Fog..

georges

georges

georges

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2006
Posts
3,084
Hey,
after last night when I had to come home at half 10 in the thickest fog I've ever driven in - I couldn't see street lights, which I knew were 100m ahead until I got very close; not even a glow.
I also had to drive at 30 on the dual carriageway as I had very limited visibility. In this case I don't think this was an unsafely slow speed, given the fact it is a short piece of dual carriageway (not a motorway or linked to one, but between a 30mph town road and a 30mph village which are about 1.5miles apart) and also that other drivers were going at similar paces.

Anyway, my main problem is the lack of front foglights on my car, a 'L' reg base spec Fiesta. Are there any generic retrofit fogs you can buy? I know you can buy Si bumpers which include the fogs, but then I'd have to drive looking like I'd tried to pimp out my ride.

Ideally they'd be less than £40. I was thinking similar to those spotlights you get for rally cars, but for under the bumper and for fog. Do these exist, and is it worth a trip to Halfords?
 
same in the north as well riding into Edinburgh it went from clear to sub 30 feet visibilty in a few meters really spooky.
 
Fog lights will not help you see. They will merely make you more visible to others. Personally I think the only fogs that are useful in these situations are the rears so if someone is coming up quicker than you they will see you.

That strictly ofcourse is my opinion :p
 
I thought they were lower down and had less "height of light" so that you could see the road, but not get blinded?

I couldn't see the cats eyes 10m away or less in places. On one road I was reduced to 15mph, and even though I drive it very often, I just couldn't see where it was going, as if I'd never driven it before.
 
Phate said:
Fog lights will not help you see. They will merely make you more visible to others. Personally I think the only fogs that are useful in these situations are the rears so if someone is coming up quicker than you they will see you.

That strictly ofcourse is my opinion :p
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They will help you see. In proper fog, they are significantly better than dipped/main beam.
 
Phate said:
Fog lights will not help you see. They will merely make you more visible to others. Personally I think the only fogs that are useful in these situations are the rears so if someone is coming up quicker than you they will see you.

That strictly ofcourse is my opinion :p
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I have never had the opportunity to drive a car with front fogs, but given what my father thinks of them ("****in' useless") and seeing as they are only fitted to sports/high trim models of car, it would seem to be the case. If they were actually any good or required for anything other than making your car look pretty, surely they'd be a legal requirement (like a rear foglight is).

Edit: What Nick jsut said goes against my own experience. So far, that's the only testimony Ive heard for front foglights being useful though.
 
georges said:
I thought they were lower down and had less "height of light" so that you could see the road, but not get blinded?
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This could very well be the case, and probably is - I don't know the technicalities of it all. I normally get flamed to death at this point as well :p

I am just going on my own experiences in driving in thick heavy fog, I remember once when I had the Astra the fog suddenly set in and I couldn't see anything and the fog lights didn't help at all.

I couldn't see the cats eyes 10m away or less in places. On one road I was reduced to 15mph, and even though I drive it very often, I just couldn't see where it was going, as if I'd never driven it before.
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I was driving in the same fog when coming back from Southend last night, was very very bad.
 
I had to use the fogs on my Fiat for the first time a few days back in a real "pea souper" and they do give significantly better visibility of the edges of the road and for a short distance in front. Obvioulsy they don't magically penetrate the fog and allow you to drive at normal speeds, but at least you get to stay on the road rather than in a hedge.
 
Would decent phillips bulbs make a difference in this case, i know in the last bit of Fog, my Xenons were way better than my fogs.
 
The trouble with low vis conditions, is to go slow enough not to pile into the nervous OAPs, but fast enough that idiots don't pile into you.

Personally, I just get off the road ASAP.
 
Once in 12 years and ~200000 miles of driving have I needed front foglights.

No real reason for them to even be fitted imo.
 
nutcase_1uk said:
Once in 12 years and ~200000 miles of driving have I needed front foglights.

No real reason for them to even be fitted imo.
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Yes there is, you may need them every 200k ;)

Until we have no fog, then fog lights are a good idea.

I agree, in 99% of cases, they do little if anything but, always chance of that 1%....

I have been in the weird situation before where my trucks windscreen was above the fog that was causing all of the car drivers to slow down I could see clearly yet the cars were vanishing into the gloom in front of me - very freaky, not to mention a bit scary at the time!
 
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We were doing about 25-30mph on the M2 and M25 last night :D

I was more worried about the guy in front who kept hitting the brakes for no reason, despite having no obvious hazards in front of him. I could see the next set of rear lights ahead and he had no reason to keep slowing down.

At one point I couldn't see anything at all though, not even the signs overhead telling me where the sliproads were :D
 
Jonny69 said:
We were doing about 25-30mph on the M2 and M25 last night :D

I was more worried about the guy in front who kept hitting the brakes for no reason, despite having no obvious hazards in front of him. I could see the next set of rear lights ahead and he had no reason to keep slowing down.

At one point I couldn't see anything at all though, not even the signs overhead telling me where the sliproads were :D
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Precisely the same for me, a bit further up on the A2 :D I was following a truck in the 50 zone past Pepper Hill, at the end of the zone I sped up moved out to overtake him then wished I hadn't, had no one elses lights to follow for a while :)
 
Freezing fog on the back roads today.... I took a different route resulting in a 2 seconds skid when I braked... little bit hairy, but nothing I couldn't handle even with my little experience. Just needed to drive sensible and watch out for idiots.

Very cold though, 10 minutes defrosting car... the de-icer frooze, so I used hot water and that sorted it just fine!
 
You need some YELLOW fog lights.

They work the best and cut straight though instead of just reflecting off the fog and making a big white glow
 
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