StephenFord Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 8 minutes ago, Wino said: I'd like to know as to whether anyone who has changed their lights from Halogen to LED have actually had the car pass through an MOT without having to faff about changing the bulbs ? On my last car, a Celica GT4, I did an HID conversion which failed, no biggie as it only took minutes to swap out to the Victorian halogens for subsequent tests. However, when I eventually upgraded to LEDs, I never had an issue. It's another 5 months till my Focus MOT, so I intend to keep the LEDs in and see what happens. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT70 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 1 hour ago, StephenFord said: Makes you wonder how Ford pass any car through R&D when every model they make, people complain about how bad the headlights are LOL Lost count of the number of threads on, 'How do you improve the headlights on my Mk2, Mk3, Mk4 etc etc...' Can it be that hard to design a headlight that lights up the road ahead at night? The MK4 Halogens were worse than the MK3.5 And the halogen cornering fog candles were a joke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomsFocus Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 Mk3 PFL halogens were pretty good. High beam especially! I'd never seen so much of the woods at night before. Mk2.5 xenons looked cool but weren't particularly effective, form over function lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 16 hours ago, StephenFord said: Ya think?? Dear me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 14 hours ago, Botus said: well, the flickering on off is not nice - but my first omega had shocking lights and driving with the front fogs on all the time helped tremendously - the comfort of sufficient light around the car is invaluable if you like to press on, on narrow roads the later facelift went to xenon's and I never switched on the fog light in the 10 year's I kept that one - FYI it was a much better car than an S class merc could ever dream of being !!!! Shame I can't just leave my front fogs on, but that would be illegal I think because the rear fogs would be on constantly too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 1 minute ago, northern_nubie said: Shame I can't just leave my front fogs on, but that would be illegal I think because the rear fogs would be on constantly too. The front and rear fog lights are controlled separately on my Mk4. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 3 hours ago, Wino said: I use them for the exact same purpose IF I'm out n about in the dark. It makes a world of difference in the MK4 with those sh1tty halogen lights. I can't find my my reply today to your comment above, and your reply to me. But anyway, I was wrong, my car does of course have separate buttons for front and rear fogs. I just assumed they'd both come on. I was thinking of the central button on the lighting control knob (which I will now read up on!) Haven't driven in fog for years, either in this new car, or the previous Mk4. But you have given me the idea of having the front fogs on constantly. So long as that's legal and isn't utterly blinding for oncoming cars (can't see that it would be), that could be a workaround for my corrnering lights issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 1 minute ago, northern_nubie said: ...l and isn't utterly blinding for oncoming cars (can't see that it would be), that could be a workaround for my corrnering lights issue. Absolutely will not blind oncoming traffic, the purpose of front fogs is to beam down directly on the road... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 On 3/4/2023 at 9:06 PM, unofix said: next time you are out on a dark twisting road change the headlight switch from 'Auto' and set it to Headlights 'On' Then turn the front fog lights to 'On' I haven't forgotten. I should be able to try this tomorrow (Tuesday) evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 1 minute ago, StephenFord said: Absolutely will not blind oncoming traffic, the purpose of front fogs is to beam down directly on the road... Thanks, Stephen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjt Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 2 hours ago, northern_nubie said: you have given me the idea of having the front fogs on constantly. So long as that's legal It always used to be the law that they could only be used in fog or if snow was falling but I don't know if that's been amended in recent years. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 2 minutes ago, mjt said: It always used to be the law that they could only be used in fog or if snow was falling but I don't know if that's been amended in recent years. The only good thing in OP's case is that they are built in to the main cluster, so it shouldn't even be obvious they are on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 5 minutes ago, mjt said: It always used to be the law that they could only be used in fog or if snow was falling but I don't know if that's been amended in recent years. In my old Merc C240, I swapped the fog light bulbs out for LED Daylight ones (useless in actual fog), and just used them a pseudo DRLs... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unofix Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 45 minutes ago, mjt said: It always used to be the law that they could only be used in fog or if snow was falling Indeed that was true. It was also a legal requirement that front fog lights be fitted and wired in pairs and be operated by a single switch (UK vehicle lighting regulations ~1974), and would only be operative when either the sidelights (now refereed to as parking) or the dipped beam headlights were on. Since the introduction (in my opinion crazy) use of front fog lights as cornering lights it would seem some European mandate has overruled the sensible UK law, and it now allows for the lights to be controlled independently, and presumably be operated when it is not foggy. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botus Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 the MOT test is a joke - the tester a bigger joke and the government no longer care what the slaves are up to not surprisingly no one has ever questioned what the bulbs are Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonyU21 Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 I also hate adaptive headlights, which are a bad design Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VFR800 Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 You wait till you have to replace an LED headlamp, you'll think halogen bulbs are the best thing since sliced bread!!! 😉 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted March 7 Share Posted March 7 15 minutes ago, VFR800 said: You wait till you have to replace an LED headlamp, you'll think halogen bulbs are the best thing since sliced bread!!! 😉 Last month a friend of a friend said it cost just over £3000 for a replacement new matrix LED headlamp for his Audi Q7!! I'm quite happy with my £10/each LED Bulbs LOL 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 20 hours ago, VFR800 said: You wait till you have to replace an LED headlamp, you'll think halogen bulbs are the best thing since sliced bread!!! 😉 I had a look a few weeks ago. They seemed to be a minimum of £600, and often higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northern_nubie Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 On 3/6/2023 at 6:11 PM, unofix said: Indeed that was true. It was also a legal requirement that front fog lights be fitted and wired in pairs and be operated by a single switch (UK vehicle lighting regulations ~1974), and would only be operative when either the sidelights (now refereed to as parking) or the dipped beam headlights were on. Since the introduction (in my opinion crazy) use of front fog lights as cornering lights it would seem some European mandate has overruled the sensible UK law, and it now allows for the lights to be controlled independently, and presumably be operated when it is not foggy. I haven't tried at night what you suggested about using dipped + fog. But I did it while stationary in daylight. In Auto I could clearly see the fog beam coming on when turning the steering wheel to the left, same to the right. So I put it in dipped and turned on front fogs. Hey presto, I think my problem is solved. No flicking on of the fogs on each turn of the wheel. Stephen said the extra light from the fogs at night shouldn't be a problem for other drivers, but I'll try it out at night. As for the law, it seems to still be a requirement to turn them off when visibility is okay. But as you say above, with them being part of the cluster they are likely not detectable by someone looking at the cluster, especially with the extra light being minimal. I looked at the cluster yesterday in daylight when the fogs were on, and they seem to come from three different parts of each cluster. Hard to tell. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/driving-in-adverse-weather-conditions-226-to-237#rule226 If my problem has been solved, I owe several people here many thanks, not least for their patience. Incidentally, is it possible to donate to this site? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StephenFord Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 48 minutes ago, northern_nubie said: ... Incidentally, is it possible to donate to this site?... Look at the top blue header, under 'your membership', you'll be able to annually subscribe, I find it quite little, for quite a lot! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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