I have remarked many times to my wife that her car has a nice nighttime feature where side lamps come on either left or right when she initiates a turn. Essentially, you get to see where you are about to go. I have also remarked that my F250 really needs this feature as well as the A pillars are large and tend to block your view (especially at night). I don't know how many times I have been rounding a corner at night and missed someone walking their dog etc.

Tonight, I accidentally discovered my truck has these side lights..........called spot lights (pg 90) of the owners manual. They light up your intended direction very well. The only problem is they don't come on automatically which significantly degrades their usefulness.

Anyone know of a way to program the truck to make these lights come on automatically when turning?

It would be awesome if there was a way.

 

If there is a way to make them automatic, I am not sure. I think there intended purpose is for "work lights" for night time tasks. I could be mistaken (probably am), but I think they are disabled above a certain speed (25mph or so).

 

Six mph, according to the OM.

HTH,
Jim / crewzer

 

 

My headlights are always in "auto" and the spotlights work just fine. You might want to take another look at yours.

 

Mine work in "Auto" as well. Have to be well under 6mph to turn them on, then they turn off automatically when you exceed 6mph. You have to manually turn them on each time.

 

I played around with these last night. About useless as configured. You have to be stopped to turn them on. They go off at about 6mph.

 

They are not designed to be a driving light, and are not aimed in a direction that would really be all that helpful even if you could turn them on at speed. The lights point out at a 90 degree angle to your direction of travel so you only get to illuminate what is directly beside you. That said, they are pretty useless in most situations. I have yet to find an actual need for them but I suppose there could come some really specific circumstance where I find them useful.

 

They are basically a spot/work light. They are meant to operate while stopped or a very slow speed. They are not meant to be a used (automatically) with your directionals. Youll find the info on page 93 of the owners manual.

 

What you want are cornering lights. Not as common today as they were a few decades back. My dad had two cars with them... '76 Mercury Grand Marquis and '88 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. Hard to place these on a truck because of the wraparound front bumper and vehicle height. The light has to be aimed down and forward from a side mounting location to be effective, so simply putting a fog light over there won't work as well. Adaptive headlights are covering that function, but are not readily available below luxury/high-performance vehicles and trims. Problem with trying to find them is, most search engines will mistake your entry of "cornering lights" with "corner lights", the front corner marker lights that are already there.

 

Wouldn't be hard to wire a switch bypass in. Might get you a ticket if you're not careful though, wouldn't use them around town. Depending where you live.

 

Thanks for the responses. The spots work well lighting up fwd/L and fwd/R. I am happy with the amount nighttime vis they create. I guess to make them useful (for me) I need to somehow get them to come on and stay on anytime the headlights and blinkers are on. Wish FORCAN could do this mod.

FWIW my info on these are on page 90 (OM). Looks like some are on pg 93 (maybe an updated OM)

 

My wife's 2017 VW has them so I know they are legal if used as a cornering light.

 

I use them at night in the camper lot as I am driving up and down the rows of campers reading identification numbers looking for the camper I am assigned to deliver. I don't have to be at a standstill to turn them on, and I don't go over six mph while reading numbers anyway. They aren't aimed at 90* because I have had to bring the mirrors in flat to get the light to point 90* from the truck. I'd say they are aimed closer to 45*. I have found them quite handy on dark, snowy nights in my own driveway (about 1/4 mile long, uphill, with a curve in it) to keep an eye on the drop off on one side.

 

I had the same problem wanting lights out to the side, but mine didn't have the mirror lights. I added these lights under the bottom for less then $50. Best modification I've done.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post17748616