Sylvania is going to offer Fog Vision yellow bulbs soon

haha1234

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They're listed on their site http://www.osram.us/products/headlights-and-fog-lights/yellow-fog/index.jsp

but sizes are not yet listed. However, they do say "for fog use only," so they are probably too yellow to be used as headlights in most places. This also means they are likely more yellow than Osram's old All-Season, which was yellow-ish but still legally in the white spectrum.

A google search turned up pages on their site for 880, H11, 9145/H10, and 9006; as well as pages on Sylvania's site for those four types. Two of these (880 and H10/9145) are really only used on fog lights; I've never seen headlights taking 880 or 9145. However, the 9006 and H11 are fairly common headlights.

I'm surprised there's no H3 Fog Vision, given that is a fairly common fog light and almost never seen on a headlight. But it is probably coming soon.

They don't seem to be on sale just yet.
 
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Alaric Darconville

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Two things

#1 If no longer white (which these look like they'll fall outside the legal definition of white), yet will fit a headlamp taking the same bulb (for example, if they make them in an H11 or HB4 form factor), then they are not legal to manufacture (in the US), or import or introduce into interstate commerce. Their "disclaimer"/"instruction" of "for fog use only" has all the legal binding of "for off-road use only": None. It does not make them any less guilty of making a non-compliant headlamp bulb.

#2 Like all the other yellow bulbs out there, they're not going to be any good. That yellow coating appears to be a little bit milky, which defocuses the bulb. It also won't produce selective yellow light, just light that is yellow enough to be non-white, but not the selective yellow that is preferred in fog.
 
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InvisibleFrodo

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#2 Like all the other yellow bulbs out there, they're not going to be any good. That yellow coating appears to be a little bit milky, which defocuses the bulb. It also won't produce selective yellow light, just light that is yellow enough to be non-white, but not the selective yellow that is preferred in fog.

How do you know what kind of light these are going to produce without having the chance to actually see or test one in person?
 

Alaric Darconville

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How do you know what kind of light these are going to produce without having the chance to actually see or test one in person?
For one, their exemplar pictures strongly resemble the Hella OptiLux XY bulbs, although they've only put the tint around the filament itself, not over the complete envelope. Remember, I said *if* they no longer produce white light, they won't be legal bulbs. And I've experienced the Hella bulbs; the yellow they produce isn't selective yellow. Either way, these bulbs fail.

Sylvania's marketing also fails, implying that it's OK to use fog lamps when conditions don't call for them: "...with plenty of style for when things are a little nicer outside." It's never OK to use fog lamps when conditions don't warrant them.
 

InvisibleFrodo

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For one, their exemplar pictures strongly resemble the Hella OptiLux XY bulbs, although they've only put the tint around the filament itself, not over the complete envelope. Remember, I said *if* they no longer produce white light, they won't be legal bulbs. And I've experienced the Hella bulbs; the yellow they produce isn't selective yellow. Either way, these bulbs fail.

Sylvania's marketing also fails, implying that it's OK to use fog lamps when conditions don't call for them: "...with plenty of style for when things are a little nicer outside." It's never OK to use fog lamps when conditions don't warrant them.

I didn't quote you talking about the legality. I quoted you talking about the light quality. And you didn't use the word "if" on your second point. In fact you started off by saying "Like all the other yellow bulbs out there..."

Then you went on to specify exactly what kind of light it would be, and exactly what kind of light it won't be.

However, you did indirectly answer my question. Your statements were not based on actual experience with this product, nor any tests done on this product, and are therefore purely speculative, so you don't really know.

Maybe that shouldn't be phrased as facts and should instead be stated as an opinion. Your mileage may vary.
 
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-Virgil-

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The FogVision line will (eventually) contain two basic kinds of bulbs: types that are used in both headlamps and fog lamps (such as HB4/9006) will produce "yellowish" light that still qualifies as white, by means of a yellow band around the filament with enough unfiltered "look through" to bleach out the yellow enough to still fit within the white boundary. Types that are used only in fog lamps (such as 9145) will be fully coated. There's been some good development in coatings over the last couple of years, to the point where it's now possible to get right in the middle of the selective-yellow boundary with good durability. Haze (or "milkiness") isn't as much of a problem as it used to be, either, though any amount of haze is definitely going to de-focus the beam and put light above the cutoff. Some of the newer coatings I've seen start out visibly hazy (even if just a little bit) but clear up once the bulb has been brought to operating temperature for twenty minutes or so for the first time.

All of that said: Sylvania's marketing has been pretty much a parade of whoppers for years now, and their R&D strategy in the aftermarket has been to throw completely noncompliant, unsafe products on the market and use consumers as guinea pigs (or cash cows). They got busted for some of their Silver Star-related whoppers, but that didn't stop them in their many other similar campaigns, and still hasn't. So that's point number one, is that we're not exactly talking about a source with a reputation for being truthful with their product claims. Number two, these remind me of the Osram "Fog Breaker" bulbs coming out of China: big claims, but poor product. How different will these be from those? We'll have to wait and see. Will the coating be the right shade of yellow, will it be durable, will it be transparent/free from haze? And will Osram-Sylvania be starting out with standard bulbs or with high-luminance "plus" bulbs? We'll have to wait and see.

I'm not ready to completely dismiss them out of hand, but I'm also not willing to say "Oh, yeah, these are great". They have a pretty big mountain to climb in terms of credibility, and Sylvania isn't starting out on the right foot by advocating misuse of fog lamps as style toys.
 
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LeanBurn

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Regardless of how these bulbs perform or legality of use in a headlamp...people will still put them in headlamps.

...and you know what...I'd much rather have these pointed at me or in my rear view mirror than the blue/purple laser HID plug'n play trash or the garbage OEM blue laser LED lamps or the ridiculous output LED light bars people have on their rides these days. Yes...I actually look forward to the sylvania yellow....and hope it catches on. :ironic:
 

-Virgil-

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LeanBurn, you have a good point. Blue/purple bulbs are a serious safety hazard. Yellow bulbs are, at worst, just an equipment ticket hazard.
 

LeanBurn

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Unfortunately ticketing incorrect automobile lighting is very very low on the priorities for LEO's/sherrifs. It's why we are in the incredible mess we are in to date.

If it had demerits or large fines it would impact but currently it is a complete joke.
 

-Virgil-

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I can't disagree, but it's also not reasonable to expect law enforcement officers to be lighting experts, and often there is little or no law for them to enforce in terms of problem car lights. I think there's just too big of a gap between what the Federal standards allow and what state standards either allow, or don't say anything, or at least don't enforce. The Federal standard goes into highly specific detail of how headlamps (or whatever) have to be designed, engineered, constructed, tested, etc. State standards then say "Each car shall have two or four headlamps providing a low and a high beam" and so it's a free-for-all. Ask the Feds at NHTSA and they shrug and say "That's for the states to regulate". Ask the state authorities, and they shrug.

It had its drawbacks, but there was also a whole lot of worth to the requirement for all vehicles to have one of four standard form factors of sealed-beam headlamps. When all cars had the same headlamps, anything nonstandard was instantly recognizable as such. Now you have to be a lighting expert, at least particularly interested in the subject, to reliably discern the illegal lights from the legal ones. And then what? You're going to write them for...glaring headlamps? Sure, then in court the kid's dad is going to badger you and ask what objective measurement you made of his model-citizen son's headlamps after you subjectively decided they were glaring, etc.

It is a complete joke. It is a complete mess. It doesn't really have to be this way, but I don't think there's a critical mass of people who care.
 

Alaric Darconville

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Regardless of how these bulbs perform or legality of use in a headlamp...people will still put them in headlamps.
Strange thing about that, though... Some people prefer HID because they think halogen light is "yellow"-- yet somehow they'll sing the praises of these for being, I'unno, JDM-cool or something like that.


I'd much rather have these pointed at me or in my rear view mirror than the blue/purple laser HID plug'n play trash...
True, dumb yellow bulbs would be preferable to dumb blue ones.
 

Alaric Darconville

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A google search turned up pages on their site for 880, H11, 9145/H10, and 9006; as well as pages on Sylvania's site for those four types. Two of these (880 and H10/9145) are really only used on fog lights; I've never seen headlights taking 880 or 9145.
And if you have fog lamps based on the 880 or 9145, you might as well not bother. Fog lamps based on those are even more toylike than the typical factory fog lamp shaped toys.
 

SubLGT

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...It had its drawbacks, but there was also a whole lot of worth to the requirement for all vehicles to have one of four standard form factors of sealed-beam headlamps...

Aren't current production OEM LED headlights like the old tungsten sealed beams, in that they do not have a replaceable light source? And the more advanced headlights that might arrive here over the next 20 years will be more complex, with some type of multi-LED source. So there seems to be some hope that future headlights will not easily allow DIY tinkering with the OEM hardware. Tinkering with the lighting control software will probably be possible, unfortunately.
 

Ofelas

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Came across this post while searching for "selective yellow 9145" - I picked up a pair of these for the missus's winter vehicle, in H10 toy flavor.

They light up, have the appropriate flat cutoff, but haven't really tried them out to see how they compare with the GE bulbs I pulled.

On a side note, I blew one of the 5yr old Rigid 20222 amber spot pods in my pickup; lots of condensation behind the driver's side lens - likely the culprit?

My local friendly Rigid rep just dropped off a pair of their 504814 J583 selective yellow fog pods as a replacement, a few minutes to replace the old ones - aligned the cutoffs in a darkened garage & snugged the bolts up - I have to say they are nicer than those amber offroad spots - and I can use them on road under the appropriate conditions, as a bonus.
 
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