Do you wonder when to use fog lights?
Well, you’re not alone. Most of the drivers either don’t know the use of fog lights or use them incorrectly. This ignorance puts the importance of fog lights down the table and the winter season ends with the most accidents, crashes and casualties.
Car crashes linked to interior condensation, fog and steaming are common in cold weather conditions. In such instances, when high and low beam lights produce glare when used in heavy rainfall, fog lights serve as a better option for improved visibility during heavy rainfall and help the driver to clearly see the road ahead. Stand-alone front fog lights can help drivers to see road marking in fog at low speeds, perhaps keeping the car from hitting trees or running into a ditch.
However, in such weather conditions use of fog lights is recommended but fog lights should be used only when the visibility is reduced to 100 meters or less. Otherwise, you could put the other drivers at risk. Because, if the front or rear fog lights are used when it’s not needed, it can dazzle other drivers.
Using fog lights is not only necessary for a safe drive. It is a requirement to pass MOT for all the models of your VW Volkswagen car. During the colder autumn and winter months, you should always check to see if your fog lights are working before setting off on any journey. If your vehicle has automatic lights that come on during a low light level, you may need to manually turn your fog lights on as they don’t always do it automatically. Checking them frequently during the winter season is recommended. A regular check even when not needed will help you know if the lights are in working condition or failed.
Typically, when a fog light fails, your dashboard displays a warning message:
- Check front left fog light!
- Check front right fog light!
What is the common reason for fog light failure?
The common reason for this to happen is the burned out bulb – Over time, everything completes its time likewise; the fog light bulbs wear out with time and stop working. A good indication for a burned-out bulb is that it usually goes bad only on one side. The other side would be functioning properly. It hardly occurs that both sides bulb fails at the same time. If a bulb burns out, it typically will not affect the rest of the electrical system, allowing other bulbs to function normally. Another common reason is sometimes, the same warning message could be triggered if you did upgrade conventional halogen bulbs to LED bulbs. LED use less power than halogen bulb so when the bulb is upgraded to LED the car thinks the bulb is out and triggers this message.
How to fix this error?
If you find that the fog light bulb has gone bad then a simple bulb replacement will fix it. A bad bulb will typically have a broken filament which prevents current from running through the bulb and illuminating the gas inside. If the bulb needs to be replaced, it is a DIY job so you don’t need to spend money on the dealership services or any other maintenance charges.
To successfully replace this bulb you must find out which bulb is required to replace the old one. As each model of VW car uses different ones and there are many different after-market replacement bulbs are available; so you need to know the right part number. You can either remove it and inspect it or contact xenons4u to get genuine information as well as parts for your VW car.
Once you get the right bulb and replace it, the error should go away immediately.
To replace the bulb, you can access the fog light from both the top and bottom sides whichever is easier for you. There is an access hole in the wheel. By turning the wheel and pulling off that, you can get your hands at the fog lights. You will find an electrical plug on a fog lamp and there is a little tab so you will squeeze that and pull it down to separate the connector. Once, the electric connector is off, just twist the fog lamp and it will come out. Verify by looking at both bulbs, the faulty one and the new one just to make sure if there are any differences.
Now, just place the bulb in the right direction and connect the electrical cords again.
If you have recently upgraded your fog light bulbs then in this case, you need to add pair of right LED H8, H9, H11 35W, 50W load resistors to get rid of this fixed bulb out warning message.
These resistors are compatible only with LED bulbs and used for fog lights to address and fix Check front left fog light! And Check the front right fog light! On-board computer errors. Once you used the correct pair, it will fade away this warning and your VW is good to go.
