Fog light wires thickness and power rating

[Cruzor]

My car has halogen H8 35W bulbs in fog lamps as standard. I swapped the headlights to Phillips xtremevision and they’re great, but totally drown out the weak fog lamps. Tried led bulbs too but they’re only 15W so they too were overpowered by the headlights. Incidentally, I saw on youtube some guy with a skoda rapid(rebadged vento in India) has installed 55W H11 bulbs in them. According to him, I quote “headlight and foglight wiring is same gauge, and housing is also same standard so no issues”. I wanted to ask if someone could share/verify wiring diagrams for fog lights if it indeed can handle higher wattage bulbs. It’s tempting, but I’d like my car to be still drivable and not a glorified bonfire

[iichel]

I'd be tempted to say no, since it's not just about wire thickness but also thermal capacity of the housing. Don't do it.

[amer6R]

you dont really need to powerful foglight in the begging. They will just do the opossite and blind you in high fog.

[patil]

I very well understand the reason why he wants to put powerful leds in fogs. I don't know about the rest of the globe, but here in my country every tom, dick and harry puts on fogs along with headlights. Fog lights are second most misused/abused lights after highbeams here. Worst is, morons even put customised led projectors in fogs and what not, the less I say is better. And car manufacturers are also equally responsible for offering unnecessarily powerful headlights to lesser mortals.

I see many people coming to me with complaints of blurred vision, eye strain, headache etc after prolonged night drives.
White LEDs also emit blue light which is problematic to eyes. High energy short-wave light ( eg; BLUE ) is known to cause photochemical retinal damage.

Not without guilt, I too have installed powerful 55W LEDs in fogs of both 6R and T-roc. These are strictly for using under bad visibility and self defence against menacing highbeamers/foggers. As I said, I use very occasionally, so haven't faced any issues so far.

Do we really need powerful lights to drive at night?? and at what cost.

Food for thought:

[ciclo]

A good use, or rather a magnificent use, that one can give to front fog lights when there are no foggy weather conditions is as 'static corner lights' and as 'parking assistance when reversing', in fact, the current front fog lights seem to me like a little joke or reminiscence of the recent past that remains for aesthetic reasons.
Using the front fog lights at the same time as the high beams is totally unnecessary, I totally agree with what my colleagues mentioned above.

[Cruzor]

Thanks for the replies and concerns. I should’ve provided more context. I was intrigued and forgot little details like physical limitations of the housings. Where I reside, fog is mythical and foglights only purpose is for SCL, otherwise they’re just there to look pretty.
Since I travel a lot through unlit two lane highways, filled with trucks that’s the only place I ever use fog lights with low beams only,! never with high beams. That is the reason I am using halogen bulbs and not led, as I have reflector housings. I only tired led shortly and removed them. The new h11 bulbs I wanted to try are also halogen, not led.
Patil, you’re spot on. Even in well lit city roads you see people with high beam+Projector fog all the time. Courtesy for fellow drivers is out the window

[ciclo]

Logically, the field of vision improves/opens when you turn on the fog lights, but it is not the most recommended for driving at highway speed limits. At high or moderate speeds, vision must focus on the furthest point possible to anticipate any maneuver.

If LEDs are installed in the front fog lights for aesthetic reasons, it is not necessary to exceed the power (W) indicated for original bulbs. The light beam emitted by the LED must be projected laterally (vertical LED) on the reflector, never use round-shaped LEDs, they are totally prohibited due to the way they disperse the light beam, they are usually used because they are usually very cheap (everything cheap should be avoided).

All front fog lights have an adjustment screw with which you can adjust the height at which the light beam is emitted; it must be checked and adjusted each time a new bulb is installed.

For some time now, there have been new LEDs from well-known manufacturers that are approved (in some countries) for both main headlights and front fog lights, they provide better lighting than halogen bulbs.
The problem is in the way in which they are finally installed on the halogen headlights, since it is highly possible that the headlight is not completely sealed against moisture.

[Cruzor]

The speed in these sections is 40-60kmph, so I was under the impression it is reasonable. Of course on regular 4+ lane highways it is not useful. Thanks for the pointers. There is a huge flood of cheap leds in the markets, and since MOT tests don’t happen here, people use them without consequence. I will try halogen first, if it is not adequate I’ll use a good led.

[amer6R]

The speed in these sections is 40-60kmph, so I was under the impression it is reasonable. Of course on regular 4+ lane highways it is not useful. Thanks for the pointers. There is a huge flood of cheap leds in the markets, and since MOT tests don’t happen here, people use them without consequence. I will try halogen first, if it is not adequate I’ll use a good led.

get bevinsee, i have h4 and they are great. shipping is fast and no canbus error, flickering etc.
also there is 20% off promo code on their website.

[Cruzor]

Thanks, I’ll check them out.