Was driving home last nite and the weather was pretty crappy in philly. it was a constant rain(not heavy) and a little foggy. initially just had my headlights on, then when i got on the back roads, i had to turn on the fogs. still couldn't really see the road ahead that well. are the lights on our cars not projected down enough? or is it just me?

 

i dunno... i think i was having somewhat of the same problem. possibly the light was gettig hindered with the fog and water particles falling...

i just thought it was me cuz the whole ride home i cudnt see that much in front of me

 

With 6000Ks it's worse which is why I have yellow fog HIDs and in those situations I just use them But everyone tells me that my headlight are aimed way too high. I'm going to re-aim them once I get me springs put on.

 

I think we had pretty much the same weather here last night, and I had the same problem. My wife even asked me twice if I had my lights on!!!

Some weather conditions just make it hard to see...

 

In wet conditions the light on the road surface is reflected FORWARD. Not much is reflected back to your eyes, as with a dry road.

 

its raining and foggy here and i thought that the lights were awsome, my buddy called me (driving a little behind me) to se if i could see the road, he couldnt

 

I haven't had the chance to use my fogs yet on my '03 TL. But I did get a chance to use the HIDs at night while it was raining here last week. I was somewhat disappointed that even though my HIDs were turned on, it looked as if I didn't have my headlights on. I could barely see the light from the headlights on the wet road. They performed like my '00 Accord with Sylvania SilverStar headlight bulbs. No illumination on a wet road whatsoever. I haven't gotten a chance to see if my TL fogs would light up a wet road better since I always forget to turn them on. I just installed PIAA Xtreme White Plus on the fogs several days ago, but I doubt the white light would penetrate as good as yellow light. I just hope there won't be serious glare from the white light. I personally hate having yellow colored fog lights. I like that clean look with the HIDs.

 

That's called diffraction.

 

That's called diffraction. It's when light is re-directed but not to the point of its origin.

 

The whiter the light, the worse they are in bad weather. That's why some prefer amber lights for fogs. The different color light gives a contrast that allows you to see in rain and fog.

 

Stop worrying guys, it happens with every car. When it rains, it is very hard to see, even with HIDs. The only lights that can really see through the rain/fog are the yellow ones.

 

Actually it's refraction. But we knew what you meant.

Light can only do one of three things (or combinations thereof) when it hits an object:

1. Reflect back to the transmission source

2. Refract away from the transmission source

3. Be absorbed by the surface of the object