Why Should I Upgrade My Automotive Lighting?
Other than your brakes, no other safety feature on your vehicle is as important as your lights. Without them, everyone's drive time would be limited to the brief period between sunrise and sunset. Workers wouldn't be able to get home in the evenings, semis would take a month to haul their load cross country, and drive-in movie theaters across the nation would be forced to close their doors.
A quality set of lights gives all of us the freedom of movement to venture out onto the road no matter what the driving conditions are. Moonless nights, foggy mornings, or stormy afternoons are no match for an arsenal of bright lights safely guiding you to your destination. Besides improving the safety of your vehicle, automotive lights give you the chance to redesign its overall look by adding new lights or altering the style and color of your existing ones.
Upgrading your automotive lighting lets you:
- Revamp your stock lighting system to reflect your own personal sense of style
- Add auxiliary lights to enhance your visibility for just about any driving condition
- Mount a heavy-duty set of protected off-road lights for your outdoor adventures
Let's face it: most stock lighting systems are about as visually appealing as an old brick. What's worse, this lack of design flare is an epidemic in almost the entire automotive industry. New cars, trucks and SUVs may have imaginatively shaped bodies, but their lights are usually just bland rehashes of old styles. Of course, you have the power to break free from this boring OEM world. Add an edge of excitement and a personal touch to your vehicle's attitude by upgrading your factory-installed lights. We make it easy to brightening up your front with a slick set of headlights or to outfit your rear with the hottest European-inspired tail lights. Check out our Guide to OEM Light Upgrades to learn more.
Certain driving situations call for special lights. When you're feeling your way through a dense patch of fog or a nasty blizzard, your low beams and high beams can actually make your visibility worse. Even on clear, star-filled nights, your headlights might not have enough juice to completely illuminate the unknown road ahead. AutoAnything has plenty of auxiliary lights, such as fog lights and driving lights, to add safety and style to your vehicle. Read through our Guide to Auxiliary Lights to get the inside scoop.
When you're slogging across rocky badlands, shredding down the face of sand dunes or heading out on a wild camping expedition, you need all the light you can get. Not enough lighting could mean the difference between getting home safely or being stuck in a ditch with a snapped axle and dwindling food rations. Before you hit the dusty trails, equip your rig with a powerful set of off-road lights. They're specially designed to withstand harsh environments. Take a look at our Guide to Off-Road Lights for more details.
In 1886 the world's first gasoline-powered automobiles rolled out of the European workshops of Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach and Siegfried Marcus. Besides lacking such modern amenities as air conditioning and in-dash DVD players, these early automobiles also lacked electrical lighting. Instead, their lamps were fueled by oil or acetylene, both of which could be quickly snubbed out by a strong gust of wind or rain storm. Needless to say, navigating across winding mountain roads at night could be quite precarious.
The technological breakthrough came in 1912, when Cadillac had the ingenious idea of moving away from oil and connecting the lights to the electric ignition system. Not only did this design revolutionize automotive lighting, it's still the system used on modern vehicles. Since this switch to electronic control, other innovations followed, including sealed beam headlights, foul weather fog lights and the ultra-modern HID xenon lights.
Today, optical engineers are making all sorts of new and exciting discoveries. Intelligent lighting systems are connected to GPS units, which use advanced topographical maps to swivel your headlights in expectation of turning a corner. In other words, your lights now know where you're going even before you do!
Which Lights are Right for My vehicle?
At AutoAnything, we have a vast selection of lights to boost your visibility and jumpstart your vehicle's style. With all these options, you might feel a tad in the dark about which ones are right for you. Thankfully, we're here to shed some light on the subject. Ask yourself these enlightening questions:
While no one truly trusts the weather man to give accurate predictions, there are certain regions with weather that you can set your watch to. The fog's always rolling into San Francisco, monsoon season never ends in Seattle, and St. Paul is always struggling through nasty blizzards. Your local weather dictates the type of lights you should have on your vehicle.
- If you live along the coast and get a lot of fog, check out a pair of fog lights. Look to Hella, PIAA and KC HiLites for a quality set of fog lights.
- If you live in the Pacific Northwest or the Deep South where the rain is constantly falling, we also recommend fog lights to increase your foul weather visibility.
- If you happen to live in the desert region of the Southwest where the nighttime skies are clear, look into a set of long-range driving lights to see farther ahead. A number of top brands build brilliant driving lights, including Street Scene, Hella, PIAA and KC HiLites.
- If you live in the Midwest or Northeast where the snow storms are cold enough to send shivers through Nanook of the North's bones, fog lights would improve your visibility in white-out conditions.
- Or, if you're like most people and live in an area that sees a blend of stormy and clear weather, it's a good idea to mount both fog lights and driving lights, so that you're prepared for anything.
You don't drive the same way on a curvy mountain road as you do on a straight highway. Different roads require distinctive driving styles and lights to match.
- If you live in an area where the roads hardly ever curve, then some long-range driving lights are right for you.
- If you spend a lot of time on winding roads, check out a pair of cornering driving lights, or even the intelligent lighting system.
- If you're a city slicker who hardly ever pulls off of the urban streets, you can always modernize your vehicle's style with new OEM replacement lights, including headlights, tail lights, corner lights, bumper lights, side markers and parking lights.
While we might argue that auto manufacturers don't make cars like they used to, it is undeniable that the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Besides the addition of computer-controlled suspensions, GPS navigation systems and satellite radios, automobile lighting has also greatly improved over the years. Unlike a suspension, though, new lighting technology is easy to install.
- If you cruise around in a classic or just can't bear to part with your first set of wheels, a quality pair of conversion headlights can greatly improve your visibility. IPCW and RDX both make choice conversion headlights.
- If you just bought your dream car but did not get the total lighting package, you can easily add a set of fog lights, driving lights or both.
- If the lights on your vintage automobile have started to show their age, you can swap them out with some new factory-fitting replacement lights.
You might be thinking that light is light, but there are very real differences between the glow of one bulb and the glow of another. Automotive lighting has made a lot of progress since the early days, and now there are two types duking it out for the number one spot.
A halogen bulb is like a regular incandescent light bulb on steroids–it works on the same principle but produces a great deal more light. The halogen bulb's tungsten filament is contained inside an atmospheric vacuum, so it burns at a much higher temperature and generates a brighter, whiter light. Plus, bromine and iodine are floating around inside the bulb to strengthen the filament, which makes them last much longer. Halogen bulbs perform at a higher, consistent output throughout their lives.
HID is short for High-Intensity Discharge, and it is the wave of the automotive lighting future. These lights use a short electrical arc to superheat a ball of xenon gas, which glows incredibly bright and very white. One of the most striking advantages of HID xenon lighting is the brightness and the way that it nearly matches the color and look of daylight. Plus, they generate all this light while still consuming considerably less power than conventional halogen bulbs. Hella specializes in building HID lights.
The Guide to OEM Light Upgrades
Whether you're looking to brighten your vehicle's appearance with a sleek new pair of headlights or stand out from traffic with a European-inspired set of tail lights, AutoAnything has just what you need to personalize your stock lighting. Let's take a closer look at all the lights that you can modify, including:
When it comes to your vehicle's lighting system, headlights are the leader of the pack. They have the most important job of all the lights on your vehicle: to light up the road and guide you safely on your way. Auto manufacturers, however, usually do not spend a lot of creative time designing imaginative headlights. Squares, rectangles and triangles may have turned heads back in the 80's, but they hardly even get a raised eyebrow from us modern, cultivated motorists.
If you're fed up with the unimaginative headlights that came with your vehicle, AutoAnything has good news for you. We have total replacement headlights that you can hookup in the place of your OEM headlights. And, you don't need a degree in electrical engineering to make the trade. A few twists of your screwdriver, a couple of loosened nuts, and some wire swapping is about all it takes to install a new set. The total time it takes to transform your front end should be no more than 20 minutes for most novice handymen (and women).
When you're perusing our headlights, keep in mind that there are two basic types:
Reflector headlights have been around for a long time, and they have a proven track record. They're design is simple: take a small light source and magnify it into a powerful beam. The housing is curved and covered with a reflective material, like mirrors. A bulb is mounted right in the center, and when it's switched on, the light strikes the reflective surface and is bounced back as a stronger, brighter and larger beam. The downside to this type of lamp, though, is that some of the light will inevitably scatter away and be lost. Check out APC, IPCW and TYC for a first-class set of reflector headlights.
The latest and greatest in automotive lighting technology is projector headlight technology. They work much like the traditional reflector optics, but with an added step. After the light bounces off the reflective surface, it travels through a lens, which focuses the light into an incredibly tight, powerful beam. Hardly any light is scattered away, so you're left with brilliant illumination and a futuristic look. You�ll find eye-catching projector headlights from major brands like APC and IPCW.
If headlights are the king of your vehicle's lighting system, then tail lights are second in command. Tail lights play a more defensive role than headlights. Their job is to let other motorists know where you are and what you're doing. At night, in the fog and in stormy weather, your tail lights broadcast your presence to everyone behind you. Also, they shine when you step on the brakes, letting tailgaters know when to back off.
The same design problems that plague most stock headlights are present in nearly all tail lights. Namely, they look like they were built merely for function, not for style. You could even say that many of today's tail lights are to style what PONG is to video games: outdated, unappealing and long overdue for an upgrade.
There are two ways to take your tail lights from mild to wild. First, you can simply stick on a premium pair of tail light covers. Riding directly on top of your tail lights, these covers add sleek Euro-inspired styling to your rear end without completely replacing the whole assembly. They mount in minutes with a bit of Velcro, but their effect on your vehicle's appearance is lasting.
Your other option for augmenting your vehicle's rear end styling is to do a total tail light transplant. Besides their sharp looks, these replacement units are built tough to withstand grueling road conditions. They have tight-fitting gaskets to prevent water and moisture from building up, and heat vents to keep the bulbs from overheating.
Our selection of high quality corner lights and side markers are perfect for replacing worn-out, yellowing or cracked factory-installed gear. Of course, you can get more creative with them as well. Use them to add a bit of flair to your vehicle. Or, if you've already started redesigning your lighting system, corner lights and side markers match most clear and Euro-inspired headlights and tail lights.
As long as you have opposable thumbs, you can install a new set of corner lights or side markers. They are completely custom designed to fit exactly in place of your old lights, so you don't have to make any modifications or do any drilling to mount them. Out with the old and in with the new. It's as easy as that.
Because bumper lights and parking lights are mounted so low to the ground, they're vulnerable to a lot of unintended damage. Parking lot mishaps, driveway disasters, and fender benders can spell death to these OEM lights. What's worse, most dealerships charge an arm and a leg for replacement parts.
Luckily, AutoAnything has a stockpile of high quality bumper and parking lights that don't just replace your stock lighting, they also electrify the styling of your vehicle. Plus, they blend perfectly with other clear and Euro-style lighting upgrades.
Just like the majority of bumper lights and parking lights are incredibly easy to install. In most cases, all you have to do is remove a couple of screws, unplug a wire and then repeat those steps in reverse.
The Guide to Adding Auxiliary Lights
More often than not, new vehicles do not come from the factory with a full array of lights. This keeps the production costs down, but leaves us unprepared for some of the most common driving situations, such as rainy weather, foggy roads, and even nighttime cruising. Auxiliary lights pick up where your auto manufacturer leaves off.
There are two basic types of auxiliary lights: fog lights and driving lights. Let's take a closer look at the unique characteristics of each type:
Anyone who has driven through a thick patch of fog knows that switching on the high beams does not improve your visibility–it makes it worse. That's because the light from your high beams reflects off the water droplets in the fog, bouncing right back into your eyes. The same thing happens when you're driving through other foul weather, like rain storms or snow flurries. Traditional low beams and high beams just can't cut through. Fog lights are the answer to driving through pea soup and foul weather.
The only effective way to drive through dense fog is to angle the light downward onto the road, so that it avoids running right into the reflective water droplets. Typically, fog hovers about 12"–18" above the road's surface. Fog lights mount low on your front bumper, and cast a wide beam of light down onto the road. That way, the light gets lower than the fog, and you're able to see clearer and drive safer. What's more, in order to keep the light from extending above the level of your bumper, the beams of light are cut off at the top (imagine an Oreo cookie that's been divided in half).
How your fog lights are aimed is extremely important. If they're angled too high, their light will just shoot right up into the mist—not to mention right into the eyes of oncoming motorists. If they're angled too low, then their range is greatly reduced, and you won't be able to see far enough ahead. Thankfully, the Society of Automotive Engineers (S.A.E.) has taken the guess work out of aiming fog lights by developing a standard system. Here's how it works:
- Mount the fog lights on the front of your vehicle between 10"–14" up from the ground.
- Park your vehicle 25' away from a flat wall, like a garage door or the side of a building. You'll want to make sure that the ground is level so that the results are accurate.
- Measure the height from the center of the lamp to the ground. Use that same measurement to draw a line on the wall with some chalk.
- Turn on the fog lights, and take a look at where the light hits on the wall. The tops of the beams should be 4" below the line you drew.
A properly aimed set of fog lights not only gives you better visibility, it's also good roadway etiquette. Misaligned fog lights can shoot right into the eyes of oncoming drivers, and no one wants blinded motorist on the road, especially on stormy nights.
After the initial alignment, periodically check to make sure that the lights are still aimed correctly. Since fog lights mount so low to the ground, they are at greater risk of being knocked out of position.
A number of well-respected companies craft quality fog lights, including Hella, PIAA and KC HiLites.
Safe driving is dependent on our ability to react to any situation, but we can only respond to what we can see. Low beams and high beams are our first line of defense against poor visibility, but often their range falls short. Driving lights pick up the slack. They're designed to boost the intensity and range of your high beams, showering the roadway with brilliant light. When we can see clearly, we're able to rapidly respond to whatever may come our way.
If you think about it, driving lights give you the power to peer into the future. All their extra light reveals the road that lies ahead of you, and you can use that knowledge of upcoming conditions to plan your next course of action. Without the foresight that driving lights deliver, your ability to respond to hazards is greatly diminished. Because of this special characteristic, driving lights are most effective for nighttime highway driving because of the higher cruising speeds.
Driving lights generate beams that are more focused than fog lights because they're engineered to travel farther in advance of your vehicle. As such, correctly aiming them is crucial to improve your own visibility while avoiding blinding other motorists. Follow these S.A.E. tips to properly align your driving lights.
- Mount your driving lights on the front of your vehicle 14"–30" up from the ground.
- Park 25' away from a flat wall, like a garage door or the side of a building. Level ground gives you the most accurate results.
- Measure the distance from the center of your driving light down to the pavement, and mark that distance on the wall with chalk.
- Flip on the lights and find the center of the hot spot, which is the intense inner circle of the beam. Tilt the driving light so that the center of the hot spot is 1 �" below the mark you made in the wall.
While there is little variation in the beam pattern of fog lights, driving lights come in a number of different styles that are optimized for specific driving conditions.
This standard pattern increases the range and brightness of your vehicle's high beams. It's designed for higher nighttime cruising speeds, and it helps you clearly see signs and hazards long before your normal high beams.
This pattern is designed to produce an exceptionally strong beam of light with wider coverage than the normal pattern. In fact, it projects its beam up to 1,500' away at a width of 250'. The beams are angled upward and to the right, illuminating the side of the road and making it much easier to see street signs and pedestrians.
This beam pattern is designed to improve your front and side vision, especially for winding roads, tight curves and cornering. Plus, you can get an intelligent lighting system that automatically senses when you're driving around a bend and turns on a fill light to illuminate the curve.
This pattern puts out a powerful, narrow and extremely long stream of light that's designed for reaching maximum distances. The range for a single beam can extend up to 2,500' long by 120' feet wide. Because of their power, pencil beam lights are recommended for off-road and racing use.
The Guide to Off-Road Lights
Hitting the road at night, in storms or in fog can be quite hazardous. Doing the same thing when there isn't even any pavement below your wheels is an entirely different matter. You must be able to see where you're going at all times. But, no ordinary lights can handle the harsh environment of life on the trail. Everything must be built stronger, tougher and more resilient in order to survive. In other words, what works for city slickers just won't cut it out in the country, but you can get special off-road lights.
Off-road lights are a lot like auxiliary lights. They come in your choice of fog lights or driving lights and in a wide range of beam patterns, too. Unlike normal auxiliary lights, off-road lights are built to different standards:
Because off-road lights must be able to endure anything that Mother Nature can throw at them, they are crafted from heavyweight materials. Some are tougher than others, so you'll want to get a set of off-road lights that matches how hard you work or play in the dirt.
- ABS Plastic (Tough): ABS plastic has long been a staple ingredient in the automotive parts industry because it's quite strong, impervious to rust and easy to shape. If you're into the occasional adventure, off-roading lights that are made from ABS plastic are an excellent choice.
- Aluminum (Tougher): For strength, durability and resilience that's a step above ABS plastic, aluminum is the way to go. An all-metal light is better equipped to survive off-roading hazards, such as run-ins with low-hanging branches and scrapes with boulders. Aluminum off-road lights is recommended for off-roaders who regularly hit the dusty trails.
- Steel (Toughest): The same material with the strength to support skyscrapers is available to safeguard and protect your off-road lights. In fact, there is no tougher material than steel when it comes to shielding your off-road lights. It's the only choice for back country adventurers who push their trips to the extreme.
When you head out into the backcountry, you expose your vehicle to harsh conditions that just do not arise when you're on city roads. You're not very likely to run into a mud bog in the middle of Main St, or drive through a sand storm while commuting to work on the freeway. As such, off-road lights have to be built to a higher standard of ruggedness than normal auxiliary lights.
A quality off-road light will be sealed against its most common elemental enemies: water, mud and sand. Also, the wiring harnesses for many off-road lights are insulated to prevent short circuiting. Plus, the light covers are thicker and sturdier to deflect kicked up rocks, gravel and other airborne debris. For the finishing touch, most off-road lights have a tough wire mesh shield to ward off larger hazards.
When there are no streets, there are no street lights to help illuminate your path. Even if there's a full moon out, it's hardly bright enough to make driving over dirt roads safe. To compensate for the natural darkness of the frontier, off-road lights come in larger sizes than auxiliary lights. You can get lights that are just about 10" in diameter, which is big enough to make even the darkest stretch of road seem like daytime.
Besides being built larger, off-road lights are also designed for greater mounting flexibility. They can bolt to your bumper, your grille guard, your light bar, your headache rack or even the top of your roll cage. Normal auxiliary lights are strictly limited when it comes to installation because state laws regulate the maximum mounting height. Off-road lights are not bound by these same laws, so you can attach them wherever you please. However, it is not legal in most states to use your off-road lights unless you actually are off-road. Besides, you should keep protective covers over your off-road lights for an extra line of defense when you're not using them.
We hope you have found our Automotive Lights Research Guide Center a good guide in helping you choose the best Automotive Lights for your vehicle. It is AutoAnything's goal to provide the most information on the Internet and through our Auto Accessory Specialists on every product we sell. If you have any information that you think could help improve this section, please email us at researchcenter@autoanything.com.