18 replies to this topic

[SoCalLex]

I own a 2000 es. i'd like to replace my fog lights with brighter/higher output bulbs. is this possible? any recommendations? thanks

[Toysrme]

Anything is possible. Be the first person to fit some HIR's in there. What are those now $70 off that one guy?

[wwest]

Fog lights are designed for/with a low and wide, "close-in" beam pattern. Having fog lights on at night along with your low beams will significantly reduce your night distance vision.

Think about how much your irises would close up with a brighter close-in light.

Not a good idea.

[steviej]

your fogs are bulb size H3 and the stock bulb is pretty pale yellow.

some options for replacement bulbs that I have tried:
1. PIAA Xtreme White Plus ~ $65/pair
 Fog_Lights_1a.jpg   85.32K   158 downloads
Stock is on left, PIAA bulbs on right.


2. Sylvania Silverstar ~ $40/pair


3. Currently I run the PIAA Ion Crystal because I like the yellow light better.
 CL_yellow_fogs.jpg   86.41K   113 downloads


PIAA has come out with a new bright white bulb called Super Plasma GT-X, however, I have not tried them.
PIAA H3 bulbs


Keep in mind, that if you have HIDs, they will pretty much overshine the fogs in any bulb you put in. There is some illumination of the immediate road in front of you and a little to the side.


I hope this helps.
steviej

[SW03ES]

Hey Stevie, can you post a pic of the front of your car with those on?

[steviej]

I don't have any really good pictures that show the yellow because the fogs only come on with the HIDs and they tend to flood the lens with light. In the first one, I tried to cover the HIDs. Here is what I got on file and keep in mind they ain't sized.

PIAA Ion Crystals
 yellow_fogs_004.jpg   1.28MB   124 downloads

 CL_yellow_fog_2.jpg   96.96K   76 downloads


PIAA Xtreme White Plus
 CL_Xtreme_fog.jpg   26.55K   86 downloads

[SW03ES]

Thankya!

[SoCalLex]

thanks for the suggestions. i have the HIDs and there is a slight slight difference with the stock fogs on. i think i'll try out the new plasma gt-x ones. i'll post some pics as soon as i get them.

[wwest]

Hey Stevie, can you post a pic of the front of your car with those on?

"....pic of the front of the car...."

Not the road in front of the car but the "front of the car"......!

Oh, now I see, said the blind man when kicked by the goose.....

The question was about BLING all along even to the obvious detriment of forward vision.

[SW03ES]

Hey Stevie, can you post a pic of the front of your car with those on?

"....pic of the front of the car...."

Not the road in front of the car but the "front of the car"......!

Oh, now I see, said the blind man when kicked by the goose.....

The question was about BLING all along even to the obvious detriment of forward vision.

What? Well we already saw a picture of the light output in front of the car, hence why I asked for a picture of how they look from the front. Regardless of what you may believe simply because form follows function doesn't mean that form is entirely unimportant. I do care how my car looks yes.

You really need to learn when your input on things like this isn't required or requested. This is one of those times.

[wwest]

Hey Stevie, can you post a pic of the front of your car with those on?

"....pic of the front of the car...."

Not the road in front of the car but the "front of the car"......!

Oh, now I see, said the blind man when kicked by the goose.....

The question was about BLING all along even to the obvious detriment of forward vision.

What? Well we already saw a picture of the light output in front of the car, hence why I asked for a picture of how they look from the front. Regardless of what you may believe simply because form follows function doesn't mean that form is entirely unimportant. I do care how my car looks yes.

You really need to learn when your input on things like this isn't required or requested. This is one of those times.

"...this is one of those times....."

I find myself truly glad that you have taken it upon yourself to speak up for ALL of the potential readers of these posts, really, truly GLAD!

You're quite correct I was totally out of line in disparaging anyone concerned with BLING.

What I should have said is that anyone concerned with BLING in this context should be fully informed that in doing so they are likely sacrificing, significantly reducing, their night time distance vision. Thereby not only needlessly putting the own lives at risk but also that of their passengers, not to mention the lives of the passengers in oncoming vehicles.

The brightness of oncoming HID low beams is already bad enough without the addition of otherwise useless, other than the BLING factor, extra bright fog lights illuminated along with the HIDs.

For myself I think I might just start carrying around a small ball-pean hammer to use on BLING type extra bright fog lights and just maybe thereby save a few innocent lives.

[steviej]

I find myself truly glad that you have taken it upon yourself to speak up for ALL of the potential readers of these posts, really, truly GLAD!

I am sure SW spoke up first because he got to the boards first. It is 10pm my time and I am just getting to LOC. You don't have a problem with that, too, do you?

As for the brightness of the fog bulbs, or lack there of. Maybe you missed this part in my previous post.

Keep in mind, that if you have HIDs, they will pretty much overshine the fogs in any bulb you put in. There is some illumination of the immediate road in front of you and a little to the side.

I think everyone has a BLING factor in them to some extent. Auto personalization is a billion dollar business.
But honestly wwest, we are talking fog bulbs, and H3s at that. There are not very bright, no matter what who's bulb you put in. The additional light from the H3 bulb is negligable.

Between your ranting in the pinned transmission thread and your off the wall BLING comments here, do me a favor: the next time you have a thought concerning one of my post...........just let it go. okay?

thanks for the suggestions. i have the HIDs and there is a slight slight difference with the stock fogs on. i think i'll try out the new plasma gt-x ones. i'll post some pics as soon as i get them.

SoCal,
I would be very interested in some pics when you put them in. The Xtreme Whites were close to the HID color but not that close. I am interested to see how the GT-X match up. Good luck. Installation is easy. If you need instructions, do a search on PIAA Xtreme and my name, I wrote up an extensive thread about how to put them in about 2 years ago.

steviej

[SW03ES]

What I should have said is that anyone concerned with BLING in this context should be fully informed that in doing so they are likely sacrificing, significantly reducing, their night time distance vision. Thereby not only needlessly putting the own lives at risk but also that of their passengers, not to mention the lives of the passengers in oncoming vehicles.

Then say that. No need to do this passive aggresive "get a jibe in there" arrogant BS you always do. You know, it is possible to post your ideas WITHOUT cutting down those that disagree with you. If you want to continue posting on this site you're going to have to learn to do that. This is why you were banned from CL, and we've given you years of leeway with it here. You can't expect to disrespect people and not have it come back at you. That leeway is rapidly coming to an end.

For myself I think I might just start carrying around a small ball-pean hammer to use on BLING type extra bright fog lights and just maybe thereby save a few innocent lives.

If you really mean this then I really don't know what to say. Hope you go to jail.

[wwest]

I suspect that what really needs to happen here is that those of you wishing to add BLING to your car via BRIGHTENING it up to impress approaching drivers spend some time visiting, talking, having a long casual conversation with a few folks over 75 years of age.

Even at 65 I have become aware that my night vision is degraded, HID's were a welcome "sight" for me because their wider light spectrum significantly improve my night color vision.

But, search out, and have that long rambling conversation with someone in the 75+ age group. First of all they'll likely really appreciate your taking the time to visit with them and you may actually find yourself enjoying it enough that you want to do it again, repeatedly. An unbelievable depth of knowledge and experience base there to draw from, and it will disappear forever if not soon "copied".

But for my purposes you need to search out, not only someone in the 75+ age group, but someone that is often or even rarely required to drive at night for some valid reason or circumstance. First, please don't misunderstand me and jump to the wrong conclusions. I will be the first to stand beside you on any soapbox as an aid to campaigning for more frequent vision tests and even some sort of reaction/response testing as I, we, grow into this age group.

But in any case you may find yourself, inadvertently, having a very ENLIGHTENING conversation/experience.

Insofar as I have been able to determine folks in that age group have degraded eyesight far beyond the level of my own at 65. You will find that many of them have given up, already, on their ability to drive safely at night. If you go into detail with them you will further discover that their primary concern, handicap, is the brightness of oncoming HID headlamps, most especially the aftermarket upgrades that do not have the otherwise required auto-leveling feature.

So, please, don't bother to tell me that adding those H3s will have little effect on the brightness to oncoming drivers, talk to a few of our respected elders and ask them their opinion.

And yes, all of us have need for a little BLING, my own has to do with green leds (to match the wimbledon green of that 2001 911/996 C4 to your left) as frontside street/parking lights. But they do flash amber in turn signal mode. And those DRLs you see illuminated are the european variety, small 10 watt halogen mounted inside the headlamp asemblt just for that purpose, and implemented the Canadian method, street/parking and tail lights all on the DRL circuit. And yes, those BBS racing wheels also add a bit of BLING, while also being fully functional even beyond the OEM wheels.

So yes, BLING is the thing. But in dressing up your car in this way to impress others please remain mindful that some of those "others" might find themselves further handicapped by YOUR BLING.

My 911 came from the factory with fog lights that operate independently of low beams, and I modified the wiring on my 2001 AWD RX300 so they can work that way.

If you should ever encounter ground fog as it often happens here in the Pacific NW, especially along the coast highways, it will quickly become obvious why fogs are useless when operated with low beams in these circumstances.

So, am I arrogant?

No.

Just older, more experienced and therefore more knowledgeable than many of you younger whipper-snappers.

So I don't consider myself arrogant, just certain of myself.

[SW03ES]

Whipper snappers? HAHAHAHA. Whatever you say. I may be fairly young, but I'm hardly a whipper snapper. And I believe Steviej has a PhD...if it makes you feel better about yourself to call us "whipper snappers" go right ahead though.

As for blinding oncoming drivers, upgrading your foglight bulbs to something like Silverstars or the yellow ion fogs like Stevie has is hardly going to blind oncoming drivers. The brightness of the light insn't changing, you're just slightly changing the color temperature. Anyways I doubt any of these people you mention, or you yourself, could tell the difference between Silverstars or normal halogen headlamps. The difference is really very subtle. As for the yellow ion fogs, many cars have yellow fogs to begin with, its the best color for peircing through fog, and every study I've ever seen about the effects of color temperatures on the night vision of oncoming drivers say yellow is the easiest on the eyes by far.

Nobody's talking about welding aftermarket HIDkits into their fog lights, we're talking about replacing the bulbs with other DOT approved street legal bulbs. If its good enough to be DOT approved, its good enough for me and if people 75+ can't safely drive at night because they are bothered by the light coming from DOT approved lights then they need to stay the hell off the road at night.

Just older, more experienced and therefore more knowledgeable than many of you younger whipper-snappers.

Just remember that this whipper snapper has proven you wrong on several occasions, including now. You don't know everything. You should take some time to talk to some of the younger generation, you just might find yourself, inadvertently, having a very ENLIGHTENING conversation/experience. Do I have things I could learn from you? Certainly you are obviously a very intelligent man. What you need to realize though is there are plenty of things you can learn from myself and others too. Younger than you or not.