Fog Lights
Originally Posted by gspotter
I have a Caribbean Blue coupe. Switching to a blue colored high/fog bulb makes the mirror behind the light look blue during the daytime, which adds a nice touch which subtly fits the car. It also looks better at night because it better matches the clear corners and side clearance lights which both have PIAA white/white LED lights in them (but they look bluish). The LED lights consume less wattage, run cooler, and won't burn out. Looks are part of the total G Coupe package and small touches like this put the car over the top. My car is the furthest thing from "rice" (pics are in the gallery section). I didn't do it to impress anyone- I bought the car in the first place to impress myself!
WRAH
Joined: Aug 2003
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From: Columbus, OH (Area)
Originally Posted by Babiephat
For those of you swapping out your fogs with extreme whites, super whites, whatever... I hope you guys don't live in an area where there's fog and where you'll actually need to use them. 
I choose to keep them the yellow'ish color (even though I love the look of everything matching the HID's) because I live where there's fog every now and then. The "yellow'ish" color of the fog is yellow for a reason, to penetrate the fog. The wavelength of the yellow lights help penetrate thru the fog and enhance your visibility. (Notice that all street lights near areas of fog, near oceans, etc. are all that yellow'ish color). The white lights DO NOT give you better visibility...!!
Just wanted to give a warning to those that care about safety. If you're in SUNNY california (NOT S.F.) and fog lights are just for show, then more power to you!!
Just had to throw in my $0.02...
~peace
I choose to keep them the yellow'ish color (even though I love the look of everything matching the HID's) because I live where there's fog every now and then. The "yellow'ish" color of the fog is yellow for a reason, to penetrate the fog. The wavelength of the yellow lights help penetrate thru the fog and enhance your visibility. (Notice that all street lights near areas of fog, near oceans, etc. are all that yellow'ish color). The white lights DO NOT give you better visibility...!!
Just wanted to give a warning to those that care about safety. If you're in SUNNY california (NOT S.F.) and fog lights are just for show, then more power to you!!
Just had to throw in my $0.02...
~peace
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...9/phy99xx4.htm
Last edited by WRAH; Jan 4, 2005 at 08:03 PM.
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From: Ajax, Ontario (TORONTO)
I drove the car for almost 2 weeks before realizing I even had them! 
I haven't decided if I like them on or off yet... I haven't seen too many coming down the road with them on so not sure what they look like.
When driving at night I believe they actually make a difference on the road about 6 feet in front of the car.
I guess it depends on who you are?? ...
BADG35
I haven't decided if I like them on or off yet... I haven't seen too many coming down the road with them on so not sure what they look like.
When driving at night I believe they actually make a difference on the road about 6 feet in front of the car.
I guess it depends on who you are?? ...
BADG35
Last edited by BADG35; Jan 4, 2005 at 09:33 PM.
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badg35, me too! lol!! I knew it had them just never really took the time to figure out where it was.
I did keep them on after my discovery that they were off until you turned the switch, but now i keep them off. I like it better.
I did keep them on after my discovery that they were off until you turned the switch, but now i keep them off. I like it better.
Last edited by lexicon; Jan 4, 2005 at 09:38 PM.
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From: Ajax, Ontario (TORONTO)
Originally Posted by lexicon
badg35, me too! lol!! I knew it had them just never really took the time to figure out where it was.
LOL... That's funny! I am glad I am not alone or the only one honest enough to say so... LMAO!
BADG35
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that yellow color thing is true... yellow penetrates more and white reflects more...
but i think its the position of the foggies that matter most in giving you more vision instead of just reflecting more light back @ you
the fogs are for more blings, and a LITTLE more light ^^
but i think its the position of the foggies that matter most in giving you more vision instead of just reflecting more light back @ you
the fogs are for more blings, and a LITTLE more light ^^
Some people are saying that the fogs light up the road 6 ft in front of you.....why are you only looking 6 ft in front of you?!?!?
For good, safe, smart driving, you should be looking as far down the road as possible. If it is foggy, use your fog lights and slow down.
For good, safe, smart driving, you should be looking as far down the road as possible. If it is foggy, use your fog lights and slow down.
Originally Posted by P_Diddy
Some people are saying that the fogs light up the road 6 ft in front of you.....why are you only looking 6 ft in front of you?!?!?
Guest
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Originally Posted by WRAH
You do know that there is no proof that yellow helps you see better! In fact the reason there are yellow is to help people see you better!
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...9/phy99xx4.htm
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...9/phy99xx4.htm
The thing about the G and many other cars is that its "fog lights" don't actually ACT like real fog lights. They are more along the lines of "driving lights" where you can turn the lights on and use them in all night time driving conditions for better illumination.
As you can see, almost all car companies do not use yellow fog lights anymore (in fact, the only company I can think of that still does, is Lexus). This is not because people have "figured something out" but because those old bulbs that were very yellow used to have this chemical in them (which was what made them illuminate very yellow) that was later found out to be carcinogenic. So, production of these yellow fog light bulbs pretty much stopped. You'll only see these yellow fog lights used in professional racing. Lexus vehicles' yellow fog lights aren't actually yellow bulbs. They are just regular bulbs but Lexus has this special "cap" that goes around the bulb to make them look super yellow and "act" like a true yellow bulb.
Last edited by MrElussive; Jan 5, 2005 at 02:45 PM.
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From: Ajax, Ontario (TORONTO)
Originally Posted by P_Diddy
Some people are saying that the fogs light up the road 6 ft in front of you.....why are you only looking 6 ft in front of you?!?!?
BADG35
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Sorry to bring back an old thread, but I was looking for info on lights and came across this thread. I had the piaa H3 ion yellow bulb in my chrysler seabring coupe and loved them. I haven't had them for a few years as I got rid of that car and didn't have a car with fogs for some time. When I picked up the G I loved the idea of putting yellow fogs on my blue G, but thought it would never work. Low and behold Piaa has come out with an H4 in the Ion yellow. I just installed them tonight but didn't pull it out of the garage to drool over, I will take some pictures tomorrow for you all to trash. Hope they look good?!! 
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Here are the pics as promised
1. PIAA Extreme White clearance lights
2. New Ion yellow H4 fogs
3. Extreme Clearance w/HID's
3. Front view on High beams
What do you guys think?
The H4's at night are much brighter than stock and really illuminate the road!
1. PIAA Extreme White clearance lights
2. New Ion yellow H4 fogs
3. Extreme Clearance w/HID's
3. Front view on High beams
What do you guys think?
The H4's at night are much brighter than stock and really illuminate the road!
WRAH
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 5,708
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From: Columbus, OH (Area)
Originally Posted by MrElussive
Actually, there is proof. Yellow lights (such as on Lexus vehicles' fog lights) reflect snow better for better visibility in snow driving. Yellow lights also penetrate fog better so on-coming drivers have better visibility of the vehicle.
The thing about the G and many other cars is that its "fog lights" don't actually ACT like real fog lights. They are more along the lines of "driving lights" where you can turn the lights on and use them in all night time driving conditions for better illumination.
As you can see, almost all car companies do not use yellow fog lights anymore (in fact, the only company I can think of that still does, is Lexus). This is not because people have "figured something out" but because those old bulbs that were very yellow used to have this chemical in them (which was what made them illuminate very yellow) that was later found out to be carcinogenic. So, production of these yellow fog light bulbs pretty much stopped. You'll only see these yellow fog lights used in professional racing. Lexus vehicles' yellow fog lights aren't actually yellow bulbs. They are just regular bulbs but Lexus has this special "cap" that goes around the bulb to make them look super yellow and "act" like a true yellow bulb.
The thing about the G and many other cars is that its "fog lights" don't actually ACT like real fog lights. They are more along the lines of "driving lights" where you can turn the lights on and use them in all night time driving conditions for better illumination.
As you can see, almost all car companies do not use yellow fog lights anymore (in fact, the only company I can think of that still does, is Lexus). This is not because people have "figured something out" but because those old bulbs that were very yellow used to have this chemical in them (which was what made them illuminate very yellow) that was later found out to be carcinogenic. So, production of these yellow fog light bulbs pretty much stopped. You'll only see these yellow fog lights used in professional racing. Lexus vehicles' yellow fog lights aren't actually yellow bulbs. They are just regular bulbs but Lexus has this special "cap" that goes around the bulb to make them look super yellow and "act" like a true yellow bulb.
================================================== =======
There is no good reason why fog lights are yellow. Here is an
excellent explanation provided by Professor Craig Bohren of Penn State
University:
"First I'll give you the wrong explanation, which you can find here and
there. It goes something like this. As everyone knows, scattering (by
anything!) is always greater at the shortwavelength end of the visible
spectrum than at the longwavelength end. Lord Rayleigh showed this, didn't
he? Thus to obtain the greatest penentration of light through fog, you
should use the longest wavelength possible. Red is obviously unsuitable
because it is used for stop lights. So you compromise and use yellow
instead.
This explanation is flawed for more than one reason. Fog droplets are, on
average, smaller than cloud droplets, but they still are huge compared with
the wavelengths of visible light. Thus scattering of such light by fog is
essentially wavelength independent. Unfortunately, many people learn
(without caveats) Rayleigh's scattering law and then assume that it applies
to everything. They did not learn that this law is limited to scatterers
small compared with the wavelength and at wavelengths far from strong
absorption.
The second flaw is that in order to get yellow light in the first place you
need a filter. Note that yellow fog lights were in use when the only
available headlights were incandescent lamps. If you place a filter over a
white headlight, you get less transmitted light, and there goes your
increased penetration down the drain.
There are two possible explanations for yellow fog lights. One is that the
first designers of such lights were mislead because they did not understand
the limitations of Rayleigh's scattering law and did not know the size
distribution of fog droplets. The other explanation is that someone deemed
it desirable to make fog lights yellow as a way of signalling to other
drivers that visibility is poor and thus caution is in order.
Designers of headlights have known for a long time that there is no magic
color that gives great penetration. I have an article from the Journal of
Scientific Instruments published in October 1938 (Vol. XV, pp. 317-322).
The article is by J. H. Nelson and is entitled "Optics of headlights". The
penultimate section in this paper is on "fog lamps". Nelson notes that
"there is almost complete agreement among designers of fog lamps, and this
agreement is in most cases extended to the colour of the light to be used.
Although there are still many lamps on the road using yellow light, it
seems to be becoming recognized that there is no filter, which, when placed
in front of a lamp, will improve the penetration power of that lamp."
This was written 61 years ago. Its author uses a few words ("seem",
"becoming recognized") indicating that perhaps at one time lamp designers
thought that yellow lights had greater penetrating power. And it may be
that because of this the first fog lamps were yellow. Once the practice of
making such lamps yellow began it just continued because of custom."
Also, take a look at the following web site:
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF5/593.html
Dr. Lawrence D. Woolf
General Atomics
Last edited by WRAH; Mar 26, 2005 at 09:13 PM.
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