Subaru Has the Fog Lights Wrong

Bob · 2005-11-02T23:30:06+00:00

2005 Subaru OBW, L.L. Bean edition. Unless I am reading the manual wrong or doing something else wrong, I believe that the Subaru engineers have made a serious mistake with their fog light. On my Subaru, it appears to be not possible to turn on the fog lights UNLESS the full headlights (not the full-time running lights) are turned on. This is ridiculous!! Anyone who has experience driving in serious fog understands that using your headlights under such circumstances is flat wrong. In a thick fog, the tiny suspended water droplets reflect the light from the headlights right back at you and, far from providing better visibility, blind you and make it even more difficult to drive. Those fog lights are down low for a reason. In a serious fog, all you will be able to see is one lane marker out. You creep along waiting for the next lane marker to come into view. Driving does not get more frightening than this. (And please, lets not have any jerks saying you shouldn't be driving under such conditions. You can be driving along and suddenly find yourself in just such a fog with no warning.) I drove for three years in Belgium and once or twice was caught in such a fog and was able to drive safely only by slowing waaay down, turning off my headlights, turning my fog lights on and creeping along. I would NOT have been able to proceed to the next exit to get off the road without those properly designed (i.e., not to bd used with the headlilghts on) fog lights. Can anyone turn on their Subaru fog lights w/o turning on their headlights??? Thanks, bob

Nov 02, 2005 41 Replies

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Edward Hayes 20 years ago

They look neat: Seriously though I have used mine quite a lot here in Fl and find them OK.

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grape 20 years ago

I wonder if fog light is usefull.... or at least at where I live (Toronto) , never encounter any serious fog. Light fogs are very rare, maybe only twice /year, you can see up to a few hundred meters , so still no need for fog light..

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