What's Up with the Stock Fog Lights?
 

anyone else notice that the stock foglights are worthless in the fog? the do look nice though;)
their beam illuminates a useless area in front of the car, almost nothing to the side and put out very little light. in fact when i turn them on in real fog i found them to make the glare and visibility worse.
i have used hella fog lights in the past and they are great. i might just try to find a set of hellas to replace the stockers.
anyone esle notice this? have you found a suitable replacement?

***edit***
i am talking about the fog lights on my P5

Are you talking about the ones on the ES or P5? I'm not sure if they use the same bulbs but mine work fine as stock fog lights go.

They have a hood covering the bulb on the P5. Remove the bulb and push the hood up to expose the bulb more. Not sure why thats there... the glass of the lens is cut to produce a wide, low pattern.

Don

My P5's work pretty well for stock bulbs. Maybe yours are angled wrong or something. Mine light up the road about 8 to 10 in front of the car and give a nice bath of light to the sides of the road. to me they work best in the wet at night when the roads are almost black, however I have not noticed any glare in heavy fog.

Mine work as intended too - No complaints here.

Don

Exactly my experience.

Mine also work fine. No complaints here either.

I agree that the P5 fog lights nicely light up the road a few feet around the front of the car, but don't have much function beyond that. In fog, they do nothing useful, in my experience. So I would call these lights 'decorative' rather than 'functional'.
But DON688s idea/suggestion sounds interesting so I will try that...

There's no need to do that (and you really shouldn't). Just adjust the foglight assembly, there are 2 bolts that allow you to aim the fogs higher. Works great after that.

The hood there is to prevent direct, upward rays that will cause glare when driving in fog. If you drive with high beams on when there's fog at night, u'll get the idea. :D

You'll have to remove three screws to lower the plastic underguard first. Then, you'll have access to both adjusting bolts (12mm).

I adjusted both fog light beams as high as possible; the bulb enclosures hit the front air dam. That helped to throw the beam a bit further down the road but still not far enough.

Has anyone modified the dam to allow the beams to be a bit higher?

get ion yellow plazma bulbs. the color yellow works good in rain/fog type conditions. anything yellower than halogens would work.

I just re-aimed my P5 fog lights, so here is the procedure while it is fresh in my mind. They now are perfectly perpendicular to the road, and I still have some space all around the light housings.

Estimated time: 30 minutes.

1. Remove 2 screws from front of plastic splash shield attached to bottom of bumper, to allow access to rear of fog light. Bend splash shield out of the way.

2. Remove nut and washers from mounting bolt at rear of fog light assembly (14 mm socket)

3. Pull fog light assembly forward an inch or two (as far as the cable will allow).

4. From the front, pop out the blue plastic clip that holds the electrical connector assembly to bumper. You can now pull the light out at least 6 inches, with the connector still attached.

5. With the light assembly now in your hand, you will likely see that the U-shaped mounting bracket / bolt is not at a right angle to the front of the light (hence the light aiming too low). This angle determines the aim of the beam.

6. Simply loosen the nut (12 mm wrench) on each flange of this bracket, and adjust the bracket so that the mounting bolt is 90 degrees to the front of the lens.

7. Reinstall the lamp assembly, and enjoy your improved visibility!

I went for a test drive on an dark road to ensure the fog lights aimed this way did not blind oncoming traffic... seems fine so far.

I've switched my bulbs with PIAA Ion crystals, give off a yellow colour. These bulbs are incredable, they look awsome.

Fog Light Adjustment
 

Ok guys,

Here is what I did to my fog lights and they fricking kick ass now...

I adjusted the vertical position to the most superior position; this is limited by the actually air dam plastic they sit in.

Next I took the bulb out and pushed the hood covering the bulbs up....this allows a ton more light to be shot out of the lights giving more distance....

Note: Any of you thinking about replacing or adjusting your lights should read this.

The lights are easy to adjust or change as you only need to take out one bolt and two screws to change the bulb and you only need to lossen two bolts to adjust the vertical position of the lights.

Anyone who tells you different is only causing more work.

Time to change bulbs and/or push up the hood covering....20 mins top!

Time to adjust vertical position...10 mins top!

Smith...

guys . . . they're not fog lights, they're driving lights! Their sole purpose is to help light up the road immediately in front of and to the side of the car.