Sup,

Alright, If you haven't read a thread from me before, here's my driving situation.

I drive to Valdez, Alaska and back to Medford, OR every spring/fall. I have a pretty much stock 2001 RS 2.5. So, A lot of my time is spent behind the wheel in remote areas in the dark. I was thinking about adding two more fog lights on my car. I have a few questions for anyone who has tried this.

Where to put them?
How to wire them? (direct line to battery or splicing the wires from the old fog lights)
And any other possible advice.

I am quite the electrician, so that's not a problem. Any Ideas thoughts or general BS would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Tyler Kleven

so, you want fog lights. or driving lights? well anyway, i would wire them up just like you would any other aux lighting system. I would put them in the lower grill opening, towards the outside. Then wire them up to a realy and thats it. I would not recoment wiring them up to you stock fogs, unless you just use the switched hot lead to turn on your relay for your new aux lights. hope this makes sence.
Shane

Yes, 2 new fog lights.

My real question about this whole thing is, after i buy the new lights, find a place i want to put them, how exactly could i install them? all i see where i want to put them (in the lower grill towards the outside) is a horizontal plastic beam, i wouldn't dare hook it up to that, any ideas on what to connect them to?

Thanks again,

Kleven

you could mount it to the top of the bottom opening, there is a bumper beam there, and a great place to bolt something there.
Shane

Along with Places to put it, what fog lights would anyone reccomend?

I put the Hella FF driving lights (driving pattern) in exactly the place described above. they worked great on the last TSD rally....

YOu might want to look at Hella 500 or even the "real" rally lights at:

http://www.rallylights.com/

nick

Originally posted by JaxxaJ
Along with Places to put it, what fog lights would anyone reccomend?

I'm not sure how much inclement weather you have to go through, but imho, having a fog light unit with projector lens is beneficial, because you can minimize glare and focus the light on the road.

I probably don't require as much lighting as you do, but I found the Hella Optilux projector lights to be very beneficial when driving in winding hills through inclement weather. They are rather inexpensive too.

The optiluxes are only 55W, which means that all else being equal, they would not be able to project light as much as the stronger (100W plus) foglights from hella or other brands.

That being said, you can improve the range and lighting significantly if the projector fogs are placed a bit higher than the oem fogs, and then aimed a bit below horizontal to avoid blinding others.

I would think that a pair of 55W optilux projector fogs wouldn't be enough for your needs, but I would recommend looking at them as a part of your solution.

Here is a photo of the optilux installed on my GD impreza. The different elevation photos show how the vertical cutoff allows for most of the light to be directed downwards. They are wired independent of the oem lighting.
http://mechatro2.me.berkeley.edu/~satrya/pics/photos/wrx200302/elev001.jpg

Thanks a lot,

The only store around here that I relaly buy anything from is GI Joes. I think i'll head to the schucks today and see what they have.

I am on a limited budget of about 100 or less. So i'll go spec some prices today

Thanks a lot,

Tyler Kleven

P.S. Keep the suggestions coming :P

Originally posted by JaxxaJ
I am on a limited budget of about 100 or less. So i'll go spec some prices today

Iirc, some of the hella optilux projectors are sold for about US$45-62 a pair. So, two pairs of these should be reasonable within your constraint. They may look small, but the lighting seems stronger than the equal wattage oem fogs. Plus the sharp vertical cutoff is much better than most reflector design. If you're willing to drill mouting holes on the GC grille, mouting these is even a non-issue.

Regarding the source, how about looking around summitracing.com and jcwhitney ? I'm not sure if local auto stores have good projector fog light units.

I just got back from "Big Boys Toy's." It's a local mod shop. They were selling Hella Optilux's for 70$ (they had a neon ring on the outside.)

I also looked at some PIAA fog lights and bulbs. WOW, I had no idea something that simple could be so expensive, 250$ for the cheapest PIAA foglights, and 80-90$ for the bulbs.

I'm pretty bored so I'm looking for something to make my car look better and occupy some of my time. I recently looked into window tinting, but that would be a different forum. =P

I might go with the Hella Optilux's, and just find a way to install them, or maybe go with some cheaper rip-off brand from GI Joes.

Originally posted by JaxxaJ
I just got back from "Big Boys Toy's." It's a local mod shop. They were selling Hella Optilux's for 70$ (they had a neon ring on the outside.)

I also looked at some PIAA fog lights and bulbs. WOW, I had no idea something that simple could be so expensive, 250$ for the cheapest PIAA foglights, and 80-90$ for the bulbs.

Summitracing has projector fogs for US$59.95. I'm sure shipping wouldn't add that much. The Optilux with neon ring, I believe, is the reflector type. For Fog and low beams, I prefer projector type over reflector type. I recall seeing optilux projectors somewhere else for a little bit less than that.

PIAAs are expensive. Some argue that they are justifiably so for reasons of quality and brightness of lighting. My (limited) personal experience on some Hellas and a PIAA002x tells me otherwise.

A cheep way you can get more lighting is going to pepboys and getting a pair of light housings for like $10 a piece. then going to home depot and getting some brackets and installing them.

You can try a similiar approach that I did on my WRX:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=351260

Casey

Again I'll reccomed a DRIVING pattern and Hella Lamps.. a pair of the 500's is ~~$80.00.

the driving pattern is great when you need to project tons of light down the road and dont want it on the ground too much..

obviously the driving pattern is not for use w/ oncoming traffic....


nick

Originally posted by LyveWRX
Again I'll reccomed a DRIVING pattern and Hella Lamps.. a pair of the 500's is ~~$80.00.

the driving pattern is great when you need to project tons of light down the road and dont want it on the ground too much..

obviously the driving pattern is not for use w/ oncoming traffic....


From the original post, it seems that the poster wanted fog lights. However, it's not clear whether additional lighting down the road or additional peripheral lighting is required. Peripheral lighting can be useful to help minimize the chance of hitting deers etc. Additional lighting down the road is useful if you're driving fast, long, straight roads. Anything in between would be open to interpretation, imho.

Depending on the lighting unit, both fog and driving lights can blind oncoming traffic, especially when aimed improperly. I've seen foglights (mounted low on the bumper) aimed upwards and blind oncoming traffic. The owner probably thinks that the fogs works better this way.