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If your car has fog lights, do you drive with them on or off?
- Thread starter DramaLLama
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My headlights are automatic, so I never think to activate the fog light wand. On my old A4, I would use them because they shared the knob with the headlights.
can you tell us how lights that are the same intensity as low beams, but only about eight inches off the ground and further pointing AT the ground blind you? More so than low beam headlights?
What does that make people that use low beams?
fog lights blinding people is a myth and nobody sits back and thinks about it, lights that are 8 inches from the ground and pointing down dont blind anybody, you probably just heard that and perpetuate it without thinking about it
I have never been blinded by fog lights before. No, I rarely use my for lights because it doesn't really make a difference to me.
There are two kinds of lights that I've heard called "fog lights".
One kind is what you describe: low mounted (below the main headlights).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_lighting#Front_Fog_Lamps
A Subaru Outback is an example of a vehicle with this type of fog light (see pictures):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Outback
The other kind are typically mounted above, and sometimes behind, the passenger compartment, such as on the roll-bar (or "sport bar") in the bed of a pickup truck. I have seen similar lights on a light-bar mounted on the rooftop cargo-rack of SUVs. The key point is they are all high-mounted, above the passenger compartment.
It's this latter high-mounted kind that are blinding.
I have heard people refer to both as "fog lights". I have also heard the high-mounted kind called "off-road lights". YMMV.
You just made an excellent point. Those that drive with Fog lights on in all conditions do not seem to realise they also have rear lamps as well. If there is no Fog it is pretty annoying to be driving behind someone with their rear fogs lights on.
However, in bad fog not having the rear fogs on can be pretty dangerous.
I was going to say that I never knew cars had rear fog lights. Most be a thing outside of the US.
I tell you what it looks like it looks like a Brake light. It is the normal rear lamp with twice the intensity.
Lots of people do not seem to realise they exist. Turn on your fog lamp and go look at the rear of the car.
I use them rarely when I want a little more light on the road at night. Most of the time I forget I have them. It hasn't been foggy here in a while, so haven't really used them in the fog.
Most cars don't have one, I think. Looks like you're pressing the brakes though. I've always wanted to use my rear fog lights on people who drive with their high beams on, but haven't done that yet. Considering that most people don't know what they are, I don't think my plan would work. The person behind me would just think I have messed up lights.
Most cars don't have one, I think. Looks like you're pressing the brakes though. I've always wanted to use my rear fog lights on people who drive with their high beams on, but haven't done that yet. Considering that most people don't know what they are, I don't think my plan would work. The person behind me would just think I have messed up lights.
These rear fogs are almost nonexistent in the American market (which is great because they look stupid IMO). The only car I can think of off the top of my head that came with them was the Avalon from maybe 10 years or so back.
I can't remember the last time I saw a truck with off road lights, but I know what you're talking about.
My car has fog lights but I only use them when it's really dark out and I need extra light or when it's actually foggy. Other than that they stay off.
Those are normally called " spotters ", and at least in my state ( New York, and I know many others have the same law ) you have to keep those covered when driving on public roads, or turned off at the very least. Because they do blind other drivers very badly, though its not something the police really look out for I would assume, tho I have seen trucks pulled over for it.
They are typically used for lighting up huge portions to the sides and ahead of you, but as far as I know, you can only legally use them off road.
My current 2012 Honda Fit Sport has factory-installed foglights. I've never used them except in really foggy conditions, where the extra light right at the road level (the fog lights are specifically aimed to brighten the road immediately ahead of the vehicle) is very useful.
It looks like one of the brake lights is not working. Most people don't know what they are or thinks their brake lights are not working. I missed my MINI Cooper's rear fog light. I always turn them on when someone tailgates me or have their high beams on.
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It looks like one of the brake lights is not working. Most people don't know what they are or thinks their brake lights are not working. I missed my MINI Cooper's rear fog light. I always turn them on when someone tailgates me or have their high beams on.
Well... yeah. A lot of cars have single fog lights so they are not to be confused with the brake light. Though, I've seen some dual rear fog lights.
I've used my fog lights about 2-3 times in two years with my current car because while it's foggy at times, we tend to not get super intense fog in Michigan. I was driving this morning when it was still dark and it's 40 out with all the snow on the ground melting = insane fog.
The other time I used them in a similar situation, someone coming the opposite way was flashing their lights at me like I had my brights on or something. /shrug
The other time I used them in a similar situation, someone coming the opposite way was flashing their lights at me like I had my brights on or something. /shrug
I love this description of fog lights.
I gather use of fog lights is different in the UK (and the rest of Europe I'd imagine) and the USA.
I gather use of fog lights is different in the UK (and the rest of Europe I'd imagine) and the USA.
Would have to disagree with your opinion. Rear fog lights are very effective in Fog so that you can be seen at a greater distance and avoid being rear ended.
Personally I think they are more important that the front ones.
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An Interesting update based on google.
In Europe and other countries adhering to UN Regulation 48, vehicles must be equipped with one or two bright red "rear fog lamps" (or "fog tail lamps"), which serve as high-intensity rear position lamps to be turned on by the driver in conditions of poor visibility to make the vehicle more visible from the rear. The allowable range of intensity for a rear fog lamp is 150 to 300 candela,[17] which is within the range of a U.S. stop lamp (brake light).[6] For this reason, some European vehicles imported to the United States have their rear fog lamps wired as stop lamps, since their European-specification stop lamps may not be sufficiently intense to comply with U.S. regulations. Further, rear fog lamps are not required equipment in the U.S., however, they are permitted, and are found almost exclusively on European-brand vehicles in North America — Audi, Jaguar, Mercedes, MINI, Land Rover, Porsche, Saab and Volvo provide functional rear fog lights on their North American models. The final generation Oldsmobile Aurora also had dual rear fog lights installed in the rear bumper as standard equipment.
I guess those that have never heard of them have never owned any of the Vehicles listed above.
I never said rear fogs were ineffective, I said they look stupid.
I assure you there are thousands of each of those in America. Note that they said North American market, not US specific.
I've seen VERY few of any of the above with rear fogs. It's possible they may be present within the tail light lens and need to be activated via coding, but I assure you they simply aren't present on 99.9% of American market vehicles. If they are within what looks like a reflector lens, again they need to be activated with coding.
EDIT: Yes, it's the Oldsmobile Aurora I was thinking of, not the Avalon. I knew it was one or the other, figured it would've been the Toyota.
I think car manufacturers market these lights (on the front) as "fog lights" because it's much simpler to do so. MOST would be better called "driving lights". A TRUE fog light would be amber in color as it helps to cut through the fog, most "fog lights" factory-installed are white like the headlights. The others are correct, these lights shouldn't be blinding as they should point to the road to help light the road surface.
The aforementioned Outback is also a little odd in the operation of these lights, "fog lights" SHOULD be able to light with parking lights only, so you reduce the glare of the low beams against the fog but the Outback requires low beams on for the "fog lights" to work. The fog light switch is also not a momentary style, it's a ring on the signal stalk that is easy to be left on.
I don't mind full-time front "fog light" use, the ones that bother me are the "imitation HID" bulbs as they actually produce LESS light and are MORE glaring as the blue light scatters more easily. Improperly aimed lights, especially those aimed in oncoming driver's eyes, are also more annoying to me. Another annoyance are those that run high beams in the middle of the day, or don't dim their highs for oncoming traffic at night (or for pedestrians facing them). I also see someone on my commute from time to time that runs at least 2 sets of auxiliary lights lit, which is actually illegal.
On a related note (I was going make another post but it seemed somewhat appropriate), does anyone know the difference between a flash of the high beams from an oncoming vehicle or an on-off-on signal with the lows from an oncoming vehicle? I can't tell you how many people I see that don't know.
The aforementioned Outback is also a little odd in the operation of these lights, "fog lights" SHOULD be able to light with parking lights only, so you reduce the glare of the low beams against the fog but the Outback requires low beams on for the "fog lights" to work. The fog light switch is also not a momentary style, it's a ring on the signal stalk that is easy to be left on.
I don't mind full-time front "fog light" use, the ones that bother me are the "imitation HID" bulbs as they actually produce LESS light and are MORE glaring as the blue light scatters more easily. Improperly aimed lights, especially those aimed in oncoming driver's eyes, are also more annoying to me. Another annoyance are those that run high beams in the middle of the day, or don't dim their highs for oncoming traffic at night (or for pedestrians facing them). I also see someone on my commute from time to time that runs at least 2 sets of auxiliary lights lit, which is actually illegal.
On a related note (I was going make another post but it seemed somewhat appropriate), does anyone know the difference between a flash of the high beams from an oncoming vehicle or an on-off-on signal with the lows from an oncoming vehicle? I can't tell you how many people I see that don't know.
Flash of high beams means a cop is ahead of me and on/off to tell me to turn my lights on.
Agreed, aftermarket xenons and low beams in general that are out of adjustment are irritating as hell. OEM HIDs are of course aimed properly as they should be (and likely self-leveling), so no problem there. Problem is when you get some old beater with some kid driving it with mAd TyTe XeNoNs y0! that throws $50 "HIDs" off ebay that are like 9000k and are basically useless into a halogen housing that's already out of adjustment.
And on that note, I swear 1/10 cars on the road has at least one low beam that's out of adjustment and blinding, how does this even happen? People turning the wrong screws when trying to replace a headlight themselves? I can't imagine them going out of adjustment on their own, if anything the screws would get crusty as time goes on and harder to move.
And what's with the people that drive in traffic at night with high beams on? I see a lot of people that have one low beam out so they think that it's therefore perfectly acceptable to just use high beams instead and blind everyone instead of forking out the money to fix their dead low beam, but I also see a lot of oblivious drivers driving on lit streets in traffic with their high beams on and when they pass by you it's usually just some normal looking person, I often wonder if it must be on purpose because there seems to me to be virtually no way you couldn't see the huge bright blue high beams light on right in the middle of your dash?