bertJ

Used the fog lights this morning on the L&K for the first time for real. Couldn't find the warning light for the front fogs until I eventually realised that just the indicator in the switch rim brightens up when the front fogs are on. It's also obscured by the steering wheel. In contrast the warning light for the rear fogs is nice and clear on the instrument panel next to the dipped beam warning light. Why couldn't the front fog lights warning light be obvious as well? Very strange.
It's also odd that the auto light setting doesn't 'recognise' fog - presumably the overall light levels are too high, even in thick fog.

dstev2000

The auto lighting only looks at ambient lighting levels and would have to be immensely complicated to recongnise foggy conditions. Come back in ten years for that one!

I think the lighting switch is primarily designed with left hand drive in mind, if you think about it you would be able to see it if the wheel was to the right of the switch.

TBH I think it's somewhat stupid not to have a front fog light indicator on the dash (one of only a few design flaws on the Octavia).

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MY08 L&K: Black-Estate-Diesel-Sunset Glass-MFD2-W8 Interior light-Colour coded door strips-LED sidelights and Puddle lights-VAG-COM fettled-Lovely!
SWMBO's: MY08 vRS TDI - Standard

yashicamat

I can't quite see the logic there - surely the cars are effectively symmetrical?

Is is a seemingly obvious design flaw - I personally never saw any problem with having the front fogs indicator along with the rear one in the instrument cluster. With the number of people still seeming to find it necessary to drive around with fogs on in good conditions, one would think that car manufacturers would have the forethought to have put the indicator for front fogs in clear display.

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Nissan Primera GT in Silver
'56 Octy 2 2.0TDi Elegance . . . also gone but not forgotten
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Lummox

Thing is the design of the rotary switch means you have to purposefully switch them on everytime you turn the lights on anyhow.

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dstev2000

True but it's the only car i've ever driven with no front fog light indicator on the dash.

Either way I rarely use the front fog lights unless it's really foggy. Funny that eh??

__________________
MY08 L&K: Black-Estate-Diesel-Sunset Glass-MFD2-W8 Interior light-Colour coded door strips-LED sidelights and Puddle lights-VAG-COM fettled-Lovely!
SWMBO's: MY08 vRS TDI - Standard

Mac1961

The reason why there is an indicator on the dash for the rear fogs is because it's required by law and there is no such requirement for the front fogs. But it's still very annoying.
Another thing that's annoying is you can't switch on the rear fogs without switching on the front fogs as well.

SK_Rebel

I don't know if I am in the minority here but I don't mind there not being an indicator in the dash as 1) they are VERY rarely turned on; I seem to be about the only person in the entire town that only puts them on in fog, people seem to be using them more and more in light drizzle or just ram them on irrespective
or do a **** special and put sidelights / fogs on to look "cool" and 2) I look out the windscreen and look at the light levels just in front of the car (there's normally a bright spot right at the nose that the main lights don't light up so much)

On a side note, does anyone else find that it would be useful to be able to turn on just the rears? On more then one occasion on both this car and my furby I would be at the back of a row of cars going into fog and turn the lights on to prevent something from rear ending me and the gimp in front turns on theirs to be spiteful (on a vauxhaul I had years ago you could turn front and rears on independently)

kkonstan

Left hand drive owner over here, can't see the bloody thing.

It was actually the first thing that I missed when I switched from a Mk I.

To be frank I'd never notice that the actual **** has a built in indicator if it wasn't for this thread. It's a good thing they didn't hide the full beam indicator in the full beam stalk or the oil level warning light next to the dip stick under the bonnet.

The rest of the car is marvellous as far as usability is concerned, I'm surprised they got this one so wrong. That, and the fact that you can't turn of just the rear fogs. Useful when in really really thick rain to keep others from bumping into you when the front fogs are of no use at all. Me thinks it could be implemented by pulling the **** one more click to turn off the front ones.

kkonstan

Apparently I shouldn't have used the word K-N-O-B. Oh, wait...