Which fog lights are good, yellow or white? What are fog lights

Today, automotive lighting includes many elements. This is not only head optics, but also additional light, as well as fog lights. In this article we will understand what PTFs are, what they should be, operating principles and whether it is advisable to use them at all.

- these are devices that should emit white or rich yellow light. But it is worth noting that both lamps in the headlights that are installed on the vehicle must have the same tone of light. The beam of light should be flat, wide and horizontal, which lies directly above the road, which allows better illumination of the space in heavy fog or rain. PTF is not necessary additional devices, which are located under the head optics. They can be located both on the bumper and directly in the head optics of the car.

Why do you need PTF in a car?

Fog lamps are necessary for use in difficult weather conditions:

Light from conventional lamps installed in head optics cannot cope with difficult weather conditions. Beams of the near and high beam Head optics are reflected and scattered from the smallest drops of moisture or snow, which creates a translucent wall, which affects the deterioration of the quality of visibility on the road. Due to the fact that the fog lights provide a wide beam of light, the side of the road is well illuminated, making it easier to drive on winding roads. In addition, in difficult weather conditions, fog lights make the car stand out well to other participants. traffic, and this affects the improvement of road safety. You can watch a fascinating video about driving in fog at the end of the article.

In order for fog lights to provide good visibility of the road, they must meet the following criteria:

Have a clear upper boundary of the light beam. Accordingly, neither the reflected light, nor even the light from the source itself should be above the horizontal plane.
Headlights should be installed as low as possible on the vehicle. It is this criterion that ensures high-quality visibility, since there is always a certain gap between the road and the layer of fog, which should be illuminated.
If the PTFs do not meet these two criteria, then the bright light will be reflected from the smallest drops of moisture, which are a component of fog and, accordingly, blind the driver of the vehicle.

Yellow PTFs – why are they more effective?

It is recommended to use lamps that emit yellowish light in fog lamps, as it is less scattered, therefore providing better effect and visibility. This happens for the reason that it is the light that has the shorter wavelength – the blue part of the spectrum – that is most scattered. The light filter that makes up the fog lights cuts off the blue part of the spectrum and turns white light into yellow light, which has a long wavelength. Note that during fog there is always a clear lane between it and the road, but there is none during rain, snowfall, a smoke or dust curtain. It is in such cases that fog lights provide good visibility thanks to a clear upper limit of light.

According to the rules of traffic regulations and GOST 8769-75, the installation of fog lights is allowed only in a quantity of two pieces. Location:

400 mm from the side dimension;
230 mm from the road surface.

According to the rules of the Economic Commission for Europe, there are additional requirements for the installation of fog lights:

They should be located no higher than the low beam headlights;
The visibility angle is vertical from +15 to -10 degrees, and horizontal from +45 to -10 degrees;

PTFs must be turned on exclusively based on the dimensions of the vehicle.

Requirements for the fog lights themselves

Each headlight must have an official certificate of compliance with all the rules of the Economic Commission for Europe. Those products that have successfully passed certification are equipped with international confirmation on the lens or on the protective glass of the headlight, that is, a special indelible inscription. The sign must indicate:

Information about the country that issued the official confirmation of the PTF and certification. Usually the country is indicated by a square;
Confirmation number;
Headlight category.

It is very important that fog lights have a category designation so that their further purpose is clear. There are the following categories of headlights and their designations:

C – low beam;
R – high beam;
H – headlights for mounting exclusively halogen lamps;
PL – plastic light diffuser;
S – glass solid optical element;
B – fog lamp.

For God knows how long now I have been noticing a strange fashion - installing xenon in foglights. The question is - what for? I asked two friends who had installed such a collective farm on their car the same question.

The answer was as follows: there is also more light, and you can see the road better. Plus the car becomes more visible on the road.

Usually I assume that people who have earned money for a car have the time and opportunity to find out why PTFs are created, what xenon is, and physics, at least in volume high school. But this is not always the case, and even here, on the road, I constantly come across rave reviews about how cool it is - I installed xenon foglights and headlights on my car... Therefore, I decided to conduct a small educational program - why you can’t install xenon in fog lights, and how to improve the quality of light on a car if it is not satisfactory.

What it is?

Fog lights are headlights with yellow or white glass that produce a flat and wide horizontal beam that spreads directly above the road so as not to illuminate the height of the fog. Can be located in the head optics. In addition, the wide beam of light from the fog lights illuminates the roadside well, making it easier to maneuver on winding roads.

Conditions when PTFs are useful...
In severe weather conditions, such as fog, rain or snowfall, the light from ordinary car headlights, or rather the rays of low and especially high beam, reflecting and scattering from the smallest drops of water or snowflakes, create a translucent veil that reduces visibility.

How is this problem solved?
PTFs should be positioned as low as possible to the road: between the layer of fog and the road there is always a gap into which the light should fall. In this case, the PTFs must have a very clear upper boundary of the beam, that is, neither the reflected light nor the light from the lamp itself should go above the horizontal plane.

Why is yellow PTF color better?
The answer is simple - it dissipates less in the fog. The fact is that light with the shortest wavelength, that is, the blue part of the spectrum, is scattered the most. The fog light filter just cuts off the blue part of the spectrum, leaving the longer wavelength component. White light, from which blue has been excluded, is precisely perceived by the eye as yellow.
When driving in conditions of heavy rain, snowfall, dust or smoke, there is no free layer, as under fog, and a clear upper limit of light and filtering of the high-frequency component of the spectrum become crucial.

Despite the fact that according to traffic regulations, the use of PTF and low beam headlights in conditions is not prohibited, it is better not to do this. Except during the day, when it really increases the visibility of the car. Why is it better not to do this in the dark?

Do not forget that the direct purpose of PTF is to illuminate the road in fog; all fog lights are designed based on this purpose. They also have a cut-off line and a special light distribution within the light spot. Installing xenon in reflector fogs clearly blurs the cut-off line and leads to severe blinding of oncoming drivers. If during the day this is even a benefit, then at night the situation changes to the opposite - driving with such a light is dangerous, it sharply increases the accident rate. A driver who is blinded by you may lose orientation on the road and come into your head.

So let's draw a couple of conclusions:

Xenon foglights should be installed exclusively in lensed PTFs.
Fog lights are not suitable as additional headlights due to their light distribution characteristics and low installation height. To improve illumination, it is the main headlights that need to be upgraded.

Therefore, gentlemen, drivers, I ask you - do not put xenon where it should not be! This is our safety, the safety of our children and loved ones. If you want to improve the quality of light on your car, buy one with factory xenon, or convert the headlights to a lensed low beam.

Photo No. 1 - This is approximately how oncoming drivers see a car with xenon in reflex PTF (I would fucking kill you, I swear).

Photo No. 2 - This is what road lighting with factory PTF looks like in fog

Photo No. 3 - This is what road lighting will look like with xenon installed in reflective PTF in fog

Photo No. 4 - Photo of the cut-off line of my Opel Vectra GTS with factory xenon low-beam headlights with auto-corrector. Everything is as it should be - with a horizontal shelf.

The safety and life of both the driver himself and other people nearby directly depend on visibility on the road. And to see, you need light. And in order to illuminate the path of the car in bad weather, fog lights (FTL) are used. Let's figure out what fog lights are, what they are like and how to choose the right ones.

Why do you need to install front and rear fog lights?

Essentially, fog is a suspension of tiny droplets of water in the air. If you shine ordinary lamps into it, the beam of light will just scatter meaninglessly - and, worst of all, it will blind the driver himself. Increasing the power does not help: the more powerful the light device, the further its beam will penetrate into the thickness of the fog - but at the same time it will be more scattered and reflected.

WATCH THE VIDEO

The solution for such situations is precisely special lighting devices for the car - white or yellow fog lights. Their action is based on the following:

The rays go low above the ground, where there is practically no fog. Accordingly, the light penetrates further. That is why they try to install “foglights” as low to the ground as possible - for example, in the bumper area.
The fog lights are better focused. Their light practically does not rise above the horizontal plane - and therefore is not reflected into the driver’s eyes.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the rear PTFs. Their task is not so much to illuminate the road, but to indicate the car for other road users. That's why they are not white or yellow, but red. They are used less frequently, and due to less demand, as well as the simplicity of the design, the price of rear fog lights is lower than that of front ones.

White or yellow glass?

Many drivers believe that car fog lights must be yellow. They explain this by saying that yellow rays penetrate further into the fog. In fact, this is not the case: water drops in fog are too large to scatter light only from a certain wavelength; they reflect and transmit the entire visible spectrum approximately equally. That is why additional white headlights are allowed for use on cars in case of fog.

However, yellow fog lights do have some advantages:

Due to the nature of human vision, illuminating an object with colored light makes it appear more prominent. Where a regular white beam will show only the gray outline of an oncoming car or pedestrian on the side of the road, a color beam will allow you to notice details. And this is very important for assessing the distance. The fact that yellow was chosen for the fog lights is just an accident: both green and blue would have been acceptable.
Yellow and White light They carry maximum energy in their spectrum - which means they continue to penetrate into the layer of fog. At the same time, the yellow glass on fog devices is not a filter: it transmits almost the entire spectrum, only slightly reducing the intensity of all other colors except yellow. Thus, this option combines the advantages of white and pure yellow headlights.

However, the question of whether yellow or white fog lights are better has not been fully resolved: too much depends on the visual characteristics of a particular driver. That is why the rules allow the installation of headlights of both colors.

Types of fog lights according to the lamps used

In order to choose front or rear fog lights for yourself, you first need to understand what they are like. Nowadays you can find many models and variants of such headlights on the car accessories market. Therefore, let's start by describing the main structures encountered.

Let's start with a description various types lamps used in these headlights.

Halogen headlights

Halogen fog lights are the most common option. Their advantages:

Cheapness.
Unpretentiousness (they, for example, do not require additional ventilation).
Ease of maintenance.

The main disadvantage is the short life of the lamps, which means that if they are used frequently, they will have to be changed regularly.

Xenon

Xenon headlights are also widespread. Despite the fact that they are more expensive than halogens, their service life is longer. In addition, fog light test different types showed that the light emitted by xenon lamps is less tiring to the driver's eyes. Finally, xenon consumes less electricity from the vehicle’s on-board network.

But xenon also has disadvantages:

The need to additionally install an ignition unit, without which they do not work.
Gradual burnout leads to the fact that the lamps formally work - but every day their light becomes weaker. This leads to the fact that the driver may overestimate the available brightness and not replace the lamps on time.
The brightness of xenon lamps may be excessive for use in PTF. In this case, they will blind oncoming drivers.
Xenon requires that the headlight design be initially designed specifically for this type of lamp. If there is no marking on the PTF permitting the installation of xenon lamps, it is illegal to use them there, and when meeting with a traffic police inspector, the culprit will face punishment.

LED headlights

This is a relatively new type of lighting device. It is characterized by durability and low power consumption - however, LEDs for fog lights are still quite expensive.

In addition, when installing this type of headlights, you need to be especially careful about the installation. Improper installation and insufficient ventilation will quickly cause the headlights to fail. In particular, LEDs need a heat sink - and it must be included in the headlight design.

Finally, there are problems of a purely optical nature. The light-emitting area of an LED is larger than that of an incandescent or gas-light lamp - therefore, they require reflectors that were originally designed for the use of LED lamps.

Diagram of the fog lights

Separately, you need to consider designs that have headlights designed for fog. There are several basic headlight designs on the market that need to be considered in more detail.

Headlights with reflector

A reflector is the simplest design for a fog lamp. In this case, the front glass is ordinary, and the light flux is focused due to the special shape of the reflector, which, as the name suggests, reflects the rays strictly in the desired direction.

The following types of reflectors are now common:

Parabolic. As is known, a parabolic mirror either collects all reflected rays at the focus, or, if the light source is already there, reflects them so that a parallel beam is formed. Essentially, the same solution is used here as in the high beam headlights. A horizontal beam that does not propagate above a certain level is formed by scatterers.
FF reflector. This is a relatively new "free form" technology. Here, due to the special shape of the reflector, the light itself is focused in the form of a horizontal strip. This allows optimal use of the lamp resource, without the need for diffusers. However, the manufacture of such reflectors requires complex computer calculations, and therefore such headlights are quite expensive.

Headlights with lens

These are powerful fog lights that, in addition to a reflector, also use a focusing lens. This kit allows you to fully use the lamp light due to double focusing:

on an ellipsoidal reflector;
on the lens located at the second focus of the optical system.

In order to give the light flux the desired shape, screens are used here. Essentially, with this design, the fog lights act like spotlights, allowing for greater range and sharper focus.

It should be noted that combinations of different approaches are also possible. For example, using an FF reflector together with a lens significantly improves the quality of lighting.

Marking of fog lamps

When installing PTFs, you need to pay attention to their markings. It includes the following designations:

Approval code and country sign. In PTFs manufactured in the European Union, it looks like the letter “E” in a circle with the number of the country that approved this type of headlight. American headlights have the abbreviation “DOT,” which stands for “Department of Transportation.”
Destination marking. For PTF with halogen, the letter “B” must appear. If it is F3, then on the contrary, the headlight is structurally designed only for xenon or LEDs. It is worth repeating additionally: unauthorized installation in a headlight designed for halogen lamps, xenon is strictly prohibited!

Lack of markings or code discrepancies may result in the headlights being prohibited from being used, and if an attempt is made to turn them on, the driver may lose his license for up to six months. And although the traffic police are not too picky about PTF, the law must be observed even in small things.

How to choose a set of fog lights?

When choosing a PTF for your car, the owner needs to pay attention to the following:

Durability of the body and glass or lens. Fog lights are mounted on the bumper or even suspended from below. Therefore, there is a high probability that a pebble or piece of hard dirt will bounce off and hit the PTF. It is necessary to install not plastic, but hard glass.
Maintainability. PTFs are often sold in a ready-made, non-separable case. This type is more convenient and faster to install - but if a breakdown occurs, it is almost impossible to repair such a headlight.
Streamlining of the body. Yes, when using PTF, the car moves extremely slowly: these headlights, in principle, are not designed to shine further than 10 m. But during normal driving with normal speed a poorly selected housing will resist and make noise in the oncoming air flow.
Adjustability. If you plan to use xenon, then PTF cannot be used at all without it. But even for halogens or LEDs, the ability to adjust the luminous flux will not be superfluous.

Rating of the best PTFs by brand, price and characteristics

When choosing a PTF, you want to choose the best ones. Therefore, we will try to make a rating of foglights based on reviews received from those who use them.

From a brand perspective, the top four look like this:

Hella and Osram. These are German companies specializing specifically in automotive optics. In principle, their products can, if necessary, be used even instead of low beams.
PIAA is a Japanese company operating in the halogen lighting market.
Wesem is a Polish manufacturer that produces PTF of very decent quality and reasonable price.
Morimoto is formally an American brand, but in reality the products are made in China. Specializes in xenon lamps.

Now let’s look at specific models of these brands:

Hella FF 50. Excellent illumination of the roadway and roadside, can be used in conjunction with low beams. However, there is a drawback: after replacing the lamp, the headlight due to design features needs to be re-adjusted.
WESEM 3. Good “budget” PTF: in terms of price-quality ratio it is one of the leaders on the market. Good sealing allows you not to worry about the headlight while driving through puddles. The disadvantage is that usually instructions in Russian are not included in the kit, and it will be difficult to install it yourself.
PIAA 50XT. PTF is easy to mount and provides good road illumination. Clear light allows you to install the protective mesh without loss of illumination. The only disadvantage is the high price.
Morimoto Mini H1. Xenon lamp good quality. Small dimensions allow installation not only on a car, but even on a scooter. Clear boundaries luminous flux prevent blinding. The only disadvantages that can be mentioned are possible claims from the traffic police, as well as frequent counterfeiting of this brand by third-party manufacturers.

Installing and replacing PTF: where to plug in the relay, button and fuse?

A fog light is a useful device, but not all manufacturers equip their cars with standard fog lights. In addition, even installed headlights tend to fall into disrepair from time to time. Therefore, we will briefly consider the stages of installing a new and replacing an old PTF.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Installation of a fog lamp includes:

Installation of PTF in the bumper. Here everything depends on the design of both the bumper and the foglight itself: some car models provide a standard place for mounting additional headlights, while in others you have to cut holes.
Installing a button to turn on the PTF inside the cabin.
Pull the wiring from the button to the fuse box and to the headlight itself. Here, too, everything depends on the specific model: some foreign cars have standard sockets for connecting PTF. If they are not there, you need to do the wiring in accordance with the electrical diagram of the machine. The main task here is to make sure that the positive contacts of each headlight are connected first to each other and then to the relay, and the negative contact is connected to the body or chassis. In this case, the switch closes the relay, which in turn supplies power to the PTF.
Adjusting the light of switched on PTFs.

In the same case, if there are standard fog lights, or the previous owner has already installed PTF, replacing them is much simpler and occurs according to the instructions for the specific headlight model.