Fog lights – what's that?

There are some parts of your car that you use every day. You will be very familiar with these and know a lot about them. However the car that you buy is expected to serve you all days of the year. That means it has to be able to do its job of getting you from A to B on days that are not routine at all. On such days some parts of the car that you are less familiar with reveal their importance.

For example fog lights. Even amongst products that are not used everyday fog lights are one of the least used parts of your car. However on the day that they are needed, they are very useful.

Fog lights are useful for two reasons. One they give out a light that has better penetrative power. This means the beam from a fog light will reveal objects deeper into the fog than would lights from standard lights. Usually fog lights have a yellow beam which has good penetrative power.

The second reason is that fog lights are mounted in such a way that they throw light on the most important part of the road when the visibility is poor. This is the area immediately ahead of the car where the car is about to reach. That means they light up the road the way a low beam lights up the road. This orientation reveals object or edges that the car is about to reach and suitable action can then be taken by the driver.

As is obvious one needs to drive slowly during poor visibility conditions. Some times this can mean driving very slowly. How fast one can drive will be determined by how far one can see in the poor visibility conditions.

Although fog lights are installed for the purpose of being used when the visibility is poor they do enhance the looks of the car and make it look like a professional performance car. Therefore often fog lights are bought to enhance the visual appeal of the car along with products such as car body kits.

There are though restrictions about switching on fog lights when they are not required. One should familiarize oneself about the laws of using fog lights so that one does not unintentionally break a law.
Author: Louie Liu