DR

Bob,
>I just changed a bulb in the S4 foglights (car eats a lot of them when you use 100W H3's for DRLs...)
>and notice that there is no side-to-side adjustment for the foglight, only up-and-down.
>Is the side-to-side adjustment an option?

You can add that feature with a "donor" fog driving light in just a few minutes. Look closely at yours and you will see how it is added, it even already has the "<->" symbol on the housing above where the additional adjuster will go.

SteveG

I know I'm in the wus minority here, so all I will do is pose the question "How many have been blinded by legal let alone illegal lights?" I live in deer country too and can attest to the the 60-0 capability of a stock '85 -- Bambi lived to stop and stare in front of another; I will be adjusting my fogs, but the older I get and the brighter the oncoming lights (hi and low) get, the more of a problem brights are for me and hence for the oncoming traffic as well. Seems like a possible Darwin issue.

Ferris B

I like my PIAAs too. I replaced the headlights and foglight bulbs. Highly recommended.

FYI, the shop where I got mine was closing them out and they might have some left. Let me know if you want info.

FlyingDog

SteveG, the problem isn't brightness, it's poor aiming by owners and poor focusing by manufacturers. I was driving back from Richmond last weekend and had a bunch of SUV drivers who kept their highbeams on all the time with fake HID bulbs in them. They were horribly annoying and nearly blinding when they would run up behind me. There was a Mustang that had brighter lights that were focused and cut off on top that I passed. His lights were not bad to have behind me. A low car SHOULD be worse because the lights are pointed out at a flatter angle to get the same distance. I guess it's just the attitude of the driver that matters.

Fogey1

FlyingDog wrote:
"the problem isn't brightness, it's poor aiming by owners and poor focusing by manufacturers."

Amen! And

"I was driving back from Richmond last weekend and had a bunch of SUV drivers who kept their highbeams on all the time with fake HID bulbs in them. They were horribly annoying and nearly blinding when they would run up behind me."

Amen again. Is there anybody else here who sometimes deliberately misadjusts his outside mirrors for nighttime interstate travel? When is some mfr. going to come up with dimming outside mirrors? How hard would it be? Espec. on modern cars with memories.

dr bob

Hmmm--

The great and socialist state of California requires that the headlights be mounted no less than 24" on center above ground level. I suspect that's why we have flip-up lights in our otherwise too-low fenders.

Aiming standards are for a level high beam --no matter how high the bulb is mounted--, so a lower car sees less illuminated road than a truck with high-mounted lamps. Following Geo. Metry's rules, a truck/SUV with headlights at 48" would send light twice as far down the road on low beam as a low(ly) sports car with the lights at the legal minimum height. This doesn't forgive SUV's that have lights aimed too high from the factory, M-B cars that have the same problem and have HID to boot, but it does somewhat explain why big (real) trucks seem to glare in the rearview mirrors when stopped immediately behind us.

It's often tempting to just raise the lights just a bit to 'improve' the low-beam performance some. Getting those up from standard may seem to help, but it really degrades the illumination available when you switch to main beams. Main beams up into the trees do no good at all. They need to be focused straight down the road to do much good. Sadly, most folks don't know that, and get out the golden screwdriver to make 'improvements' in their lighting.

One of my biggest gripes is with rice-sleds, with some cheap blue-light-special bulbs that have the wrong dimensions for the reflector. No upper cutoff at all on low beam, and lots of glare from multi-faceted reflectors that do nothing to improve the driver's ability to see. But they must look cool to other rice-sled owners who, I'm sure, are convinced that the little blue high-and-dry has a set of real HID's installed.


I've 'abused' other drivers with bright lights in years past, but I like to think I'm more considerate now... Unless you decide to drive 20 under the limit on a road with no passing. You might get your paint blistered.

BrianG

There's a basic difference in the US spec headlamp VS the Euro (or RoW) spec headlamp. I'm not entirely sure what the precise optical difference is, but you just have to park a Canadian H4 equiped vehicle at a wall, along-side a US spec one. The H4 throws a MUCH more defined low-beam cut-off, with a kick-up to the right side. These lamps are easy to aim and don't bother oncoming traffic even with 2X the legal power rating. Look at the US spec's "fuzzy" cut-off. It provides diffused (weaker) light in the upper portion of the low-beam, and makes accurate aiming of the "hot" zone difficult.....PLUS it's tempting to raise the aim to get a bit more power thrown down the roadway.

THIS is why the Euro-spec (H4's) headlight housings are subjectively "better" than the US spec (H5's) units. It's NOT a wattage issue at all.

Any Canuck want a set of US spec 8" lamps? I have a set that I'm selling in favor of a Euro spec set. It'll save messing with Customs over returning them to Jim.