The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Out of curiosity, what headlights do you have? The halogen projector or reflector? Since the reflector headlights have a cap I wouldn't think they would cause much issue.

Also, what did you use to increase charging voltage? Wondering if it would work on our Ascent for when I need to replace our battery at some point.

 

So, I've been eyeing up the SS3 Pro fogs for my 20 OR for a while now, but have a couple questions for you experts. I currently have the stock halogen headlights and fogs in.

1. Should I just save my $300 towards new LED headlights instead of upgrading the fogs first?
1a. I'm not happy with the the stock low beams, so I run my fogs all the time. Will these make a big enough difference to matter/justify spending $300? Or again, upgrade the headlights first?
2. Where I live, we only get snow 1-2 days a year. But we have some pretty crazy summertime thunderstorms. Amber or white?

Thanks in advance. I know much of this info is probably already in this thread, but 230 pages worth is a lot!

 

Where do you live / drive?

Everyone here likes selective yellow as option 1, 4000k a potential second. So you always buy the selective yellow kit for 4000k emitters in sport or pro and you can always go with the clear optics later on. MAX only has one emitter choice so you don’t have to overthink it there.

Have you done H9’s for low beams? If not, definitely do that. If you don’t need to worry about melting snow and you have a limited budget I’d plan for sport fog lights and OEM LED for headlights. But that’s my setup so I’m for sure biased. H9 low beams are good for melting snow and for best value upgrade. Admittedly the OEM LED headlights are a pricey upgrade.

Oh yeah, also, don’t rely on / expect your fog lights to help with driving at speed. That is not their purpose. At speed you want them off.

 

Is there a difference between selective yellow and the 4000ks? I thought the yellow fogs were @4k and the whites @6k and those were the only two options.

I'm in Maryland near the water, so not much snow and if so you don't go really go on the roads because other people can't drive. Sometimes head to the beach or the mountains and mess around, but usually just driving on major roads. Primary issues are during torrential downpours when I can't see a thing, and driving on some tight backroads where the low beams aren't sufficient

I have not upgraded the bulbs yet, that was one of the next things I was investigation. But again, there's so much information out there it gets a little overwhelming for a novice like me.

 

Step 1 is definitely do the H9 mod for low beams. Then report back in the headlights thread if you have follow up questions. It’s the right choice while you have halogen lamps.

The emitters are indeed 4k and 6k but the selective yellow optics bring color to ~3k? Vs 4k w clear optics. Hence 4k emitter being the way to go as optic swap is cheaper than swapping the whole pod.

For Maryland you might want pros given your proximity to legit snow. But if you’re sure you don’t care about melting snow, the sports are great value.

 

The headlamp housings are normal reflector style. Plain Jane as it comes.

Where things get interesting start with the battery. I bought a group 35 X2 Deep Cycle AGM from batteries plus.
https://www.batteriesplus.com/product-details/auto_light-truck/battery/x2power/sli35agmdp

The Crosstrek has an ALT-S fuse so I ordered a voltage booster from HKB in Australia.

https://www.hkbelect.com/

I emailed back and forth with them about the fitment for a Crosstrek as they have one listed for the Forester. Works flawlessly. The OEM alternator is boosted to a high enough voltage to maintain a proper float charge on the AGM battery.

Crash has outlined this well in this thread:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/

With some additional guidance from Crash I learned I could go from the existing H11 style headlight bulbs to a higher wattage H9 with very little effort. I’m going to bring down the headlight height a bit more to see if that helps with the flashing.

Hope this *helps* you go down the rabbit hole of lighting!

 

Got it, that makes much more sense. I thought there was a weird third option I wasn't aware of. I'm trying to digest all of the H9 headlight info out there. Is the consensus that the Philips H9s are the way to go for LB?

 

Yes, if you go to this link:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/bulb_types/bulb_types.html

You'll see that an H9 is rated for 2100lumens at 65w draw, vs an H11 rated at 1250 lumens from 55w draw. The H9 is a higher lumenance, higher intensity lightsource. You get the benefit of both increased maximum intensity (which translates into increased seeing distance) but also greater flux throughout the beam. Given that you have a different vehicle with different headlights than what is tested here you can't necessarily apply the numbers shown here for changes in performance, but your headlamps will still see an improvement.

The human eye does not perceive light linearly. So despite it being a 70% (nominal) increase in output, it won't appear 70% brighter. It takes approximately a 40% change in intensity for you to notice a small change. However it's a very inexpensive and very effective upgrade for your lowbeams, and you will (ba dum tsss) see the difference after install.

 

You may find the 3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights thread helpful.

 

So if purchasing multiple lights manufactured at different times, the color temperatures may not match.

 

Yes, this is a possibility. For the majority of drivers the difference will not be too noticeable, especially in products that will get LEDs closer to 5000k. As some of you have stated, there are some advantages of the lower temps, and some of our desert racers and insiders actually prefer them for specific conditions. However, we do understand that many people are more sensitive to these variations. Anyone that needs their lights to match can stay tuned for our announcement sometime in the next 1-2 months. If for some reason, you absolutely need your lights to match and you need lights in the next month, shoot me a DM and I will see what I can do. Please only reach out if you have a professional or safety related need for the 5000K lights. I want to help, but also cannot justify an all departments on deck situation for anything less than a real world need.

This solution is the best that we could think of that would allow us to continue building and shipping quality lights, rather than completely stopping production on half of our line. We apologize for any inconvenience, but hope you understand the reasoning behind the decision, as well as our announcement.

 

Not to further getting off topic for the SAE thread, but note that the Philips H9 pulls 75w, the legal maximum under the +/-15% allowance for a halogen H9 bulb. So while the 2100 lumen @65w is the general H9 spec, the actual output performance of the Philips bulbs is a fair amount higher. Of all the H9s I've tired, theirs seems to be the most aggressive in pegging the output to the legal maximum, hence the recommendation.

 

Thats awesome!! I'm curious if it will work on the Ascent when the time comes. Thank you!!

Sorry for getting off track everyone!

 

Here is what I would do in your situation.

-headlights - upgrade to Philips H9's
-fog lights - upgrade to Tungsram Megalight Ultra H11 (assuming you have H11 fog lights)

If you're not quite pleased with the fog light upgrade then save up for some DD SS3's.

I have the Tungsram bulbs in my Tacoma (2nd gen, but 3rd gen H11 fogs are the same) and I think they perform very well. Nice width/beam pattern, plenty bright and a great upgrade for our trucks! The H11 Tacoma fog lights IMO are some of the best OEM reflector fog lights I have used/seen. On our Subaru Ascent I installed the DD SS3 Pro Yellow and they are great too! If I were to upgrade the fog lights on my Tacoma I fell like I would be most satisfied with the DD SS3 Max. I'm not saying the Pro's aren't good, but if you're spending that kind of money already you might as well go big. Plus having the sharper cut-off will allow you to aim them a little higher than the Pro's. Even when mounted low on a bumper like our Subaru I notices some glare when I'm in front of it in my older Subaru Outback. Not bad but not as much glare as my buddy who has the Max's on his Subaru Legacy. Mine are aimed maybe an inch lower than his at 25'. As you can tell I surround myself with many good lighting and Toyota/Subaru nerds. lol

 

I'm kinda rethinking getting the Offroad Town fogs and getting DD SS3 Sports in yellow. I really like the results of the KCs but I have a square hole in my metal bumper and they are expensive and I'm cheap. The DD seem to be the best bang for the buck yellow fog light. Too be honest I don't really have to worry about snow in South Carolina and rarely fog. But if I'm going to run fog lights, I might as well run something meant for actual fog.

 

GM to Tacoworld. Thank you for extensively reviewing various lights and helping me spend more money.

While my truck doesn't look quite like the Raptor with 3 pairs of fog lights, DD SS3 Max selective yellow performs exceptionally well in arctic weather.
As an FYI, these lights can wash headlights with their sheer brightness. And that's with them aimed all the way down. Keep that in mind if you're one to use fog lights all the time.

Cheers!

 

I have received the in line adapters for free from Diode Dynamics to resolve the flickering issues at startup on the SS3 Max (selective yellow) pods. I only recently noticed because of the snowy weather we just got; where I had cause to use them. I'm not sure if it was cause by the cold or the other lighting, but I had not noticed the flickering before. Nothing has changed since I've installed them. Flickering only occurs when I turn on the lights and goes away after a few seconds. As I understand it, the issue has been resolved with later batches of SS3 Max pods. I will update once installed.

https://www.diodedynamics.com/h11-anti-flicker-canbus-module-pair.html

Lighting:
H11 Hikari Ultra LED Low
H9 Diode Dynamics SL1 LED High
Diode Dynamics SS3 Max (Selective Yellow)
Meso Customs Total Tail Stage 1
LED replacements for License plate and Dome lights
OEM battery

 

Has anyone with a 2nd gen experienced any flickering issues? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Is there anyway to know when a pair of lights was manufactured?