Being curious about the plethora of lights on the front of my RX-8 (I think there's no less than 8 lamps pointing forward), I turned the headlights on, then the fog lamps and then the highbeams while observing how they looked at each step. Interestingly, the fog lamps on my 8 turn off the moment the highbeams are selected. What's the reasoning behind this? I was already aware that the fog lamps cannot be used independently from the headlights, but this 'fogs off with highbeams' feature surprised me.

1.3L

 

as far as I know thats a requirement for cars with foglights in the US, it sorta makes sense that the foglights go off with highbeams, since if you need foglights then the last thing you want to do is use highbeams, although most people use fog lights as 'driving lights' meaning they are used WITH headlights/highbeams...

The thing I dont like about this is the fact that you cant use JUST the foglights, or foglights with running lights... I like to use my running/parking lights AND foglights when its raining or early in the morning, but dont want to run my HID headlights.

The thing I find even more strange than the foglight issue is the fact that when using FLASH TO PASS, the highbeams AND hids turn on.....its not good to quickly turn HID lamps on and off so when your headlights are off and you want to flash the driver infront of you to pass him, your also flashing your HIDs....

Here is a DIY (VERY SIMPLE) to allow you to use the fog lights when YOU chose, they will turn on when you turn the fog light switch, as long as the key is in the ignition. so you can run Fog Lights only, Fog Light AND running/parking lights, Fog Lights AND headlights or Foglights AND Highbeams.

https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...7&page=2&pp=20

Look to the middle of that page, photos and instructions by Magnesium


Now if someone could figure out a bypass for the flash to pass so the HIDs (lowbeams) wont come on too!

 

This was a pretty easy mod, and I really like how it works

 

its like that on just about every stock car released in america. if it bugs you, there is a DIY to rewire the fog lights so they don't go off with the high beams on.

probably goes back to the logic that you shouldn't be using your high beams in foggy conditions because the water particles in the fog refract the light and make the fog into a bright white wall...so if your high beams are on, then there is no fog, so you don't need them.

i'm not positive that's the reasoning behind the fog light wiring, but it sounds like nice and stupid logic that would be used when designing it work like that

 

in this picture you can see it pretty good, I used the same type of wire connector (pk of 10 for like 2 bucks at any hardware store/autoparts store)

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...achmentid=5970

just cut the brown wire and place it in one end and crimp it on to the red/white wire.

this will make it so the foglights work as mentioned above but they wont stay on if the car is turned off and key is removed, so you cant leave them on accidently.

 

Just an FYI, in most states it is ILLEGAL to use your fog lights w/o your head lights being on. Thus the wiring that makes the fog lights only come on when the headlights are on.

I'm not sure of the reasing for the highs turning off the foglights, but that could be a safety issue (DOT regulation), or just something universally accepted.. (all of my vehicles do that..)

 

i have had friends that go pulled over at night for driving with just fogs on, but in the daytime its never happend to me.

I drive to work in the morning with just my fogs on...kinda like daytime runnign lights, since i drive on a lot of 2 lane roads with no center divider also when it rains I drive with my running/parking lights and foglights on, so that my car can more easily be seen in the bad weather from the front and back. In FL its a law that if your wipers are on your headlights have to be on, I dont do that, just the above mentioned fog/running lights and have never been pulled over for it.

At night i drive with my fogs and headlights of course.

 

The sole purpose of fog lights is to allow you to see the road in heavy fog conditions, at slow speeds, so that you don't drive off the road.

Fog lights work by shining low (so a sharp cutoff point is important) and wide. Because fogs don't shine very far, they are useless at speeds higher than, say, 40mph. Fogs at highway speeds are actually worse for you, because: 1) they aren't going to shed light anything in time for you to react, 2) they create a bright spot in the front of the car that creates more contrast, making it more difficult to concentrate on the objects far ahead.

If you drive with low-beams off while fogs are on, then you risk not illuminating any objects in front. For example, reflective tail lights, road signs, pylons (or whatever these "road barrier barrel things" are called), etc. Since fog lights are only for the short and low distance, driving in fog without headlamps is just plain dangerous. Perhaps that's the reason for the requirement.

Some of this info I read at What are fog lamps really for?.

 

I personally like having the fogs turning off when highbeaming. I usually use the high beams to flash people ("you go first", "your headlights are off", etc.) and it makes more impact (and looks cooler ) having the fogs going on and off too.

 

lol , i hear ya, I like being able to run my fogs with just my running/parking lights when it just starts to get dark. I have yellow film on the fogs 1) to protect from rocks (its 15mil thick) and 2) to give the beam a yellow tint. I also have yellow halogen bulbs in them, so the light color and output is bright yellow. Its not any more light output than stock, its the same but the color is better than white from the stock bulbs, at night I always drive with the fogs on, I like the way it looks on the road infront of me, the HID white headlights with the yellow fogs, and I like the way it looks as the car comes down the road, low yellow fogs with the rainbow effect from the HIDs, the fogs on this car nicely fill in the space bettween the nose of the car and the bottom of the beam from the head lights.

as my friend joey always says when he sees a car with foglights but they arnt on : "you paid for your fogs so use them"

 

But having the headlamps on defeats the purpose of the low-cutoff of the fog lamps. When it is really foggy, I'm going very slow anyway! If someone's going fast they either don't need the foglamps on or they *do* need them but too dumb to slow down.

Fog lamps with highbeams really is unnecessary and contradictory and the whole fashion concept of "driving lights" irritates the hell out of me. I wish these drivers would give us other drivers a break and spare us from their walls of light. Being inconsiderate to other drivers doesn't look "cool" to me.

 

It doesn't really defeat the purpose. While, yes, you do have significant refraction off the low-beams when it's really foggy, if you don't have the headlamps on at all, you will: 1) not be nearly as visible to any oncoming traffic 2) will not reflect any reflective objects in the distance, such as a parked car's tails (the fog lamp cut-off is below the typical tail-light level).

The best thing is to have adjustable level for the low-beam headlamps, so that you can aim them down when it's really foggy. Most European cars have that option.

 

The logic is that fog lights are only needed when it is foggy and you need a light source down close to the ground to see through the fog without reflecting it. If you turn on your high beams then clearly you are not driving in foggy conditions so no need for the fog lights.

The US DOT lighting specs are in the this PDF:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...cfr571.108.pdf

and I am pretty sure that SOMEWHERE in there it states you can only have four "headlights" on the front on at any time - so besides logic I think it is the law sincce on the 8 the lows do not go out when you put the high beams on.

I am have done the fog to DRL mod on my car so my fogs come on with the key (unless I turn off the fog light switch). Silver seems to be hard for folks to see and I want the extra visibility. With such a low car and the fogs mounted low - and they offer a spread pattern and are fairly puny - I can't see this being a problem "blinding" or "glaring" someone else during the day (or at night).

Dennis

 

Yup...
The main reason I did this mod was because I own S. Silver and I need every edge I can get to avoid our curse....