Use of HID lights in place of fog lights

[live67]

I would like to find out the views of the forum members on the use of HIDs as replacement for fog lights.

I was under the impression that fog lights were deemed illegal by the Licensing Authority, though I'm not too sure.

My understanding also is that the white light of the HIDs is insufficient to pierce fog or heavy rainfall and thus is of no use in adverse weather conditions.

Only the yellow fog lights is capable of piercing fog or heavy rainfall.

What are your views on this?

[cinco]

1. they are deemed illegal through some archaic law
2. hid's can be had in 3000k colour which is yellow/gold
3. where in trini have fog?
4. my personal experience is fogs do not light sufficiently to warrant the need for hids (hey it looks cool though)
5. personal experience again anything over say 6000k is useless in rain on a dark night

[Rahtid]

i am currently putting 8k hids in my foglights,and 8k-10k in headlights,lol,

[nervewrecker]

You have to be very stupid and of limited mental capacity to put HID's in your foglights...or in your headlight if you do not have the proper optics to support HID bulbs.

I'm glad licensing now coming out at night and pulling many of these fools off the roads

leave him nah, when you see him wrap up around a lamp post on a rainy night somwhere dont feel sorry, he didnt see the lamp post crossing the road.

if your vehicles did not come with hid's you are doing yourself & the driver on the oncomming lane an injustice, you wont see good in the night & you will just be blinding the next driver.

do yourself & the rest of us a favor & dont fall victim to this dotish trend.

[Hook]

yeh cinco, we have fog in T'dad...it's rare, but we do occasionally on the plains, but it's more prevalent in the hills on cold mornings

but Trinis don't understand the use and purpose of fog lamps

Fog lamps are mounted low on the vehicle to provide a means of back lighting on the road surface BEHIND any weather phenomena such as fog or heavy rainfall which would otherwise reflect incident light from headlamps (called back scatter) into the eyes of the driver.
They're not supposed to have any major vertical throw (for back scatter)or horizontal throw (because when conditions warrant their use, you're supposed to slow and drive more cautiously anyway) and typically illuminate either a 120-140degree beam pattern in the neighbourhood of around 20ft from the vehicle.

now to attempt to address your concerns

I was under the impression that fog lights were deemed illegal by the Licensing Authority, though I'm not too sure.

yes....I've hears of and seen Lic. Officers be lenient in enforcing this and I've seen them get REALLY hognorant, however teh law pertains to a pair of DRIVING lights on the vehicle and auxiliary lighting such as fogs were ommitted (archaic laws from the ox cart days again) so there are officers that will get a case because your aux fog lamps weren't included int eh law and deem it illegal and there are ones that'll let u pass because there's no mention of it being illegal...it depends on which one u encounter.

My understanding also is that the white light of the HIDs is insufficient to pierce fog or heavy rainfall and thus is of no use in adverse weather conditions.

High end vehicles wouldn't have them factory installed if that were true. However take note than factory HID's will have a completely different optics than a retrofit HID installation in another housing not originally intended for that system. I've buddies with HIDs installed in H4 housings and even some projector housings that shine 4 or 5 beams on the road and the rest up in the trees, and when you try to focus it down to try to avoid this, it shines a very short distance from the vehicle.
Be aware of how this will affect YOUR vision in adverse weather conditions and other drivers (in their rear view mirrors) and glare towards oncoming traffic on the roadways.

Only the yellow fog lights is capable of piercing fog or heavy rainfall.

not necessarily...a large blue component causes the pupils to dialate more and creates the illusion that you're seeing much better than you actually are. While this is a good thing for visibility, the eyes do get tired faster and it makes you more susceptible to the effects of excessive glare. When you look at colour temperatures of HIDs (there's a chart here somewhere, look for it) the lower colour temps (not actual temperatures in degrees, but the colour of the light) higher numbers go from daylight, to white, to blue to purple and look hella cool, but are much less effective at lighting the roadway.

Factory HID installations limit colour temperature to 4300K or 5000K for the most, as this simulates bright sunshine and is best for the eyes to prevent fatigue.

I've seen cars with 12,000K HID kits whose headlights shine 15ft in front of the car, which is useles considering that from teh driver's seat, the bonnet blocks the first 5ft directly in front the bumper.

SO, if you do decide to go with it, please be responsible about it, and do your research before attempting this modification.

[nervewrecker]

wait nah, is pioneer I just quote there?

I am beginning to become deeply disturbed by the fact that I have been finding myself agreeing with this idiot more & more everyday

[Hook]

^^^

[Rahtid]

Hook,

i wanna use white ones(6k) in the headlights and 8k-10k in the fogs, what would u recommend,btw,the bluish ones in the fogs are for 'bling' eh,

[Hook]

do what u need to do for bling factor really, once it doesn't become a nuisance to oncoming traffic...but me personally, I'm all for practicality so 5000K max on anything

when I had my hatchback with fogs, the spread was mighty wide and I was using a brand of iridescent coated H3 bulbs which gave off 4300K light 150degrees across the front 5" off the ground at 40ft from the car with a very sharp vertical cut-off (Hella Optilux projector fogs) so 'twas very useful for early morning/late night runs on the North Coast road as it lit the corners far outside what my headlamps were capable of doing...u do what's best for you when u do your research

[live67]

Hook,

You look like you have that headlights research thing down.

My question is: where do I get the projector cases for the HID kits?

Thanks.

[Rahtid]

Hook,

thnx,,,where did u get those hellas?

i can do wit 5-6k in headlights,,but i just want the blu for fogs

[Hook]

live67, there's a thread either on here or in the Toyota forum where Terran was researching it and was able to get a link to import HID compatible projector headlamps

Rahtid, bought 'em online from matrixracing.com

[Rahtid]

Hook,

pm yuh number plz,,some other business proposals nah,


can i get that for a 99 civic?

[Hook]

it's not car specific....universal business...not sure if the site has car specific kits for 99Civic, but u can check
and what ummm, "business proposals"?

[VK-Sportsman]

Quotes taken from this thread HID Do's & Don'ts - The HID Lighting Tutorial
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If I understand everything said correctly, then we should try to get an oem projector kit out of a car like the infiniti Q45 and retrofit it to our respective vehicles. I for one prefer the better vision the real thing would get me rather than just "the Look" of HID. But is there anyone down here skilled enough to do that and at what cost? Also, where are we going to get an oem kit?

Same thing I was asking a while back, but no one has come forward, and nobody seems to know of anybody.

Check out http://www.theretrofitsource.com and http://www.hidplanet.com to see some of the amazing work these guys are doing. They even sell parts for you to do a complete retrofit. They source parts from scrapyards from major automobile manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, Benz, Lexus and Honda. They can supply you with a complete kit to do a retrofit for around US$400 + shipping to Trinidad, duties and VAT. The work is up to you. Alternatively, you can send your headlamps to them to do the job and supply parts - for an additional US$200 or so.

I have aquired some clear lens headlamps for my car, definitely going with bi-xenon projectors...but have to source them in Right-Hand-Drive beam cutoff.

In the US, cars use LHD cutoffs, so it will be difficult sourcing RHD projectors.

And yes, LHD & RHD do make a significant difference. I have seen many people put in plug and play HID kits in those aftermarket halogen projector headlamps.
Not only you have a rebased HID bulb in a halogen projector, but most aftermarket halogen projector headlamps have LHD cutoffs; throwing more light to oncoming traffic

_____________

FYI........Notice the LHD cutoff in the pics below...has a "step-up" to the right. RHD cutoff would be the mirror image of that.

[live67]

2. hid's can be had in 3000k colour which is yellow/gold

I saw one last night. Really cool looking...

[ripit]

You have to be very stupid and of limited mental capacity to put HID's in your foglights...or in your headlight if you do not have the proper optics to support HID bulbs.

I'm glad licensing now coming out at night and pulling many of these fools off the roads

leave him nah, when you see him wrap up around a lamp post on a rainy night somwhere dont feel sorry, he didnt see the lamp post crossing the road.

if your vehicles did not come with hid's you are doing yourself & the driver on the oncomming lane an injustice, you wont see good in the night & you will just be blinding the next driver.

do yourself & the rest of us a favor & dont fall victim to this dotish trend.

so hids are really no good in adverse weather conditions in the night, that is very interesting to know

[live67]

"so hids are really no good in adverse weather conditions in the night, that is very interesting to know"

No. You not reading the information properly.

Re-read Hook explanation at the start. If it wasn't good in adverse weather conditions, manufacturers would never install it.

The problem is the retro-fitting done, without the proper optic lenses in the projector cases.

[cinco]

and the colour of the temp hids used human eyes process yellow light much better than blue/white/purple

[ripit]

"so hids are really no good in adverse weather conditions in the night, that is very interesting to know"

No. You not reading the information properly.

Re-read Hook explanation at the start. If it wasn't good in adverse weather conditions, manufacturers would never install it.

The problem is the retro-fitting done, without the proper optic lenses in the projector cases.

thanks there, now I got it