I had very good lighting on my old car (jetta with e-spec lights). I especially like the sharp cutoff of e-spec lights as I am horrible at remembering to turn off my high beams. The stock lights on my '02 WRX wagon leave a bit to be desired, and since I don't have tons of cash to burn, I am looking at either the FF1000's or the Hella 500's in the stock fog locations. I have found lots of threads about these, but I havn't found a thread comparing the beam patterns of these two options with stock headlights. If I got the FF1000's I would prefer to aim them very low and keep them on with my low beams (again, I always forget to turn off my high beams and therefore I try not to use them, but I don't want to blind people either). Do the 500's project enough down the road? would aiming the 1000's really low even be possible and would it work.

Basically I want to see as well as I did in my old car with the low beams on without spending the cash on jdm or edm headlights. Any body have pics of the 500's beam patern with stock WRX headlights.

Thanks.

I'm interested in this as well...

If you plan on running them all the time buy the 500s in a fog pattern. Aiming the FF1000s low will defeat the entire purpose of putting them on your car.

Driving lights, meant to be used in the same situations as high beams, will have little or no cutoff. Putting driving lights that low on the car isn't going to do more than create a *lot* of foreground glare if aimed low, or blind you in fog and other drivers all the time if aimed high. 500 foglights will have a sharp flat cutoff, but will put more light to the sides than give you any distance ahead (kind of what they are designed to do). They will not illuminate road signs the like E code lights, as the cutoff is flat. In normal driving, they will also generate more foreground light than you may want, but not as much as driving lenses.

E code lights are still the best bet, but if you have to choose between the two, I'd lean toward the foglights.

^^^What they said. :)

Now with that out of the way, here's what i have... I have a set of Hella 500 driving lamps in my stock foglamp location which i have on whenever my headlamps are on. They're aimed so that at a distance of 75 feet (or so) the top of the beam is at the same level as my regular headlamps so that way i don't blind people in front of me. Also, i have a set of mesh foglamp covers over them which helps cut light output a bit. I sorta did it to experiment and see how they'd work out but having driving lamps mounted that low don't do much to extend your vision at night without being able to aim them higher, rather they just brighten up the area where your regular lowbeams cover. BUT one benefit i did have is that when i had yellow bulbs in them they definitely helped when driving in the rain since the main headlamps would get all washed out where the yellow light wouldn't. :)

The Hella 500's project more of a round spotlight beam pattern where the FF1000's have a bit of a more oblong and wider beam. You can aim both low enough to not blind oncoming traffic, but they won't do anything to extend your vision by very much at all.

Either way, i plan to put Hella 500 clear foglamps (with yellow bulbs) on instead since with my current setup i'm lacking side illumination.

I think a good bulb upgrade for your regular headlamps would be your best bet. :)

"They're aimed so that at a distance of 75 feet (or so) the top of the beam is at the same level as my regular headlamps so that way i don't blind people in front of me."

Except those people that are 125' in front of you.

;) I've only been flashed a grand total of 1 time. Actually, unless you're directly in front of me, the round beam pattern has already curved down far enough that they don't light up anything to the side. Really, the mesh covers cut down quite a bit on the light output.