I think this is a but thought I would ask to be for sure. Is there any switch combination to run the fog lights without the headlights being on with a stock configuration?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

You might be able to with the headlight switch in the parking light position. Not sure what your motive is, but this is actually very useful in ultra-heavy fog, as the headlights are doing nothing but causing glare in front of you anyways. Let us know if you get it to work.

 

with parking lights on, the front fogs will work. they will also work with the headlights on, but not on high beams.

 

FWIW if equipped, rear fogs also work w/ just parking lights as well

 

Gotta have the front fogs on for that.



The front fogs will work with just the running (parking) lights on...The rear fogs will run in two modes:
1. When the headlights are on
2. Running lights only with the front fogs on

 

Fogs are for use in fog or very reduced visibility, that's it.

 

Thanks guys, I recently bought the high endurance yellow fogs and would like to run them by themselves at dusk sometimes.

Parking light switch worked great. I had tried that already but the headlights kept coming on when I hit the fogs so I thought they may be tied together somehow. It was just that I also had the daytime running lights setting on <duh!!> so I disabled them and it works fine with the parking lights. I was trying to think of a much harder solution!!

Kevin

 

In the UK it is illegal to use fog lights unless the visibility is severely reduced. The guideline is visibility less than 100m (110 yards).

Here is the text from the UK highway code:

236
You MUST NOT use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226) as they dazzle other road users and can obscure your brake lights. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.

So, do other road users a favour and don't use them unless you have to

 

In extremely heavy rain here in Florida many folks use their fog lights. And when I say heavy rain I mean the visibility is as poor as heavy fog I've seen in England where I lived (Yorkshire) for five years.

 

Wow, had no idea. Here in the USA, the cars that have them are turned on most of the time. I know my truck I had before they came on automatically with the headlights based on the last switch position. Or maybe its a southern thing.

I wonder if they run brigher in the UK with you guys actually having real fog. We have a slight fog a few times a year where I am at. I've never seen fog lights that are very bright nor have I seen any that dazzled or disrupted brake lights since they are so dim. You can barely tell they are on except for a few feet right in front of the car.

Now the big lights on roll bars on trucks/Jeeps, those are the ones that can dazzle and obscure here!!

 

Really? "Most" cars "most" of the time? I think not. But, there are certainly a ton of poseurs who drive with the stupid things on 100% of the time, apparently because they think it looks cool. Wrong. It makes you look like a poseur to turn them on in anything other than appropriate weather conditions. We need a law like the UK.

 

You might want to check with your states DMV.
Here in OR it is illegal to have only fogs on without low beams.
Fogs must be dipped as if they were the regular high beams.
Can only turn fogs on in low visibility conditions.

 

Factory fogs are aimed low and wide to fog lines in the roadway, actually below the angle of low beam headlights. They can be useful aiding in side of road visibilty for both pedestrians and animals especially on dark or unlit roads, which are plentyful in New England.

To me it seems fogs are not as much as a problem when compared to the drivers these days who install cheap aftermarket HID kits in their Halogen Headlight housings...talk about blinding blue lights.....jeeesh.

 

I run with mine on not because I am some poser as you say. I run with them on because the halogens are not that bright and I need the extra light. In Florida there are almost no street lights so the roads are extremely dark and there are people who chose to cross the street not in a cross walk wearing all black and I can't see them. I am not going to be an *** hole and run with my high beams on like a lot of people do. If I had my choice I would go get a set of 4 rally lights and have them on all the time.

 

Seems like this may become a definition problem with laws like that. The newer Solstice and Grand Prix have yellow blinkers where the fogs are and stay on all the time as daytime running lights without low beams on. I think the newest Escalade does too. I don't know exactly how they would define it but if its in the area where fog lights typically are and they are on without low beams, these cars may become a problem in states like OR. Seems like more and more cars are moving to the yellows and leaving them on as DRLs. Or maybe I am just noticing it more since I moved to yellow fogs.

We don't have any laws that specific here in AL. Ours is no more than 2 fog lights at a certain height and they can't shine more than 25 feet ahead of the car.

 

Well obviously I have no numbers to back that up!!

"Most" cars don't have fogs but of the ones that do, it seems like a ton of them have fog lights on at night. At least they do here but we are in a very rural area and there is not a lot of street lights like most of the south!

I'm not really trying to be a "poseur"...besides I am not sure who I would be trying to pose as!! I just wanted to be able to have them on around dusk without the headlights. That is the best time for pictures. I took this one but usually they don't come out that good because of the headlight brightness. Now I can finally get some with just the fogs!!

 

Mine come on no problem with the parking lights on. All I do is just hit the toggle and its all good. I do it all the time because coming on base in the morning I turn my head lights off as to not blind the guard and still be able to see the road.

 

"you guys actually having real fog" is an understatement if I've ever read one. I have driven in fog in England where the visibility was less than 10 feet! Yes, they actually have real fog. When the fog is that bad one can drive only about 10 MPH. The only way one can navigate is via the cat's eyes running down the middle of the road. Not only is it dangerous but it is very scary. Running fog lights in the US is 99.9% of the time unnecessary.

 

Maybe in Florida that is the case but i can assure you that is NOT the case in Mass. The fog up here in New England can get just as bad as it does in England. I have lived there, I know. Although we here in New England do not get in any where near as often as they do in England but it does happen 8-10 times a year around where I live.

The fogs are aimed so low that there is no way that they can assist you in seeing someone on the side or in the road at a distance where you could actually stop before hitting them. Unless of course you are only going 5-10 MPH. Like when you are going on base and turn you headlights down and still need some light to see as you say. I can't speak about the base you go on specifically but all the bases I have been on (was in the military for 8 years 1980-1988) all had signs stating to turn the headlights off and so much light at the gate that you did not need any lights at all on your car.

As for the law here in the US it is state by state but many states have laws about when they can be used and not used or the lighting limitations of them (i.e. where they have to point) In fact at one time PA had a regulation on the books that stated they could not be used over 30MPH but that has been dropped.

For any of you it is best to check with your local Motor Vehicle Department about what the real laws for your state are. Then abide by them so as to not be stopped by an over zealous police officer.

 

We had a nice discussion about the brightness of fog lights in this Always On Fog Lights thread.

The next time one of my kids needs to do a science experiment for school, I'm thinking about trying to entice them to do one that measures the brightness of the fog lights versus the headlights.

 

The close light pattern of fogs can actually reduce the distance of your night vision. That's because fogs light up the ground in front of the car and produce ambient light, and your eyes respond by making the pupils smaller. You can verify this for yourself. At night, look into the distance and see how far you can see with fog lights on and off. Unless you actually need to light up the ground directly in front of the car, it is better to drive without fogs at night.

All that aside, ke4sfq I love the photo.

 

You would be surprised how much more the fogs will light up.

 

Porthos, that may be true, but as the poster above you said, it's more about WHAT they are lighting up than anything. Ruining your ability to see at a distance at night hardly seems worth the false security of being able to see right in front of your car.

(And no, I don't have fogs on my MINI, but used to have a Subaru Impreza that had fogs the size of a dinner plate. As suggested by the name, I only used them in conditions of fog or heavy rain, where the road spray essentially creates fog. At that point, it wasn't so much about my ability to see as it was about the ability to be seen by drivers in front of me.)

 

I know the size of the the Subaru fogs I have seen them. It sounds like every one as problems with people running their fogs for no reason. Yes there are people who are saying "look at me I am cool". I personally don't make that association, it works for me and no matter how much people complain about it I am not changing. The halogens are below average and when I saw road conditions suck here in Florida most of the time they do so I will run with them on.

 

Thanks man!