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Fog light output (photos?)

22K views 57 replies 23 participants last post by  aaronjvanwagner 
#1 ·
Hi,

I'm on the fence about installing fog lights on my wife's Ascent and would love to see some examples of fogs lights on and off at night. Because I mainly am the driver when we go on family trips (long and short distances), I want to see the roads more clearer.

I have done some google/youtube search and can't find anything that would help me determine if the road is easier/brigther to see at night in front of the Ascent.

Thanks.
 
#3 ·
IMHO, the factory/dealer fog lights are worthless. They throw an amazing wide beam, but only about 10 feet in front of the car.
They are much more like "cornering lights" that energize when using a turn signal.
That's really all fog lights are supposed to do. They should also be yellow.

We get a lot of fog out here, so, I haven't changed mine. If we didn't, I'd swap them out for something more suitable for regular driving assist (or for off roading).
 
#4 ·
excerpt:
To get the proper balance of range and reduced glare (for you and oncoming motorists), proper mounting is essential when installing fog lights. The Society of Automotive Engineers (S.A.E.) has developed a standard system for fog light mounting. The organization recommends your mount fog lights 10-14 inches above the ground and then test the angle of the beam at 25 feet. The top of the beam should be about four inches below the center of the lamp itself (see diagram A below).

I'm lucky if it's even 10' toward the front. I'll check the height too, they seem low in the chin. Guess I'll have to cover up the headlights to see what the pattern is, but it's way too much out on the sides, where it does nothing for me.
Why they are white and not yellow, is also a mystery.
 
#5 ·
I’d argue they’d reduce your night vision when not foggy since you have a brighter foreground.

I’ll see if I can snap a picture next time I’m out. But it’s literally 10-15 in front of the car.

If you’re looking for more light this is what I did.

I added off road lights to mine which really help for rural roads and off highway use. Haven’t needed them yet, but ever since a pair of off road lights on my truck help me find my way out of a dry lake bed at night I put them on all my “adventure” vehicles

Mounted behind the lower grill are Bajadesigns XL80 at 10k lumens each. All spot reflectors but there’s so much spill it covers everything. For reference factory led headlights are probably 2-3k lumens.

You decide the optics, wide, spot, combo of both. I felt the Ascent had great wide close up light. I wanted something that goes beyond high beams. These go at least 8-10x farther.

1446
 
#6 ·
I’d argue they’d reduce your night vision when not foggy since you have a brighter foreground.

I’ll see if I can snap a picture next time I’m out. But it’s literally 10-15 in front of the car.

If you’re looking for more light this is what I did.

I added off road lights to mine which really help for rural roads and off highway use. Haven’t needed them yet, but ever since a pair of off road lights on my truck help me find my way out of a dry lake bed at night I put them on all my “adventure” vehicles

Mounted behind the lower grill are Bajadesigns XL80 at 10k lumens each. All spot reflectors but there’s so much spill it covers everything. For reference factory led headlights are probably 2-3k lumens.

You decide the optics, wide, spot, combo of both. I felt the Ascent had great wide close up light. I wanted something that goes beyond high beams. These go at least 8-10x farther.

View attachment 1446
Hi, can you go into detail regarding the brackets that was used to mount to two baja design light pods.
Thank you
 
#8 ·
Thank you for the information. My wife wants a clean and incognito look so I'll give your solution a go. She doesn't like the bull bar up front.
I was just going to put some baja sport amber for driving in dense fog and rain. Done some wiring for my truck before so hardest is probably taking the bumber off without breaking any tabs.
 
#9 ·
Thank you for the information. My wife wants a clean and incognito look so I'll give your solution a go. She doesn't like the bull bar up front.
I was just going to put some baja sport amber for driving in dense fog and rain. Done some wiring for my truck before so hardest is probably taking the bumber off without breaking any tabs.
That was the easy part =)

Hardest part was drilling into heavy gauge steel straight, installing the rivnut, breaking the rivnut tool, reassembling everything, and doing it again when the new tool got there.

Ps. The rivnuts needed to install them using BD hardware will require a specialty drill bit bigger than what most cordless drill will take. 17/32 (larger that 1/2'') So I'd size down the hardware or be very careful with a stepped drill bit because if the hole is too big the rivnut will be loose and very hard to remove.

Good luck! Very happy with the results, but don't think I'd attempt it again.
 
#10 ·
I've never tested them for the purpose of driving in low visibility condition (i.e. foggy morning). At night, they're pretty much worthless because the OEM LED headlight is amazingly bright and evenly distributed. I suggest getting the halogen version and use yellow bulbs.
 
#11 ·
I do find they light up the car's corner areas nicely for ultra-close-up lane marker visibility, but, I also find people think that I have my brights on, I guess because of how bright the LEDs are and they also see a second set of lights on at the same time. :sneaky:

But yeah, I also don't really have much need for using them. They were nice going down the switchbacks into Shafer Canyon in Canyonlands National Park.
 
#13 ·
These are what I'm planning to go with, if I ever get around to it.

 
#14 ·
As for the factory fog lights, not so good. The headlights are awesome in the ascent. Love the way they turn with you. Anybody have any ideas to replace these little leds with a brighter one or maybe like Robert said a yellow one. If course I am talking about something that fits and does not look like an aftermarket? Any thoughts?
 
#16 ·
Yeah, I've always wondered why almost no one uses yellow. I got the vinyl overlays, but never got to installing them.
 
#17 ·
Sorry this is a bit late, I don't frequent this forum as much as other ones. I installed the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro Yellow. They are fantastic and can't be beat by anything currently on the market, end of conversation. If you're curious how they perform against ANY LED aftermarket SAE Fog Light, check this thread out. There is no source out there that is this detailed or unbiased. He uses a light meter (very expensive might I add) made to measure LED as well as any other light source. Many others that you see test lights don't use the correct equipment and it causes inaccurate readings, Headlight Revolution on YouTube is one of those offenders. With light meters not designed for use with LED's, they overexaggerate the actual light output. In fact, his testing is so detailed that it called out Baja Designs due to having too much glare (causing it to bother oncoming traffic) and prompted Baja Designs to pause sales on their SAE fog lights and revise the design. Which they simply put a block off plate behind the lens that has small openings in it allow light only out of small rectangles in front of each LED. As you can imagine it reduced the output even more. Either way, even before the revision it performed worse the Diode Dynamics and Rigids, heck they are even dimmer than the OEM halogen Tacoma Fog Lights.

The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

The reason to go with a Yellow (research selective yellow if you'd like) fog light is for better poor weather visibility and eye strain on the driver. In fact, I installed these in Nov the day before going on a deployment and didn't tell my wife. A couple weeks later there was a snow storm and she flipped on the fog lights for the first time since install and couldn't believe how much better she could see. She normally doesn't notice things like this. But I got a message when she got to work about how much she loved them! Thats a huge testament there! lol

I cannot stress to people enough to NOT waste their money on the Baja Designs SAE Fog Lights. They are abysmal at best! Also Baja Designs Wide Cornering are NOT SAE APPROVED, DON'T USE THEM AS FOG LIGHTS!!!! They make fantastic off road lights, but their SAE is not good. However on that note, there has been quite a bit of recent ONYX6 light bars that are having LED failures and moisture issues lately, quality dropping maybe? I hope not, because I want all companies to succeed since it just makes the whole market work harder to compete with each other and make better products.

Heres a run down of the power options of the SS3
-Sport Yellow SAE Fog Light - Lowest power, very good focus and equal to or better than almost any OEM fog light. They lens stays warm, but not warm enough to keep heavy build up of snow slush off.
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-Pro Yellow SAE Fog Light (I own these) - Medium power, has more light bleed than the Sport or Max but still well within SAE standards, a more true selective yellow than the Sport and Max due to the use of a 4000 kelvin LED chip, which the Sport and Max us a 5000k LED chip. I prefer Pro because of the small amount of light bleed. It illuminates road signs just enough that they don't glare too bad and actually makes them easier to read because they are not bright white. The glare is not offensive to oncoming traffic or when in front of my wife while in my 01 Outback. Also the lens stays warm enough to melt snow/slush unlike the Sport.

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- Max Yellow SAE Fog Light - HIGHEST POWER!!! Bar none the brightest and most focused SAE Fog Light you can buy, the price reflects that too though. Very good focus and insanely amazing output. My buddy has them on his Legacy that he drives 70 miles a day each way for work. I can absolutely say they are worth the money over the Pros if you can justify it yourself. Lens stays warm enough to melt snow and slush as well.

12155


Here are some output shots (both with headlights off) of the OEM LED fog lights vs Diode Dynamics SS3 Pro Yellow. In this photo the OEM fog lights have been raised from the factory position as they come adjusted very low from the factory making them pretty much useless. The photo of the DD SS3's were before I aimed them a little lower, so keep that in mind. For reference wall is about 40-50 ft away from the front of the vehicle and I attempted to keep exposure long and brightness low to focus on the beam pattern and not blowing out the image. Taken on iPhone 11 Pro

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In this photo is the DD SS3 Pro. Again, this is before adjusting them lower so keep that in mind. This wall 100+ feet away too. Photo taken on iPhone 11 Pro

12152
 
#44 ·
Sorry this is a bit late...
Sorry to necrobump, but this post was immensely helpful. I was on my way to purchase the other set largely because I felt the DD setup was awkward in being cut off by the Ascent's foglight opening. However, your lighting pictures really nailed that even with the occlusion, it's still tremendously better than the OEM LED fogs which I honestly can't even tell when they're on.

So thank you, I should hopefully get my set some time after the first week in March.
 
#18 ·
Thank you for the excellent information! Were you able to mount the DD SS3's where the OEM fog lamps go or did you mount them else where? I would prefer to be able to swap out the OEM's for a quality lamp that fits the same space on the frame.

NEVER MIND! I went to the DD website and found EXACTLY what I've been looking for! YEAH! I can't thank you enough!
 
#19 ·
DD now has an Ascent specific kit, however it comes with the round bezel like the Outback kit. I emailed them this morning regarding the round bezel fitment and suggested they offer the standard bezel instead. I still have to order a set of the standard bezels for mine.

They fit in exactly the same spot, not additional mounting or anything. As long as the kit comes with the harness to plug into you factory harness then you’re all set. The only hard part is tightening the mounting/adjustment bolt on the outboard side of each fog light.
 
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#21 ·
I’ll try to grab one here in a little bit. The lens isn’t fully exposed because of the odd shaped opening the Ascent has. When testing I removed the fog light trim piece but there was no difference in output. So the amount that the trim piece covers the lens doesn’t hurt it at all.
 
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#23 ·
Ideally, use aftermarket fog lights so you can operate them with your headlights off. The purpose of fog lights is to shine underneath the fog. Cars that have headlights and fogs on at the same time defeats the purpose of a fog light. The headlight illuminate the fog, causing the blinding effect. Fog lights can shine much further than 10-15', but it depends on how low you can mount them. I used to own a company that sold aftermarket vehicular lights.

Personally, I don't find any real advantage to white light over yellow light.
 
#24 ·
That is a personal choice as to color temperature of the light, you do you. However there are many scientific studies showing that selective yellow is far more effective at cutting through fog due to the reduction of blue through violet color wavelengths that causes poor vision when the light is reflected off the moisture in the air like a prism. Where the DD SS3's accel is that they are the closest thing to selective yellow you can find in an LED light source. The lenses are designed specifically for each level of light as the chip used is different in each power rating. So they changed the lens color to block the blue through violet of each specific LED. Hence why the MAX version's lens is a darker amber than the Sport and Pro.

Sport SAE Fog Yellow
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Pro SAE Fog Yellow
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Max SAE Fog Yellow
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My non lab based science (wife) tells me that they help out tremendously. When she notices a difference there is something to it since she hardly notices anything. haha The reason I go the SS3's was because of a snow storm and how much reflection there was with the OEM LED Headlights and Fog lights. It's down right horrible!!! If you haven't experienced the DD SS3 Yellow fog lights in poor weather, I suggest you find someone with a pair. You may surprise yourself. I am normally one to suggest not using fog lights unless the conditions call for it. But I will say that I notice less eye strain/fatigue when using these on road trips even in good conditions.

@Fergie Great write up! Very much appreciated. Do you have any photos of how they look installed? The photos from the site looks like it's kind of off center, possibly the angle of the photo. Super excited that DD has a kit for the ascent too.
No problem!! I'll let you guys know what they send back.

Here are a couple photos from our car. Don't judge, just did some road tripping so it's dirty! lol

Automotive parking light Tire Wheel Plant Window


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#28 ·
I'm not sure. The difficulty of making it perfect is more of an issue with the way Subaru designed the fog light opening. The OEM fog light has a very specific and odd shape. Even though it is round, Subaru made the opening on the fog light trim piece in the shape of the of the lens on the fog light. This makes it challenging for any aftermarket manufacture to make one that fits "perfect". However if they used a standard bezel I believe the fog light fitment would be better behind the trim piece. Still haven't heard back from them. I'll have to check in on that, they usually get back to people very quickly....could have been on my end too.
 
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#30 ·
2021 vs 2019 Model Year Fogs

I'm not going with anything aftermarket because I'm leasing. However...

Having just switched my 2019 Touring for a 2021 Touring, I am finding the 2021 fog lights to be quite different and really anemic. While my 2019 cast a broad swath across the ground well below my low beams (lighting up the ground 30 feet ahead and closer), the 2021 fogs cast a sharp horizontal line just below the low beams but leaves the ground unlit closer to the car.

Anyone else see this? Maybe mine were installed wrong at the factory.

F.S.
 
#31 ·
I haven't seen that before. It's pretty much impossible to mount them differently than the way they are designed. Ours is a 21 and you can see my output shots of the OEM LED fog lights. I have no experience with the Halogen ones though.

Personally even if I were leasing a vehicle I would strongly consider the upgrade to the Diode Dynamics. They can be removed and if you get a different vehicle you can get new mounts from Diode Dynamics for a really reasonable price. There are no OEM fog lights that outperform the Pro or the Max and there won't be either. Even speaking aftermarket there will likely be no direct competitors likely to the Max for a really long time. Even the Pro is better both in brightness and light spread than any other manufacture, only one that comes close is the Rigid and those are almost double the price.
 
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#38 · (Edited)
Yes has the part numbers listed on the first page. The switch goes into the blank place holder, last button on the stack on the left (left driver side). There's a install pdf as well on the first page, it shows the location. The turn signal stalk has nothing to do with the fog light.

It's OEM so yes, when using high beams the fog lights turn off.

If you want them to stay on all the time you'll have to wire your own independent system.
 
#47 ·
You need not apologize, I definitely have an interest in lighting as well. I used to read and re-read Daniel Stern's site and that served as a good primer to start to understand what makes for good lighting.

I certainly don't have your depth of knowledge on this subject, but I definitely understand what you're saying.
I like Daniel Stern's info as well, but I didn't want to overload the post even more!! lol

By no means am I attempting to be a definitive source of info. But I have studied automotive lighting for quite some time (not officially) and have had lots of trial and error. For many years I was in the retrofitting game and still do on older cars, but that's going away with most manufactures building such intricate headlights. For many of the LED based headlights now it's not worth tearing into and some run through the canbus systems making integration more difficult. I'm always here to answer any questions that I am capable of, I'm not afraid to say "I don't know"...But I'm always down for trying to find an answer!

So now it's up to switch out auxiliary lighting to fill in the gaps, which is getting to the point of reaching the max output limits of SAE requirements. The new backlit SS3 Max is probably going to be at that limit. Which means the only thing they can do from there is improve optics if they still want to have the SAE rating. Diode Dynamics is a rarity in LED lighting since they have far more integrity in that the rated specs that hold true in 3rd party testing, the reliability is amazing, customer service is some of the best in any industry and they are made in the USA!!! They also understand that initial lux reading mean nothing and stabilized lux is what matters, customers are figuring that out and it's starting to show. Their SS3 lineup has bit into other popular companies sales and customer brand loyalty is shifting toward DD.
 
#58 ·
What solution did you use for the switch?

whats the light you used?


Here’s a second option that I like for country night driving. Also put high lumen bulbs in the fogs. Had the install work done by a local custom shop for $250. The light bar runs on a separate toggle switch on the lower left dash next to the other option buttons.
View attachment 14705
 
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