Prius OE fog lights.

If you bought the projectors that priuschat member Chiezy is selling, then I can vouch that they are good quality projectors. Yes, they are more or less driving lights, as the beam spread isn't wide like a true fog light.

H11 bulbs are interchangeable with H16 bulbs, at least in the Toyota/Lexus universe. I've even modified 35w H8 halogen bulbs to fit into the H11 foglight mounts for use as DRLs in the past. Link in my signature below shows what modification needs to be made to an H8 bulb to use in an H11 housing.

 

So there's a replacement bulb for the stock Prius fog light that's an improvement? Still a fog pattern, brighter?

 

The reflector based oem prius foglight is really bad as a true foglight. The reason is that they lack a beam cutoff, so light glares up and is reflected off the fog into the driver's eyes, similar to the lowbeams.

Here's a pic of the projector foglights' nice cutoffs against my garage door:

 

Here's a pic of the oem foglight compared to Chiezy's projector foglight:



There is one cautionary note though. At least one priuschat member had his plastic foglight shrouds melting from the concentrated/magnified rays of the sun through the projector lenses when parked in the sun. I believe he was in So. Cali.

 

What I've got. It's basically just possible to tell they're on. I'm not in too much of a lather about it, just curious. So a bulb upgrade wouldn't be that effective, might blind oncoming drivers?

 

Yes, putting a brighter bulb in the oem reflector foglights makes more glare to other drivers.

 

I bought the ESUSE LED fog light, it's a complete assembly it works better than the OEM fog and the projector type, this give a super wide flat beam pattern and it's 5K in kelvin color. It will match pretty close to your LED head light color.

The retrofit source has the XB fog which is plug and play, it is expensive but it will out perform the OEM fog light and it will last for a long time, the good parts is it consume only 9W of power vs the stock H11 55W, check it out.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/complete-headlight-fog-light-housings/morimoto-xb-led-fog-lights-toyota.html#.Vlsn0OIjE_c

Some 4runner owner did an install write up, take a look at the beam pattern.
Direct Replacement LED Fog Light Assemblies for 2014 & Other 5th Gens - Toyota 4Runner Forum - Largest 4Runner Forum

 

Those XB foglights do have an excellent beam pattern, wide with a good cutoff.

However, as true foglights, color matters. 5000k is too bright white and would cause some glare off fog. 2500k to 3000k would be much better for contrast. Unfortunately, LEDs don't have those color options.

 

My head's spinning a bit. Is there then a good choice for replacement fog light, something that will be in good color range, keep the beam down low (not blinding oncomers), improves the brightness and stays in "fog light" category, not driving lights?

Again, I'm likely not going to do anything, I'm really hesistant about "upgrades", but it's good info to have out there.

 

Were these straight replacements from your OEM fogs? No added components like ballasts or any other HID parts in the pictures?

Just wondering if its worth get a whole HID kit or not.

 

Yes, straight up replacement of the oem or oem style foglights. They come only with the two projector housings, no bulbs, no wiring harness, no switches. Just the projectors.

 

Nice. Which bulbs did you use? Was wondering if these what work without a HID kit....https://www.theretrofitsource.com/components/bulbs/morimoto-xb35-5202-2504-bulbs.html?carDisplay=2011+Toyota+Prius&preselect=5.2.4-BU73

 

Those are HID Bulbs, you will need ballasts to use those.

I use Nokya H11 2500K Yellow halogen bulbs from Amazon. That's what's in the foglights in my picture above.

Additionally, you stated in another post that you have 50w HID in your lowbeams. That's a lot of bright light, you don't need HID in your foglights too. Besides, the projector foglights you are getting will keep the light down really low to the road, where they are only lighting up the area in front of the car. You don't need the extra brightness that HIDs will produce, right in front of the car, regular halogen bulbs are fine for that.

 

Thanks again for your insight xliderider! Sounds like ill be ok with the projector foglights from member cheizy if they're still available with the Nokya's your referenced.

So much to learn and not enough time haha.

 

Here is a picture I took last night with the exposure turned down.



You can see that the projector foglights light up the ground in front of the car. If the road surface was wet, then the light would reflect off the road surface due to the very narrow angle of light to the road, like when you throw a stone at a flat angle to skip it across water. Putting HIDs in there, which are about 3x brighter than halogens, is overkill.

 

Thanks for the pic mate! That really helps!

 

These?

Nokya Hyper Yellow H11 Headlight Fog Light Bulb 2500K Stage 1 | eBay