? whats the deal?

instead of bitching that the specs are wrong on the website, find out how the operation is supposed to be first. then, start the b****-fest.
 
Does your headlight stalk say Off-(Parking Light Symbol)-On or Off-(Parking Light Symbol)-On-Auto?
 
My headlight stalk says Off-(Parking Light Symbol)-On. No Auto setting.

njaremka, WTF? As I've already said, I've read the owner's manual entry, contacted my dealership and contacted Mazda customer service. The owner's manual warns owners with Off-Park-On stalks against leaving the lights on when they're not in use, as it will run down the battery -- that confirms to me that it isn't some idiotic "faux auto-off" where it shuts off just before the battery dies. The dealership and and Mazda CSR both confirmed that their understanding of auto-off is the headlights turn off after ~30sec if 1) they are on with the engine running and 2) you turn off the car. There just isn't any other explanation that fits the term "auto-off feature." Really, I suppose next you'll say "well, ALL cars have auto-off headlights... when the battery dies they turn off!"

I only posted this thinking others in my boat might want to join me in trying to get a straight answer and hopefully a retrofit before the website changes. I've lodged my complaint and the Mazda CSR is looking into the situation and what reparations might be made to me... I don't know what else I should be doing before I'm officially cleared for a "b****-fest."
 
mrbenji said:
My headlight stalk says Off-(Parking Light Symbol)-On. No Auto setting.

njaremka, WTF? As I've already said, I've read the owner's manual entry, contacted my dealership and contacted Mazda customer service. The owner's manual warns owners with Off-Park-On stalks against leaving the lights on when they're not in use, as it will run down the battery -- that confirms to me that it isn't some idiotic "faux auto-off" where it shuts off just before the battery dies. The dealership and and Mazda CSR both confirmed that their understanding of auto-off is the headlights turn off after ~30sec if 1) they are on with the engine running and 2) you turn off the car. There just isn't any other explanation that fits the term "auto-off feature." Really, I suppose next you'll say "well, ALL cars have auto-off headlights... when the battery dies they turn off!"

I only posted this thinking others in my boat might want to join me in trying to get a straight answer and hopefully a retrofit before the website changes. I've lodged my complaint and the Mazda CSR is looking into the situation and what reparations might be made to me... I don't know what else I should be doing before I'm officially cleared for a "b****-fest."
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well, i'm not going to clear you of this b****-fest because if it was THAT important to you, you would have tried to find out the operation before your purchase. i really think that mazda will NOT retro fit just because the website said one thing, and the car came equipped some other way. in the brochure and i'm sure somewhere onthe website, there is a statement that options and features can change at mazda's whim.
 
Ok, I gotcha. You're a Mazda fanboy and I'm "looking funny" at Mazda, you had no choice but to defend her honor.

So, out of curiosity, where do you draw the line? Example: the #1 reason I went with a 2010 Mazda5 over a used model was their website's promise that stability control (DSC/ESC/whatever) is standard on ALL 2010 models. All I have is Mazda's word that my vehicle has this crucial safety feature.

Well, I had a moment of panic reading my 2010 manual yesterday when I noticed that the DSC section says "DSC*", and the asterisk at the bottom of the page says "* some models." I've got the base model with no extras, so I'm thinking, "if any model doesn't have DSC it'll be my Sport, not the GT with leather seats and navi!"

For the moment I'm feeling reasonably-certain that this is an error in the user manual, as I have a "DSC OFF" switch and the DSC indicator light turns on momentarily when I start my car. So in this case, if it turned out the *website* was wrong, and I had no DSC you think that'd be ok, too? Should I have confirmed that DSC is present by insisting we test drive my car on a slick track?

My point is, I'm buying a product with hundreds of promised features. The burden should not be on me to check each official source of information, determine what data is correct, and verify that each promised feature is present and functions as it should. I buy one car every several years, automakers sell thousands of units of only a handful of products every year. That's why the burden should be on the automaker to do a simple set of cross-checks, verifying that no official information channel is presenting incorrect information.
 
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mrbenji said:
Ok, I gotcha. You're a Mazda fanboy and I'm "looking funny" at Mazda, you had no choice but to defend her honor.

So, out of curiosity, where do you draw the line? Example: the #1 reason I went with a 2010 Mazda5 over a used model was their website's promise that stability control (DSC/ESC/whatever) is standard on ALL 2010 models. All I have is Mazda's word that my vehicle has this crucial safety feature.

Well, I had a moment of panic reading my 2010 manual yesterday when I noticed that the DSC section says "DSC*", and the asterisk at the bottom of the page says "* some models." I've got the base model with no extras, so I'm thinking, "if any model doesn't have DSC it'll be my Sport, not the GT with leather seats and navi!"

For the moment I'm feeling reasonably-certain that this is an error in the user manual, as I have a "DSC OFF" switch and the DSC indicator light turns on momentarily when I start my car. So in this case, if it turned out the *website* was wrong, and I had no DSC you think that'd be ok, too? Should I have confirmed that DSC is present by insisting we test drive my car on a slick track?

My point is, I'm buying a product with hundreds of promised features. The burden should not be on me to check each official source of information, determine what data is correct, and verify that each promised feature is present and functions as it should. I buy one car every several years, automakers sell thousands of units of only a handful of products every year. That's why the burden should be on the automaker to do a simple set of cross-checks, verifying that no official information channel is presenting incorrect information.
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i agree that the automaker should make sure that their literature is as up to date as possible, but mistakes do get through REGARDLESS who the manufacturer is.

if i wanted DSC, i would check the literature, then make damn sure that the car had it before i signed all the papers. if the car i was buying NEEDED to have auto-off headlights, i would make damn sure it had them before i signed the papers. reading the literature is one thing, but product examination is a whole other action.

with a purchase as big as a car, it always suprises me how many people just go out and buy one, then complain about little things after the fact.

i may enjoy my mazda, but mostly because of the driving experience i get out of it. yeah, it has some quirks, but i knew about them before i bought it, and was willing to accept them.
 
Interesting thread, and it'll be illuminating (nice one) to see how or if Mazda remediates somehow.

How would a Sport get this feature installed? You'd need the light-level sensor, the headlight switch assembly, and "some other stuff" presumably? Or do they all come wired for this but for a coupla parts? e.g., foglight wiring is present on my Sport, but it has no foglights.

I was into Chrysler LX models for awhile, reading a Chrysler 300 forum it claimed that auto-on-off was actually present on all models, and described pulling the headlight knob to dremel it so the function would work.

http://www.lxforums.com/board/showthread.php?t=16999

Nice that it's there...but geez, can you imagine building all that in then *disabling* it b/c this vehicle isn't the right trim level?
 
(enguard)

njaremka said:
i agree that the automaker should make sure that their literature is as up to date as possible, but mistakes do get through REGARDLESS who the manufacturer is.
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Sure they do. But when they do, I expect a reputable automaker to fix their literature, make a reasonable attempt to make things right for the buyers they misinformed, and fix their process so such an error is less liable to happen again.

njaremka said:
if i wanted DSC, i would check the literature, then make damn sure that the car had it before i signed all the papers.
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Ok, in this case the DSC OFF button provides a reasonable way to verify that. But I want ABS, too... how exactly am I supposed to verify that? How about belt pretensioners? Airbags? There's due dilligence, and then there's doing the automaker's job for them. I believe I did the former reasonably well.

njaremka said:
if the car i was buying NEEDED to have auto-off headlights, i would make damn sure it had them before i signed the papers.
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Well, now... I don't NEED auto-off headlights, do I? It's a convenience and a safety feature (against running w/o headlights), but regardless, it's a feature that Mazda's own website promised would be included in my purchase price.

I've never owned a car without this feature, so frankly it's not something I was going to notice or check for. I'll concede it would have been fairly easy to verify whether the website's promise of auto-off lights was true or false, but again, that's not my job. I'm sure when you bought your car there were at least a handful of features you didn't personally verify were present.
 
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mrbenji said:
(enguard)
I've never owned a car without this feature (auto-on headlights), so frankly it's not something I was going to notice or check for. .
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Why not have a DRL module installed on the 5. They are available for high or low beam and at up to 90% intensity. Then you will have lights on at all times without having a (likely) losing battle with Mazda that will leave you feeling cheated.

Just my humble opinion

BTW, before the mid-nineties, wern't auto-on headlights only available on Cadillacs and Lincolns (and other land yachts)?
 
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KBrian said:
Why not have a DRL module installed on the 5. They are available for high or low beam and at up to 90% intensity. Then you will have lights on at all times without having a (likely) losing battle with Mazda that will leave you feeling cheated.
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<shrug> Well, really, that's what I want: DRLs... although I'd prefer 100% intensity. I'm willing to work on this out for a while with Mazda and hope they do what I feel is the right thing. I got a terrific price on my car, so in the end I'll get over it if it turns out I'm fighting a losing battle.

KBrian said:
BTW, before the mid-nineties, wern't auto-on headlights only available on Cadillacs and Lincolns (and other land yachts)?
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<grin> Yeah, guess many on here have been buying cars much longer than I have. I'm 36, but didn't buy a car until after college. My first was an Audi A4 1.8T (manual) I bought used in 2000. LOVED that car, sooo fun to drive. Since then a Camry SE (also manual) and finally our beloved Prius, which was declared a total loss by our insurance after an accident last month.
 
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