Recommended driving lights

I used to have some nice round driving lights that were not angel eyes but something similar. They were nice, but my dad insisted on replacing them since one had a piece of glass totally missing on the front of it. The lights I have no are driving lights but mostly work as fog lights - they are yellowish and light up mostly the front lower part of the car and not much else (and they are aimed properly).

So I'm thinking about buying some different driving lights. One consideration is obviously the Hella angel eyes (Link). However, they seem kind of cheap (not that I'm complaining). This leads me to question if there are not more expensive driving lights that are nicer. Do you guys have any driving lights you'd recommend?

These look nice but way out of the reasonable price range I'm looking at (No more than $120). I'm sure they're bright though being Xenon bulbs. I'm actually seing a lot of lamps in the $500+ territory that are true HID. Would be nice, but too expensive. It seems like these driving lights are either $70 or less or $500+. Anyone have any to recommend asides from the Angel Eyes I am considering?

Hella makes a fog/driving light with a 3-way switch.

Albertj

Which model is it? I don't mind a combo as long as it doesn't have that yellow cast to it. My lights aren't too yellowish but I've seen some that look really yellow and to me it always makes a car look kind of crappy (at least a car, maybe not so for a truck or something going off-road).

Rather than mounting another light on my car I opted to replace the existing bulbs with PIAA 4000K Xtreme White Plus bulbs. Very nice bright white light for driving and they don't blind the driver in front of you, yet I can see farther with just the low beams on.
Replaced the high beams after I saw how great the low beams were.
I think i bought them online from autopartswarehouse.com

I also replaced the bulb in one of my bikes and like the extra light at night from that too. It's an older Harley and had a tendency to vibrate the filaments on other halogen bulbs resulting in a short life span. So far I've gotten over 2 years out of this one bulb which is longer than any other so far.

I plan to do the HIDs for the headlights eventually, the driving lights are a more readily doable job (Plus I used my old ones constantly and they definitely help - these just don't do it, but they were nice in the snow).

What's the diameter of the Hella Angel Eyes above ??

You can find the Hella fog/driving combo in the JCWhitney catalog. I do not have the number. I think both the fog (wide and short) and driving (long and narrow) beams are white, unless you buy (separately) the 'all weather' yellow bulbs for the fogs.

I used to have a set of Blazer driving/fog combo lights on a Subaru I had. They were DOT approved. They had white bulbs and the fog portion had a yellow reflector. I wired 'em with a pair of relays so as to conform with NY law, and so I could use a 3-way LED (red/yellow/green) indicator on the dash to tell me if they were lit as fogs or driving lights and also so they'd be in the right state with respect to if the headlights were on (it's in the NYS DMV red book which I no longer have). An additional benefit was that I could use a short run of wire to power the lights through an isolation relay, and make the 'control circuit' low current. So they were REALLY bright. The point is that the wiring most fog and driving lights comes with is simple but it is too small and too long. I'd use 14 gauge wire instead of the gassamer they put in the kits. I'd put the bank of relays on the firewall.

Albertj

The diameter of the Angel Eyes is 4" and they're 3.1" deep. The only pain I'm seeing with these, I don't think they'll work with the swtich I already have mounted in there. I have a switch now that is just a push power with off and on states. It looks like it needs a three way switch, one for off, one for the halos, and another for the driving beams. I had something similar before but I have no idea what it was now. After they had been on and with the car shut off the halos around the bulb still glowed. They weren't angel eyes but they were cool.

Just curious, but would it ever be possible to mount something like a small oval light to the grill? I wouldn't due to mine being chromed, but I didn't know if it might not look cool on one that wasn't. I think if you had enough wire and trimmed it down the hood it could look cool, but it seems possible that they may get out of alignment from you closing the hood if you slam it.

About the grill lights, that's a weak mounting point and I doubt you can do anything much abut the torque moment.

Albertj

Ah, well just a thought. Given our headlights are on the same level as the grill I thought it could look cool but didn't know if it would be possible.

I have tried two different halogen based driving lights under my bumper. Neither of them produced any worthwhile amout of usable light. I would upgrade the headlights if I were you. Get those Eurolites? that Aaron has or get an HID kit, I'd say

turtleman wrote:

I have tried two different halogen based driving lights under my bumper. Neither of them produced any worthwhile amout of usable light. I would upgrade the headlights if I were you. Get those Eurolites? that Aaron has or get an HID kit, I'd say

True, the HID kit would be nice but I fear to use those $100 kits on ZZP and erm, the other site (3800 based, forget the name but it's also $100 - slightly different than ZZPs because you can pick the temp). They seem to have bad ballasts as Ilan can testment to as well as some other people on their reviews. I've seen some more pricey kits for $250 and wonder if they're not better invested given the better ballasts. All this confusion is why I haven't bothered with this yet. Too confusing to find a good kit and too many look like pure cheap crap.

I understand your concern there. I've been buying kits all over ebay for about 4 years and what's out there has changed a bit. A lot of these sellers warranty their stuff so that helps. I've installed about 12 kits on all different cars and I've had one ballast come pretty much DOA but it was replaced without a problem. Longevity-wise, the all the kits I've dealt with have been great. Replacement HID lamps for them can be bought seperately for less than the retail cost for a pair of standard halogens btw. I have 2 extra sets for the turtle right now actually.

I would just get something with a warranty. A brand name like Xentec is nice but its a little more work to find nowadays. Don't spend $250 on an HID kit. Digital ballasts and stuff are kind of stupid. Remember, it's just a damn light. There's no need to overcomplicate it.

Shintsu wrote:

I plan to do the HIDs for the headlights eventually, the driving lights are a more readily doable job (Plus I used my old ones constantly and they definitely help - these just don't do it, but they were nice in the snow).

i have a set of HIDS for sale

How Much $$$