Quote:
Originally Posted by Laird Scooby
The big question is, are the lamps you have fog lamps or driving lamps? 
This will dictate their use rather than the fitted position. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by john.wigley
If Alan will allow a small diversion, there does seem to be widespread confusion generally regarding additional lighting and it's use, 'L.S.'. Recently, you rightly corrected me when I referred to driving lamps as 'spot'( as opposed to 'fog') lamps. I do feel that the lighting C and U regs are ambiguous and open to misinterpretation.
Let me explain. My V70 is equipped with spoiler lights that I understand are officially classified as 'fog' lights, which, as such, may only be used in conditions of reduced visibility, fog, or falling snow.
In my view (pun intended), these are no brighter, cause no more dazzle and are no more intrusive than the DRLs fitted to some cars in a similar position. Why, then, is it legal and acceptable for such lights to be displayed on new cars so equipped, when that is not, as I understand it, so on cars like my own?
Would I be risk being pulled over and possible prosecution should I do so? Lord knows you need every lumen you can muster on ageing V70, particularly on rural roads with irregular edges and no markings. On those occasions when I have used my spoiler lights driving on such roads I have never been 'flashed' nor, as far as I am aware, otherwise incurred the wrath of another road user!
Regards, John.
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If you don't mind me say so Dave, that is a bit of nonsense. I don't believe there is anything in the legal definition that required the lenses of luminaires used as driving lights to be '
mainly clear with some striations' and those used as foglamps to be '
heavily diffused with striations'; if there was such a regulation the legal distinction between 'some striations' and 'heavily diffused with striations would be impossible to enforce. I'm also pretty certain there is no requirement for foglamps to be wired only to work with dipped beam (if that ever was a rule it must have been done away with decades ago).I say this for a number of reasons:
a. The factory fitted foglamps on my Skoda Superb are absolutely smooth with no striations at all. They are also wired to stay on when both main and dipped beams are selected.
b. All the aftermarket extra lamps I see are sold as fog/driving lamps.
c. The pair I have in the spares shed have striations, but who is to say they have some or lots? No one, is the answer.
The lamps I have would be perfectly usable as either driving or foglamps; the only defining factors will be where I mount them (and I favour the low position like the ad I posted a link to above) and how I wire them up (on the high beam only for driving, but both beams is fine for foglamps).
John,
I agree with absolutely about DRLs fitted low down on many modern cars. They differ only in that they have no separate switch from your foglamps. I believe the interpretation of the rules by state agencies and the police is now very flexible as a result, and there would be no possibility of a prosecution if one drove round with the front foglamps switched on during the midday sun (but not the high intensity rear lamp - although some drivers ignore that).
I don't think this is anywhere near as complex as people are making out chaps: if I fit the lamps I have low and with a switch that controls them with both high and dipped beam they will be foglamps; if I put them a bit higher and switched with the high beam only they will be driving lamps. That is all.
I'll have a look at the existing switch wiring when I have a mo, but almost certainly fit the luminaires as foglamps because I prefer the aesthetic.
