What the hell is this for??

[nzstagea]

My Stagea wagon has a switch on the left side of the steering wheel, just below the rear screen demist and diff lock buttons that is labelled ' Light Reduce' What is it for?? I turned it one, but can't really see what it is doing?? Any ideas?

[Enterthestagea]

Don't remember N E thing on mine. If it doesn't dim the dash lights, does it switch on or off, or come back to the same position. Maybe if you hold it in to adjust and let it out at the setting you want. Other than that I would like to know the answer also.

[Happymeal]

damn it mine doesn't have this, but the car that we have here right now has it. it supposedly drops the light intensity down as you get closer to the car in front or something similar. This is third hand info, so don't take it as gospel. I have looked briefly but can not find any unusual sensor to reduce the voltage to the lights and dimm them.

The switch is an on or off one, does not adjust the interior lights but the head lights I'm told. I have two Stageas here right now, mine RS4 1996, and a white RS4 97. 97 has the option along with the luggage fan, mine does not have eithor of those options. Will try to search for differences again out the dront of the cars today. there must be a sensor for it there somewhere.

[Jay95R33]

We should make this the official 'what the hell is that' thread for Stagea's

I've got a switch on the right hand side of the steering wheel that looks like a demist switch but isn't cause the demist switch is on the lefthand side.

I'll post a pic of it up later, but it's a momentary switch with a little orange light in it that lights up when pressed. The symbol on the switch 'looks' like a symbol for warming up a water tank or defrosting the wiper blades on the windscreen. hard to discribe.....

Cause it's a momentay switch, I'd say it automatically turns itself off after a set time but I'm yet to test it.

J

[RSFour]

If you leave the light reduce switch on, the headlights will dim whenever you come to a complete stop. Freaked me out the first time I drove home at night and was waiting for the turbos to cool down.:uhh:

[Terminal]

Yeah i have the luggage fan also, it's on the switch on the right of the steering wheel next to the alarm led. does luggage really need a fan?

[BensDR30]

Huzzah - an answer!!!

I've looked throught the parts data & noticed that the cct for this switch has a relay & wiring to each main light assembly but I'd be buggered if I could see anything happening. Time to turn it on & (hopefully!) see some results.

The switch on the RHS of the column on the dash is a wiper de-icer. It heats the lower part of the front & rear screens to prevent you tearing the wiper rubbers off when the window is iced up. It has a 15-minute timer built in (as does the demister).

Next question please!

[Jay95R33]

Ahh, good stuff Ben, thanks for that

[BensDR30]

Actually - I have the next question myself....

Am I blind, or is there no instrument light dimmer?

[Terminal]

I don't have one. My skyline had one installed for compliance, so i don't think the jap cars have them

[burkey22]

I was wondering about that too.

[ylwgtr2]

when driving in japan its courtesy to switch your lights off at the traffic lights...i myself think its silly...so i guess this does it automatically for you

[Happymeal]

FRom looking at the wiring associated with the dimming mechanism it does not appear to be part of the factory loom. Is it possible that this is an additional component available aftermarket in Japan, specifically for the car in question? I only say this as the loom addition is covered in Conduit, and loom taped up differently. No additional misc wiring is included in these bits of additional loom, so there would be no reason for them to have been de-loomed and then re-done again.

Seems odd. Two small silver boxes (one behind each headlight) are responsible for dimming the voltage to the lights in relation to the car slowing down by the looks of it.

[meep]

Man Jap's do think of EVERYTHING don't they!

BTW i love the Stagea's they are ****ing hott, are they expensive

i gots a GTS-T 4WD not to shabby

[Terminal]

Not expensive, i picked mine up for $18,500 and it's got leather interior, dual sunroof and bodykit.