Ian Cook

Just read my bit again Pilch, sorry if it sounded condescending, not getting much sleep at the minute

Aaron Payne

I have just had a set of PIAA driving lights installed in my Scoob and I paid £20 for them to be wired in. They have been wired into the Fog switch which I think is wrong.

You are driving down a road at night, Main Beam and Driving lights are on. A car comes the other way, Left hand knocks off Main Beam, righthand has to reach down and locate the switch then turn off the driving lights, so which hand is steering ?

Surely the fog switch should act as a master on / off then when turning on main beam the driving lights come on.

Any thoughts / ideas or advice.

Ian Cook

I may be totally wrong, but the way i understand it, the way your lights are wired in is actually illegal. They must come on and go off with main beam, the fog light switch may be used as a means of isolating them from mainbeam, ie to have them not coming on when you use main beam. I would question whoever wired them up for you.

pilch

Let me check my understanding of this: main beam is normal full lights, full beam is the 'flash' lights and used only when no-one is in front of you, driving lights are the side lights that come before main beam, and fog lights are the spots.

Assuming the above, it is only possible to engage fog lights when your lights are on in any position. Full beam does not automatically light up the spots.

Al in all I think your lights are wired correctly. They are wired like mine, and mine are the same as all previous cars I've driven. I have 2 fog switches (front/rear) and never drive with both full and spot. There is no point as full is more powerful.

pilch

[This message has been edited by pilch (edited 22-12-1999).]

Ian Cook

Pilch, you misunderstand, PIAA lights are a driving light conversion, they are not the fog lights fitted by Subaru. The law is quite strict about the wiring of these and the fact you may dazzle somebody with 2 120W spot lights fitted to the front of your car.

Side lights come on before the dipped beam. then it goes dipped beam, main beam, The fogs are the ones in the lower front bumper and these are replaced by the PIAA's.

[This message has been edited by Ian Cook (edited 22-12-1999).]

Bajie

Ian is correct.
I asked to have my lights rewired as I don't really use full beam, except for courtesy and learned quite a few new hand signals from people!
I wanted them isolated and changed for use in fog but haven't got round to it.

pilch

Guys,

Right, I understand now. I thought PIAA were just fog replacements. I assumed you were asking for default light configuration.

pilch

chambjj

Look at this for the only legal options.

johnfelstead

Just to confirm.

The driving/spot lamps that replace the OEM front fog lights Must only go on when main beam is activated and must go off when you are using dipped headlights.

Any other config is illegal, using 130Watt bulbs on the UK public road is illegal also.

If you wish to stay legal, all bulbs you fit to your car must be E marked in the european union. Most imports, even though on 55 watt mains are using illegal bulbs.

pat

John,

I was under the impression that only the bulbs in the main light assembly (ie main, dipped beam) need to have an E rating and that any auxiliary driving lights (such as the PIAAs and Cibies) do not need to conform to said standards, nor are they covered by MOT (and hence presumably don't even have to produce a pattern) since they are just auxiliaries.... is this really wrong?

Cheers,

Pat.

johnfelstead

To be legal in the EU, all bulbs must be E marked, including auxillary lights.

You should fail the MOT if not, and you are liable to prosecution from the police if using non E marked bulbs.

If you buy uprated bulbs from halfords it clearly states this on the packageing.

Saying that, i have allways run with uprated bulbs in my last 5 cars, just dont flash a copper out of a junction if you want to avoid prosecution.

pat

John,

I don't tend to flash at coppers full stop. Bad news that, they can get you on indecent exposure :-) Of course if I were to use main beam, I might get away with it due to the fact that they wouldn't be able to see very much for a few minutes afterwards [only kidding, but I do have a widget that would do that and more... just not fitted to my car] I'm "only" running 530 Watts up front at the mo... very effective, sometimes up to half a mile depending on the road :-)

I'm still not sure whether it's worth going for the Prodrive bulbs since it would require auxiliary wiring to augment the wiring loom and some serious cooling to prevent the stock headlamp units from melting! I doubt the Cibies could cope with much more than 130, they get rather hot as it is! Might be easier to just go for another set of Cibies (but where to mount them.... hmmm....). Still not quite at the magic 1kW though. Perhaps the only real way is to go with HIDs....

Cheers,

Pat.

JamesH

John F

Are you sure about the legality question?

On the SIDC driving course I specifically asked Dick Grimes (him being a traffic cop)as to whether it was legal to run 130w Cibies as driving lights (properly connected & dipping as required etc) & he said "Yes" as long as you don't use them to dazzle **ck out of oncoming people (or maliciously I think he said). He himself has PIAAs fitted. I know that police aren't always right but I think that this ought to be clarified for definate. On his ascertion that it was OK for 130w driving lights, I went & bought them & use them (maybe more fool me but I won't sue if I get a nicking). They are good tho...

Pete Croney

Some time ago, Dick Grimes got me a copy of the Vehicle Construction and Usage Regs.

With regard to general lighting, they go into reams of detail about positioning and power etc. With regard to Auxiliary Lighting... the say "must not be used in a manner which will dazzle other road users". And that's all they say.

Pete