capndar

Searched, looked, did not see....so has anyone done a foglight bulb upgrade?

IceShark

This is in the archives. The problem is this. If you really want a fog light and have it work well as a fog you can only run a 55 watt bulb in it. If you pump up the wattage then the increased light bounces off the water drops and back into your eyes. Ruining night vision. And the whole point of fogs.

Further you are sort of stuck on the wattage to chose from. 55 watt H3s is standard and common. Overwatt is typical at 100 and 130 watt. Not much middle ground. You can actually go over 130 watts but you better be running the the Paris-Dakar rally and have an OEM bulb sponser because those bulbs are as rare as hen's teeth.

Lousailor

Ice,
I've seen the H3 bulbs in 85 watts. Can you use those without modding the system?

Hans

Yes, should be, but is is on the edge.
Higer wattage will increase the chance on a "melt down" of the plastic housing
In theory the wiring does not require modification, although I would want some thikker stuff in there.
Please note that the additional light will reflect in fog at night, completely blinding you...
TakeCare
Hans

MY83944

I put in the Sylvania SilverStars and love them. Real white, not blue. Work great (once I figured out how ot aim them!)

capndar

thanks...two questions, then...is searching the archives different than a regular search? secondly ( and the reason for the original post ) my fogs seem awful dim - like not even 55 watts worth of lighting....Thanks...Ice - are you still promoting Cibie's as the 7 in replacement headlamp? I have had good success with Hella's on my Miata......

SoCal Driver

Dim?

That's because you are trying to use FOG lights as DRIVING lights. Two different animals.

I've seen driving light lenses that will replace the fogh light lens on the 944's. Just can't remember where.

How about a fog/driving light! A dual element bulb, reflector and lens design.

IceShark

The rennlist search function is not all that reliable, sometimes I've had a heck of a time finding threads I know exist. Guess that is a question for John D. - why it is such a hit or miss feature.

Hans is correct on this reflective blinding issue once you step over 55 watts. If you really want them to function as fogs you are stuck where the lighting engineers designed the lenses - at 55 watts.

LouSailor, Were the bulbs really 85 watt or the marketing scams by people like PIAA that claim output the same as 85 watt out of a 55 watt bulb? That would be an unusual wattage for a big manufacturer to put out. They just jump from 55 to 100 watt in the H3s. However, the fogs in our cars do have a relay in the fuse/relay box so the 2 x 85 watts isn't quite as bad as trying to run 2 x 90 watts in the headlights. The way to tell what shape your fog light wiring is in is to take a voltage measurement at the bulb while it is burning. If you are up near battery voltage in the mid to high 13 volts then you are fine. If you are down under 11 volts, you have a problem and melting wires and plastic becomes a real risk.

Capndar, you could have several reasons for your fogs being so dim. One is voltage as discussed above so just measure it while the bulbs are burning. You tell me the voltage and I can tell you how much light you are losing. Another common problem is "road rash", i.e. stone chips on the face of your glass lens. The light beam gets so diffused by the chips that it is nothing like what it was designed to be. The final common item is tungsten vapor coating the inside of the bulb glass. You may not be able to see it very well with the naked eye but it is there. The halogen regenerative cycle is supposed to keep this coating to a minimum but after time even it doesn't work perfectly and if you have a poorly manufacturered bulb you are in real trouble. I had some Asian halogen bulbs that I tested that turned the glass a pretty dark shade of gray in 3 hours. Either the halogen gas mix was totally out of spec or some crap got into the bulb during the manufacturing process. Which is why I keep telling people to go with high quality bulbs as it really does make a difference.

Yeah, I'm still using the Cibies. In my opinion they are better than the "regular" Hella E-Codes, the #70476 in North American coding. The Hella Super is better and it and the Cibie are more or less on par as far as I'm concerned. The Hella Super is more expensive than the Cibie so I use the Cibie as it is an equal performer. I just put together good lighting packages and could care less whether I use Hella or Cibie. The Cibie does the same job as the Hella Super at a little less cost. Which the customer is going to pay for anyway, one way or another. Guess what I'm trying to say is hella is a fine company but for this 7" round headlight Cibie is the way to go.

If you have the Hella #70476 on your Miata I'd just leave them in place until you road rash the lens face too much. Then go with the Cibie or Hella Super.

Jim 944S

Dan and Gang...

When I was a kid, many fog lights were in amber, of course some were also white. Are the white lights acually better, or is it just a matter of taste? Does anyone here know? The amber lights came from the big names also...Lucas (stop laughing now, some of our English cousins may be looking in!), cibie, hella.

Jim 1987 944S

IceShark

Jim, Lucas aka "Prince of Darkness". LOL! I actually ran into the then Chairman of Lucas at a party in London quite a few years ago. I was sort of drunk, like 3 scotches, and said "Oh, the Prince of Darkness". This joke didn't go over too well and the gals dragged me away post haste before I said something else even more insulting.

This yellow tint business on fog lighting has been studied a bit. The theory is that the yellow light increases acuity, the ability to see things sharp and clear. Why shooters use yellow tinted shooting glasses. How much difference it actually makes is an open question and why most lighting manufacturers have gone back to white light.

There is also an interesting side bar on yellow light and the French who mandated yellow lights until rather recently. Go back to WWII. The Germans had white lights and the French yellow. So this was a great way (in theory that probably didn't work for $****) for the French resistance to target a car coming down the road. I'm sure the Germans caught on to this rather quickly but the story still makes the rounds at cocktail parties to this day.

Sam Lin

The yellow does a better job penetrating in fog - today, most have decided they don't look good and dumped them, I think Lexus is one of the few that keep the yellow.

Sam

roadrunner

Yellow happens to be near the middle of the visible light spectrum, so there may be reduced effects of chromatic aberration when the blue and red components of white light focus at different points.

UDPride

IceShark is sending me some 100W fogs. I dont do a whole lot of night driving but if its dusk I may be able to run the fogs only. Hes also sending me Cibies and +30% bulbs for the headlights so I figure those alone will be a marked improvement over the stock sealed beamed and stock fogs combined. So the 100W fogs for me will be half for looks in daytime driving or photo ops, and half for dusk/dawn. Im sure I will not run both fogs and headlights together at night.

Scootin159

Just curious....what are the options avaliable in replacing the Fog lights (in an N/A) with Driving lights? I have the fiberwerks nose & it seems like it moves the fogs up too high to really function as fogs anymore. Plus I really only use my fogs as 'daytime running lights' at dusk or other times when you don't really need the headlights, but need to be seen. I'd also like to be able to use the location to just add more light at night (thus a driving light beam).

capndar

my stock fog lenses look like they have been sanded...badly....is the regular glass lens readily available?