Daytime running lights - super bright LEDS

[greenMachine]

95% of this DRL stuff is just a wanker's OD.

Fog lights are low-mounted, tightly controlled lights - ie the beam is carefully focussed to travel low along the ground in front of the car and illuminate THE ROAD. Not the treetops. Especially, NOT oncoming drivers' eyes. The reason for this is blindingly (oh no, another ) obvious to anyone who has flicked their lights to high in a fog. Glare. Blinding glare.

Fog lights (the real ones) and low beams are designed to throw light below the eye level for oncoming cars. These lights are not designed at all, just a marketer's dream to be sold as a fashion statement to a gullible public.

If you NEED DRLs, Mr Mazda gave you two for free with the car, they are sometimes referred to as 'headlights'. Just put your lights on (low beam), and you have a great set of high visibility, non-glare (when did you last check the alignment?) DRLs.

If the overwhelming urge to conform to the latest fad is too much, for the sake of your fellow motorists, PLEASE get a set of properly designed fog lights, wire them properly (ie legally), align them properly and you can indulge yourself without inconvenience to others, and be legal too!

Rant over.

sigh

[Mr Morlock]

Virtually all OE standalone bumper mounted lamps are fog lamps. Fog lamps have the same wattage as driving lamps ie almost always 55W halogen but as Greenmachine pointed out they are by design pooling light wide and very low. Yellow fogs went out about 30 yrs ago. A rear lamp is only 5W so being visible is not all about high wattage and that is the principle of DRLs ie to be seen and not to see with.

[Red Dragon]

But it was made law a couple of years ago, no fog lights any time there is no fog.

[Jeo]

Do we really need to have this argument again?

[Benny]

Fog lights are supposed to only come on with your parking lights and not your headlights.
Many European cars, like my Merc, won't let you switch on the fog lights UNLESS the parking lights are on, and if you try and turn on your headlights, the fog lights go out.

Now, in the Mazda, you can just push the switch and have them on at any time, and this is a mistake and is also illegal.

[jules]

Anybody know what the STUPID little round lights are on the new Prado. Got stuck in front of a bleck one this afternoon and I was damn near blinded they were so damn bright.

There's two things I can't understand.

1/ Why these vehicles are able to shine independently such a bright little light in the factory housing
2/ Why car makers produce bleck off-road vehicles? Doesn't make sense as they would show up the mud so much worse than, say, silver.

Jules

[Old Dude]

Anybody know what the STUPID little round lights are on the new Prado. Got stuck in front of a bleck one this afternoon and I was damn near blinded they were so damn bright.

There's two things I can't understand.

1/ Why these vehicles are able to shine independently such a bright little light in the factory housing
2/ Why car makers produce bleck off-road vehicles? Doesn't make sense as they would show up the mud so much worse than, say, silver.

Jules

My son calls them "Tosser lights" as only tossers have them on when there's no need to

[de Bounce]

Why do they make 4wd's Black
Because Bleck is the new silver
Why do people buy Bleck 4wd's that show up the dirt. Cos they don't/won't get them dirty

Why do the have their bright little lights on - see below

wanker lights is the name, same reason as Old Dude's son claims.

[MX5CHIC]

Fitted these over 3 years ago, have an NB8B Front End now so they have been moved to either side of the number plate in the mouth area ..... black small car with too many near misses "sorry did not see you"

Cost = $39.00 - K-Mart




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[Tezzax5]

Anybody know what the STUPID little round lights are on the new Prado. Got stuck in front of a bleck one this afternoon and I was damn near blinded they were so damn bright.

There's two things I can't understand.

1/ Why these vehicles are able to shine independently such a bright little light in the factory housing
2/ Why car makers produce bleck off-road vehicles? Doesn't make sense as they would show up the mud so much worse than, say, silver.

Jules

Jules they were probably Bi Xenon headlights.
Don't know about the prado but our new golf gti has them and no matter where you you turn the light switch postion to they will stay on .
Apparently designed for the US market and parts of europe to be used as a DRL.

[Mr Morlock]

Bi xenon lamps are low beam and high beam with xenon technology( HID) and these lamps are used for driving and seeing-your headlights.

Driving lamps are add on lights for long range viewing and will blind oncoming vehicles. No OEM's use these as high beams are so good these days.

Fog lamps are for fog- usually 55w halogen and they have no long range ability- if you change to 100w they are brighter but beam pattern is the same. Fog lamps are commonly fitted to modern cars eg Falcons, Territories , Tributes X5's rtc etc etc. As someone mentioned they are annoying if the bumper of a Territory is eye level at when seated in an MX5 ie seated very low. Full size cars probably do not even notice and dazzle oncoming is more imagination than anything else.

Fog lights on say a Territory can be operated with parkers or headllights on but there is a remote switch to disable it. There are laws for their use but many do not know or care, I reckon headlights in day light are more annoying.

I think an MX5 could be well served with a drl since the car is so low and can be hard to see esp in dark colours. The other alternative is to run with headlights on or just parkers but then the rear lights are lit and you use up the life of the bulbs esp for headllights.

[rjastra2]

Jules they were probably Bi Xenon headlights.
Don't know about the prado but our new golf gti has them and no matter where you you turn the light switch postion to they will stay on .
Apparently designed for the US market and parts of europe to be used as a DRL.

You can get the DRL option turned off at the dealer for the BiXenon headlight option.

[bruce]

MX5CHICs lights look quite good.

[Alex]

RTA thinks they are a good idea

A recent NRMA report has found that DRLs could prevent a quarter of all fatal daylight collisions and more than a quarter of fatal daytime pedestrian accidents.

As for fog lights there have been warnings for quite a while on signs in NSW

There's a new message on Roads and Traffic Authority electronic bulletin boards across Sydney: "Only use fog lights in adverse conditions." It also warns there is an $85 fine for using fog lights in clear conditions.

[Tezzax5]

Jules they were probably Bi Xenon headlights.
Don't know about the prado but our new golf gti has them and no matter where you you turn the light switch postion to they will stay on .
Apparently designed for the US market and parts of europe to be used as a DRL.

You can get the DRL option turned off at the dealer for the BiXenon headlight option.

Good to see that you are still around Richard

I asked the dealers about that and they said

At this stage they didn't want to change any settings on the car What The?

Nevermind Overall i'm still very happy with the car