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fog light?????

1K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  S-LudeDan 
#1 ·
i just got a pair of smoked fog lights. i installed them like the write up said on here and everything look good but now they are not bright enough. so now what should i do. i was thinking that maybe its the bulb or hook them up to my high beams since i never use them........:confused:
 
#2 ·
Not sure I have ever seen the V2 replicas in anything other than clear, so probably you have the 35W version. The original JDM ones are 55W, plus I would imagine that the smoked finish doesn't help.

Hook them up to the high beams? Not sure I get what you mean. It's all 12V. Could try HID's (may melt the housing) or do a projector retrofit.

Thing is though that fog lights aren't supposed to be that bright or at least not light up a large/distant area like driving lights do. Supposed to be a short wide beam bellow your headlights. V1 replicas didn't have a bulb shroud though, so I guess technically they aren't fog lights anyway, probably closest to DRL's.
 
#3 ·
The "JDM" fogs really arn't fog lights..more along the lines of a DRL. What I would do is buy an HID kit, that should help with the brightness.
 
#8 ·
Well the bulbs are converting the electric energy (watts) into light and heat. If HID's produce more light, then presumably they also produce less heat (ie. more efficient), although light being energy can also be converted back into heat as it bounces off the reflector (unless it reflects 100%), passes through the smoked lense, etc.

Also as I understand it the balast provides a higher voltage to start the arc. So for a brief period HID's would be using more than 35W.

Fact is that I have OEM fogs with stock halogen bulbs. I have no personal experience running HID's in replicas (or OEM for that matter). Just I have heard conflicting information, so I said it "may melt". Don't want to suggest someone run HID's and them have them come back saying they melted the lights. Sounds like it is possible that they have V2's anyway in which case it really isn't an issue.
 
#9 ·
Thats true, upon firing the ballasts draw almost twice the normal operating current in order to charge the capacitors. My brother-in-law used an ammeter to test this and found that during normal operation after warm-up the ballasts were drawing ~3amps. During warmup this spikes to ~6-7amps, which means during warmup a 35w ballast actually draws 75w to charge capacitors. But this isn't exactly a problem since it's for maybe 2-3 mins, where afterwards its an exponential decay to 3amps.

Though the fact that they are more efficient, marginally reduces the heat output. When you compare ratings, the differences make up for the losses. HID bulbs are rated at 35w85v while halogen are 55w12v, and since 1w=1v*a, HID bulbs pull 0.4a while halogens pull 4.6a. Even at 0.1a that arc inside an HID bulb is ridiculously hot. Stadium HID lights are like 400w bulbs, those pull something like 5a. If HID kits pulled 5a you wouldn't be able to stand 5 feet from your headlights. :eek:
 
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