Need your opinion on fog/driving lights

[99V8SHO]

I visited Autozone.com looking for fog lights and have narrowed my search down to these two:
Pilot Driving Lights

Or Pilot Fog Lights

What do you think?
What exactly is the difference between fog lights and driving lights?

<small>[ January 12, 2004, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: 99V8SHO ]</small>

 

[Tunez]

Fog lights produce a wider light pattern and light the sides of the road up more. Driving lights light up farther away. In the past I have actually done both. Fog lights with low beams and driving come on with high beams.

 

[99V8SHO]

My main reason for wanting auxillary lighting is because my headlights do not throw enough light out to the sides of the car, and I cannot see out my side windows at night, especially with my tint. I cannot see curbs and such when I am turning. So I guess the fog lights are the way to go? I have Silverstars and they throw plenty of light out front, so driving lights would be pointless. When I do put in the lights, I am going to wire them so they stay on when the high beams are on. They come on with the parking lights and don't turn off until the headlights are turned off.

 

[99V8SHO]

Another thing. Those pictures are not to scale. The top one measures 5" across and 1-7/8" tall. The bottom one is like 3" across and 1-5/8" tall. I like the wider light, so again I am not sure. Maybe buy the wider one but aim it more towards the sides of the car?

 

[MilTownSHO]

IMHO the second ones look better, the first would be blue it seems. The first ones might fit in the front fascia better though...that's assuming you are going to try to make them look flush or stock looking.

<small>[ January 12, 2004, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: MilTownSHO ]</small>

 

[99V8SHO]

The first ones are acutally 1/4" taller...

 

[Tunez]

The first would also have that blue tint to try and re-create the white light look. Even driving lights will give you a little more light out to the side but not nearly as much as foglights would.

What I meant by how I had mine is that the foglights would be on at low beam and off at high. The driving lights would be off at low and on at high. In NC you can only have one set of auxilary lights running at one time on the street so that was a way to get around that. At the same time, I used 55 watt fog lights and 100 watt driving lights. We have WAY to many deer around here and plenty of back roads with 55MPH speed limits. I like to be able to see VERY well at speeds from 55 up, ESPECIALLY on the back roads!

Something else to consider is using yellow foglights. Yellow penetrates rain and snow MUCH better than white light with little or no bad reflections. At the current time on my 98, I am running yellow driving lights with PIAA headlights. Amazing how much it has the "Lexus" look at night with that set-up. Not that I tried to go that route, just ended up that way.

 

[99V8SHO]

You know what? I am really digging this whole two sets of auxillary lights idea. I think I will buy the fog light from Pilot. Tunez, what driving lights are you running?

 

[RI-SHO]

I had PIAA 1700X driving lights in my past SHO which still lit up the road with a pretty wide pattern compared to my white(blue tinted) foglights. I'm showing video because most photo camera's always show halogen as looking yellowish even if there superwhite or blue tinted.

Here is the short 1min video @1.6MB: www.ri-sho.com/nshot.wmv That will show off what I mean by a wider pattern yet still labeled as Driving lights but compared to stock headlights there still a wider pattern, just make sure its the "blueish" look you want as you can see in the video.

<small>[ January 12, 2004, 11:48 PM: Message edited by: RI-SHO ]</small>

 

[Tunez]

It's been so long since I put them on that I am not sure which model. I all can remember is that they are Pilot brand. If you are wanting to do a 100 watt bulb in them, just make sure the frame is metal. I don't worry much about heat build up because I am only usually using the highbeams when I am moving which is cooling the lights off anyway with the air flow.

 

[99V8SHO]

I can't seem to remember seeing any Pilot lights that were more than 55W. The driving lights that I am getting are the ones that Gluemarker has in his SHO. Check the "Fog Lights" thread that was started a while back in this forum. I am still trying to find myself a set of 85W fog lights.

 

[Tunez]

Get the metal housing and change the bulb! wink

 

[Wess]

Roman,
Do you have the part numbers for the two lights you listed?

 

[Wess]

FYI, I always find Pilot's web site to be helpful: http://www.pilotautomotive.com/pilot2a.htm

The folks at Advanced Auto informed me that any of these lights can be special ordered. However, as you mentioned, it seems that the Pilot line is indeed limited to 55W.

 

[99V8SHO]

Ryan I am using the driving lights that Gluemarker is using, the part number for those is the one you found a while back, in the "Fog lights" thread. The fog lights I am using are Pilot part number PL-1056W.

 

[Glue Maker]

99V8SHO:
Ryan I am using the driving lights that Gluemarker is using, the part number for those is the one you found a while back, in the "Fog lights" thread. The fog lights I am using are Pilot part number PL-1056W.

Good choice wink
Are you going to mount them the same way I did?

 

[99V8SHO]

I am going to mount the driving lights exactly where you did on yours, but I am also mounting a set of fog lights on either side of the driving lights. Imagine your setup, except with a set of fog lights on the outside of the driving lights.
So at any given time I will have 4 lights pointed in a forward direction (most allowable by law). But I love the flash-to-pass feature. I pull back on the MFS and the both the high beams and the low beams come on. When this happens, all 8 of my forward-facing lights will be lit up.
God help anyone who forgets to turn off their high beams while coming towards me on the other side of the road. squint evil_gri

 

[Glue Maker]

99V8SHO:
I am going to mount the driving lights exactly where you did on yours, but I am also mounting a set of fog lights on either side of the driving lights. Imagine your setup, except with a set of fog lights on the outside of the driving lights.
So at any given time I will have 4 lights pointed in a forward direction (most allowable by law). But I love the flash-to-pass feature. I pull back on the MFS and the both the high beams and the low beams come on. When this happens, all 8 of my forward-facing lights will be lit up.
God help anyone who forgets to turn off their high beams while coming towards me on the other side of the road. squint evil_gri

Hmm, sounds good Make sure to post pics!

<small>[ January 15, 2004, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Glue Maker ]</small>