Weather the weather
Discussion
Excellent post which most British drivers would do well to read. Thanks!
But I'd like to just elaborate on one thing;
Fog heavy enough necessitate the use off fog lights is thankfully quite rare, but in the times I have experienced it, I've always found front fogs less than useless for helping me see forward. The only reason mine come on in the fog is because they have to be on before the rear fog is on (in the cars I've driven). Otherwise, they often seem redundant when your car's headlights will do just as good a job as helping you be seen.
The only time they seem to be of use is as above - when the fog is heavy enough that your headlights are causing glare and reflections, so you turn them off and use the fogs instead. But the increase in visibility appears to be from the removal of the glare at eye level, rather than increased light output from the fogs.
This is why I've always thought that the legal requirement was to only have a rear fog light, with front fog lights seemingly only present on higher trim levels - the times when are actually useful and not made redundant by simply using the headlights is rare, and they seem to be more of a fashion accessory if anything
In fact, the only time I've found front fog lights useful is using driving our X-Trail along the farm track to my girlfriend's stables. It's a rutted and potholed track, and I've found that in the dark, switching the front fog lights on helps me pick out the potholes better - the lights being lower, they tend to cast shadows in the potholes them. In actual fog though, rarely useful!
But I'd like to just elaborate on one thing;
R_U_LOCAL said:
I've tried the sidelight/fog light combination in a number of cars and I've never really found it much better than just headlights, and I've often found it worse. The idea is that the low front fog lights project a beam across the road surface, whilst the sidelights prevent excessive light reflection from the fog. Sounds good in theory, but it's not great in reality.
As far as I understand it, the reason that this is not good in reality, is because front fog lights are not designed to help you see in the fog at all. Their only function is (or seems to be) to help you be seen, which is why I thought common advice was to use them with only sidelights - they are bright enough to make your car much more visible from the front, whilst allowing you to turn off your headlights which reduces the reflection from the headlights mounted higher up.Fog heavy enough necessitate the use off fog lights is thankfully quite rare, but in the times I have experienced it, I've always found front fogs less than useless for helping me see forward. The only reason mine come on in the fog is because they have to be on before the rear fog is on (in the cars I've driven). Otherwise, they often seem redundant when your car's headlights will do just as good a job as helping you be seen.
The only time they seem to be of use is as above - when the fog is heavy enough that your headlights are causing glare and reflections, so you turn them off and use the fogs instead. But the increase in visibility appears to be from the removal of the glare at eye level, rather than increased light output from the fogs.
This is why I've always thought that the legal requirement was to only have a rear fog light, with front fog lights seemingly only present on higher trim levels - the times when are actually useful and not made redundant by simply using the headlights is rare, and they seem to be more of a fashion accessory if anything
In fact, the only time I've found front fog lights useful is using driving our X-Trail along the farm track to my girlfriend's stables. It's a rutted and potholed track, and I've found that in the dark, switching the front fog lights on helps me pick out the potholes better - the lights being lower, they tend to cast shadows in the potholes them. In actual fog though, rarely useful!
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