Self-tuning and adjustment of fog lights

Fog lights are critical in foggy conditions, increasing visibility, helping to avoid accidents and improving road orientation. Unfortunately, if your fog lights are not adjusted correctly, they can be extremely dangerous for both you and other drivers who will be blinded by glare.

Correct adjustment of fog lights is the most important purpose of their installation and during technical inspection. If the indicators are not aimed correctly, they will not achieve optimal function.

Purpose

PTFs produce a wide, low beam of light that helps the driver see the road during any severe weather conditions. Unlike low beam headlights, the PTF beam is closer to the ground, which prevents reflection from fog, rain and snow. Fog lights are usually located under the car's regular headlights. They come in different shapes, and their wide beams of light have a sharp cut at the top.

Install fog lights at a low level. They can be yellow or white.

Purpose and advantages of PTF

Fog lamps are needed to illuminate the road surface during rain, fog, etc. Other purposes for using PTF:

• to illuminate sections of the right edge of the curb;
• to illuminate the area located directly in front of the car hood;
• allows you to get maximum visual information about the condition of the road;
• like daytime running lights.

Advantages of using PTF:

• wide functionality - their inclusion allows you to solve several problems related to lighting at once;
• the best view of car dimensions even at a great distance.

The rules for installing PTFs depend on their type. There are certain connection diagrams that should be followed during installation.

Functions

Before starting a process such as adjusting the light of fog lights, find out their purpose and functions, select the color of the beam.

PTFs are designed for most efficient use at low speeds. They provide increased light directed onto the road surface in severe weather or traffic conditions that result in poor visibility.

Fog lights will be most useful in rain, snow or fog. They are often used in place of low beam headlights because they reduce glare caused by falling snow or fog.

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Color of light beams

Fog lights can be available in several color shades. Bulbs made from tungsten - halogen bulbs work better for illuminating the ground at short distances. These bulbs come in yellow, blue, orange or white hues. Yellow lights are the most useful and safest. Some fog lights use a blue tint that can absorb light from fog and snow. White tinted bulbs that are close to daylight are also a good option for PTF. Sometimes fog lights can have a green tint.

The best bulbs for car foglights are sources with white or selective yellow light.

White light

White light in fog lamps, which are made using xenon gas, they are strong and durable. In addition, they are significantly brighter than their halogen counterparts. Choose lamps with white light, they do not create blue waves that cause glare.

Selective yellow light

The bulb's selective yellow light improves visibility during adverse weather conditions by reducing the short wavelengths emitted by blue light.

Coating for selective yellow light lamps

If you want to improve these bulbs, you can buy a special coating that limits the amount of blue light emitted.

Power

You can install fog lights with different power, beam intensity and beam width. The best type of PTFs produce a dim but wide beam because their light is designed to illuminate the area directly in front of a moving car.

Correct installation

The fog lights and all reflectors must be adjusted and, if necessary, adjusted at least once every six months or after every 20 thousand km.

Fog lights work best if mounted on (for 4WD SUVs) or under the bumper (25 to 60 cm above the road surface, no higher than regular lamps) or anywhere below the center of the headlight, where their beam will be slightly smaller than from low beam sources Sveta.

Adjusting the fog lights involves changing them vertically. Fog lights should be located closer to each other than regular headlights (approximately 50 to 65 cm), and directed so that the cut-off boundaries of the beams are in the middle of the beam of low-beam headlights.

The video shows the connection of fog lights:

Necessary tool

To adjust the headlights on a Lada Priora you will need:

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Adjusting the headlights

Lada Priora

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1. First of all, we park the Priora car on a flat area five meters from a flat wall. Fill the tank with fuel until it is full and use a pressure gauge to equalize the pressure in the wheels. After inspecting the headlights, thoroughly wash them from contamination. We check that the headlight bulbs are working properly. If necessary, we install new ones.
2. After the preparatory procedures, we proceed to adjustment. We move the lighting width control lever to position “0”. This position corresponds to the load of the vehicle with the driver. Turn off the lights and rock the car from side to side. Thanks to the rocking, all suspension elements will take a standard position. We ask a colleague (about the same weight as you) to sit in the driver’s seat of the car.
3. For further adjustment, draw a special marking on a flat wall. The center line should be drawn so that the distance from the center of each headlight to the axle is identical. We mark the centers of each headlight with dots on the wall and draw two lines vertically through them. Draw a straight line between the lines and mark it with the letter “A”. Below, at a distance of 12 and 22 centimeters, draw two more lines in parallel.
4. With the low beam on, close one of the headlights. The top point of the light spot from the headlight should coincide no higher than the horizontal center line. Also, the boundaries of the light beam of the fog lights are located along the same line.
5. We make sure that the intersection of the inclined and horizontal sections of the boundaries of the light fluxes (at the point where the light beam breaks) coincides with a line that is drawn vertically and passes through the point marked as the center of the headlight. If deviations in the luminous flux are detected, we adjust the headlights with a hexagon of 6 millimeters by rotating the horizontal and vertical position screws. These screws are located under the hood in the headlights.

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Ways to adjust lights

There are two issues to consider when installing and adjusting your fog lights. First, minimize the amount of glare that is returned to the driver's eyes. Secondly, reduce glare in the eyes of the oncoming driver.

Before setting up the fog lights, you need to:

• look for a white screen (can be replaced by a bright building wall or fence);
• find at least 15 meters of free space in front of the screen on a horizontal surface;
• wait until it gets dark and preferably make all adjustments in an unlit area;
• prepare the car;
• study such a concept as an adjustment circuit;
• stock up on a Phillips-blade screwdriver;
• Check the headlights to ensure they are free of defects and are able to function properly.

Conclusion

To get the maximum effect from fog lights, they need to not only be correctly mounted on the car, we’ll talk about this in the following articles, but also adjusted. Otherwise it turns out:

• Blind oncoming drivers or yourself if your fog lights are shining upwards
• The luminous flux is directed clearly along the horizontal axis of their installation - the light is scattered, partially reflected from drops of fog and returning to the driver’s eyes
• They are strongly lowered and illuminate the road under the bumper. There will be zero benefit from such an adjustment, but you won’t blind anyone.

Use our tips to fine-tune your car's fog lights. Think about your safety, because in fog, visibility deteriorates significantly. No matter how good the light from the head optics is, it may not protect you from an accident in difficult weather conditions. Remember this. You shouldn’t skimp on buying high-quality PTFs; how to choose them correctly is shown in the video below.

Good luck to everyone on the roads!

Preparing the car before adjustment

Before setting up your fog lights, prepare your car:

1. Make sure the car has at least half full of fuel or more.
2. Any adjustment of the fog lights is carried out on a loaded car with normal weight in the trunk (about 70 kg).
3. Check the tire pressure, it should be at the manufacturer's recommended level.
4. The person who can adjust the fog lights must sit in the driver's seat and be of the same weight category as the driver.

After this, you should park the car on a flat surface, 5–10 m from a smooth wall or screen.

Instructions for correct setup

You can correctly adjust the PTF yourself. In the process, it is important not so much to strictly adhere to the instructions, but also to do the preparatory work that concerns the headlights themselves, the car, and the site where the adjustment will be carried out. If it is not possible to make adjustments, it is better to contact a service station, where they will handle the task quickly and efficiently. If you want to do everything yourself, then you should read the instructions in detail.

The service station uses special equipment - a regloscope.

Preparation of cars, headlights, platform, materials

The accuracy of the adjustment result depends on the preparatory stage. Even if everything is done correctly, if the preparation requirements are not met, the fog lights will not meet the standards.

So, to configure PTF correctly, you need:

1. Prepare the site . It is important that it is horizontal. You can check this roughly by eye or use a building level. Perfect levelness, like on a construction site, is not required, but horizontality must be maintained.
2. Checking tire pressure, pumping up all four wheels to the standard level. This is important, because if the pressure during PTF installation is incorrect, then after future tire inflation, the characteristics of the headlights will change.

   
   Checking the pressure is mandatory.

3. Refuel the car . Before adjustment, you need to fill the fuel tank.
4. Load the car . The interior and trunk should be loaded to the level that in most cases is standard for a particular vehicle.
5. Screen installation . A special screen must be placed in a vertical position 10 meters from the car.
6. Preparing the markup . It can be applied to a wall or garage door.
7. Preparing tools. The work will require screwdrivers, measuring tools (tape measure, ruler), marker or chalk.

   
   Screwdriver - a tool used to make adjustments

8. Cleaning headlights . It is important that there is no dust, dirt, or stickers on the lampshades so that the light can be fully emitted.

When all the requirements are met, you can proceed to the main part of the process - adjusting the PTF.

Adjustment diagram

The adjustment scheme for fog lights is simple in principle. It consists of setting the vertical and horizontal angles of their position.

Basic measurements:

1. Distance between the center of the fog lamp and the ground.
2. Horizontal mark on the wall at the same height.
3. Turn on the low beam headlights and make a mark on the wall with the center of the two beams.
4. Turn off the low beams and turn on the fog lights.
5. When installing the car at a distance of 5 meters from the wall, the upper limit of the beam of the fog lights should be 10 centimeters below their height from the ground level. The installation of fog lights is carried out strictly parallel to the longitudinal axis of the car - they should not deviate either to the right or to the left.
6. The distance obtained between the centers of the light beams should be 1200 mm.
7. Draw a chalk line on the screen dividing the car into two equal halves.
8. Draw a line that is 5 cm below the first one.
9. Measure the distance from the fog lamp to the ground and from the lamp to the center of the car.
10. The resulting intersection of two lines is the center of the fog lights.

How to connect fog lights

The easiest way to connect fog lights is if the car is equipped with standard wiring. In its absence, you will have to manually lay conductive elements. There are two options - through a relay and through a button.

Via relay

To install PTF via a relay, you will need the following tools:

• terminal block;
• wire cutters;
• knife;
• pliers.

1. Find a free space to install the relay. Secure it where it can be easily accessed for repair or replacement.
2. Select a place to install the button.
3. Measure the length of the power wires. It should be enough for free laying without tension.
4. Install a 10-amp fuse and run the finished wire from pin 30 to the positive terminal of the battery.
5. From pin 85, remove the wire for the power button.
6. Connect the relay to ground using pin 86.
7. Install fog lights on the bumper.
8. Feed the negative wire from the body and the positive wire from pin 87.
9. Check the lighting operation.

Via button

The button should receive voltage from any 12-volt wire. As a rule, power is taken from the plus side lights. The ignition system wiring may be fine.

Connecting the headlights themselves is simple. The red wire carries positive voltage, the black wire carries the ground bolted to the body.

Before connecting the wiring to the button, choose a convenient place for the latter on the dashboard, where you don’t have to reach too far with your hand.

Adjusting the fog lights

Precise adjustment of the light of fog lights is carried out at a service station, where mechanics use a special device, a regloskop, which has an optical measuring unit.

At home, the PTF can be adjusted using a screwdriver and an adjustment circuit. By the way, the foglights are adjusted only by height. After establishing the center of the light beam, you need to turn the adjusting screw with a screwdriver so as to achieve the required focus. Concern yourself about driving safety during severe weather conditions.