However, as I said, the visibility of the pedestrians (and indeed all additional visibility in the picture you posted or the part of the video you pointed us to) was a result of the adaptive headlights and nothing at all to do with the cornering fogs.

You clearly haven't watched or properly understood the video.

The adaptive headlights and front fog lights work together to produce the additional light that illuminates the pedestrians.

Here you can see how the video demonstrates the features that aid visibility during low speed cornering...

This illustration makes things a little easier to understand...

This illustration makes things a little easier to understand...

The cornering fogs on the vrs don't "bend" round the corner though do they? I.e they're in a fixed position hence the above picture is not representative?

Agree and if car manufacturers were seriously interested in improving safety they would be fitting bi-xenons to all new cars. These are significantly better than normal headlights and therefore don't require gimmicky supplements such as cornering fogs. I've driven with fog lights on on the vRS enough times to know the difference is very marginal.

....except that the Octavia has 2 x single bulb units, so a dual element light source would be redundant. Whenever a dual element light source is used there's a compromise between the two functions that are being carried out.

Way better off sticking to one bulb per function.

Agree and if car manufacturers were seriously interested in improving safety they would be fitting bi-xenons to all new cars. These are significantly better than normal headlights and therefore don't require gimmicky supplements such as cornering fogs. I've driven with fog lights on on the vRS enough times to know the difference is very marginal.

To generate the same benefit they would need to be cornering bi-xenon's. The cornering foglights emit a light output outside of the standard headlight beam pattern (whether they are halogen or xenon), this is the benefit offered by cornering foglights and why they are fast becoming common place.

I'm sure the manufacturers would gladly fit xenon headlights as standard as long as we all agreed they could add an extra £500 onto the list price.

The front foglights on my Octavia vRS are quite poor, so as a cornering foglight I'd agree the benefit is minimal.

As I mentioned earlier the foglights on the Skoda Yeti for example appear to be much brighter. The improvement in the light output compared with my vRS is quite noticeable.

....except that the Octavia has 2 x single bulb units, so a dual element light source would be redundant. Whenever a dual element light source is used there's a compromise between the two functions that are being carried out.

Way better off sticking to one bulb per function.

I didn't understand any of that.

As for the corner fogs, not found it in the list, I fear it's called comfort turn signals so may give it a go and see if I like it or not

It has to be enabled by the dealer or someone with VCDS, the comfort turn signals you refer to is the ‘one touch’ indicators… push the stalk gently (before it click ‘on’) and they flash 3 times on their own.

No I have - I am just saying that even with the fogs disabled or blacked out, you wouldn't have noticed any difference in the shot with the pedestrians - they were lit up purely in a lovely xenon hue ;

The lights may well be 'working together' but thanks to the colour differences we can see that the fog light contributes little (or nothing, depending on which part of the video we watch) and as such to use it in an example in the context of whether 'cornering fogs' are any good is misleading. If the OP had asked "are adaptive lighting systems incorporating cornering fogs any good" then your video would have been conclusive proof of the vast difference that such a system can make

This illustration makes things a little easier to understand...

In context that is less helpful - as all it shows is a big ball of additional light - no indication of how much of it comes from which light source......

The cornering fogs on the vrs don't "bend" round the corner though do they? I.e they're in a fixed position hence the above picture is not representative?

No they don't bend but they throw out extra light as per the illustration which is outside of the normal beam pattern.

That illustration is from a BMW forum which was describing the same utilisation of the front foglights to perform the cornering role rather than adaptive or cornering headlights.

In context that is less helpful - as all it shows is a big ball of additional light - no indication of how much of it comes from which light source......

its plainly obvious the added part is from the foglight and the bit which looks like the beam pattern from your dipped beam is coming from your dipped beam

its plainly obvious the added part is from the foglight and the bit which looks like the beam pattern from your dipped beam is coming from your dipped beam

Doubtful - and even if so not with te type of fog lights we have. See reply to silver below

No they don't bend but they throw out extra light as per the illustration which is outside of the normal beam pattern.

That illustration is from a BMW forum which was describing the same utilisation of the front foglights to perform the cornering role rather than adaptive or cornering headlights.

I haven't driven a Beemer in the last couple of years but I'd be willing to speculate that if they are suggesting that huge area is illuminated simply by turning on a static, standard fog light then either:

1) they have dramatically improved their technology

Or

2) they are telling porkies.

Having said all the above I'd also add that, To an extent, this thread refers to cornering fogs and is posted in the octy2 section, so in strictness it is irrelevant what BMW or Mercedes can do with technology which is not even fitted to the mk2 Octy....

Finally, having posted much of the above from the showroom of my local Seat dealer (go we're kindly doing my headlight alignment for free at their MOT station) I have my car back, and its dark, so I've been able to test the usefulness of fog lights in cornering situations or reverse in a streetlit 'urban' environment and also on an unlit country lane.

Remember, this is octy2 forum so I have used te tools at my disposal - Octy VRS without AFS, etc. other brands (and indeed even models) may show different results but most of them won't be relevant here.

First things first - reversing. No benefit whatsoever was felt from having front fogs on when reversing in a straight line or round a bend. This was unsurprising to me but there was also no benefit whilst manoeuvring - the one area I had thought I could possibly be wrong in.

Secondly, the Octy VRS fog lights throw very, very little light to te sides. I suppose this is because they are recessed in their little circular tunnel but basically they were of no help for cornering in either environment.

Lastly, and the only surprising point, the fog lights did help to throw slightly more light on the road in front of me (very close to the car) and were not drowned out by my HIDs as much as I'd expected them to be - in as much as I could see the yellowness slightly on the floor. This gives possible scope for a small advantage in cars which throw more light out to the sides (IIRC my old 206 fogs used to light up the banks nicely on country lanes) but I suspect that it will be minimal.

A little bit of interesting info, Renault was the first manufacturer to use an additional bulb or light to aid with cornering.

It was first introduced in 2005 in the Modus followed by the Clio.

Here is the Clio's version (this particular model is equipped with bi-xenon too) which utilises a seperate bulb in the main headlight.

I see they use additional markings on the lens to help direct the light...

The cornering function on my vRS is pretty redundant in anything but complete darkness.

Interesting the front fog lights on my Peugeot 306 were very bright too and when used with main beam (where appropriate) helped quite a bit with longer range vision.

One thing I'm not too sure on harks back to a much older thread on cornering foglights, one which went into their legality (you can imagine how that one turned out!). It was mentioned that on cars that left the factory which cornering foglights active the foglights themselves were different. Now this may have simply been a different European approval number to show that the light was both a fog light and cornering light but I'm guessing there may be a different light unit? I'm not convinced myself but would love to know either way as there may be light units out there fitted to the same car that perform better or worse than others when used to aid visibility when cornering.

Interesting (again not 100% sure) but as far as I am aware no Octavia destined for the UK market has left the factory with cornering fogs enabled? Again this might explain why they are less effective on the MkII Octavia.

I know the Yeti has, and the Superb too, but all the threads I've read in the Octavia forum suggest not in that they have been turned on using VCDS? I can't see it on the brochure as a cost option.

OK, the lights fitted to a Mercedes or BMW, or a Renault for that matter might not be directly useful but I'd say it is relevant to this discussion if for no other reason than for us all to learn a little more around their purpose and benefits.

Edited 28 December, 201213 yr by silver1011

In context that is less helpful - as all it shows is a big ball of additional light - no indication of how much of it comes from which light source......

We are going to have to agree to disagree on that one, the dipped headlight is cast in yellow, the cornering fog light is cast in blue...

I didn't understand any of that.

Bi-xenon uses a single light source and mechanical shutter to block light from entering certain parts of the reflector. When main-beam is requested, the shutter moves and the entire reflector is utilised, in much the same way that a twin-element halogen bulb does. This is prevalent on cars that have a single head-light unit (e.g. a Felicia). Octavias have twin head-light units, one for dipped-beam and one for main-beam. A bi-xenon installation on an Octavia wouldn't do anything.

It is possible to have BiHalogen too.

In a single head-light scenario, the reflector and lens are trying to do two jobs (dip and main), as with anything trying to do two jobs, there is a compromise. In a twin head-light scenario, each function has a dedicated reflector/projector and lens.

It has to be enabled by the dealer or someone with VCDS, the comfort turn signals you refer to is the ‘one touch’ indicators… push the stalk gently (before it click ‘on’) and they flash 3 times on their own.

Thanks Gizmo. Need to search vcds some more then. I have been lent one from a mate

Mike Holroyd enabled mine zeffania, he might be able to shed some more light on where in VCDS you need to look...

'T_W_A_T' lights cover a whole variety of them.

'This way and that' sometimes it is obvious by the lights going on and off that the driver has not a clue which way the wheels are turning as they turn the steering wheel.

My hope is that in the future for accidents the 'Investigator' can get a reading of when the lights were on or not,

or indicators were being used.

a sort of Tachograph showing the style of the driver.

Maybe also come up as a reading of the messing about with the cars lights system that some owners are or have been doing.

george

I am one of those investigators and have been able to do that for a long time.

No they don't bend but they throw out extra light as per the illustration which is outside of the normal beam pattern.

That illustration is from a BMW forum which was describing the same utilisation of the front foglights to perform the cornering role rather than adaptive or cornering headlights.

The illustration doesn't reflect reality; the front fogs on the vRS primarily throw light forwards and not outwards to the side. The difference is very marginal and the benefit minimal, therefore I maintain my previous assertion that the feature is a gimmick.

The illustration doesn't reflect reality; the front fogs on the vRS primarily throw light forwards and not outwards to the side. The difference is very marginal and the benefit minimal, therefore I maintain my previous assertion that the feature is a gimmick.

May be not but it's close, at least in my experience on my Octavia vRS.

It needs to be pitch black to see the benefit.

May be not but it's close, at least in my experience on my Octavia vRS.

It needs to be pitch black to see the benefit.

I had three vRS's and tried fog lights on each on pitch black country roads and concluded that they provided a little extra light to the front and a fraction more at the side. In no way would I describe it as close to the illustration. The standard headlights on the vRS don't even throw light that far.

fogs just beam out side ways and does not put any more light out in front spots put out light at front a bit like main beam i have now put hid hi and low and and all it does for high beam is move the reflector back giving no beam just bright light good for them very dark roads as low beam is so much brighter than a halogen h4 one

Mike as usual, you're a star

Certainly did Roy, and can certainly "shed more light "

Is it bad that I went "BM BM TSH!" and groaned when I read this? :|