Disappointed with PIAA lights

[DG65]

My '06 Milan didn't come with fog lights and since I like to have as much high beam light as possible I thought I'd add a pair of the PIAA 1100X driving lights in the original fog light location. The install went very smoothly with new fog light grills from Ford - and they look good, too. But the PIAA performance?... uh, not so good. In fact, I think they suck. I thought I was getting the best driving light on the market, aside from Xenon lighting, but the pattern is more of a flood light and isn't noticeable over the stock high beams.

 

I guess the only good that came out of this experience is that I learned my lesson with an unopened kit on craigslist at a third of the cost a new one would have ran me from a vendor. I should have stuck with my original idea of putting a pair of 4" lights in the grill under the bumper.

 

Just thought I'd share for those who are looking to put driving lights in place of their fogs.

Edited October 18, 2010 by DG65

[xmech2k]

After a little research a while ago, I found foglights are supposed to be a narrow beam that goes underneath the fog, which starts about 18" above the ground. Driving lights are just diffuse beams like highbeams. So perhaps the driving lights don't work so well mounted so low, though I would have thought, more light is more light. I guess that's why racing cars and trucks have them mounted in the upper grill area or over the roof.

[DG65]

I have had driving lights mounted above and below bumpers and the only difference is the shadows they cast. I purchased a pair of cheap wallyworld 3" "driving lights" and installed them on my daughter's car below the bumper and they out shine the PIAA's with ease and they are a standard 55w bulb. My wife has a pair of 4" driving lights mounted below the bumper in the air intake that are incredible. They were a gift from her several years back and had I known they were so good I would have bought several pairs since they are no longer available and, it seems, everyone is looking for them nowadays.

 

I should have known they wouldn't be what I expected when most of the reviews were from motorcycle riders claiming they greatly improve their low beams. Well, duh... now I know why I can't see a darn thing when bikes are coming at me with 3 lights on the front - they're probably using lights designed for high beams.

 

I closed the garage door and placed my car about 25 feet away and the factory high beams cast a foot print about 6' in diameter. I covered the stock lights and lit the PIAA's and they cast a bland light that filled the entire garage door with no central beam whatsoever. Pathetic.

 

Just a heads up for anyone considering them.

Edited October 18, 2010 by DG65

[xmech2k]

Thanks for the info.

 

And dang! You must have a big garage!

 

I closed the garage door and placed my car about 25 feet away

[DG65]

...And dang! You must have a big garage!

 

What? Oh! No, that was on the outside of the garage! lol Inside would have planted me squarely in the middle of the kitchen!

[xmech2k]

LOL! Yeah I figured that eventually, but my first image was inside the garage for the darkness. :hysterical: If you have a garage that big, you'd be on the Porsche forums instead!

[DG65]

The Porsche fanatics stack 'em 3 high!

[Oldguy16]

Driving lights only have about a 15 degree spread from the center of the light, they are not fog lights, you can easily see the difference when you put them side by side. Driving lights go way further forward but not to the side at all. Best is a combination of both. Piaa is not bad at all, but if you want good lights, HID is the way to go, in my opinion, and from all the different bulbs I've tested, nothing comes even close to compare.

[DG65]

I wrestled with going the HID route but two factors stopped me. The first was that I had used standard 55w driving lights very successfully in the past (although they were 3" and 4" lights) and, second, was that PIAA claimed the next best thing to these 1100x's were HID, and HID was off the chart concerning price.

 

In my opinion a good driving light should outshine the factory high beams or your wasting your money. At least I only have $75 invested.

 

Between October and Marchish all my driving is at night and a good light is important to me. I may consider an HID conversion for the factory lights if I can't find a good 2" HID light at a price I can afford.

[Oldguy16]

I wrestled with going the HID route but two factors stopped me. The first was that I had used standard 55w driving lights very successfully in the past (although they were 3" and 4" lights) and, second, was that PIAA claimed the next best thing to these 1100x's were HID, and HID was off the chart concerning price.

 

In my opinion a good driving light should outshine the factory high beams or your wasting your money. At least I only have $75 invested.

 

Between October and Marchish all my driving is at night and a good light is important to me. I may consider an HID conversion for the factory lights if I can't find a good 2" HID light at a price I can afford.

ddm tuning kits, like the one I have, 35 dollars for a pair of 55w HID's, best money I ever spent. You can get Pilot driving light housing, (obviously steel housing) 40 bucks on amazon, and hid kit, 55w from ddm tuning, and there's your $75 with 10,000 lumens coming from 2 lights rather than Piaa and their 3500 lumens from their 2 lights.

[DG65]

I'm not familiar with DDM but I have hesitated buying aftermarket HID because I have read reviews that the ballasts are unreliable. I may look into DDM.

 

Thanks for the info.

[awdpath]

 

 

In my opinion a good driving light should outshine the factory high beams or your wasting your money. At least I only have $75 invested.

 

...

 

:headscratch:

[akirby]

:headscratch:

 

Real driving lights throw a lot of light a long way - much farther than the factory high beams. These are not normal headlamps or foglamps.

[Oldguy16]

akirby is correct, driving lights are very concentrated light forward with almost no range to the sides, not as bad as pencil beams but still do not go wide at all. Stock high beam housing is meant to scatter all over the place and be high off the ground.

[NHFocus]

A fog/lower light should never outshine a high beam. To do so means it's aimed upwards (since it's much lower to the ground to begin with). Having that light aimed upwards means it's aimed towards oncoming drivers. Not to mention your fog lights are not supposed to be on at the same time as your high beams (why most cars shut off the fogs when the highs are engaged). Theres absolutely no reason to need 'driving lights' that outshine your high beams. If you need high beams that reach further, go buy yourself a nice HID setup with a clear cutoff so you don't blind oncoming drivers.

[DG65]

A fog/lower light should never outshine a high beam. To do so means it's aimed upwards (since it's much lower to the ground to begin with). Having that light aimed upwards means it's aimed towards oncoming drivers. Not to mention your fog lights are not supposed to be on at the same time as your high beams (why most cars shut off the fogs when the highs are engaged).

 

Is there a misunderstanding here, or what? Read the original post, it says, "...didn't come with fog lights and since I like to have as much high beam light as possible I thought I'd add a pair of the PIAA 1100X driving lights in the original fog light location.

 

I didn't mount fog lights or any other "low beam" assist lights - I mounted driving lights in the fog light position. They don't illuminate with the low beams they assist the high beams which I thought I made clear when I said, "I('d) like to have as much high beam light as possible" and "...isn't noticeable over the stock high beams".

 

Theres absolutely no reason to need 'driving lights' that outshine your high beams.

 

Really? You know this because you drive the same roads under the same circumstances as I do? Maybe somebody should tell the aftermarket driving light industry and all the customers buying high power driving lights this bit of information and we can all feel comfortable with our "sometimes" inadequate high beams.

 

Ya know, all I'm trying to do here is provide a bit of experience to others so they could use the information next time they are looking for a set of aftermarket lights.

 

On that note, after having them on the car for a while; if you want lights that work well on twisting roads then the 1100X is for you. If you want to reach out beyond your stock high beams - keep looking... providing you can find a reason for such non-sense.

[Oldguy16]

Well said. Put whatever lights on your car that you want. I'm pretty sure if you're doing driving lights, to reach further than high beams, you probably drive where there are no lights, or oncoming drivers. The common courtesy of shutting off extra lights when somebody passes you still exists. A friend of mine has 2 headlights, 2 fog lights, and 4 driving lights, all with 55w HID's. This doesn't mean that he drives with all of them on. Usually drives with only headlights, but those dark roads in the middle of nowhere, and no other drivers, flip them all on, and if somebody passes you, shut them off for the time being. But as far as your original post, We've had great luck with pilot driving lights, cast aluminum housing, and throwing in some HID's in them. Total cost $75, we love them, easy to mount. Or, put HID's in your Piaa ones, that may work well also. Make sure the housing is metal though.

[Oldguy16]

These are the lights we have, you can take off the led ring, and they're very small without it. they should fit well.

http://www.pilotautomotive.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=27267&PCID=1066

 

We got the HID's from ddmtuning, 55w kits. You already have the Piaa's, wiring is a breeze if you already have the lights there. I mean this is totally up to you, just making a suggestion.

[DG65]

Thanks, Oldguy16.

 

Do these Pilots have a concentrated beam or are they diffused?

 

I travel many flat, straight stretches of road and I could use a good, inexpensive concentrated beam. My wife's aftermarket driving lights have an incredibly bright pattern from H3 bulbs that are about twice as wide as the road at 150 yards but, sadly, they are no longer manufactured. We have one stretch of road that goes down a subtle hill and gradually climbs the other side and is roughly a half mile long and we can see deer crossing the road at the far end with these lights. The stock high beams never reached that far. Thus my search for lights that out-perform my stock lights. The farther down the road I can see, the more advance notice I get!

 

As far as using anything other than low beams with other cars - my rule is if I can see their lights (headlights or tail lights) I dim to low beam. It's a simple courtesy. I also dim my lights at hills if I can see on-coming traffic about to crest the hill "before" I see them. I know her lights are very bright and I only give momentary retina burns if I am blinded and can't see because of their high beams! Kinda funny, I have yet to run into a high beam user that "hasn't" dimmed their lights after taking a flash from my wife's car! :-)

 

Thanks, again, for the info.

[Oldguy16]

Thanks, Oldguy16.

 

Do these Pilots have a concentrated beam or are they diffused?

 

I travel many flat, straight stretches of road and I could use a good, inexpensive concentrated beam. My wife's aftermarket driving lights have an incredibly bright pattern from H3 bulbs that are about twice as wide as the road at 150 yards but, sadly, they are no longer manufactured. We have one stretch of road that goes down a subtle hill and gradually climbs the other side and is roughly a half mile long and we can see deer crossing the road at the far end with these lights. The stock high beams never reached that far. Thus my search for lights that out-perform my stock lights. The farther down the road I can see, the more advance notice I get!

 

As far as using anything other than low beams with other cars - my rule is if I can see their lights (headlights or tail lights) I dim to low beam. It's a simple courtesy. I also dim my lights at hills if I can see on-coming traffic about to crest the hill "before" I see them. I know her lights are very bright and I only give momentary retina burns if I am blinded and can't see because of their high beams! Kinda funny, I have yet to run into a high beam user that "hasn't" dimmed their lights after taking a flash from my wife's car! :-)

 

Thanks, again, for the info.

Sry for the late response. The pilot lights I linked you are concentrated, they really are the meaning of driving lights, but the range is insane. My friend and I also purchased a set of projector fogs, which were large, again put HID's in them, and aimed them appropriately. Those acted like another set of headlights, they went fairly wide and have good range with the HID's. You do have to drill a small hole to get the wires through, but they were very easy to do. Maybe these would work better for you?

 

http://www.amazon.com/UNIVERASAL-HALO-LIGHTS-LAMPS-PROJECTOR/dp/B0035GT11A

 

Just so you know, these are large. I think almost 6" diameter. We love them but again a suggestion. We have done on his car 4 sets of HID's. headlights, these projector fogs, and 2 sets of the Pilot driving lights. All 55w 10k HID's. But if you are driving on roads as you describe these may work. They are a bit more expensive but will give you range to the sides as well as distance. Have you though of putting HID's in the high beams? Or would you rather leave those the way they are?

[DG65]

.....Have you though of putting HID's in the high beams? Or would you rather leave those the way they are?

 

I may install a set of the Pilots under the license plate and throw the fogs in the original fog light holes. I'm considering the HID swap in the Pilots but I think I'll hold off with the factory lights for now. The fogs sound like a good boost to the factory low beams, as well... something I could also benefit from.

 

Thanks!