Mk1 Felicia front fog lights

[alexskoda5]

Hi does anyone know where I can get some front fog lamps for my 1998 mk1 Felicia. I can't find any for sale anywhere. There the square fog lamps. I also need the surrounds.

[TeflonTom]

you can still get the surrounds from the skoda dealer, they are about £4 each, i think your best bet would be a breakers yard or ebay for the lamps themselves

[Lee A]

Your best bet would be to find a felicia being broken on eBay or someone selling a complete bumper with fogs inside.

 

I purchased a front bumper with fog lights + surrounds for £30 delivered. When I fitted a facelift bumper and sold the fogs on, they sold on eBay @ £72!!

 

Could always buy a facelift bumper, then buy the facelift fog lights, some DIY  (To fit bumper and change the foglight wiring) you'd have a colour coded bumper. The Facelift fog lights are across many of the VAG cars too so are common to find on eBay

 

Good luck

Edited 13 May, 2014 by Lee A

[automobilova]

Hello Chaps!

I dismounted from my 1996 Felicia one of the foglights. Both right and left has broken H3 Incandescent bulbs.

So i decided to disassemble the unit. With the frame/glass off I was looking the reflector in detail.  

 

It has some dirt and scratches (It was dismounted years ago) but still works. I m thinking of turning into LED H3s, those conventional close to normal incandescent.  Buls with big heat sink won´t fit.

So, as you see on the pic, the reflector has a kind of craddle that covers the head of the bulb. Most of vintage foglights has this.

Is the a mirror for thelight to expand? Or a heat disipator for incandescent bulb?  The room available for a bulb is just 35mm from the back of the reflector/Bulb base position.

 

If the craddle is a mirror, might it worth to plate it with chrome?  seems rusted.   Or to take it off and fit a larger LED bulb?

A good thing about LED is its lower heat. These felicia foglamps are easy to break due to temperature change. Glasses are not oven proof/ Heat resistant.

 

 

[KenONeill]

@automobilova - I've never seen one of these fog lights dissembled before. The shield you're looking at is a mask, to stop light coming out of the bulb straight forward reflecting off the fog and dazzling you. This is exactly why fog lights should only be used in fog (and falling snow but that's maybe not such an issue in Columbia?)

[automobilova]

Ken, thankyou very much for your reply.

Ok, thats explain the design of that part and i will say that depending on the led bulb it can be removed or modified to be according the security norm and law. Some led bulbs do not expand light straight forward. only to the sides. It also depends on the light power. 

 

[mexmeister]

Is this the type you are after?.  They appear to have both sides, but at £49.99 each not cheap. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lh-fog-lamp-genuine-new-Skoda-felicia-95-01-vw-caddy-97-01-vw-pick-up-96-01/282804473550?hash=item41d875cece:g:f-kAAOSwhcNaVjpe

 

It looks like you can get them from Germany a bit cheaper.  Part Nos

6U0941701

6U0941702

 

 

[RainbowFire]

On 01/02/2018 at 06:02, automobilova said:

I m thinking of turning into LED H3s, those conventional close to normal incandescent.

 

 

The problem with LEDs is they probably won't work as well as an incandescent bulb. Reflective headlight technology (as opposed to projection) is based around the origin point of light being in a particular position in relation to the reflector for optimum performance. Putting an LED in may well emit more/better light, but it won't necessarily where you want it (just look at when people put HIDs in reflectors: bright light everywhere, except on the road). There has also been an on-off debate about the best colour for fog-lights, there is a general feeling that a more yellow light is better due to it's longer wavelength. As a whole we tend to use white because of style.  Most LEDs are 5000-6000Kelvin, which is very white, coupled with an incorrect beam-pattern, you could easily end up with a wall of white light in the fog, instead of lighting the road.

 

Unless you are following the path of "OE Only" and how much you actually want to use these in fog, you could replace them with a set of projector fog lights, or a set of driving lights relayed via the mai-beam.

[automobilova]

Thanks, and great point of view.

It is well known that the first Felicia foglights were poor quality in general. They become yellow (burnt) and break easily. I ve decided to rebuilt them. Glass lenses are in good shape (I ve got an used ones) and the reflector (also the shield) will be crhome plated.  Once this done, next is to find a proper bulb.

Won´t be Incandescent haloge H3 cause become very hot and cause lenses to break

Led is the way, but the poiint is to find a good pattern and distribution of the leds on the bulb. Thats important as you pointed out, to get better light. In the end i m loofing for a good light but not superb. We dont have seasons in Colombia, Fog is common on certain areas but rain may occur suddenly.  If resulting light is just as some DRL an may help to see better at night is good for me.  

I m thinking about getting yellow leds, not very common but available.

 

[automobilova]

Hello Gentlemen,

 

Finally I took the foglights to a chrom workshop. The result was not as bright as expected, but it works. I mounted white led bulbs (specs not supplied). I took away the shield for the halogen bulb.

Now Light color looks a bit cheesy  but the good part is that they dont produce heat.. so the glass reflector wont break when raining, splashes, or puddles.  Colombia has not a severe regulation so i think wont fail the MOT.  Another good thing is that foglights work fine as DRLs.  

 

 

Edited 17 May, 2018 by automobilova

[KenONeill]

@automobilova - The point of the bulb shields on fog lights is to stop light shining upwards out of the light, bouncing back off the fog and dazzling you.

[RicardoM]

6 hours ago, automobilova said:

Another good thing is that foglights work fine as DRLs.

No, they don't. They are mounted too low to qualify as DRL. Let's not forget they are named fog lights for a reason.

[Papez]

54 minutes ago, RicardoM said:

No, they don't. They are mounted too low to qualify as DRL. Let's not forget they are named fog lights for a reason.

 

It depends on regulations in your country. In EU, DRLs can be mounted as low as 15cm above ground. Which is where Felicia's foglights are. There are even round DRLs for facelifted Felicia available. But they have 21W lightbulb instead of 50W halogen, which is main difference between foglight and DRL.

[automobilova]

Well.  Good discussion on this.

Fortunately the led buls are not too luminous and without the shield are not producing any glaring effects.  Of course regulation in latin America are "less restrictive", so this kind of experiment works.

On the other hand, there are so many cars such Audis and Mercs, which has some led stripe at that height. In fact, light does not expand too much. Less power than incandescent H3.  

 

[KenONeill]

@automobilova - Talking about "LEDs use less power than H3s" is a false argument in terms of light emission. I think you'll find that a 30w LED unit generates more lumins than a 55W H3 (or indeed H1 or H7).

[automobilova]

Ken, You are right.  But i cannot asure that cause the bulbs i got doesn´'t have any tech chart.  There is no way to know its specs. At glance I notice that the light is not as intense. 

I ll take some pictures later.

 

[automobilova]

Ken, You are right.  But i cannot asure that cause the bulbs i got doesn´'t have any tech chart.  There is no way to know its specs. At glance I notice that the light is not as intense. 

 

 

 

[RicardoM]

2 hours ago, automobilova said:

At glance I notice that the light is not as intense.

Wait for a foggy day and you will get a white wall one meter in front of your car.

[KenONeill]

@automobilova - As @RicardoM says above. Look at your own pics and you'll see the offending light as a streak just above the fog light lens.

 

Also, and this is where things get even more technical, you notice how the light from the fogs looks whiter than that from the heads? That is called the "light temperature" and the LEDs look whiter because they have a higher temperature than the incandescent filaments.

[RicardoM]

One more thing. It became a bad habit for drivers to use "fog lights" as yours to better see potholes or just for show. Wrong! They are annoying for incoming drivers.

[automobilova]

Totally agree. Maybe some adjustment is needed.

But pictures may not look right due to phone camera. There is no offending streak or glaring effect on oncoming cars

[RainbowFire]

On 17/05/2018 at 09:21, KenONeill said:

@automobilova - The point of the bulb shields on fog lights is to stop light shining upwards out of the light, bouncing back off the fog and dazzling you.

 

.....and other road-users. An on-coming wall of white fog is fairly unpleasant, especially at LED colour and intensity.

 

The work that has been done will have rendered these pretty useless as foglights. Foglights are supposed to illuminate a wide "puddle" of light directly in front of the vehicle. Correctly aligned foglights will cause no discomfort. Those of a sensitive disposition usually get more irritated than dazzled when seeing correctly set foglights being used without any fog. Local law enforcement may also have a, more valid, opinion on this too.

 

As DRLS, as long as they comply with the requisite regulation (UNECE 48 - wow! the UN got in on this act too!) which includes switching off or dimming when the side-lights are on, there shouldn't be a problem. The bottom edge would have to be a minimum pf 250mm from the road, and a minimum pf 600mm between the inner edges for compliance.

[KenONeill]

13 hours ago, RainbowFire said:

 

.....and other road-users. An on-coming wall of white fog is fairly unpleasant, especially at LED colour and intensity.

 

I've never had the displeasure...

[RainbowFire]

9 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

I've never had the displeasure...

 

It's not one I would recommend. It's fairly akin to HIDs fitted in to reflectors. So down here in the land of the boy-racer, it's fairly common. White is the wrong colour for foglights anyway.