Does anyone make a decent fog light anymore?

Pardon my rant, but I remember ten years ago when you bought a pair of "fog" lights they were actually designed for FOG! It seems today that all of the lights I've had in the past that I liked have since been discontinued. The Piaa 959 is no longer in production (my favorite) I can't find the Hella 500 in amber anywhere, and every light I see from what I thought were quite respectable light manufacturers in the past advertise a "fog" light that doesn't seem to have any properties that you would want while driving in inclimate conditions. I have a pair of Piaa 520's with the ion crystal bulb on my 4Runner which seem to perform pretty well, but there has to be other options out there. I don't need show-off xeon, blue ultra white super bright colored bezeled just for show junk, just a good pair of amber lights designed to cut through the muck and the snow. Ok, I'm done now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Derek G said:

Pardon my rant, but I remember ten years ago when you bought a pair of "fog" lights they were actually designed for FOG!

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The bulk of the design of the fog lamps goes into the beam pattern, not the beam color.

I don't need show-off xeon, blue ultra white super bright colored bezeled just for show junk, just a good pair of amber lights designed to cut through the muck and the snow.

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You want either white or selective yellow, not amber. Amber is a signalling color, and so amber fog lamps can 'hide' your turn signals. Also, amber has a lot of orange in it, selective yellow is just plain yellow. But the reason you want selective yellow is not that it "cuts through" anything better, it's that it's easier for your optical system to process. (For more information, check out your local library! I mean, check out this informative article.)

Alaric Darconville said:

The bulk of the design of the fog lamps goes into the beam pattern, not the beam color.


You want either white or selective yellow, not amber. Amber is a signalling color, and so amber fog lamps can 'hide' your turn signals. Also, amber has a lot of orange in it, selective yellow is just plain yellow. But the reason you want selective yellow is not that it "cuts through" anything better, it's that it's easier for your optical system to process. (For more information, check out your local library! I mean, check out this informative article.)

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Yes, you are correct about the selective yellow vs amber. I chose that designation as most of the manufacturers use that term when indicating if the bulb or lens is clear or not clear. I prefer selective yellow for the snow which is what they would primarily be used in. The contrast between the yellow light and the white snow helps me see the road and terrain better and cuts down on fatigue when I'm driving 14 hours straight through the stuff. As stated in the OP, I have ion crystal lights in one of my vehicles, these lights would be for a different one and I'm just looking for different (better) options.

Alaric Darconville said:

The bulk of the design of the fog lamps goes into the beam pattern, not the beam color.


You want either white or selective yellow, not amber. Amber is a signalling color, and so amber fog lamps can 'hide' your turn signals. Also, amber has a lot of orange in it, selective yellow is just plain yellow. But the reason you want selective yellow is not that it "cuts through" anything better, it's that it's easier for your optical system to process. (For more information, check out your local library! I mean, check out this informative article.)

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And yes, you are correct about the beam pattern, that is my biggest gripe. You see all of these lights that are marketed as "fog" lights based either on their size or the location they are supposed to be mounted, but the beam pattern is one that would be detrimental to use in fog. It seems like 90% of the lights I've seen on the market with the "fog" designation have no properties that would be beneficial in inclimate weather whatsoever.

The Hella Micro DE may be what you're looking for. Amazon has them-- and cheaper than the PIAA 520.

If you want yellow, you can use Dupli-Color MetalCast Yellow to make the lenses yellow. Here are some pics of the results.

The "ion crystal" bulbs can present problems because their coating will eliminate most of the blue from the main portion of the beam, scattering it out off-axis-- and also causes a large amount of optical "noise" from secondary reflections.

Alaric Darconville said:

The Hella Micro DE may be what you're looking for. Amazon has them-- and cheaper than the PIAA 520.

If you want yellow, you can use Dupli-Color MetalCast Yellow to make the lenses yellow. Here are some pics of the results.

The "ion crystal" bulbs can present problems because their coating will eliminate most of the blue from the main portion of the beam, scattering it out off-axis-- and also causes a large amount of optical "noise" from secondary reflections.

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Hella makes those with a yellow bulb, I may do that instead of trying to take those apart. I'm thinking about painting the lens on a pair of Hella 500's too. I have Piaa 520 fog lights with the ion crystal bulbs on my 4Runner so I'm aware of the "noise" which is why I'm seeking a better solution. Thank you!

It's getting harder to find yellow fog lamps because yellow light isn't required anywhere any more (it was required in France until the early 1990s). PIAA's lights aren't anywhere nearly the quality items their promotional team would like everyone to believe.

There are no yellow bulbs worth buying, under any brand, and I avoid Hella bulbs (even the uncolored ones) because of quality issues.

The Metalcast idea works well if done carefully, especially if you can coat the inside of the lenses (to avoid abrasion of the coating). It's a pain in the tuckus, but it does work.

You might check and see if Daniel Stern has some yellow fogs; he has quite a lamp collection (and probably also knows what lamps are still made in yellow).

Been in email communication with Mr. Stern since yesterday and curious to see what his solution is compared to the suggestions here. Either way I know I'm gettin the right advice so that I get it done correct the first time and don't have to revist the project. Thanks!

The second bracket for my Micro DE fog lights should arrive next week, then I'll install them on my Citroen finally. I'm curious to see just how much difference there is between the 3 foglights I have here, the Hellas, Valeo and Samlip.