Adjusting Fog LIghts

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halfast3

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'15 CX-5 AWD, Touring; '11 Golf TDi, bitte halten Sie den Atem
No problem adjusting the headlights to a more agreeable height but the fogs are aimed hopelessly low and I don't see an adjuster. Do I need to adjust them from below/behind the lamp assy or is there an adjuster behind the trim? (shrug)
 
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I'm pretty sure that "hopelessly low" is exactly how FOG lights are supposed to be adjusted so they will help when driving in thick fog. If you want to try and raise them up to try and behave more like driving lights, I think the beam pattern will be less than ideal for that use, and they are likely to cause glare to approaching drivers.
I suspect that they are not designed to be adjustable and most likely the only way to adjust them would be to add some washers behind the lower mounting point(s)?
 
Appreciate your input. When I say hopelessly low, I mean that they don't show any cutoff pattern on a wall 25' away on level ground. Fog lights should be adjusted so the cutoff is ~1.5" below horizontal at that distance. Reference: HERE.

Anyone else?
 
LOL!

I was thinking a couple of cases of wine or kegs of beer instead. Of course the 'ballast' could diminish over time but maybe I wouldn't care...
 
OK. Got off my backside and looked it up in the service manual. (RTM) See: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123825111-Full-Service-Manuals-PDF. The fog light adjustment procedure is in the body section.

Turns out there's an adjustment slot and bolt in the underside of each fog light housing. Each slot has a 'default' position which is located by removable tabs. Once the tabs are removed, the adjustment is pretty easy if you don't mind laying under the nose of the car.

Once you've removed the tabs, if you drill a hole in the underpan, you could make the adjustments without having to remove trim screws and reaching up to the fog light assy.
 
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It's cool that they are designed to be adjustable, I guess I should have researched more before spouting off :-D

As much as I respect The Daniel Stern page as a reference for most lighting related questions, the generally accepted standard within the aftermarket lighting industry is actually 4" below level for fog lights. The 1.5" number that Danial Stern references seems to be more consistent with recommendations for driving light.

One reference is here:
another is here:
a third is here:

I like to see the road in front of me as well as the next guy, but it seems that as I get older I have come much less tolerant of the glare of oncoming vehicles with lights that are aimed too high or have bulbs installed that are not compatible with the reflector being used. Living in an area where it rains a lot, I have become most frustrated with the trend of running fog lights 24/7 without regard to whether conditions dictate the use of fog lights. The reflected glare off of wet roads can be quite annoying.

Thanks for looking up the adjustment process, maybe I'll mess with mine a little and see what affect it has on the illuminated area and the glare produced

Have Fun!
 
Appreciate the info halfast. I just assumed that Mazda installed these for show. They have never done anything worth while. i had heard that the bulb selection and reflector design were too poor to be anything else. Interesting to hear that they can be aimed and actually function. Begs the question, why does Mazda aim them intentionally at the ground.
 
cwstnsko said:
I like to see the road in front of me as well as the next guy, but it seems that as I get older I have come much less tolerant of the glare of oncoming vehicles with lights that are aimed too high or have bulbs installed that are not compatible with the reflector being used. Living in an area where it rains a lot, I have become most frustrated with the trend of running fog lights 24/7 without regard to whether conditions dictate the use of fog lights. The reflected glare off of wet roads can be quite annoying.
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I so SO SO agree!

People, please just ditch your foglight use. They are useless for anything except annoying or distracting oncoming drivers. They do NOT "look cool" and they do not help with visibility (even in fog).
 
Remember when fog lights used to be amber, why did that change? We get a lot of fog along the coast and they used to say adjust your fog lights to light up the ground and the white painted "fog line" on the highway. If they are too high the light just reflects off the fog and back into your eyes, hence why you never use high beams.
 
CX5racer said:
Remember when fog lights used to be amber, why did that change? We get a lot of fog along the coast and they used to say adjust your fog lights to light up the ground and the white painted "fog line" on the highway. If they are too high the light just reflects off the fog and back into your eyes, hence why you never use high beams.
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'Cos amber didn't work. The particle size of fog is greater than the wavelength of any visible light and so reflects amber just as much as white. The idea of fog lights is to aim them below the 12-18 inches that fog rises above the ground (i.e. 'under' the fog), so white would work just as well as amber.
 
cwstnsko said:
It's cool that they are designed to be adjustable, I guess I should have researched more before spouting off :-D
Click to expand...
No worries.
cwstnsko said:
As much as I respect The Daniel Stern page as a reference for most lighting related questions, the generally accepted standard within the aftermarket lighting industry is actually 4" below level for fog lights. The 1.5" number that Danial Stern references seems to be more consistent with recommendations for driving light.

One reference is here:
another is here:
a third is here:

I like to see the road in front of me as well as the next guy, but it seems that as I get older I have come much less tolerant of the glare of oncoming vehicles with lights that are aimed too high or have bulbs installed that are not compatible with the reflector being used. Living in an area where it rains a lot, I have become most frustrated with the trend of running fog lights 24/7 without regard to whether conditions dictate the use of fog lights. The reflected glare off of wet roads can be quite annoying.

Thanks for looking up the adjustment process, maybe I'll mess with mine a little and see what affect it has on the illuminated area and the glare produced

Have Fun!
Click to expand...
I completely agree about the glare. Your references not withstanding, my take on adjustment is that if a fog light is aimed below horizontal, it isn't going to produce glare except on irregular road surfaces, like when you crest a hill and such. I doubt that my adjustment will produce any more reflected glare that the original adjustment did, keeping in mind that the beam pattern seems to be a flat ribbon of light as opposed to a cone with the top cut off. Also, the height of the lamp makes a big difference, too. In my mind, fogs which are over 2' off the ground on a truck need more adjustment drop than those on our CX which are ~19" up.

Another take on adjustment: adjust them up until all the oncoming drivers flash at you and then tweak them back down until only half of them do (whistle).
Take care.
 
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Also try H11 CREE LED fogs that operate at 20+ watts actual. There will be less of a gray area / difference in coverage and brightness between the fogs and low beams.
 
CX5racer said:
Remember when fog lights used to be amber, why did that change? We get a lot of fog along the coast and they used to say adjust your fog lights to light up the ground and the white painted "fog line" on the highway. If they are too high the light just reflects off the fog and back into your eyes, hence why you never use high beams.
Click to expand...

Amber was mainly a French thing, test showed amber didn't cut the fog any better so now it's just a fashion statement.

Aiming the fog lights higher will light up the fog in front of your eyes and make things worse just like putting your high beams on in fog.
 
RedBaron said:
Oh, for all that is holy, PLEASE no!
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Hey, I didn't ask your opinion. LOL

I posted pictures elsewhere so people can decide for themselves. ;)

What's kind of holy is how I haven't hit (or been hit by) a single object in 17 years of driving. I attribute much of that to lighting.
 
I agree that the relatively recent 'fashion' trend of every idiot and their brother leaving their fog lights on when it's not foggy just because they think it looks manly or cool is really just an advertisement that an ignorant motorist is approaching. It's like saying "Hey - look at me, I'm so stupid they write blonde jokes about me!"


halfast3 said:
I completely agree about the glare. Your references not withstanding, my take on adjustment is that if a fog light is aimed below horizontal, it isn't going to produce glare except on irregular road surfaces, like when you crest a hill and such.
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That's simply not true. Even a theoretically perfect headlamp or fog light creates glare from light reflected off a wet road and glare is additive and no lamp is theoretically perfect. The net result of too many sources of glare add up to bad visibility for other drivers. This makes the road less safe, not more. Also, the direct glare when cresting a hill is already bad enough with properly aimed headlights. The worst time to add in the additional strong direct glare from fog lights cresting a hill is when the headlights are already causing bad glare. All glare is additive.

Another take on adjustment: adjust them up until all the oncoming drivers flash at you and then tweak them back down until only half of them do (whistle).
Click to expand...

I certainly hope you are joking.
 
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