The LED SAE J583 Fog Pod & Fog Light Review

Subaru Ascent OEM LED Fog Lights



These Subaru Koito units use 2 down-firing LEDs into a dedicated reflector for each LED. A unique feature on this design is the very side-angled reflector on the right-side of the unit pictured. This is the passenger side unit, so that side-sloped reflector is aimed at the ditch.

But, I've felt like I've seen these before... and as a matter of fact I have. They are the same Koito LED fog units used by Lexus. Covered here: Toyota LED reflector fogs. I wish I documented that post a little better, but these are undoubtably the same optics and LEDs in a different bracket mounting configuration.

The pattern is about 1 door panel tall, it does have some light scatter above the cut off. Not terrible levels by any means, but could be better.


That side angled reflector is very similar to what Toyota does in their high power halogen H11 12-15 Tacoma fogs and 16-19 H11 TRD Tacoma fogs. Directing an ultra wide pattern to the ditch provides extremely impressive pattern width.

The pattern not only spans both bays, it wraps around the walls on both sides coming in wider than even the SS3 Pros in pattern width, remarkably impressive (Never mind all the truck parts and headlight boxes in the other bay)


OEM Subaru Ascent vs OEM Lexus


Small variance in color temp, but output intensity couldn't be more spot on identical.

One of the interesting identifiers of an LED is its spectrum slope, even LEDs of similar color temps will have different spectrum slopes, it is similar to an LED fingerprint if you will. Certainly possible to have similar slopes, but there are almost always shifts in frequency or amplitude where the spectrum does not align.

Raw (non-normalized) Subaru vs Lexus


It doesn't get any more exact than that, those spectrums are identical, output intensity is identical and design looks identical. I think it is safe to say these are the same Koito units used by both Subaru and Lexus in a slightly different form factor. Note: I think that award blip at just above 380nm is the blue illuminated display on the garage stereo, which was not present in the Lexus test. I'll need to remember to cover that next time, I'm impressed the equipment was sensitive enough to pick that up.

I've got these units pulling .63A stable, or about 8.7w. This is a little less that I have the Toyota/Lexus units at, which is 1.4w higher. These units are such low power with their reflector design that ambient temp shouldn't play a factor in stable operating output (as far as indoor temp ranges apply). I don't have an explanation for the 1.4w difference. At first I thought the Subaru units might be a higher power/updated model, but the measured output readings confirm it is identical.


Comparing the Koito units to the SS3s


SS3 sports are about 1.92x the output intensity of the OEM Subaru Ascent/Lexus LEDs and the Pros come in over 2.53x higher in output intensity. It is worth noting tough that the Pros are rated at a 90 degree beam spread, and the Sports are spec'd at 81 degrees. The OEM Koito reflector units have even a wider spread than the Pros, and also because of the asymmetrical reflector design, they will illuminate a greater degree region to the ditch than the center, so when mounted you'll end up with a much wider pattern than that degree spread spec may imply.

Thanks @TacoFergie for sending these Subaru units my way for review.

 

Did the Lexus/Toyota fogs have the same width? These seem wider comparing both reviews.

 

I'm fairly certain, I didn't do a very thorough job documenting them the first time. In the Subaru review I used the passenger side fog, which puts the pattern mostly to the right side (toward the ditch). In the Lexus post it looks like I may have used the driver fog, which puts the pattern mostly to the left, which doesn't show very well with a wall right there. Combined with some other large boxes/tires in the garage obstructing some of the beam on the wall to the right, that first post didn't do well at all showing the width of the beam which hadn't occurred to me to focus on at the time.

 

Crash,
I recently replaced the fogs on my ‘19 with OEM led fogs. Would there be any negatives to running them constantly in conjunction with the headlights? I love the whiter light along with the throw on the sides especially here in PA with our deer population.
Thanks for all of your work making us safer.

 

Generally speaking, driving with your fogs on all the time is not a good practice. While more foreground light makes you feel more comfortable, it reduces your night distance vision and shifts your focus away from where it should be. In areas with kamikaze wildlife it can be a tricky balance. Fogs likely won't provide much if any warning for an approaching deer. If your concern is deer approaching from the sides, having a combo driving/flood lightbar, or wide cornering lights to cover further to the sides but not be limited in distance with a pattern cut off would be beneficial. However, neither of those can be run with oncoming traffic. If the concern is deer in the road, Upgrading the headlights with the best bulbs available (if halogen units) would be the first step, and possibly adding aux driving lights to extended the distance vision could be done if it is felt the high beam is insufficient, but again those could not be run with oncoming traffic. If looking at just fogs for the purpose, the SS3 Pros would probably be most ideal to get maximum spill above the horizon to the shoulders while being SAE compliant, but they are also the least friendly to oncoming drivers.

 

Thanks for this comparison. Last year, I ditched BD Squadrons for the OEM Lexus/Toyota (and now I guess Subaru?) LED fogs and they've been great until now... I must've hit a rock or something, because one filled with condensation. I was contemplating the SS3 Sports and I think that's the way to go based on the price vs. light output compared to the OEM fogs.

I was eyeballing these, too, but they just seem like an SS3 knockoff:

$127 iJDMTOY Yellow Lens 24W High Power LED Wide Angle SAE Flood Beam Fog Light Kit w/Built-On Mounting Brackets Compatible with Toyota Tacoma Tundra 4Runner, etc

https://www.amazon.com/iJDMTOY-LED-...dmtoy+tacoma+fog+lights&qid=1634246282&sr=8-5

 

Buy once, cry once. Get the DD and stay away from that garbage.

 

Crash,
Thank you, exactly what I was looking for. I have already done the H-9 upgrade. I’d love to put in OEM led headlights but once again in central PA I don’t want to risk icing especially when driving at night. I have no problems at all with the high beams save that they are just a bit “yellow”.
Thanks again for all your work here.

 

Worse actually. They are a Baja Designs Squadron knock offs. They used to look nearly identical to the Squadrons. I actually reported this vendor to Baja for Baja to take legal action against them, looks like they updated the face of the lamp to make it look different. Bajas design wasn’t SAE compliant and required a design update. These knock offs do not appear to have the update. Knock offs are never as good as the real thing, and as a lighting enthusiast you shouldn’t support IP theft with companies trying to reverse engineer a product and offshore the manufacturing for cheap to China. Steal the design, cut all the quality and performance corners, and make it cheaper in China then try and sell it like it is the same thing, when it is anything but.

See post #370 in the SAE J581 thread as an excellent example.

 

Learn something new every day.

 

Video or it didn’t happen.

 

https://youtu.be/BByN-6Bh1CA

 

Just. Wow. And it is their own parent company’s product.

 

Also- it really bothers me that its a three emitter lamp called a "4-banger." Just a peeve.

 

Finally had a moment to watch the full video. For a "youtube influencer" it is amazing how they botch every technical lighting term in a video about lights as a claimed "lighting expert". Playcard straight out of Baja's book calling the new Morimotos amber, when they are clearly targeting a selective yellow chromaticity window. It is painfully obvious they have no clue what these terms mean. Also interesting is the dark color of the Morimoto selective yellow optic, doesn't look like they did any filtration optimization for selective yellow output like Diode Dynamics. Almost certain they stayed with the exact same emitters as the white pods and just put a heavier filtration optic on to achieve selective yellow, which will result in higher output losses vs optimizing with lower color temp emitters and a more efficient lighter color lens. Will be really interesting to review these when the time comes.

 

We'll see if they ever respond to my comment

 

“The brightest LED off road pods ever made, by anybody”.

How much did Morimoto pay for this? There is so much inaccurate information vomited up in this ad, I can’t even help but laugh. Sounds like a cheap infomercial.