I just got the brand new Q5 3.0 and noticed strangest thing about the headlights switch: I always leave it in auto position, but when I got in after parking the car overnight, i found it several times in the off position. I thought I was a little insane, but it has happened 3 or 4 times in the course of1 week.
I called the dealer, and he said it was impossible since the switch is not motorized or actuated in any other way.
No one else parks or drives the car, so it remains a big mystery.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

 

Someone posted this question elsewhere, and last month I caught the poltergeist turning off the headlights the same way three times.

Our suspicions are that our incredibly malformed legs are bumping the switch with our kneecaps and somehow turning off the lights. Although it would seem impossible for anyone but a contortionist to actually do that.

So I'm just taking great care to control my knees on the way in and out, and watching to see what happens.

And taking bids for those folks on Fox Network, to come do a segment on the headlight switch poltergeist in my car.

I'm sure Audi would suggest that I have orthopedic surgery to relocate my kneecaps, but I'll fabricate some type of guard over the switch instead, if it turns out to be a design defect in the car's ergonomics.

 

Thanks for your reply Redd
I m going to seriously doubt this version of the event - i m short 5"7" with short legs so i even tried to do it on purpose but failed miserably
Also, the same switch in A4 that i owned for 2 years before q5 never did anything of the sort despite much tighter space.
Still a mystery

 

Yes, well, supposedly there is no motor, no activator, no nothing in there that can turn the switch all by itself.

Which leaves other drivers, poltergeist, or vengeful Audi dealers coming around in the middle of the night just to mess with your head. Unless you have any other ideas?

 

Found the definitive answer yesterday, when I actually HEARD the switch click off as I hit it with my left knee, bringing my incredibly long leg into the car from an awkward spot.

If your knee hits the bottom of the switch as your leg comes into the car, it will rotate and shut the lights.

I'd call this a major ergonomic failure in the car. And, proof that the switch can damage kneecaps in the event of an accident. Doubly bad failure.

Not as bad as ignition switches that turn themselves off, or engine fires, or a number of other nasty things that keep making the Nooze, but a definite design failure.

 

I just purchased a 2013 Q5 about a month ago. One night I realized that my lights were not on and I always keep it in the automatic position. I placed the switch back into the automatic position. This has happened so many times that my husband and I look at the switch when we get in and out of the vehicle now because we never know what position the switch will be in. We have been told that this can't happen but believe me it does. I really don't see how my knee is moving the switch without me noticing this. It also has done this when my husband has driven it. Would love to hear if anyone else is having this problem. We put it in automatic and it moves to the off position.

 

lion-
It seems impossible that a knee could move that switch, but if you twist exactly the right way when you are getting in, it is very easy to hit the switch.

The ideal solution would be to pull the switch "****" off and then use a 3D printer to cheaply fabricate a low profile "puck" instead, so that it was much harder for the switch to be rotated by accident. Assuming Audi doesn't require special tools to remove the switch ****. Rashly assuming.

If you come up with a clever replacement or safety cover, please do share.

This is not the first time I have found this specific type of poor industrial design. The first time around was with a piece of expensive ($250,000) equipment that was built into a large desk. The Big Red Switch was set under the desk, in the leg space, to one side. Totally out of accidental reach...unless you crossed one leg over the other and sat back. Click. System down, down hard. We used duct tape as a safety cover on that one.(G)

 

Bump. My GF's 2015 Q5 is doing this for sure and it is always ending up off. Her knee is nowhere near capable of hitting the switch. And if knees were to blame then the result would not always be 100% the off position result. This is happening every time the car is off for an extended period of time. It will not happen at, say, a rest stop, or while dining.

 

Sam-
You are not your GF.
You have no way of really, objectively, certainly, knowing where her knees are when she enters the car. Not unless you stand there and invisibly observe her every time.

Since the light switch is NOT connected to any type of motor or servo and even the incredibly brilliant Audi cannot move things without those, what is left?

If your GF is not bumping the switch, they way that I have personally seen and proved can happen, then you'd better call the FBI and let them know someone is breaking into her car and turning off the lights.

Or, perhaps you have heard of "Sherlock Holmes" ? Along the lines of "When everything else has been eliminated, whatever remains, however unlikely, will be the solution".

She's probably skimming the dash with her knee when she pushes off against the seat to move her body inwards, into the car. It is a gentle and unobvious motion that no one makes consciously, simply the leg extending and balancing the rest of the motion while the mind is distracted.

Don't believe it? Have her smear gobs of some cheap lipstick on the switch. She'll find it on her knee next time the poltergeists have turned the switch off.

 

ROFL

Nice idea.