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fog lights
Posted: March 5th, 2005, 12:21 pm
by MarkMoore
i will soon be ordering the MS front... what are my options for fog lights? what do i look for, what shouldn't i look for? how do they differ? what are good things, what are bad things?
Posted: March 5th, 2005, 8:52 pm
by jschrauwen
Posted: March 5th, 2005, 10:19 pm
by Taras
Hella Light Tunnel:
http://www.hella.com/produktion/HellaPo ... Tunnel.jsp
If that would be me, I would get Hella Micro DE Fog lights. They are awesome for the size they are.
Posted: March 5th, 2005, 11:38 pm
by jschrauwen
Taras - I got the email, would you recommend that particular one to fill the 2 openings in my new combat chin spoiler. Can't find a fog from Hella that would look appropriate to fill space dimensions of 7"x2 1/2". Thoughts?
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 3:11 am
by RoundTop
I'll 2nd the Hella Micro DEs. as round 2.5" fogs they are sweet.
That said, I got a price on them, $220 USD from Napa, plus $20US special ordering cost (shipping).
That is damn good for H3 bulbs (AFAIR) in a tiny housing.
And note, that is for the pair, with the switch and wiring needed.
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 10:28 am
by jschrauwen
Hands down, the Hella Micro DE fog's appear to be the best in the comparison, but the Micro DE driving lights seem to come up short (no pun intended) in the other comparison on the Hella portal.
Those fog's are exceptional!! Thanks Taras
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 10:32 am
by jschrauwen
Is there a Canadain distributer/retailer for the DE's / Hella? We know that CTC carries some of their products, but never inquired as to whether they could order other Hella products.
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 11:54 am
by jschrauwen
RoundTop wrote:I'll 2nd the Hella Micro DEs. as round 2.5" fogs they are sweet.
That said, I got a price on them, $220 USD from Napa, plus $20US special ordering cost (shipping).
That is damn good for H3 bulbs (AFAIR) in a tiny housing.
And note, that is for the pair, with the switch and wiring needed.
Check out these prices.
http://www.rallylights.com/hella/Micro_DE.asp
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 5:11 pm
by Taras
eBay has decent prices on some Hella products, but you do have to be careful. Rallylights is an awesome place. Highly recommended, dealt with them manu times. And the price is very very good. Just be sure you get FOG lights and NOT DRIVING lights. Hella Micro DE Driving lights are mediocre. I would not get them in neither a Halogen nor Xenon version. The new Hella 50mm universal units seem to resemble the Micro De ones a lot, so it remains to be seen how the beam quality will be. Some early reparts are that they are similar to 90 mm's.
John, I think you will have a vibration issue if you place the lights in your lower chin spoiler openings. Lights need to be mounted to something sturdy. So low, besides fog lights, anything else would be quite useless as well, eg.: driving lights. I was not sure if you are after driving lights anyway.
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 7:19 pm
by jschrauwen
Taras wrote:eBay has decent prices on some Hella products. I was not sure if you are after driving lights anyway.
Thanks Taras, just doing my first purchase on ebay for the "fog light kit", as we speak. Price was the same as that Rallyelights place that you're familiar with. Found a couple of sources in CA but way way overpriced for the fog unit's. I agree about the Micro DE driving lights, they just don't seem to rival some of the other Hella products. I'm looking at placing them in the chin spoiler. If this proves unsuccessfull, they'll have to be re-positioned in the grill. Hope this ebay thing works out - seems all so complicated.
Posted: March 6th, 2005, 11:17 pm
by MarkMoore
went to that site, and i don't really know a lot about lighting unlike taras, so my questions may seem quite elementary...
-are 'driving lamps' just another term for headlights? because if not, it seems that the driving lamps far out-perform the fog lamps from what i'm seeing on that hella site... how do i know what i want? i'm confused!!
-also, what's the difference between 'xenon' and 'halogen'? now before you start yelling at me to read the site before asking questions, i did read the info on both halogen and xenon, but i didn't really get a clear answer... it appears (from taras' link) that xenon far out-performs halogen?
-how come fog lamps only come as halogen and not xenon?
-are 'HID' and 'xenon' basically synonymous, or is there such a thing as 'HID halogen' too?
Posted: March 7th, 2005, 1:15 am
by jschrauwen
Can't read your mind Mark, so I can reall y say what you want. I'll tell you what I did to address my needs, wants and desires and perhaps you may be better able to focus your search.
We all know that our factory lighting set-up is pretty useless. The 9004 halogen bulb is pretty ineffective as a headlight bulb. Aside from keeping the outside lense as clean and scratch-free as possible, a lot of us try the easier things first - a better light bulb. Some choose higher wattage bulbs but run the chance of exceeding the capabilities of the wiring harness - meaning fire - (because of excessive current draw) or over-heating the inside lense / reflector area. Others that choose to be a little more informed shoot for a better quality bulb (more efficient) by way of a silverstar, osram or phillips +30 or +50 bulb with much improved results. Then there are some (like me) who source either E-Spec or J-Spec light unit's that use an H4 bulb. This is a better quality headlight bulb and there are more quality after-market replacement bulbs for these. The far end of the scale would be a combination of HID / Projector headlights like on most of the Euro and some NA cars. A very pricey but ultimate lighting solution. For myself, I still need to address my driving needs for foul weather and country driving (where I live). I always thought that brighter lights would fix this, which was a false belief. I needed quality for lights. My choice for the Hellas was for a number of reasons. Hella quality, a solidly made quality projector, an excellent beam pattern (as seen on that Hella site), size of unit and price. The Zenon bulb is a step above halogen because of the gases inside the bulb, the amount , colour and quality of the light delivered and the reduced heat generated. The HID is the ultimate quality lighting configuration but is still very expensive as an after-market solution. As you probably noticed from my previous post the Micro DE fog was far superior in comparison to other Hella fogs, whereas, the Micro DE driving light came up short in comparison to other Hella driving lights. Each has to be scrutinized on it's own merits.
So Mark, it comes down to what you are trying to accomplish, what are your needs, wants and desires and of course, how much can you afford.
BTW, just finallized my ebay purchase of the Hella Micro DE Fog Lights, $125 US + shipping and exchange of course. Still way cheaper than off the shelf here, unfortunately. Hope this helps.
Posted: March 7th, 2005, 3:32 am
by MarkMoore
how do i know if i want 'driving lamps', or 'fog lamps'? i mean, i just wanna see better at night!! want are the purposes for each... i mean, with what in mind is each designed for?
Posted: March 7th, 2005, 6:09 am
by jschrauwen
If it's strictly seeing better at night and you want aux lighting then driving lights is probably what you're after. Having said that, you must not be satisfied with your current configuration. Is the outside of your headlight lense as clean and scratch-free as possible (not dull)? There are products to address those issues. What 9004 bulb are you currently running? Best alternative that's not expensive would be an Osram or Phillips +30 or +50 bulb. Are your headlights aimed correctly? Be surprised how many suffer poor night visibility because of incorrect headlight alignment. Has your suspension and /or wheels been changed recently that could affect your alignment. To improve my night-time visibility I acquired J-Spec headlights that use H4 bulbs. Now I can find more quality sources for bulbs and get a better beam pattern from these lenses's. To help and improve on my night-time visability and improve the quality output of my J-Spec lights, I'll be re-doing the wiring harness to gain back that 10% to 20% drop from existing factory wiring. Those are the things I've done to improve my night-time visibility. Because I live in the country, I need to have something additional to help during those foul weather days (rain, snow etc). That's why I chose fog lights. Additional driving lights will not help during foul weather, but may actually worsen the situation by over reflecting off of the snow, rain or fog. If you've done all that you can with your existing headlights then it's probably aux driving lights you're after. These may not help out and may even worsen your night time driving during those bad weather days.
So the choice should be fairly simple at this point for you. Hope this helps.
Posted: March 7th, 2005, 6:15 am
by MarkMoore
thanks for all of your help... i think i'm gonna get some fog lights, and then i'm gonna have to decide what i wanna do about my headlights, because the stock headlights are worthless IMO... might do a civic conversion, or maybe if i count my lucky stars some one will produce aftermarket headlights for our cars!!!!