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I own a 2006 Mazda 6 Luxury Sport in Australia, and the front headlights have 4 lights on them:

Front headlight, all lights off

It also has a fog light, which is not featured in this photo (but will be visible in later photos).

I cannot work out what one of the lights does (second from the left). The following 4 photos show the car with various lights on, explained below:

Front headlights, lights on

  1. Parking lights on: you can kinda see the small light on the big globe on, as well as the fog light
  2. Headlights on: you can see all of the above lights on, plus the full headlight on the right-hand side
  3. High beams: you can see all of the above, plus the large globe on (well, admittedly you can't really see the small light on)
  4. High beams + indicator: you can see all of the above, plus the indicator on

In none of the above can you see the second light from the left on. It is also possible to turn the fog light off (it's worth noting that in the picture shown, I have the fog light on, but that can be switched off which results in the light being off, as shown):

Fog light

Looking through the Owners manual (pdf link) section 8-43, there is no light shed on the situation:

Owners manual

What is the light, second from the left, for? I have tried Googling results, but all I can find is about purchasing after-market headlights for the car.

I have tried to determine if there is even a light there, but I'm not that mechanically skilled. To the best of my knowledge, the luxury sport model is the top-model Mazda6 (although arguably the MPS is) so should contain all the bells and whistles.

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  • 2
    It may be a daytime running lamp.
    – Ben
    May 15, 2016 at 12:15
  • Smart cruise control sensor? Is there wiring running to the back of that area of the headlamp?
    – zipzit
    May 15, 2016 at 20:07
  • @Ben How would I know if it's a daytime running lamp? The car was running throughout the entire shoot (otherwise the high beams wouldn't work). The owners manual does mention "Daylight running lights (Canada)" in section 5-42, but it might just indicate the actual parking lights other lights shown above.
    – Tas
    May 15, 2016 at 21:42
  • daytime running lamps should be on anytime the ambient light sensor is in sunlight. it may be on the dash near the bottom of the windshield. if you cover it and the lights go off and the headlights come on if you have autolamps then drls is correct. there may also be a fuse in the under hood fuse box you could pull to confirm. or its as @zaid said and the lights are ornamental. if it is a drl there should also be a small bulb in the housing.
    – Ben
    May 15, 2016 at 22:12
  • Sorry to be a pain, but the MPS isn't a turbo diesel (L3T DISI petrol), and the MPS Luxury is actually the top-tier of the GG platform. If it's a late-05 or 06-onwards GG it's just a placeholder for where the foglight would be.... You need to retrofit from an earlier 02-04 model if you want them.
    – Aaron Lavers
    May 16, 2016 at 3:28

1 Answer 1

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According to this that extra space is for the integrated fog light, which is probably where the fog light would be if you didn't have the separate fog light.
enter image description here

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  • This is the correct answer for these cars (GG Platform). Late 05/06 onwards didn't have the integrated fogs if they were delivered with separate fog-lights.
    – Aaron Lavers
    May 16, 2016 at 3:40
  • Strange, what's the purpose of having a designated place for both integrated headlight and bumper foglights?
    – I have no idea what I'm doing
    May 16, 2016 at 10:27
  • Are you suggesting then that the models without the separate foglight contain the integrated foglight you mention, but not the top model ones? The owners manual appears to be for all models (a bit lazy, but understandable), but still doesn't appear to reference the integrated light; however, your reference holds and this does appear correct regardless
    – Tas
    May 16, 2016 at 11:28
  • @Tas Fwiw some guy here states that all 06-07 models have the fog lights on the lower bumper. Can only guess why; two data points are: fog lights at headlight level wouldn't make very good fog lights in the first place (possibly a design realization that happened too late to change the enclosure design), and apparently the 03 Mazda 6's had a recall from that same design where the integrated fog light sockets would warp from heat and fall out (recall fix was to install holding springs + clips).
    – Jason C
    Jul 22, 2016 at 18:46
  • Also I can't tell from the pic but if the integrated fog lights don't meet all the specs in austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/legis/nt/consol_reg/avsr324/… and austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nt/consol_reg/avsr324/… then they wouldn't be suitable for Australian road use. If that's the case (or if there are enough countries where the integrated lights are not appropriate, even if it's OK in Australia) that could also perhaps explain why they aren't used.
    – Jason C
    Jul 22, 2016 at 18:56

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