MK5 Golf GTI
All Things Mk5 => Mk5 General Area => Topic started by: richtung on November 30, 2012, 11:09:08 pm
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Evening Guys,
On the way home today in Manchester, there was a fair bit of fog with visibility just over 100m. Plenty of people with front fogs and one or two with rear fogs on (no need for rears!). Anyway, i turned my fogs on with the xenons and couldnt see any (noticable) difference so swtiched them off.
As i got closer to home, the fog closed in and reduced visibilty to 80m or so. I tried the front fog lights but again, only a marginal difference.
Is there any point in using front fog lights if you have xenons? Obviously, in extreme fog where visibility is down to 10m or so, i reckon fogs would make a difference but what about with 50-100m visibility?
thanks
Rich
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By coincidence, I was commenting to my wife tonight in the Manchester fog that in my experience using front fog lamps when you have xenon headlights is pointless. :smiley:
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again I have xenons and agree, they are pretty useless
the rear fog IS usefull though to stop people ramming up your butt
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Remember what fogs are for - they have a wider beam that's designed to penetrate fog. They are there to help you see the kerb and only a short distance in front of you. I suspect you would notice a big difference at 50yrds or less, though you can start using them from 100yrds visibility.
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My car has OEM Xenons and before I made the decision to replace my foglights with LED DRL's I tested my front foglights in very thick fog. I found no significant improvement in visibility to warrant keeping them. Obviously I switch my Xenons to dipped in the fog.
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My car has OEM Xenons and before I made the decision to replace my foglights with LED DRL's I tested my front foglights in very thick fog. I found no significant improvement in visibility to warrant keeping them. Obviously I switch my Xenons to dipped in the fog.
red can you tell me how you manage to switch oem xenons to dipped beam, I cannot do this as mine are self levelling and do not have a manual dipping option ?
is it because yours are on a 05 plate ?
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oem xenons are the ultimate....
no fogs will ever be better!!!
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oem xenons are the ultimate....
no fogs will ever be better!!!
what ones
oem xenons
oem bi xenons
or
oem active bi xenons lol :evilgrin:
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Fog lights are not for your visibility.... they are for others.
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Fog lights are not for your visibility.... they are for others.
What even fronts?
Forward looking fog lights from a design point of view should ideally be behind and lower than the users eyeline, for example mine on the aircraft are parabolically designed to illuminate from 1 o'clock ahead to 10 o'clock ahead on the left side and vice versa on the other. They're 350W and 12 inches across.
My point being you do need more better designed power to penetrate fog, lamp colour temperature is very important too.
At the OP I may suggest the fog wasn't quite as bad as you assessed, the way fog is officially measured basically means if you had 10m viz you probably couldn't see an outstretched hand in front of you. Airliners approaching at 140mph have an approach ban in most cases inside of 650m. That said I was coming up the M6 from London last night and it was pea soupy in places
Even had to slow the mighty corsa down a bit. :driver:
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Fog lights are not for your visibility.... they are for others.
....I wondered about that. Because in very thick fog they certainly won't illuminating the way ahead from the driver's point of view.
But if they are designed to be seen (as passive lights like LED DRL's) then why aren't OEM front fogs as bright as the very bright rear foglight?
Which brings me to wonder if my LED DRL's might be morre effective at being seen than OEM foglights when it's foggy. If so, my problem then would be that my DRL's switch off automatically whenever any other lights are switched on, though that could probably be changed. In balance, genuine Xenons are so much more powerful than ordinary headlights that I don't fear not being seen.
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My car has OEM Xenons and before I made the decision to replace my foglights with LED DRL's I tested my front foglights in very thick fog. I found no significant improvement in visibility to warrant keeping them. Obviously I switch my Xenons to dipped in the fog.
red can you tell me how you manage to switch oem xenons to dipped beam, I cannot do this as mine are self levelling and do not have a manual dipping option ?
is it because yours are on a 05 plate ?
....As done with any headlight: By moving the turn signal stalk forward/back and then seeing a blue icon light up in the rev counter clock when full beam. That's such a simple question that perhaps I have misunderstood you :confused:
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I think he may have thought you could adjust your dipped beam height like you can with halogens, where with xenons you can't as they are auto levelling, instead of high (full) an low (dipped) beam like you meant :happy2:
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If i remember correctly, on the Mk4, the fog lights were intergrated in the main headlight unit if you had normal (halogen) bulbs. If you had xenons, you didnt get (front) fog lights at all. Obviously, at the time, VW obviously thought xenons made fog lighs redundant in fog but on the Mk5 (with even better xenons), they included fog lights...?
on a slight tangent, further to my previous thread of idiots driving with fog lights in normal conditions, i saw a few pilocks with fogs and sidelights only and 2 cars with no lights on at all..... i give up :fighting:
Rich
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^^^^
The Mk5 R32 doesn't have fogs but IIRC comes with Xenons as standard OEM.
Also the Golf R doesn't have fogs but has LED DRL's.
Lots of cars are not fitted with foglights as OEM.
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Following from my first post.
Whenever I have tried using the front fog lights in heavy fog, all it achieves is illuminating the fog and making visability worse. IMO the fog lights (front and rear) are there so that others can see you.
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If i remember correctly, on the Mk4, the fog lights were intergrated in the main headlight unit if you had normal (halogen) bulbs. If you had xenons, you didnt get (front) fog lights at all. Obviously, at the time, VW obviously thought xenons made fog lighs redundant in fog but on the Mk5 (with even better xenons), they included fog lights...?
on a slight tangent, further to my previous thread of idiots driving with fog lights in normal conditions, i saw a few pilocks with fogs and sidelights only and 2 cars with no lights on at all..... i give up :fighting:
Rich
I've also noticed an abundance of folk with one headlight out - scary the amount I've seen lately (some have had fogs on too!).
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^^^^
The Mk5 R32 doesn't have fogs but IIRC comes with Xenons as standard OEM.
Also the Golf R doesn't have fogs but has LED DRL's.
Lots of cars are not fitted with foglights as OEM.
This is what confuses me slightly.. if xenons are ticked as optional extra, why did VW include front fogs as well? (i can only speak on the mk5 GTI - not sure about the rest of the Golf range). It just seems like mixed messages from VW -fog with xenons on some cars (like mine) and xenons only on others (like the R32 as RR pointed out) :stupid:
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I think people are mistaking the function of fog lights.
Rear ones are designed to ensure others can see you. Fog can make you misjudge distances.
Front fogs are designed to penetrate fog better. In "proper" fog, using brighter lights will only reflect back the fog more strongly. Front fogs increase visibility to the sides so you can see the kerbs better. IMO they have very little forward throw, unlike dipped headlights.
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Agreed Stealthwolf.
I have had the misfortune to drive in fog so heavy you cannot see the car 5 metres ahead of you and even driving at 10mph was dangerous a number of times. In these situations the only way to drive is to switch off your driving lights and drive with the sidelights on and fogs. The fog lights, being low down, light up the road ahead whereas the driving lights just reflect off the fog making visibility worse. This was the only way I could actually see anything at all. This is the reason why fog lights are mounted low down or aimed low. They supposedly light up the road under the fog. If you can drive at anything approaching normal speeds with your normal driving lights on, then the fog is not nearly heavy enough.
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^^^^
If the fog is so thick that your best chance of looking ahead under the fog, then it's definitely time to slow right down or get off the highway until it clears enough.
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Hahahahaha, wasn't an option Robin. You don't want to be stopping arbitrarily on African roads like that, not with a 2 year old in the car. The only choice was to push on. But yes, literally slowed to a crawl just to follow the cats eyes on the road when there were some.
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You want to change the bulbs to Nokyo Yellows with LaminX, cuts through the fog wonderfully.
(https://www.mk5golfgti.co.uk/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us%2Fa%2Fimg829%2F5700%2F026rxc.jpg&hash=500bce5fea2be8f661fc3aca4c758b028cabf218)
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Agreed Stealthwolf.
I have had the misfortune to drive in fog so heavy you cannot see the car 5 metres ahead of you and even driving at 10mph was dangerous a number of times. In these situations the only way to drive is to switch off your driving lights and drive with the sidelights on and fogs. The fog lights, being low down, light up the road ahead whereas the driving lights just reflect off the fog making visibility worse. This was the only way I could actually see anything at all. This is the reason why fog lights are mounted low down or aimed low. They supposedly light up the road under the fog. If you can drive at anything approaching normal speeds with your normal driving lights on, then the fog is not nearly heavy enough.
Have to agree, front fog lights shine under the fog to light the way in front of you, which is why they are generally positioned low down, the rear is a bright red to cut a beam through the fog to show your position.
Fogs & sidelights would be a more sensible option in thick fog than Xenons :happy2:
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yes as the guy said red I was meaning I cannot dip oem xenons, there is no manual dip, I think there should be but there isn't.
xenons are pretty much useless in fog, as said before they just reflect the fog badly.
still I am so impressed with the oem xenons that I will never buy a car again without them, and a big no no te after market ones, superb piece of kit they are,
had a guy a few days ago flash me as he thought I was driving on full beam ,he was flashing like crazy, you get that sometimes with xenons as they are so bright, anyway he was in a small car and had 1 headlight on and his FOG lights on !!
there was no fog also ffs
anyway I got pissed of with him and threw my full beam on to tell him to shut up,,, and it did