RE: 5000CST Euros (use of parking lights)

[Phil Rose <pjrose@servtech.com>]

>Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 13:01:19 +0100
>From: Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>
>Subject: RE: 5000CST Euros
>
[snip].
>The "city lights" are rather called "parking lights" in Europe, cause their
>main purpose is to be left on while the car is parked on dark street. This
>is simply 5W bulb screwed into the reflector, so it's completely unusable
>for any other purposes.
>
>Aleksander Mierzwa
>Warsaw, Poland

This raises a question that I've had for a while. I value the feature on
our Audis (and many European cars) of the headlights turning off when the
ignition is switched off. When this happens, the "parking lights" remain
ON--allowing their use as described by Aleksander but also drawing down the
battery-- eventually.

Now my question: How many hours can the (US version) parking lights burn
before they'd be expected to seriously discharge a battery (that was
initially fully charged and in good condition)?

I'd expect that 12 hrs _ought_ to be safe, although the first time I left
these lights on (inadvertantly) the battery was killed within about 8 hrs.
I assumed the battery (or the charging system) wasn't in great condition to
begin with. Any data points out there?

BTW, is US parking light wattage different than the Euro style?

Phil Rose		Rochester, NY
'89 100			pjrose@servtech.com