I'm looking to add some unique driving and/or fogs to my MCS when I get it and have read several of the previuos posts about the PIAA's, Hela's, etc. .

For those of you with the IPF driving lights, are you happy with them, were they a pain to install, are they worth the $$ compared to the other brands.

I was thinking of possibly going with a "hybrid" light such as the ones from the link. Any thoughts??

http://www.adv4x4.com/ipfcodrlakib.html

Thanks

 

I can't comment on IPF lights but I can offer some comments about the hybrid lights. I'd stick with a driving light or fog light. In driving light situations, the fog light part will mostly be masked by the MINI's own headlights. In a fog light situation, the driving light portion will put too much light in the wrong places.

 

I have IPF's, and I'm very pleased with them. Pics (including pics of install) are in my gallery linked in my sig.

 

I thought that the purpose of these lights was to combine the use of both fogs and driving lights seperately, and use as needed, without the need for seperate driving and fog lights. If there is an option of using both of the lights at the same time, I wouldn't. These hybrid lights are 2 seperate lights in one casing, aren't they??

 

Yeah, your right. They are independently switchable. Still, it IS a foglight with a driving light stuck in the middle. Fog lights are meant to be mounted low and driving lights are meant to be mounted high. If you put them on the upper grill, the fogs will be mounted too high (and the tiny driving lights aren't going to be that great anyway). If you put them on the lower grill, the fogs should work nice but the driving lights will bee to low to shine light very far out. Either way, it's a compromise.

I'm not saying don't get it...just that your not going to find an optimal mounting position. IPF makes very good lights and if you like them, go for it.

 

Hello Wolke9

You are right,
These IPF light are actually 2 lights in the same casing.
There is a switch to change from low to high beam.
So you will never have the both lighting up at the same time.

Remember fog light shoud only come on with low beam.
Driving light should come on with high beams.

And yes it is recommended to mount the driving lights above the bumper and the fogs below.

Personally, I like better to have 2 sets of lights,
I will mount 2 PIAA driving lights on top $225
and 2 PIAA fogs i the grill below $ around the same amount


Thanks
Victor

 

Thanks for the input. . .makes you wonder why they offer these lights anyway since mounting them will detract from proper lighting of one, or both, lights. . .

 

With the Alta rally style light bar, you get the IPF 986CS lights, which is what I have. I am very happy with them.

These particular lights have "A unique dual-purpose reflector enables these lamps to emit a combination Driving and Fog Beam - making them incredibly versatile and effective for many applications." (Quoted from Alta's web site, see link below).

There is only one bulb, and the switch only has an on/off function. There is no low-beam/high beam. The lights are either on or off.

The reflector is what does the work here. There is a faceted portion near the bulb (providing the fog lamp function), and a smooth parabolic outer section, (providing the driving lamp function).

This is a jack-of-all-trades light. (Master of none, the nay-sayers will exclaim). Yeah, you'll get better driving light performance from a pure driving light mounted higher up. And yes, you'll get better fog light performance from a pure fog lamp as well.

But for those of us who just want "More Light" in general, these are great. In twisties, for instance, pencil beams don't help much; they send light way out too far, and are too narowly focused. Fogs are too low to the ground. These are a great compromise, without having to fuss with switching specific banks of lights on and off all the time!

So I still recommend the Alta kit with these lights to anyone who will listen.


http://www.altaminiperformance.com/p...r/lightbar.htm