Rear fog LIGHT, or LIGHTS?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 11:25 PM -0500 10/11/01, Festively Jolly wrote:
>hey again fellas!  i have a 1988 Audi 90 and from what  i gather...
>there is only 1 rear fog light on the rear drivers side correct?  or is
>there 2? 
>
>i checked where the rear passenger side light would be and there was a
>bulb and wires. i changed the bulb, but still nothing. 
>so is there 1 or 2 rear fogs? thanks!


There are two fitments, so to speak.  This is for RHD countries.  US 
cars will not be set up for the right hand bulb.

On several models(the 200, for example) the fog light is implemented 
as a dual-filament bulb; a low wattage bulb that acts as a marker 
light as normal, and a much brighter(30-40w?) bulb that acts as a 
rear fog light.  The same position on the opposite side of the car is 
equipped with a single filament, low wattage marker bulb.

In either case, don't try to get two bulbs working.  Some idiot on 
Audiworld figured out how to do it on his new A6(I believe it 
involved some very minor modifications) and I have since seen 1-2 
vehicles on the road with this mod.  It is INCREDIBLY annoying since 
mid-90's-onward Audis used a seemly much more focused, brighter 
design.

The Jaguar(sorry, Jag-i-u-ar) models actually lights both lights from 
the factory...and they're even more powerful than what I've seen on 
Audis.  There is NO advantage to two, and you will in fact confuse 
people further and possibly cause accidents in low visibility 
situations(because they will think they see brake lights and suddenly 
stop.)

The rear foglight bulb serves two purposes; in Europe, where the 
system is common, people recognize it as a rear fog light, people 
only use it in limited visibility, etc.  They just happened to decide 
that the light would go on the side where the driver is.

In the US, the system serves to annoy other drivers in perfectly 
clear weather,  and cause people to tell you at stoplights that "one 
of yer brake lights is stuck on."

Dan and I were looking at the 2002 A4 a few days ago and the 
headlight control caught my eye.  Turn for different headlight 
options, pull for different fog light options.  One stop out is 
front, two is front+rear.

How many people are going to pull it out all the way by accident, or 
not understand the icon, and think "oh, two foglights, that's 
BETTER!" etc.?  Arrggg.


B
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Brett Dikeman
brett at cloud9.[nospam]net
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
(vm/fax)212-894-3749x5271