[K999]

I noticed recently that the headlights weren’t coming on in bad weather.
I’ve not had the car long, so thought it might just be that the Kia circuitry has a lower threshold than I have been used to, but it’s a slight buggeration to have to remember to turn lights on manually after all these years.

anyway, I had a look in the manual, and it mentions making sure the sensor is clean and not obscured, and even provides a little picture to show you where the sensor is…

but I’m buggered if I can work out where it is! This seems to be the only reference in the manual for this, and the picture doesn’t really help.

can anyone shed any light on this (pun fully intended )

 

[K999]

Don’t know why the image has gone in twice, either 😡

 

[iooi]

I think the sensor is located at the middle Front just behind the windscreen. Between the air vents.

 

[RobinB]

[EDIT: went outside to test, grabbed some screenshots and typed... discovered @iooi has posted with even more confidence. His Niro pic looks like my Soul's appearance too. My late post follows]

The Soul manual seems ambiguous. On the one hand it looks like the little nodule on the dash, right at the front centre near where the windscreen meets the dash. The text about says not to put anything over it (implying perhaps that the sensor isn't facing down from higher up). There's a hint of the ends of the left and right air-vents in this diagram

The ambiguity/conflict that I see is that elsewhere there is a very inaccurate diagram with numbers which suggests this is the sensor for temperature and humidity. Maybe it is all of them. Of course yours is a Niro HEV and mine a Soul, so anyone's guess how similar or different. Good luck.
I tried going out with something to put over the (possible) sensor, but the light level was already low enough for AUTO to bring the lights on

 

[K999]

Thanks for the responses - I’ll have a closer look at that…I thought that thing between the air vents was something to do with the alarm/immobiliser/locking as there’s usually a red LED flashing on it when the car is parked up.

I’ll give it a bit of a clean and see what happens ….

 

[iooi]

Remember it's the light level that triggers the lights to come on. So if it's dirty they will come on sooner.
Kia's are well know for not coming on in bad weather such as fog (usually still bright) & rain, which can also have high light levels.

Best bet is to actually go by what you would normally do