Comfortline: Fog lights now only with sport pack

[Cossor]

On ordering my 118TSI comfortline, found fog lights deleted as "Stand alone options" for MY11
Very sad, so now run risk of hitting more wombats. (Gaumless beasts, love running in front of cars)
(Fog lights standard with sports pack, previous ok without sports pack)
But wondering, if possible to obtain from third party suppliers?
(Delivery September)

[nau]

might want to chk ebay
- can get 'standard' looking ones
- LED ones

quite a few options out there

[pologti18t]

I have to ask... how do foglights help you avoid wombats?

[Cossor]

In area where I live, lots of wombats.
At night, especially in winter, lots of fog. (Sometimes day also)
See Wombat, STOP. Don't think, just STOP, otherwise they go BUMP in the night.
Gaumless beasts. Foglight's help to see em.

[Maverick]

On ordering my 118TSI comfortline, found fog lights deleted as "Stand alone options" for MY11
Very sad, so now run risk of hitting more wombats. (Gaumless beasts, love running in front of cars)
(Fog lights standard with sports pack, previous ok without sports pack)
But wondering, if possible to obtain from third party suppliers?
(Delivery September)

How does decreasing your distance vision at night by using foglights (illegally) help you avoid wombats?

Are you one of the people the subscribe to the false notion that because you can see more of the road immediately in front of the car that you distance vision is improved because this isn't the case and unless you're travelling at 2kph (and the wombat is moving at 8kph) lighting up the front of the car will do absolutely nothing.

Retrofitting Xenons (HID) Lighting to reflector housings

"With much of the light being scattered the performance of Xenon’s is generally nowhere as good as that of Halogens, the improvement that is seen is a lot more light in front of the car but a lot less in the distance on the road where you need it. Daniel Stern sums this up well “It’s tricky to judge headlamp beam performance without a lot of knowledge, a lot of training and a lot of special equipment, because subjective perceptions are very misleading. Having a lot of strong light in the foreground, that is on the road close to the car and out to the sides, is very comforting and reliably produces a strong impression of “good headlights”. The problem is that not only is foreground lighting of decidedly secondary importance when travelling much above 30 mph, but having a very strong pool of light close to the car causes your pupils to close down, worsening your distance vision…all the while giving you this false sense of security. This is to say nothing of the massive amounts of glare to other road users and backdazzle to you, the driver, that results from these “retrofits”.” (see link below)"

[team_v]

In area where I live, lots of wombats.
At night, especially in winter, lots of fog. (Sometimes day also)
See Wombat, STOP. Don't think, just STOP, otherwise they go BUMP in the night.
Gaumless beasts. Foglight's help to see em.

Better off to get the LED DRL's which are soon to be replacing foglights.

[Cossor]

Have no trouble with that statement. Never having driven with foglights as wildstock avoidance issue, perhaps
wishful thinking.
But wonder if Xenons light applies to Golf fog light? Was thinking in terms of additional clarity.
Had fun result returning from Wollongong to Sydney. Bad fog. followed the dotted line, (All I could see)
Ended somewhere I had never been before.

[Maverick]

Have no trouble with that statement. Never having driven with foglights as wildstock avoidance issue, perhaps
wishful thinking.
But wonder if Xenons light applies to Golf fog light? Was thinking in terms of additional clarity.
Had fun result returning from Wollongong to Sydney. Bad fog. followed the dotted line, (All I could see)
Ended somewhere I had never been before.

The bi-xenons would be the best safety upgrade for country driving but as you can't get them I'd recommend a halogen upgrade.

Upgrading Volkswagen Halogen Headlights to Osram Super Bright Off Road 65watt bulbs

Adding high performance halogen bulbs to your Volkswagen

Upgrade Golf Headlights to Osram Nightbreaker

You can retrofit the oem fog but at a cost. Off the top of my head somewhere around $500-1000 depending on where you source the parts.

[Cossor]

Gee, thanks Maverick
Although have a problem accessing the website, perhaps try again after logging off.
I think "Osram" version easiest (Considering warranty)
But then, I seem to remember, from test drive, knob to adjust height of headlight beam?
Perhaps this means concern no event?
(In this case, pity those with "self adjusting H/light beam !)

[hoi polloi]

Better off to get the LED DRL's which are soon to be replacing foglights.

is this the case? i thought DRLs and foglights were different things...

- Anthony.

[Maverick]

Gee, thanks Maverick
Although have a problem accessing the website, perhaps try again after logging off.
I think "Osram" version easiest (Considering warranty)
But then, I seem to remember, from test drive, knob to adjust height of headlight beam?
Perhaps this means concern no event?
(In this case, pity those with "self adjusting H/light beam !)

The knob is only if you have a lot of items in the back so you can lower the beam, makes no difference during normal driving. The auto adjusting systems are all bi-xenons and they work so well you wouldn't get any benefit from adjusting them (you can do it manually permanently).

[logger]

The knob is only if you have a lot of items in the back so you can lower the beam, makes no difference during normal driving. The auto adjusting systems are all bi-xenons and they work so well you wouldn't get any benefit from adjusting them (you can do it manually permanently).

"The knob" on my 118TSI only adjusts the larger LOW beam reflector. Has no effect on the high MAIN beam in the smaller inside reflector. Which makes sense because you should not have high beams active against oncoming traffic and therefore no need to adjust them.
But the idea of getting better main beam bulbs does appeal to me. I do a fair bit of night country driving on wildlife infested roads.

[Cossor]

Good info Logger
Of course! Drive with caution while in wild life territory at night!
yes, I slow down at night, Only hit one recently, but STILL a solid lump,
Even though almost stopped when hit, still around 1K damage!
AND YES, do not rely on extra powerful light beams to penetrate fog!
But main purpose of fog Lights is to direct light CLOSE to the tarmac!
AND in case of Golf, also adjust beam in direction of travel.
Perhaps adj of beam level is all I need? (and of course, DRIVE WITH CAUTION!) (Did not help the last one I hit!)
(Common in this area to see about three to four Wombats who "Lost It" crossing road each year)
Gee, have to wait so long for delivery.
(In any case, still many on coming traffic around bends etc, as not isolated roads)

[logger]

Yeah, where I drive there are dead wombats and wallabies a-plently. Fortunately for me, they are in well defined locales, so I know where to be careful. I used to think the red crosses painted on marsupial roadkill indicated it was marked for removal (or not) by local authorities. I now now it actually means the wildlife rescue mob have checked pouches for survivors which is are surprisingly common. In fact we pulled a baby wombat from a pouch last summer and passed it on to some people who were interested in that sort of thing.

Wombats aside, what you really need to look out for and no amount of Bi-Xenons will help you with, is black cattle wandering on the road at night. They will ruin your night real quick as my brother nearly found out a couple of years back. Evasive action saved the day for him.

And as I found out today, beware Grandmothers in Volvo's, carrying grandchildren in rear. Sitting in MELB traffic - Stationary at lights for fully 2 or 3 minutes when I get shunted from the rear. Just a nick to the rear bumper which was fortunate. Also fortunate, two cars in front was a policeman who had got out of his car to speak to the driver immediately in front about something he had done wrong in the traffic. So the Detective saw the whole thing.
The cracker was when the granny said "you stopped so suddenly" to me when I had in fact been stationary for several minutes at the time She must have been talking to the kid in the back. Then she started to tell me the damage was only minor and nothing to worry about
Sorry to go off thread...

[Corey_R]

Bummers logger. At least the Detective saw it and it is only minor