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At night, I usually blind them back with main beam, but too often I can't due to other cars on the road. Weren't all newer cars fitted after a certain date with rear fogs that turn off when the headlights are switched off? This should be made to apply to front fogs, and then there would be no excuse about them being left on by accident and the state can get the police to give them fixed penalties, and leave decent drivers alone.
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The saddest thing of all is when you see these people going along with their fogs on, and one of them is out because the bulb's gone....... It looks naff beyond belief.
I've had a couple of cars (Fiats Punto and Stilo) which had a green indicator lamp on the instrument panel which lit up when the front fogs were on, and a yellow one for the back fogs. Good idea, IMHO, & if all cars had something similar the "didn't realise they were on" argument would become redundant.
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I've had a couple of cars (Fiats Punto and Stilo) which had a green indicator lamp on the instrument panel which lit up when the front fogs were on, and a yellow one for the back fogs. Good idea, IMHO, & if all cars had something similar the "didn't realise they were on" argument would become redundant.
Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the law state that fog lights, front or rear, have to have an indicator light to show that they are on. The problem is some manufacturers don't put the indicator light on the dash, but on the switch. So it is difficult to see when they are on (more so in the daylight).
I personally never use my front fogs as I don't think they are any more visible than the headlights and they certainly don't throw any light on anything but the floor just in front of the car, if I had to rely on seeing something at that distance I would leave the car at home, and before anyone says it, they ARE correctly aligned.
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The daftest are those who, at dusk, have have their side lights on with front fogs. Think they look *Cool*. What's wrong with headlights for heavens sake!
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kith,
My Lexus has an indicator light on the dash for the front fog lights, but the rear fog light warning light is on the switch which is below the steering wheel centre and way out of my line of sight.
I have only used my front fog lights once, and that was in torrential rain on the back roads from Nottingham to Stamford and they helped show where any big puddles to my left were. I\'ve never felt the need to use them at any other time.
The rear fog lights are turned off when the main lights or ignition are turned off. A touch of Japanese brilliance or just a touch of common sense? I wasn\'t aware that this was a legal requirement now as the only cars I\'ve seen this on are a Nissan Micra and my car. If only our wonderful government would make this an MOT requirement on ALL cars now, we\'d all know that anyone driving along at night with their rear fogs on was a proper pink fluffy dice and hadn\'t simply forgotten to turn them off after their car was serviced/MOT\'d....
To be honest, why do we need front OR rear fog lights?
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>>To be honest, why do we need front OR rear fog lights?
We don't get 'FOG' nowadays, I refer to the old pea souper type, or the smog as of before the smokeless zone laws. But, we do get thick mist in High Peak. In thick mist it is very beneficial to have a good rear fog light on the car in front, because the normal rear lights are barely visible. Long ago, when headlights were not so good as they are now, a front fog light was needed to see the road edge. That is not the case now.
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The problem is some manufacturers don't put the indicator light on the dash, but on the switch. So it is difficult to see when they are on (more so in the daylight).
This is exactly the point. Even a total dimwit must surely look at their instrument panel occasionally (although I quite often meet people at night who don't appear to know what the "main beam" indicator light means) whereas when the lamp is on the switch itself and is obscured by other controls/the steering wheel, it would be easy to miss it. On the cars in question the indicator lamps are at the top right underneath the fuel gauge & thus very hard not to see. The Punto even had a lamp for the heated rear window as well - now there's a good idea.
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Another pet hate is that even in \"fog\" the rear light should surely be turned off as soon as another vehicle is in trail because the light has served it\'s purpose and if left on will only dazzle the following car. The only time you need to use it is if you can\'t see anyone behind you.
Sadly many people select rear fogs on at the first sign of light mist and forget about them until spring or the next MOT. Makes me smile to see all the twits in stationary traffic on the M25 with lights blazing but annoys me the same idiots leave them on in the rain.
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Front fogs are completely unecessary and should be banned. Rear fogs should only be used during daylight when visibility is reduced. It does amuse me when the idiot 75 metres in front has high intensity lights on at night when I can clearly see cars a mile away with normal lights on. I can think of maybe 2 or 3 occasions in the last 25 years when high intensity rear fogs might have been useful at night but it is very rare indeed.
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I agree with Hillman and others, in 10+ years of motoring, I have only used foglights a handful of times, and then only for short length of times,
Front ones don't seem to be useful at any time anyway, they just seem to make the fog brighter in front of the car, thus whiting out objects which may be picked out by the headlights further away.
I would rather see the foglight apertures used for long range lights which supplement main beam and only come on with main beam.
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I have to say that the last 4 cars i have had with front fog lights, they are next to useless. They only light a very short area to the front and are wider to the side, but totally useless at anything under 10 mph. Most headlights are now so well sharpened and directed that glareback in fog is a thing of the past.
I do find rear fog lights useful in heavy spray tho. I know some people hate their use in the wet, but in very heavy spray its nice to know if there is a car in the huge ball of mist at the sides of a 39 ton lorry on the M25.
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Because of delays in the National Health Service, it's obligatory for drivers to use front or rear fog lights in clear conditions, but to use only parking lights in poor visibility, while on the waiting list for a brain transplant. This is to show other drivers that the currently installed unit is defective.
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lol @rogerl ;-)
Surely front fogs are just a fashion accessory? I've never found a use for them, other than making me look like a proper numpty and dazzling people in front of me.
Ed.
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I do use the front fogs occasionally, but only when i'm travelling along unclassified country lanes at night, and then in the same way as my main beam, if (on the rare occasions it happens) someone is coming the opposite way , or I catch someone up, I turn off both the fog lights and the main beam so as not to dazzle - common courtesy or etiquette (used to be the norm, now the exception) it's called.
The reason I use them is on our so well maintained road network we have numerous pot holes ready to damage your suspension/ wheels/ knock your alignment and the fogs are very good at picking out more of these at night.
Agree however, that those using them in normal conditions or on main roads should be banned from driving, at the very least!
Paul
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A mate of mine was stopped by the Police for using his foglamps when it was not foggy. Could have been more to do with the fact that they spotted him leaving a pub car park at 11.30 at night !
Goes to show that they are prepared to use it as an excuse to stop people though.
Luckily my mate had nothing to hide I should add.
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A mate of mine was stopped by the Police for using his foglamps when it was not foggy.
So did I a few years ago.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=71...1
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A few years ago I met a police car and the driver pointed down at the front of my car as he passed. At the time, I couldn't think what he was on about and it was only when I got out later and had a right good look at the front of the car that I saw the fogs were on.
I had had them on the day before (when it really was foggy!) and had forgotten to cancel the switch. If anyone knows the Xantia they'll know that in daylight it is practically impossible to see the warning light. After that, I avoided using them - simply because I couldn't trust myself to switch them off! The trouble was that Xantias have quite poor main beams and I often used the white fogs at night to help pick out verges on unclassified roads.
Now I've got the C5 with xenons (good!)and no separate fogs. Citroen claims the fogs are built into the headlights (??)
Graeme
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Same happened to a mate of mine Robert. The difference being he WAS over the limit. By quite a bit.
I don't really object to them using ANY excuse to try to reduce the number of drunks on the road. Even if I occassionally get stopped as well.
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How can anyone justify the use of rear fog lights in any condition other than heavy fog?!
The use of these high intensity lights in heavy rain serves no purpose except to obliterate the following driver\'s view, as every raindrop hitting the following vehicle\'s windscreen is momentarily illuminated red (between wiper strokes) by the offending vehicle\'s rear fog light, making it very difficult to see what is going on ahead.
Anyone who has followed (at the correct distance) someone with their rear fog lights lit in heavy rain, especially on a fast road, will I\'m sure know exactly what I mean, it is downright dangerous.
PP
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Totally agree - a point I made in one of the previous fog lamp posts ......
Chad.
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