anything is possible the less possible it is the mor it was cost ...but anything is possible

 

The STi will not have fog lights. The headlights will be HID. i'm sure some company will come out with a foglight kit for the Sti though.

 

JoeMama is mistaken.

The '03 Impreza/WRX came with _Driving Lights_ , not "Fog Lights" that are clear and intended to support the low beams while driving through areas of low illumination/visibility (backroads, single lane highway, woods, etc).

With the STi's HID's (Xenon) you won't need driving lights at all as they throw light much farther, wider and brighter/intense than standard (Halogen) lights.
Using Xenon lows in conjunction with driving lights (Clear Lens & White Light) is illegal in some areas and generally not smart as well as inconsiderate to other drivers on the road.

HID's are quite _intense_ and give off visible light higher up on the energy spectrum than Halogen & sealed beam bulbs improving the drivers night time viusal acuity and color vision. This is why they appear brighter and to be bluish in tint.
But this also means that oncoming drivers (at the recieving end of the lights) can temporarily be blinded and or loose their night vision. To supplant HID's with driving lights is blinding to oncoming cars as well as those you might be following behind.

As for actual 'Fog Lights' which generally have an Amber Lens & Yellow Light the need for them depends solely on your local weather patterns and climate.

Personally, I drive through fog maybe once per year and don't see any point to them. Most automakers seem to agree.
When is the last time you saw factory 'fog' lights?!
Driving with them on and not being in foggy conditions just makes you look like a jerk at best or at worst blinding other drivers potentially causing an accident.
Yellow light does absolutely no good in other than fog conditions.
And driving through fog with your highbeams on is just as dumb & pointless. It just refracts off the fog (water molecules) and dissapates in front of you further reducing immediate visibility.

As for the 'Driving Light' openings on the STi, I'm planning to use that space to build up mounting points for remote RADAR, LIDAR and LASER detector & jammer units and/or brake cooling ducts.

* For more information on Xenon vs. Halogen/Standard bulbs as well as drivng & foglamps click here.

* For specific information on Xenon (HID) lights click here.

* For specific information on Halogen/Standard lights click here.

* Subaru marketing pic of a 2003 WRx with 'Driving Lights' installed and activated.

* Official complaint and investigation record by NHTSA regarding glare from misuse and incorrect mounting of HID's, driving lights and foglights.

Incorrect use of HID's, driving, fog and highbeam lights is a serious driver safety issue.

Just an FYI...

- Janq

 

Thank you Janq............A-holes driving with "fog" lights (or driver's lights) in daytime/good visibility is one of my pet peeves......very prevalent amongst BMW drivers in the UK......'nuff said !!

 

It wasn't so bad 15-20 years ago but in the last 5 years or so it seems nearly every car on the road comes with driving lights (clear) including several motorcycles and everyone drives around with them on 24/7 regardless of the actual ambient lighting conditions.

I see people with them on driving through tunnels (extremely dangerous!) & major thoroughfares that are heavily immluminated from overhead street lights, buildings (they give off a ton of light!) and other road traffic.
The only thing dumber and more dangerous are those idiots who drive at dawn/dusk or in rain/snow without turning on their low or driving lights at all or just leaving on their marker lights (yellow).

As for HID's, I'm all for them and think they are a great & important safety improvement over Halgoen and sealed beam (lots of those are still on the road). I'd pay extra for them if it weren't factory standard.
But all these people driving around with one, tow or even three sets of auxillary lights is ridiculous. They look like rolling billboards with lights that are often brighter than police spotlights.

The worst culprit of this on the road is the last generation Lexus 'ES300' and the mid '80's Acura 'Legend' which both came with integrated fog lamps (yellow).
I see these people all the time driving around all the time fog lights on when its clear as a bell out. Here in VA/MD/DC we get fog maybe once or twice per year.

I wish people would read their owners manuals and learn how to use their lights properly and under the right circumstances.
Just because the button is thier doesn't mean use it day & night.

- Janq

 

does the STi have halogen lights or HID's and do u know what color it? and do u know if it will be somewhere near the bmw, audi, mercede's HID's?
thanks
-O4STi

 

Low beams are True HID, high beams are plain Halogen. I believe all HID lights put out the same wavelength / color of light so I would expect it to look just like the above mentioned.

Keith

 

Exactly.

The US Sti gets a low-beam ('driving light') HID setup standard.
It's because of this that their is no DRL ('Daytime Running Lights') feature. HID's do not have a low-power feature and are too brilliant for use during the day (issues with glare for oncoming traffic). Also, HID bulbs do not fare well with continual on and off cycling and they require a few moments to power up.

As noted above, all HID's exhibit the same color charaterisitics due to the medium which they all use to function and provide visual light. HID's use Xenon gas as in cojunction with high voltage as a catalyst to excite molecules and produce visual light (in laymans terms). Standard (regular) headlights use Halogen gas.
The result of using Xenon gas produces a visible light that is more brilliant and most often described as having a bluish white hue. You know what they look like though. They are all over the streets now days. Halogen light produces a more yellowish orange hue and is less brilliant to the naked and unshielded eye.

All HID's regardless of vehicle emit the same bluish white hue.
It doesn't matter whether its Merc, BMW, Lexus or whomever.

There are BTW 'imitation' HID bulbs and complete units being sold that use a regular Halogen bulb either coated or with a filter to imitate the HID 'look'. But they never look the same, not that it matters as they perform exactly the same as regular Haogen bulbs.

For more information reference the URL's I provided earlier toward Hella Lighting, innovators in he development of HID lighting systems.
The answers to your question are detailed there with visual examples of differences.

- Janq

'I wear my sunglasses at night, because your dang 'Fog Lights' are too bright!'

 

There is no indication in the 2004 STi specs regarding halogen. Specs read "High Intnsity Discharge (HID) headlights." My understanding is that this means both high and low beam.

 

There are very few vehicles shipping with double HID's, low & high beam Xenon. Thos that are start at $60K and go north of that. HID's are expensive and frankly I'm surprised Subie is offering it on an Impreza.

But anyway, to help clear things up for you point your browser to here for a complete detail of STi specific options as provided by Subaru directly.
On page 2 of 3 you will find the following;
"Four-beam headlights with high-intensity discharge (HID) low beams and smoke-tinted covers".

- Janq

 

Thanks for the PDF. There is more info in that the the official 2004 Subaru Impreza 26-page 8.5x11 brochure.

 

Infinity5235,

You're welcome.

That brochure/hand-out you recieved (I have several of them) is nothing more than a marketing group piece developed to provide a brief introduction of the vehicle. Its not the text but the graphics that are intended to get the buyer excited about the car.
The textual information is minimal at best.

For real information one has to dig deeper and locate 'whitepaper' type information as detailed in the PDF.
Although that specific PDF still leaves many questions unanswered.

The marketing folks most likely created the hand-out using information borrowed from the source of the PDF.

- Janq

"A picture is worth a thousand words." - Unknown

 

Call me crazy, but I was always under the impression that fog lights and driving lights are distinguished by beam pattern, not color of lens/bulb. Fogs having a lower, wider pattern and driving lights having a more straight ahead aim mimicking your headlights - of course both being mounted lower.

<snif> miss my BMW HIDs.

 

Ok, you're crazy!

But seriously you are correct...beam pattern is what's _most_ important and effective for all lights fog, driving, low, high or auxillary (i.e. turcks with roof/rollbar light kits).

Typically low-end aftermarket fog lamps and most less than modern vehicles (5-7 years or older) have yellow/amber fog light lenses/bulbs while their driving lights are clear.
Non-OEM installers typically do not verify proper beam pattern or aiming of install for these products. Many dealers in my work experience don't do this either. They just slap them on and send you down the highway. Worst, most states only verify aiming of the primary lights (high & low beam) at inspection time.

Up until very recently for decades it had been the accpeted standard in industry that amber/yellow was the best/better color to use for fog due to how visible that color is to the naked eye in contrast with the grey/white haze of fog. It also was thought to increase night time visual acuity for detail (along the same principal that red does). Further, it was thought that yellow more easily allows oncoming traffic to 'see' you in a fog where as white light is diffused by the water droplets. In practice its been found that yellow doesn't necessarily work any better than white.

Well, long story short in the past few years OEM suppliers such as Hella and PIAA have slowly been moving away from yellow/amber and consider clear to get the job done just as well.
Also they both are finding that HID's (Xenon) works best in low light conditions such as fog and/or near zero ambient light conditions.
The key though is not color as its proper aiming of the light pattern/beam. Again, this almost never occurs for the many non OEM installations out there...which is what the originator of this thread was referring to doing.

In the case of your BMW you were fortunate to have HID's which is a leap ahead of Halogen light in night time visibility as well as enhancing visual acuity and night vision for the driver.
For those requiring DRL's many high end OEM's that use HID's for driving use are upfitting auxillary lights with low powered Halogen based bulbs (i.e. BMW 7 series).

More than probably anyone wanted to know about lights...

- Janq