The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

I completely agree, and I'm very much a novice in this category so I don't mean to question the experts in here. I'm just giving my 2 cents on the matter. My concerns like others have stated, and the same concerns applied to the headlight upgrades, is what is this doing to other drivers on the road? It's important for us to be able to see well ourselves, but what good is that if we blind someone else coming head on to the point they lose control and crash into us or someone else as a result. This is obviously reaching a bit with "what if", but as a cop for many years, I've seen it all.

 

I’d bet money they were not SAE fogs. They were likely Baja squadron wide cornering lights, which are popular but do not have cut offs like fogs making them extremely blinding for street use. They appear so much brighter than the headlights because the headlights have proper cut offs to not blind oncoming drivers, where as the LED pods he was running did not. This is what was covered in the examples at the beginning of the thread and demonstrated to show the importance of running a proper SAE fog.

 

That's probably exactly what it was. My first thought was "that's freaking ridiculous" when I saw him coming, which he was still a good 150 feet away. Anyways, great write-up Crash and others, this is why I love this site and community. Full of very helpful and like-minded people.

 

And yet, if you call that guy out, somehow you're the asshole.

 

Then I must be the worst one. The point of this thread was to call out practices like that and direct people to the best SAE compliant products to show people a better way.

 

That’s what I got as a free set when I ordered my C4 bumper. They were boxed as street legal fogs.
Definitely blinding even when aimed way down. So I have back tape over the top half and still aimed down. Much better but still meh.
after reading this I’m going to order either a set of Diode Dynamics or KCs G4.
Undecided but partial to KC as they are local to me.
You see how they are taped here. The outside lights are on my spod the interior are tied into factory fog wiring.

 

The lights I was referencing were the regular Wide Cornering Squadrons, which are popular egregious offenders. Baja did release some fogs that were labeled as SAE street legal (which sounds like you are referring to), but they failed compliance testing. You can see the full review and story here: Baja Designs. They did offer a fix/recall if you have the SAE versions to cut down on the glare, though it significantly reduces output. In an earlier post in this thread Baja had said they will offer to upgrade anyone that has the SAE Squadrons to the new version they are launching soon free of charge.

The Diode Dynamics SS3s are outstanding. The KCs are decent too and were my initial favorite in the thread, but with the advances of newer products I'd say the only reason to chose them over the SS3s are 5000k color (if that is something you are looking for) and the OEM style appearance.

 

A 20+ year warranty might be a little add on bonus too.

 

I have the sports and there great in lighting up the sides. But im not quite happy with the front output.im just asking but im willing to trade my sports for someones pros plus cash. If someone is local im willing to trade with you. It would be a easy swap just the lights have to come out. There less than a year old and barely used maybe 10hours on them

 

Remember, a fog beam pattern light isn't designed for distance. It's designed for foreground and peripheral vision and use at lower speeds. If you want a light with more "reach," you may want to consider more of a driving beam. That said, you can run (properly aimed) fogs and not bother oncoming traffic. Not so with even a properly aimed driving beam.

 

When I lock or unlock my car with my key fob, my ss3 sport fogs will flash twice to indicate the lock / unlock was successful.

Just curious if this could potentially drain my battery since I drive a compact sedan. I had a battery die on me recently after my ss3 install, unsure if it was related as the battery was already 3 years old.

 

It's possible but until you check for draw it can be anything.

 

Here's a video I just put together. There's lots of these kinds of videos online, but I really wanted to present it with an automotive mindset. Feedback welcome, thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODU-l_G8B2s

 

This is great info! Thank you!

 

Great video @Diode Dynamics I really enjoyed it and you speak well on camera.

Hey, one thing crash mentioned a while back on the headlight thread about LED vs Halogen was that for LED he takes measurements at a different distance. I think that one never really sunk into my brain as to why, perhaps you might explain that and maybe I'd "get" it the second time? I don't think I was confusing high beam with low beam where you'd naturally want to measure at distance, I think it was specifically regarding low beam intensity when trying to compare hikari, halogen and led assemblies.

 

One of the reasons he made that change is that generally speaking, LEDs do not have as much "throw" as halogens. So an LED light source might show some great numbers up close, but a little farther down the road, not so much. Of course no LED marketing campaign would ever take advantage of that issue to distort the truth ...

 

In this case, replacement LEDs in a halogen assembly tested at 18' seem to provide inflated lux values vs a better distance test at 42' (which is the practical limit of my space). The reduced focus of a replacement LED compared to a halogen in a halogen assembly is certainly less apparent at shorter distances. Lux is related to candela, and should scale to distance so I think this is more the result of an imperfect test/tools (even though I am using quality gear), which is why I advocate for an extended test distance when testing replacement LEDs in a halogen assembly. Diode Dynamics runs their tests at 50', which is far better than most selling replacement LEDs.

 

Ah, so it was specifically LED bulbs in halogen projectors due to focus b/c of emitter size vs halogen filament size? Sorry I got confused on that nuance. An LED assembly would be reasonable apples-to-apples with halogen at 18'?

Is there any impact of wavelength on measured lux at short vs long distance? Is there a property of LED light other than wavelength and emitter size in a projector which impacts measurements? Would an LED emitter vs halogen bulb in a reflector be apples to apples at 18'?

Highly curious and trying to absorb this stuff b/c it's just so interesting...