Show Us Your Motors!

Havana_UK said:
https://www.sae.org/standards/content/j583_200509/
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Excellent, thanks. I can't view the document, but from the preview I can see that it eventually outlines proper technical specs, and defines a fog lamp as designed to provide "...forward illumination."

So that't good enough for me. I humbly retract my previous assertion that they are only to be seen, and instead replace it with "They are to help you see better, but in most cases, they're still pointless at doing so." :p.
 
The fogs are my main illumination on the E30 because the low beams are like candles. :p

I have new headlights to go in...
 
I can't because my matrix headlamps have only all weather lights and radar where, on other cars, the fog lights would be...
 
Havana_UK said:
Nevertheless, that's exactly what they are designed for. To help you see the sides of the road (very close to your car) in thick fog.

Modern cars with modern headlights benefit less and less from fog lights as the beam patterns these days are much more precisely controlled. My last few cars have not had fog lights and I've not missed them one bit.

As you say, headlights are much better for being seen.
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Fogs are for being seen, not as an assist to the driver seeing. Hence the rears are the ones that are a legal requirement.
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Fogs are for being seen, not as an assist to the driver seeing. Hence the rears are the ones that are a legal requirement.
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Rear are for being seen, totally agree. That's why they have a quite narrow beam pattern to make them easily visible to a driver behind through the fog.

Front fog lights are to improve visbiliy of the edges of the road in fairly close proximity to the driver. I find they are only actually useful for this purpose in fog so thick that you are forced to drive very slowly, and modern headlight beam patterns are so much better than in the past that front fogs are all but useless (or maybe I should say redundant) these days.
 
Shivy011 said:
No. Front fogs cut off sharply so light is not reflected back off the fog. They help to see white lines, road extremeties etc.
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Does this go for modern cars only or something? Because in every car I've owned that has had them, this hasn't been the case. They're just round reflectors and there doesn't really seem to be a defined lighting pattern as there is with the headlights. The only reason they seemed not to reflect back off the fog is by virtue of their placement - really low down on the bumper - and the fact that they use comparatively dim bulbs. Hence my previous criticism, because if they designed for seeing a certain portion of the road, they aren't particularly well designed.

I might even check this when I get home, that's how sad I am.
 
Conscript said:
Does this go for modern cars only or something? Because in every car I've owned that has had them, this hasn't been the case. They're just round reflectors and there doesn't really seem to be a defined lighting pattern as there is with the headlights. The only reason they seemed not to reflect back off the fog is by virtue of their placement - really low down on the bumper - and the fact that they use comparatively dim bulbs. Hence my previous criticism, because if they designed for seeing a certain portion of the road, they aren't particularly well designed.

I might even check this when I get home, that's how sad I am.
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Mine are actually quite bright at night..
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I agree that they don't have any real pattern
 
cuke2u said:
I can't because my matrix headlamps have only all weather lights and radar where, on other cars, the fog lights would be...
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snap, except fog lights could be added to mine if you were that way inclined and wanted fashion accessories to maximised your public display of testosterone. :p
 
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