I took the time to clean and properly seal my fogs and extra time with anhydrous alcohol poured over the reflectors to prevent any spotting on the surface. This really made a huge difference in brightness. Very rarely do I ever need the main headlights at night even on I-5, except when one moves at/near california's threshold speed for automatic license removal.

 

I wasted so much money by buying high wattage bulbs for my fogs, because they are useless as supplements to the high beams (h-4) main lights. With the low beams, fogs are useful for what they are meant to do: illuminate the way throught the fog. I have them aimed at the sideof the road since I lived in Carmel wher it can turn from clear to pea soup fog in a blink of an eye. But on the open road and all other times, I keep the fogs off.

 

Rufus,

Thanks for the post on changing the fogs to 100W H3's. If this works out as expected it will be one of the best tips I've ever gotten here. Very simple, I know, but I never thought of it. For a long time I've been trying to figure out how to do away with the flip up headlights (not delete them, just not have to use them. I have never liked flip ups on any car) I converted this afternoon and will try them out tonight.

 

Cool. Hope you lke them. Keep in mind that you can go up or down in wattage. If "Johnny Law" doesn't like it, try 55W ones, but 130W ones are available too. - Ruf

 

Tried them out last night. Big improvement. The passenger side needs to be realigned, but for use on back roads where high speed is not appropriate (we have tons of deer around here) they are just fine. No need for the main driving lights anymore.

 

Are there not still significant heat problems with the higher wattage bulbs, particularly with the wiring? Or do we need to re-wire all the way back to the fuse block? I assume the 16 amp fuse that's in there will easily handle a 130W bulb (I forget my electrical math here).

 

So far I have not had any problem with heat using the 100W H3's. My '79 fogs have glass lenses and even after 1/2 hr driving last night, they were just warm to the touch. As for the current draw, should be about 8 amps.

While aligning I came across another aspect of this issue and that is that the beam pattern of the two fog lights is different. The driver's side acts more like a spot light while the passenger side looks like a flood. This is very clear if you block one light while adjusting the other. ?????

 

I'm less concerned about the heat inside the lamp itself than about overheating the wiring which some posters have alluded to. As far as beam design, I would guess this is proper for a fog light; to illuminate the center stripe as far ahead as possible in fog, which would require more of a spot beam on the driver's side, and to illuminate the edge of the road as broadly as possible, which would suggest a flood beam.

 

Maybe the DS bulb is not seated correctly. Both should have a wide, flat beam.

 

Yes, a bulb not at the focus of the parabola would change the beam pattern. I rather like the spotlight effect though since I'm trying to duplicate the driving lights. The drivers side lens has a part number on it, the passenger side does not?

 

I imagine it's possible that you may have one driving light and one fog light. Anything can happen in 27 years. Can you post pics of each?

 

Visually, the two lenses are identical, except that they are mirror images of each other. Also, I was not aware that two different kinds of lenses were available; driving and fog, is that true?

 

I can't say for sure -- I'm not at my computer that has PET -- I would expect them to be different though.