[quote=743power]rear foglights light red. Many cars in North America come standard with them. In our market, they are primarily placed in the rear taillight assembly, and one side or both sides will light brighter.

743power


Just for clarity could you post a picture of one of these rear fog lights?

 

my cousin is gonna get the rear fog light for his DC2 so I will see if they will fit the fit hahaha

 

We call them, "Idiot Lights".

Nice to have on a foggy night. Poorly implemented in the US.

 

willmax, if I read your post correctly I assume you want to see what the rear fog light in the rear cluster looks like?



Ok not exactly a clear picture but from this picture you can see the two top corner of the rear lights which are the brake/night lights.

Below that you have the indicator/reverse lights.

Then you have the bottom section....that's basically where the fog light would go. On the UK spec Jazz, it's on the right.

 

I see wat u r talking about thanks

 

So the bottom section is empty on NA Fits? If so, I think I'll put LED brake lights in there, in addition to rather than instead of the regular lamps, and get the best of both worlds.

 

All:

Here in foggy Tennesse, these are a good idea, we are known for some terrible multicar pile ups from fog in the south near Chattanooga.

But, you will often see them on during the day in the US, as the idiot drivers do not know when to and when not to use them legally. Mostly on Volvos it seems, I think Jag has some cars with rear fogs in the states. I had some on a 245DL wagon years ago, only used in fog/snow/rain situation, and switch off when not this condition. I have been stuck behind Volvos with the fogs on during the day, and no matter how much headlight flashing you give these idiots, they will never switch them off in the guise of "safety".

Not sure on the broken tail light comment from the Canadian, brake light malfunction would be the better reason for pull over (officer thinks the brake switch is dragging).

IPD even sold a conversion kit for older Volvo 240 cars to make the fogs extra brake lights.

 

Kentris,

Thanks ...I see what you mean...Here in our region its a blank space... Maybe I'll just do what Claymore did on the DIY section to utilize the space..

But then again, I saw a turbo light( same color and brightness of a rear fog light) for sale here.... maybe I'll play around with the idea of a separate light assy. for the rear fog....

 

I was driving in two countries for a long time (Switzerland and Serbia) and rear fog light can be turned on only if the main light is on AND if the conditions require it (heavy rain, fog, snow). It is necessary to turn it off, as soon someone is behind you, since the bulb used for it is as powerfull as the one for separate brake light on some wehicles. The rule is similar to those for high beam. The last part is just a recomendation, but you could be stopped and warned by police.

Front fog light can be turned on only if the main light is on and the conditions require it, but you do not have to turn them off. In some countries, where lights are not required during the day (like in Serbia), if only one switch operates both low beam and fog light (on some older models), you can have it all the time, otherwise if the fog light is on when there is no fog, you aer in for a fine.

 

Anybody in the U.S. experiment with this yet? I live in fog country too and was thinking of doing this. Here's what I was thinking.

A rear fog is typically on the driver's side of the car. The US market Fits have five rear brake lights (counting the center light) while apparently Euro Fits have only three, then they use one of the surplus US brake light slots for a rear fog (depending in which side of the road they drive on).

So I was thinking I could modify the left-rear taillight cluster by cutting the lower-left brake light wire and connecting it to the fog-light control. Presto! Rear fog light!

I would also simply remove the bulb from the lower-right-side brake light so it doesn't come on when I hit the brakes. This would give me three brake lights instead of the OEM five. But if three is good enough for Japan and Europe, it's good enough for me!

Has anybody already tried this?

 

Why not buy one or two low profile fog lights and mount them to the underside of your rear bumper, then wire up a switch to control the new lights in the blank plastic panel next to the outside mirror directional control?

Fog lights that work anytime with a switch also work great to warn off tailgaters. We don't have the toole fog of the Sacto. Valley, we just have the pea-soup coastal variety in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Even in clear weather, at night this is tailgater city. The only time that a cop is going to get you for operating a manual-switch operated clear rear fog light is if he is the tailgater that you warn off. Keep in mind that "use" differs from "abuse".

 

I've thought of something like that but all that hardware hanging off the back of the car doesn't look very clean. Also I would want to use it whenever necessary in foul weather, so it would have to have red lenses.

That being said, PIAA makes a pretty clean-looking rear fog unit that uses LEDs. Could probably be mounted just under the rear skirt somewhere:
PIAA REAR FOG LED LAMP: DENO-3 (RED)-Options Auto Salon

I also have to correct my earlier post. The US Fits have 5 taillights, not brake lights. And I realized last night that the OEM brake lights are the lower units in each cluster, not the upper. So what I proposed earlier won't work quite so easily because you'd have to either move the brake lights to the upper bulbs on each side or add another bulb to one of the lower units as a fog light. But it could still be done.

Hey Dacalac, where can I find a rear fog unit like the photo in your post?

 

I had covered this topic partly in my blog post about the Fit Taillamp Options, which was also referenced from my sticky here on FitFreak.

Basically, aside from the JDM LED, and North American spec taillamps, all other Fit taillamps in the world are the same. Although they look very similar to our taillamps, the light pattern is quite different.

In North America, the top red section of the taillight is lit by a miniature 5w bulb, used as part of the taillamp. Elsewhere in the world, this top red section is occupied by a dual filament standard sized bulb that functions both as the sole taillamp, and the brake light.

The middle section of the taillamp, where the North American cars have the turn signals on the inside and the reverse light on the outside; the rest of the world have it reversed, where the turn signal is on the outside, while the reverse lamp is on the inside. which to me makes more sense visually, but probably does not make much of a difference functionally. I also posted instructions on how to reverse these middle lights in another post on my blog.

Now, the bottom red section of the taillamp, in North America, there's a dual filment standard size bulb inside acting as a second taillamp bulb, as well as the brake light when the second filament is lit. The rest of the world uses this spot for the integrated rear fog light where required by law. In most countries, the rear fog light is mounted ONLY behind the driver side (i.e. right side in the UK, left side in Germany) so the driver following would know which side of the light to pass on.

Legally, rear fog lights are wired so they come on only when at least the marker/tail lights are on. Many Euro spec cars are wired so that the switch for the front and rear fog lights are linked together. You can have just the front fog lights on, but if you switch the rear fogs on, the front fogs are automatically turned on as well. They assume if you NEED to turn on the rear fogs, you should probably have the fronts on as well.

Of course, in North America, most places do not have rear fog light laws. And since most people don't know what they are, they may think it's a broken/wrongly wired tail/brake light. especially when only one side is illuminated.

As previously mentioned before, the stock switch for the rear fog light on the Fit is on the turn stalk, along with the headlight switch. Instead of one single click for the front fogs, there's two clicks. first click turns on front fogs alone, second click turns on both. The rear fog on indicator, like the front fog indicator however, is integrated in the cluster.

As for adding an integrated rear fog in the stock north american taillights, you'd need to dremel out the top hole to accept a dual filament bulb/socket, and wire in the appropriate wire and switch.
The switch, of course, can be a separate switch mounted elsewhere in the dash, or wired into the stock front fog switch if you'd like. Or you can buy a stock tailamp housing from elsewhere in the world, along with the sockets and plugs. then all you'd need to do is the wiring.

As a side note, my previous Audi A4 had a single rear fog on the driver side, and a bare socket (no bulb contacts) on the passenger side. So I added in the contacts so I could put in a second bulb on the passenger side rear fog section. I also rewired my rear fog switch to work completely independent from the front fog light, or any other light on my car (separate front/rear fog light switched, but linked from the factory). since fog is not a huge issue where I live. I actually used that setup to scare off tailgaters by flipping on the rear fogs if they follow too closely. It's better than jabbing on the brakes since I don't actually slow down, which would not be good since they're already tailgating.

 

Thanks, I was hoping you'd chime in. I've seen your blog and it's real helpful.

I took a closer look at this and now I don't like the idea of using the upper section of the taillight for a fog. Reason is that the reflector appears designed to spill light out to the side, which wouldn't be good for a fog. You mainly want that rear fog beaming straight back.

My latest notion is to convert one of the rear backup lights to a fog, but I haven't quite figured out how yet. Possibly just with some rewiring and a red bulb. But I also don't know if just one backup light will be adequate for reverse visibility.

 

JDM's original OE taillights don't have the space for a rear fog, so I had the cheap bumper cut to fit the aftermarket foglamp.

 

That's nice. What kinda lamp did you use for that? And do you have a picture of the light in the daytime that would show how it's installed? Did you have any clearance issues behind the bumper skin, or is there enough room under there?

 

It's made by Raybrig. It was installed using a rubber grommet, made from a strip of rubber with lips to hold on to the hole in the bumper, and loads of silicone sealant. I got this piece of rubber from the guy who sold me the light kit. I didn't go for the real Honda parts because it's so easily nicked.
Regarding the clearance issue, it fits fine for a Thai spec Jazz. Don't know about the US models.

 

Thanks for the followup. I may try something similar for a fog light. Seems to work well. Nice looking Fit, BTW!!

 

I was running an edm civic rear foglight on my cb7. its something that could be used on the Fit, I just don't think it would look right, and do you really want to cut a hole in your brand new bumper? And to clarify, I ran the light regularly all over the midwest, New York and Connecticut til I parted the car out and never ran into any legal issues

 

heres mine.