Driving home in the dark last night I was showing my wife the various light options in the car. Had the "automatic" light selection on low beams. Turned on the fog lights so she could see the change in light pattern. Then turned on high beams to show her that the fog lights would turn off. Oops! They stayed on. I thought that might be a quirk with the "auto" setting so I tried the normal lights on setting but got the same result.
Yep, I'm pretty sure that is an oops - I don't think it's legal (at least I know it isn't here) to run fogs and high beams at the same time.
Doesn't make useful sense either since fogs are supposed to be designed, well for fog, and to have a fairly close cut off wide low beam, the opposite function of the far throwing narrower beams from the highs.
The owners manual says not to operate the fog lights in the auto mode. It says to operate them only with the parking lights or low beams. Mine work in the auto mode as well. Unclear as to why???
The fog lights on my orphan stay on with high beams as well as low beams and automatic mode. I personally don't understand the idea of not being able to run fog lights with the high beams on. The fog lights are there to make you visible. If they were driving lights I think it would be a different story.
FOG lights are designed to be effective in lower lighting conditions ie. parking or low beam. The reason is high beams in a fog cause a reflective glare. Driving lights are for distance illumination.
Most cars don't turn off the fogs when the high beams are on...they really aren't ...pardon the pun - that smart. Besides, the really smart headlight system would be not to turn off the fogs when the high beams are on, but to disable the high beams when the fogs are on!
Isn't the true definition of "fog" lights is yellow lenses on them? Clear lenses were always called "driving" lights from what I remember. "Fog" lights were always yellow.
Isn't the true definition of "fog" lights is yellow lenses on them? Clear lenses were always called "driving" lights from what I remember. "Fog" lights were always yellow.
That was my thought too, I did get a citation once for failure to dim when I drove with my low beams and driving lights at the same time. The law allowed only two white lights to the front when you are driving towards traffic.
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