Rear fog lights

colm_mcm

Does anybody know how to use them?

do people realise what they are? i don't buy it that people don't realise they're on, because most cars reset the switch when the lights are turned off. so people have to deliberately switch them on every time they drive. do they realise how annoying they are, or do they just enjoy having lots of little lights on the dashboard?

Max_Damage

My Micra actually doesn't have rear fog lights for some reason (then again, it is 16 years old), but it really does piss me off when people leave them on at night, when it's not foggy. What I do in retaliation is give them a dose of high-beams!

mukki

thing i was wondering about today


should you turn them off if there is someone close behind you even if it is foggy, because they are just hatefull


edit- he he, forgot that i had made a new sig tonight, pretty appropriate

mike65

Read the sig baby!

Mike.

Berty

Well. I hate people who say they forgot. However, I do agree that some people dont know they are on.

My old car 00 Almera had a special button for the lights, so does my jeep at work.
My new car Focus. When you turn the light knob right you get parking lights, again and you get dipped beam, but again and you get fog lights.

You will notice this. I assure you, that most fords are the main culprits.

I did see three cars in Limerick with no lights on at all today. Bloody women!

mike65

Yeah but there is also a dash light (usually yellowish) to indicate the rear fogs are on. Don't folk ever wonder why the light is showing?

Mike.

johnnyrotten

What about front fog lights. It seems that a lot of people drive with them on as a kinda sorta fashion thing

kc66

If the fog is not heavy there is no need for rear fog lights. They are still blinding. They should only be used if the fog is thick enough.

AMurphy

colm_mcm wrote:

Does anybody know how to use them?

do people realise what they are? i don't buy it that people don't realise they're on, because most cars reset the switch when the lights are turned off. so people have to deliberately switch them on every time they drive. do they realise how annoying they are, or do they just enjoy having lots of little lights on the dashboard?

Based on the fun I had with a rental (Fiat something). I could not easily tell the front fog lamp indicator from the rear fog lamp indicator, nor is the front fog lamps were on or off, didn't seem to make much of a difference.
So I have no idea whether none, any or all of the F or R fog lamps were on or off.

Might be time to make the indicators more obvious or userfriendly.... to the driver on the inside and not the rest of the (annoyed) driving public only.

btw, I found the little rotary button for controlling the up-down of the heads a bit counterintuitive also, in that if it was turned the same way as the wheels turn when gong forward (Fwd), the heads went UP and down when rotated backwards.
Based on Tractor Loader lever or pulley principle, rotating forwards is down, rotating backwards is up, just like the throttle on your bike...
Next it will be sideways L&R for up and dwn. gimme a break...:rolleyes:

Bluetonic

kc66 wrote:

If the fog is not heavy there is no need for rear fog lights. They are still blinding. They should only be used if the fog is thick enough.

The rules of the raod state that they should be used when visibility is down to 1000 feet/300 meters.

With 'light' fog visibility can be down to 300 meters.

alias no.9

AMurphy wrote:

btw, I found the little rotary button for controlling the up-down of the heads a bit counterintuitive also, in that if it was turned the same way as the wheels turn when gong forward (Fwd), the heads went UP and down when rotated backwards.
Based on Tractor Loader lever or pulley principle, rotating forwards is down, rotating backwards is up, just like the throttle on your bike...
Next it will be sideways L&R for up and dwn. gimme a break...:rolleyes:

How about looking at the numbers? 0, 1, 2, 3, as you roll it up, the numbers increase, as you roll it down, the numbers decrease. Surely thats intuitive. Why would you expect it to be in any way related to the rotation of the wheels?

blastman

mukki wrote:

thing i was wondering about today


should you turn them off if there is someone close behind you even if it is foggy, because they are just hatefull


edit- he he, forgot that i had made a new sig tonight, pretty appropriate

I was driving home on the M1 last night and as we hit a bank of fog, the guy in front of me switched his rear fog lights on. Now admittedly he was sufficiently on the ball to switch them off again when he realised we were through what turned out to be an isolated patch, but I was annoyed that he had turned them on at all, to be honest. It wasn't as if I suddenly couldn't see him, and he must have known that I was close enough to see him. Suddenly turning on lights like that can make you brake instinctively, even more dangerous when there's fog about.

prospect

blastman wrote:

I was driving home on the M1 last night and as we hit a bank of fog, the guy in front of me switched his rear fog lights on. Now admittedly he was sufficiently on the ball to switch them off again when he realised we were through what turned out to be an isolated patch, but I was annoyed that he had turned them on at all, to be honest. It wasn't as if I suddenly couldn't see him, and he must have known that I was close enough to see him. Suddenly turning on lights like that can make you brake instinctively, even more dangerous when there's fog about.

Don't agree.
If it is foggy (as opposed to misty) turn them on, if it is not, switch them off. I would have done exactly as they person you mention.

Doolittle51

I often wonder if some people turn on their rear fog lights, but think they are turning on the rear de-mister. I've seen cars going around with the back window misted-up and fog light on!!

Alun

prospect wrote:

Don't agree. If it is foggy (as opposed to misty) turn them on, if it is not, switch them off. I would have done exactly as they person you mention.

Depends on what you mean by 'foggy', hence the visibility constraints, although I thought the official limit was 50m, not 100m.

Anyway, the point is I think you need to use a little bit of discretion here. Basically even if it is foggy, I'll look around and see if I can see the normal rear lights of the cars in front of me sufficiently well, if I can I leave the foglights off, if I'm having difficulty I'll put them on. One exception is when it is foggy, but borderine with regard to the need for fog lights, and I'm the only person on the road when I'll put them on anyway, but switch them off again if someone comes up close behind me. The other exception is when the fog is extremely patchy and unpredictable.

BrianD3

Last nights fog was really bad in places. I was driving on a regional road and at one stage couldn't see the verge and could barely see the white line. Of course the crap/dirty/worn road markings in this country don't help. Lucky there was a white line at all I suppose. I was driving at walking pace in 1st gear but even that was a bit fast for comfort :eek:

blastman

Exactly Alun. If someone came up behind me on a quiet foggy road, I would turn off my rear fogs as soon as I was sure they were aware of me. No sense blinding someone needlessly. If I'm already behind you and we suddenly hit a patch of fog, you can safely presume I know you haven't magically disappeared.

BrianD3

blastman wrote:

If I'm already behind you and we suddenly hit a patch of fog, you can safely presume I know you haven't magically disappeared.

You can never presume anything with Irish drivers Personally I do the same as others - switch rear fogs on in dense fog if there is no-one behind then switch them off when a car comes up behind and has obviously seen me. I actually find that if you leave the fogs on you're more likely to get tailgated, as the idiot behind focuses on the fog light and is drawn to it like a fly to sh1t.

colm_mcm

maybe the switches should clearly say "rear fog" and the switch should be seperate unlike VW Group/Ford cars, where you pull the light switch to activate,