You see people with them on all the time, in different colors, and even different beam patterns, but what makes a good fog light? When it comes to fog lights, there are several bulb and housing options to choose from. They may not be used all the time or even every day, but fog lights can be extremely helpful for driving in inclement conditions.
Just like with headlights, your options are near unlimited. You can choose your housing, your bulb, the color of the beam, and even the beam pattern. Today we will be going in-depth into what makes for a good fog light and talking you through all the options.
Different from low and high beam headlights, fog lights are made to assist you during low visibility driving conditions. Thick fog, torrential rain, snow, dust, and other similar conditions are times when fog lights are best utilized.
Fog lights are not always necessary to drive with and their purpose is illustrated in their intensity and beam pattern. Firstly, fog lights are set up to illuminate the ground in front of you. They have a sharper, and wider beam pattern to cut through those low visibility conditions we mentioned before.
Second, these lights are placed usually very low on a vehicle. Fog lights are typically found on higher-trim levels as standard. As modern lights on new cars become more capable, fog lights become less necessary making them more of a style choice, than anything else.
This is not to say you cannot or should not buy quality fog lights, but that your options are not completely restricted by buying the brightest that you can. In fact, the brightest fog light is not always the best fog light.
Ideally, your beam pattern should be an extension of your headlight beam pattern. The fog light should sit comfortably between the front of your car or truck and meet or overlap slightly with your headlight’s beam pattern.
Having a fog light that outshines your headlights will not help your overall visibility. Your headlights are meant to give you the proper ratio of brightness from about 25 feet to about 150 feet in front of your vehicle. Having too bright of fog lights will bring the focus of your eyes to the nearest point of your vehicle rather than down the road.
Before getting into the types of bulbs and their differences, if you do not know what bulb shape or size you have, check out this video where we discuss how to figure that out.
Just like the OEM part, these will be the same size and fit your car easily. LED bulbs are super bright and will last longer than the halogen parts you are replacing. They are also easy to install and entirely plug-and-play.
A downside of LED bulbs is that they typically only come in one or two colors. For example, the S-V.4 bulb only comes in a 6000K cool white or a 3000K golden yellow color.
With the color of your fog lights, you ideally want them to match your headlight color. We discussed the difference that color temperature makes on your headlights here. We also talked about how the color of your fog lights also affects your nighttime visibility here.
In short, you want your headlights to be as close to white, or about 5000K, as possible. This makes for the best possible visible light. The further away you get from a true white color, the less visibility you will have.
HID bulbs act similar to LED bulbs on how to swap out the OEM part. The same mounting tabs and connections will be there. The gas capsule inside will be the same as the original filament and as the chip on an LED bulb.
The big reason why you would go with an HID kit is that they are dependable. They are way brighter than the stock fog lights and the beam they create is excellent. You can even get these in a variety of power options to fit your brightness needs.
Another reason HID bulbs are popular, is the wealth of color options available for them.
The downside for HID bulbs is that they typically run hotter than LED bulbs. This can lead to melting the plastic lens on your fog light. The problem is rare but can happen. We recommend going through vehicle-specific forums to find out whether your vehicle can cause this.
If you are wanting something more than some bulbs, or perhaps your OEM fog lights have worn out, fog light assemblies are a great next step. This will require you to take out the whole assembly from your car.
This process is usually pretty easy and only requires you to remove two to four screws to get the housing free from your car.
Morimoto makes several different fog light assemblies that are catered to fit a specific vehicle. You can tell below the differences between the Jeep fog light (left) and the Toyota Tundra (right). Just as with the bulbs, the installation is entirely plug-and-play thanks to the factory connectors and mounts.
These assemblies are DOT-compliant and are a great option for those who want to maintain the original function of your headlights. What we mean is, while the XB LED housings are bright, they are not meant to be as bright as your headlights; instead, they are to continue your headlights’ blend from the hot spot at the top of their beam pattern to the front of your vehicle.
Think of it as one big gradient from the most intense representing the distance your light reaches ahead of your car, and the least intense directly in front of your car.
If you are looking for super bright fog lights, perhaps for off-road use, then an off-road LED pod light will be for you. Brands such as Morimoto, Diode Dynamics, VisionX, and Baja Designs all make great LED pod lights for off-road use. These will typically come in vehicle-specific mounting kits and different beam patterns to suit your needs.
Most recently, Morimoto released their 4Banger LED Pod lights that offer a host of different vehicle mounts, beam patterns, colors, and two trim levels. The Morimoto 4Banger LED Pod lights bring a mixture of design, output, and versatility to the LED pod light market. With the entry-level 4Banger NCS model, you get a Nichia LED chip spec for its output source. For the premium HXB model, an Osram HX Boost LED chip packs its punch behind the TIR optics, which can be found on both models.
For each trim level, you get a spot, wide, and combo beam pattern. In the case of a fog light application, you would want a wide beam pattern.
Brands like Diode Dynamics offer similar pod lights; however, their level of install difficulty is a bit higher as some wiring you will need to do yourself. Not to mention that the 4Bangers are brighter than the Diode Dynamics SS3 LED pod light.
All the lights we looked at today are brighter than your stock fog lights. A lot of times, manufacturers will put fog lights on their vehicles because people just expect them to be there. But if you want to actually use your fog lights, the light bulbs, and housing upgrades we discussed today are great options.
If you are more of a visual learner, be sure to check out our video covering upgrading your fog lights. While you are there, make sure to like and subscribe to our channel for the latest lighting upgrades for your vehicle.
Have any questions about one of the products we mentioned? Contact us today, and our customer service team would be happy to help.