fog lights

[Zachman54]

One other minor problem I have with my G37S (by the way I love my G overall) is the fog lights are yellow compared to the HID headlights. I recently purchased some blue H1 bulbs to swap out the factory bulbs. Just wondering if anyone has done this and if it was sucessful or were there problems?

[smockers83]

They're yellow for a reason.

[pfarmer]

They're yellow for a reason.

Onward through the fog!

Perry

[G_whizz]

They're yellow for a reason.

QFT!!

[Zachman54]

Well they are not actually yellow. They are white. But they are so low on the light specrum compared to the HID headlights that they look yellow. I actually don't see how they do anything in the fog.

[av8or]

there are h1 hid kits out there.... i have converted my bottom headlights to hid

before



after... both hid

[johnparkyourcar]

Overkill IMO...

[smockers83]

They are yellowish and not as powerful as headlights for a couple of reasons. They aren't driving lights, so they aren't supposed to have the forward projection like headlights. They are there to help light up the foreground and provide a wide beam to highlight the edges of the road so that in foggy conditions, you can see the lines in the road. Remember, the white line on the right is called the fog line. The fog lights help in the visibility of this line, particularly in the fog and with oncoming traffic.

The reason they are yellowish in hue is because the color temperature doesn't produce negative feedback for the driver. Lights that are higher up in temperature produce too much reflective glare. The light beams also scatter easier when they hit a surface. It also produces too much forward bright light for oncoming drivers, producing a safety issue.

Putting the two reasons together, you also come up with another issue. Changing to a "brighter," more powerful bulb for the fog light lights up the foreground too much for the driver, creating the illusion that the driver has increased downfield visibility. Reality is no, the driver actually has reduced downfield visibility. Plus, at highway speeds, the reason people upgrade them to increase visibility during normal driving, the angle of the beams is too close the car that at highway speeds, anything they light up is too close to avoid.

Remember the older French cars that had the yellow headlights? They addressed all of these issues in reducing perceived "brightness" to oncoming drivers and for foggy conditions.

[Cali 2 Balti G]

They are yellowish and not as powerful as headlights for a couple of reasons. They aren't driving lights, so they aren't supposed to have the forward projection like headlights. They are there to help light up the foreground and provide a wide beam to highlight the edges of the road so that in foggy conditions, you can see the lines in the road. Remember, the white line on the right is called the fog line. The fog lights help in the visibility of this line, particularly in the fog and with oncoming traffic.

The reason they are yellowish in hue is because the color temperature doesn't produce negative feedback for the driver. Lights that are higher up in temperature produce too much reflective glare. The light beams also scatter easier when they hit a surface. It also produces too much forward bright light for oncoming drivers, producing a safety issue.

Putting the two reasons together, you also come up with another issue. Changing to a "brighter," more powerful bulb for the fog light lights up the foreground too much for the driver, creating the illusion that the driver has increased downfield visibility. Reality is no, the driver actually has reduced downfield visibility. Plus, at highway speeds, the reason people upgrade them to increase visibility during normal driving, the angle of the beams is too close the car that at highway speeds, anything they light up is too close to avoid.

Remember the older French cars that had the yellow headlights? They addressed all of these issues in reducing perceived "brightness" to oncoming drivers and for foggy conditions.

How does the fact that the same bulb serves as the high beam - impact this discussion? the factory HID is for the low beam only. The fog light and high beam light are the same bulb..

does this mean that regardless of the bulb used - a lower wattage is sent when the fog light is on - then a higher wattage when switched to high beam. In other words a brighter bulb will not necessariliy be too bright as a fog light in our application.

I'm not talking about converting to hid for the fog/high beams just using a whiter bulb.
Modified by Cali 2 Balti G at 12:39 PM 4/18/2009

[pfarmer]

How does the fact that the same bulb serves as the high beam - impact this discussion? the factory HID is for the low beam only. The fog light and high beam light are the same bulb..

does this mean that regardless of the bulb used - a lower wattage is sent when the fog light is on - then a higher wattage when switched to high beam. In other words a brighter bulb will not necessariliy be too bright as a fog light in our application.

I'm not talking about converting to hid for the fog/high beams just using a whiter bulb.

Modified by Cali 2 Balti G at 12:39 PM 4/18/2009

Not sure how this goes based on different years, but at least for some the bulb is not a single element.

Perry

[pfarmer]

One other minor problem I have with my G37S (by the way I love my G overall) is the fog lights are yellow compared to the HID headlights. I recently purchased some blue H1 bulbs to swap out the factory bulbs. Just wondering if anyone has done this and if it was sucessful or were there problems?

Are they HB4s instead of H1?

Perry

[tollboothwilley]

I believe the G37 has projectors...in which case they are bi-xenon healights for low/high beam. The fogs are ONLY fog light bulbs.

I swapped out mine to a 6000K and it works fine for me. The 2003 uses the H4 bulb which is the high beam/fog. Downfield vision might be slightly less, but not that much. Looks better IMO.

Also, the HID conversion is a good option. I might do that sometime.

[pfarmer]

I believe the G37 has projectors...in which case they are bi-xenon healights for low/high beam. The fogs are ONLY fog light bulbs.

I swapped out mine to a 6000K and it works fine for me. The 2003 uses the H4 bulb which is the high beam/fog. Downfield vision might be slightly less, but not that much. Looks better IMO.

Also, the HID conversion is a good option. I might do that sometime.

I believe the original poster has a 2008. If the Coupe is the the same as the Sedan and if they are the same as the 2007 then the fog light is listed as an HB4 which i think is the same as an H4 with an angle connector.

This was is response to the poster who stated they were one and the same bulb which in his case was true. Also the original poster was speaking about replacing with an H1 bulb.

The next issue that I see as a possible problem (other than color temperature) is that not all lights are the same as wattage which could cause issues with the lighting circuit.

Personally I light my fog lights somewhat on the yellow side so the the light is not scattered so readily in moist and foggy conditions. But then if you live in an area where that is not much of a concern then why not go purely for looks.

Perry
Modified by pfarmer at 12:28 PM 4/19/2009

[izzue.hk]

IMO I think it looks good when u have fog light + hid on. The fog lights makes the colour smoother when u look at the car at night.