If I recall, sometime around 1995 it became a Federal law that fog lights could only be on with the headlights on low beam. So all vehicles made since then for the US market must have fog lights that only light up with the low beams.

 

On the S197 GT, you can turn on the foglamps without having to turn the low beams on.

 

Yes you can. I should have phrased things differently. What I tried to say was it wa a Federal law that fog lights could only be on with your main lights on low OR with your head lights off.

I mentioned that in a previous post, but still..

 

why does everyone keep bringing up that its illegal? i do like 10 illegal things every day, a bunch of isht on my car is illegal, so i couldnt care less. all i wanted to know is if it was possible to do it, and i have found out that i cant do it the way that i want to. end of story. the only reason its illegal is because the laws for US car lighting are outdated and really stupid. have you ever compared a euro spec headlight beam pattern to a us spec one?

 

I couldn't car less if it is legal or illegal. The question I answer originally was why did cars all of a sudden start having fog lights that only worked with your headlights off or on low beam. The answer to that is "Federal Law".

As for if I have ever compared a euro spec headlight... Well, I HAVE euro spec headlights sitting where my fogs USED to be! With 80w/100w bulbs no less. And there are a lot of reasons why European lighting laws are different than US laws. Look at the globe and compare land area... I'm not saying one is better than the other, but there are definitely differences in our driving environment.

 

UNECE (Aka ECE, aka E-Code) regulations are different from FMVSS (49 CFR 571.x) namely that UNECE addresses different lamps using different regulations, whereas FMVSS 108 (49 CFR 571.108) squishes everything into one document, and references SAE standards for some types of lamps (forward discharge lighting, aka HID).

 

which driving lamps do you have in place of the stock fogs? i was thinking of going with the set piaa just came out with for our cars..
http://www.shopatron.com/product/pro....20200.0.0.0.0

http://www.piaa.com/Lamps/Lamp-pages/40rnd.html

 

Those look interesting, but the webpages don't have any more details on the Mustang GT specific driving lamps.