LED failures

banjos-n-beer · Sep 26, 2017

Auto setting is only for the headlights on <=2016.5s. The LED DRLs are pretty much always on unless you're in park, not sure about neutral. Or you've gone thru the multi point process to disable them.

Long story short auto setting should have zero impact on the life of LED DRLs pre 2017s.

finch204 · Sep 26, 2017

banjos-n-beer said:
Auto setting is only for the headlights on <=2016.5s. The LED DRLs are pretty much always on unless you're in park, not sure about neutral. Or you've gone thru the multi point process to disable them.

Long story short auto setting should have zero impact on the life of LED DRLs pre 2017s.

Ugh you're right. I don't know why I thought the DRLs were controlled by the Auto setting LOL. My mistake.

Well at least mine are still working. I can easily tell because I park right in front of the office building, so I can see from the window reflections if my DRLs turn on when I start driving.

lowincash · Sep 26, 2017

finch204 said:
Ugh you're right. I don't know why I thought the DRLs were controlled by the Auto setting LOL. My mistake.

Well at least mine are still working. I can easily tell because I park right in front of the office building, so I can see from the window reflections if my DRLs turn on when I start driving.

Lexus has the ability to turn off the DRL. When set in off the LED DRL are not on and when set in auto then DRL on. Wish ours were set up like that.

yrwei52 · Sep 26, 2017

lowincash said:
Lexus has the ability to turn off the DRL. When set in off the LED DRL are not on and when set in auto then DRL on. Wish ours were set up like that.

I believe Toyota and Lexus do say "Auto" on headlight switch position to turn the DRLs on. May be that's why the confusion ⋯

SEOR MAZDA · Sep 27, 2017

yrwei52 said:
Firstly the design of 2017 CX-5 LED headlights is different from 2016's, hence the longevity of the LED can be different. LED lights should last very long but I suspect Mazda or Stanley screwed up something in design (such as bad heat dissipation) or parts selection which requires 5 addition revisions on LED headlight assembly in short 2 years of production run. 2017 LED headlights are too new at this time to find out if it'd be like 2016's reliability wise. We can only wait and see.

Fourthly, LED DRLs are not mandatory in the US so even if they fail, we can leave them along if the replacement cost is too high. But LED headlights are totally different story and we need them for nighttime driving. That's why I always urge 2017 CX-5 owners at least calling Customer Experience Center of Mazda North American Operations to express your major concerns on LED headlights which are always on as part of DRLs. We don't want sacrifice the lifespan of LED headlights for unnecessary DRL function.

Hi @yrwei52,
I do not know if turning off the DRL, could bring any legal issues between you and your insurance co.
At the moment of you taking an insurance policy, you vehicle register a DRL from the factory as described on the window sticker and because of that, you receive a discount on the insurance (look in the papers that the insurance co. send you and you will see the discount). Other vehicles that do not have it will certainly pay more.
If they check on the car computer (like it or not, a black box for cars) they may see that the safety of DRL was compromised by turning it off and you may end up liable for something that may not be your fault unless you inform the insurer that you turned off because of potential expense in the future. The may send you a surcharge for not having the DRL.
Do not forget that sometimes insurance companies look for anything so they cannot pay.
Just my 2 cents!!

finch204 · Sep 27, 2017

lowincash said:
Lexus has the ability to turn off the DRL. When set in off the LED DRL are not on and when set in auto then DRL on. Wish ours were set up like that.

It doesn't sound too complicated for Mazda to set up the DRLs the way that Lexus did. However I think Mazda intentionally did this for safety reasons. Similar to how they purposely disable the touch screen when driving. I personally have no problem with this setup, though I understand that people have reliability concerns with it. The DRLs are supposed to make your vehicle more visible the whole day. Being able to turn it off, sort of defeats the purpose.

LED failures

banjos-n-beer

finch204

lowincash

yrwei52

2016 Mazda CX-5 GT AWD w/Tech Pkg

SEOR MAZDA

Member

finch204

Similar threads

Latest posts