Need advice for Foglight bulbs (H3) and Aux Driving lights (2005 Subaru Legacy)

[Zac88]

With more road trips, I noticed that my lights lacked a lot. Ended up ordering some Vosla H7 65w and wow what a difference! Also converted the high beams to 9011 HIR.
Burnt out a yellow foglight, the were the Nokya ones but I'm looking for brighter yellow ones.
Also want to install some aux lights on a seperate switch, should I go with halogen or LED?

 

[John_Galt]

For the fogs, you're probably better off with a clear envelope bulb, and using either kapton tape/sheet or duplicolor metalcast anodize yellow to tint the lens. I'll leave the bulb recommendations to someone else with more direct experience with whats available.

As far as auxiliary driving lights, there are lot of options available in both halogen and LED. If you'd like to see some testing, Tacomaworld has a pretty good thread to reference from.

As far as wiring, typically you would want aux.drivkng lights to be triggered on/off by your highbeams so you're not fumbling for two switches every time theres oncoming traffic. What make/model/year is your vehicle?

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Burnt out a yellow foglight, the were the Nokya ones but I'm looking for brighter yellow ones.
Also want to install some aux lights on a seperate switch, should I go with halogen or LED?

You might be using your fog lamps way too much if you've burned one out. People have a tendency to leave them them on, thinking they help in all driving conditions. Make sure you use them only in the following combination: Night time + extreme fog/rain/dust + low speed (25mph or slower).

For the fogs, you're probably better off with a clear envelope bulb, and using either kapton tape/sheet or duplicolor metalcast anodize yellow to tint the lens.

Daniel Stern *MIGHT* have some worthwhile yellow H3 bulbs, but I second John's suggestion to instead get clear bulbs and applying Kapton tape (or Dupli-Color MetalCast Yellow) to the fog lamp lenses. A bonus of the Kapton tape is you can periodically replace it when it gets scuffed by road grit and such and it can help prevent a broken lens from impact.

For auxiliary high beams, it's best to wire them so that they require the high beams to be on before they can be activated, but will automatically deactivate when you switch off the high beams. Yes, this means more manual reactivations but it does give you an instantaneous deactivation using your standard high beam switch. You don't want them to come on automatically with the high beams.

I'm loath to recommend LED auxiliary high beams because most, if not all, have excruciatingly high CCTs, making it harder to really see by. A halogen auxiliary high beam gives you normal CCTs and excellent CRI. Still, there is a very good auxiliary high beam by J.W. Speaker for Hella: HELLA 958040071 LED Light Bar 350 (Driving Beam).

 

[-Virgil-]

I'll be the contrary voice here: go get high-luminance +80 (or maybe they're +90) H3s from Stern. You'll wind up with a better/more durable result (and less install hassle) than the tape or the spray on the lens.

You want "aux lights on a separate switch" to do...what? "Aux lights" is a broad description that covers a wide variety of different lamps for different purposes.

 

[John_Galt]

You might be using your fog lamps way too much if you've burned one out. People have a tendency to leave them them on, thinking they help in all driving conditions. Make sure you use them only in the following combination: Night time + extreme fog/rain/dust + low speed (25mph or slower).


Daniel Stern *MIGHT* have some worthwhile yellow H3 bulbs, but I second John's suggestion to instead get clear bulbs and applying Kapton tape (or Dupli-Color MetalCast Yellow) to the fog lamp lenses. A bonus of the Kapton tape is you can periodically replace it when it gets scuffed by road grit and such and it can help prevent a broken lens from impact.

For auxiliary high beams, it's best to wire them so that they require the high beams to be on before they can be activated, but will automatically deactivate when you switch off the high beams. Yes, this means more manual reactivations but it does give you an instantaneous deactivation using your standard high beam switch. You don't want them to come on automatically with the high beams.

I'm loath to recommend LED auxiliary high beams because most, if not all, have excruciatingly high CCTs, making it harder to really see by. A halogen auxiliary high beam gives you normal CCTs and excellent CRI. Still, there is a very good auxiliary high beam by J.W. Speaker for Hella: HELLA 958040071 LED Light Bar 350 (Driving Beam).

I agree about the color temps of LED lamps, which is why I have typically been suggesting diode dynamics SS3 pods. The Sport and Pro models, when purchased as yellow lensed pods use a neutral white 4000k color temp LEDs, and swapping to a clear lens gets you a not-terribly-higher than halogen color temp, although not the CRI. Some additional expense buying one model and an additional set of clear lenses, but they're good lamps, and afaik the only product on the market that offers that low a color temp.

 

[Zac88]

Thank you everyone.
By aux lamps I mean to use up front as an aid to the high beams.

 

[-Virgil-]

For a need like that, on a car like that, I'd get buy this light bar (made by JW Speaker, marketed by Hella). It's a quality product with good performance, and it's easy to mount up near headlamp height where it will do you some good.

 

[Unicorn]

You might be using your fog lamps way too much if you've burned one out. People have a tendency to leave them them on, thinking they help in all driving conditions. Make sure you use them only in the following combination: Night time + extreme fog/rain/dust + low speed (25mph or slower).

First, I know this is a few months old. However this is something that should be noted for the future if anyone is searching and comes across this.

Subarus, and I assume others, at least during these model years used the fog lights as cornering lights too. So everytime you turn the foglight on that side comes on. So it might not be a matter of the poster turning his fog lights on too often, but that the engineers who designed it, or someone had a "good idea."