need for improved headlights

[Martok]

Originally Posted by Stumblin Steve

How are they not functional? I can tell the difference if my fogs are on vs off, I can see more of the road directly in front of me.

I can tell if my fogs are on by the road signs by 1/8th mile down the expressway!

[Ddaddy]

The stock fogs are often poorly adjusted from the factory. Also, a lot of folks don't know you can adjust them. Sometimes folks replace the stocks with brighter bulbs and claim a big difference but don't realize it's mainly because the stock lights were aimed too low and the brighter bulbs are compensating for the incorrect adjustment. I'm not saying anyone here did this, just pointing it out.

I adjusted my stock fogs to the correct height and they work quite well. With the factory setting, they were useless. I can literally drive at night at highway speed using nothing more than the fog lamps with stock bulbs...which is what fog lights are intended to do in fog. Being lower than the headlights, they simply produce less reflective glare and "cut under" the fog to illuminate the road.

[Martok]

Originally Posted by Ddaddy

The stock fogs are often poorly adjusted from the factory. Also, a lot of folks don't know you can adjust them. Sometimes folks replace the stocks with brighter bulbs and claim a big difference but don't realize it's mainly because the stock lights were aimed too low and the brighter bulbs are compensating for the incorrect adjustment. I'm not saying anyone here did this, just pointing it out.

I adjusted my stock fogs to the correct height and they work quite well. With the factory setting, they were useless. I can literally drive at night at highway speed using nothing more than the fog lamps with stock bulbs...which is what fog lights are intended to do in fog. Being lower than the headlights, they simply produce less reflective glare and "cut under" the fog to illuminate the road.

That wasnt my case. My alignment was ok. My problem was the stock bulbs just sucked. One died and come to find out, it was a dealer-only part. They were charging $25 for these junk bulbs that only lasted a year and a half. While installing the hid, I noticed the other fog light was just about burned out too.

If you have projectors, good hid fogs make sense. The projectors have a defined shape to them and the fogs help diffuse light to darker areas.

[Ddaddy]

Originally Posted by Martok

That wasnt my case. My alignment was ok. My problem was the stock bulbs just sucked. One died and come to find out, it was a dealer-only part. They were charging $25 for these junk bulbs that only lasted a year and a half. While installing the hid, I noticed the other fog light was just about burned out too.

If you have projectors, good hid fogs make sense. The projectors have a defined shape to them and the fogs help diffuse light to darker areas.

I don't know if there was a difference between the '06 and '10 bulbs.

My stock bulbs are 7 years old and still work fine. I drive with them on full time with the headlights. I never turn off the fogs but occassionally (in foggy conditions) I turn off the headlights and just run with the fogs on.

I've never felt a need to upgrade the stock fogs to HID, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt either. Maybe it's better, IDK.

I do know I seriously disliked the HID factory headlights in the 2011 Chrysler 300 I rented for a week last year. I couldn't stand the shutter cut-off on the light field that made the headlights nearly useless in certain conditions when the vehicle was facing down into a grade that rose on the other side. HIDs with low-beam shutter cut-offs need to be self-leveling to maintain proper illumination of the road ahead.

In general, I don't like any headlight that uses a shutter to switch between low-beam and high-beam without adding additional bulbs and lenses specifically for high-beam application.

[Martok]

Originally Posted by Ddaddy

I don't know if there was a difference between the '06 and '10 bulbs.

My stock bulbs are 7 years old and still work fine. I drive with them on full time with the headlights. I never turn off the fogs but occassionally (in foggy conditions) I turn off the headlights and just run with the fogs on.

I've never felt a need to upgrade the stock fogs to HID, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt either. Maybe it's better, IDK.

I do know I seriously disliked the HID factory headlights in the 2011 Chrysler 300 I rented for a week last year. I couldn't stand the shutter cut-off on the light field that made the headlights nearly useless in certain conditions when the vehicle was facing down into a grade that rose on the other side. HIDs with low-beam shutter cut-offs need to be self-leveling to maintain proper illumination of the road ahead.

In general, I don't like any headlight that uses a shutter to switch between low-beam and high-beam without adding additional bulbs and lenses specifically for high-beam application.

Dodge changed the fog bulb in 2010. I upgraded the fogs to hid because I am planning on doing the headlights too. I am getting the same color from the same manufacture so they should match. Having one hid and the other halogen doesnt look right anyway. Trust me a hid fog upgrade is a good investment. Anyone else have them?

[xkm121]

Yep. The 2010 onward Charger use 9009/5202 bulb for fog. It is a 24watt bulb. The function of the fog for 2010+ Charger become merely a decoration.

Upgrading to HID or even high wattage LED is better than the stock 24watt ones.

06~10 use 9145 bulb. It is a 45watt version of 9005 bulb. So it does perform better than the 10+ Charger's stock 5202 bulb.

[xkm121]

Originally Posted by Martok

Dodge changed the fog bulb in 2010. I upgraded the fogs to hid because I am planning on doing the headlights too. I am getting the same color from the same manufacture so they should match. Having one hid and the other halogen doesnt look right anyway. Trust me a hid fog upgrade is a good investment. Anyone else have them?

I have. Definitely light up the road better.

[Stumblin Steve]

How do you go about correctly adjusting the fog lights? It never really occurred to me to even check, good looking out guys!

I know where to adjust the fog lights just not the headlights, I'm just wondering how to make sure they are adjusted properly and if not how to make sure the light is where it needs to be.

[Ddaddy]

Originally Posted by Stumblin Steve

How do you go about correctly adjusting the fog lights? It never really occurred to me to even check, good looking out guys!

I know where to adjust the fog lights just not the headlights, I'm just wondering how to make sure they are adjusted properly and if not how to make sure the light is where it needs to be.

IDK if there is a "correct" way to do it, but what I did was find a large open spot of flat road at night where I could work (it was a parking lot that was a almost a half mile long and was unlit.

I turned on my headlights and then walked out to where the low beam struck the road closest to my car and marked the asphalt with sidewalk chalk so I could see it. I put a similar mark on the farthest point the low-beam struck.

I then turned off the headlights and turned on only the fogs. I adjusted them so that they struck the road past the closest point I could see from the driver's seat and extended out to past the mid point of the low beam marks. (this way when I drive with the low beams and fogs on, the fogs fill in the beam pattern)


After that, I turned the car to face the cinderblock wall of the store backs that were along the parking lot edge and moved the car to about 40 feet away. I then could see the line each fog beam cast and fine tuned them to be level with each other.


Adjusting the headlights first was a different proceedure where I used the same location and set the height so that the farthest edge of the low beam distinctly lit the asphalt and didn't go off into the horizon and the closest edge was not too far down the road (within 2 car lengths).

Both of these adjustments required a lot of getting back in the driver's seat to determine if the light pattern suited me. I also drove it several times at night and then repeated the process to fine tune where I wanted the beams to be.

Note: Only the height can be adjusted on either the fogs or the lowbeams. Highbeams simply follow the lowbeam adjustment and can't be adjusted independently.