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Hey folks, Cooley here, I got another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving.
This one comes in from Matt [UNKNOWN] who says, do fog lights actually make a difference or are they just another way for car manufacturers to get consumers to spend money on a lighting package?
And I've seen comments on YouTube about rear fog lights, do these actually exist?
Yes, Matt there are real benefits to a fog light.
But that doesn't mean every fog light that is part of a lighting package is really a fog light.
It may just look like one.
So let's remember what fog lights really do, first of all they sit low, they sit lower headlights are legally allowed to do.
Headlights have to sit at a certain height based on federal law, And that means that they're gonna shine their light into fog, at which point it's gonna bounce off those droplets and come right back to you and look like an opaque fog bank.
A fog light sits lower, so it's not actually beaming as much into the dense part of the fog.
While it's down there, it also gives you a flat beam.
Cuz if its beam wasn't flat and if it kinda arced up in a cone, it would eventually get back into the fog again and create another opaque fog bank.
And while it's down there, there tend to be a very wide beam as well to kinda cover up as much of the road as possible because you're not seeing as much of what is high on the road, you tend to compensate with some with going out underneath the fog.
So those are your three techniques of a real fog, and the fourth factor is you might see yellow fog lights that's an old french and European Union thing, there was a time when the yellow spectrum coming off of those lights.
Will start to cut through and give you a little better visibility, a little less glare coming off the fog.
Nowadays, we've got different lighting technologies that do a better job of that.
And those are actually illegal, the yellow lights even in France, unless your car was reg'ed with them back in the 90s so they were grandfathered in.
You asked about rear fog lights.
Those are basically another set of tail lights, just brighter.
They're common on European cars, but since they aren't required in the US, and most car buyers here don't know about them, most carmakers don't spell the money installing them.
Adding real fog lights, good ones, to your car is really easy.
If you don't mind an aftermarket look and are at all handy under the hood, this is not a difficult job.
If you know how to wire-patching and hole-drilling You're good to go.
And they can't give you real benefit.
And you may be able to buy drop in fog like modules.
They're after market but they are designed to go right in to your car's existing lighting modules.
A factory look but a true fog like cut off, low wide and flat.
From reputable manufactures in the making fog light forever So fog lights can do a real, real good job.
If you live in an area with a lot of heavy fog and you're really having to slow it down when you're out there, the fogs can tuck under there and give you a little better illumination.
You still gotta take it easy in fog because it is still visually occluding.
But at least the fog light doesn't make it worse the way a headlight often.
Keep those emails coming I'm here to answer you questions about hight tech cars and modern driving.
Its cooley@theroadshow.com.
