[UpstateMDX123]

Hi Folks,

I'm just full of questions! My wife and I are probably buying a 2015 MDX with Tech in the next few days.
We're looking at buying CPO from the Acura dealer and are considering optional accessories we might want the dealer to add before we pick the car up.
First, we're definitely adding mud flaps...I've always had them on all my cars through the years. We live in a snowy climate (Syracuse, NY) and they help keep the slush and salt from hitting the painted surfaces of the car.
Second, we're probably adding fog lights. Our current vehicle has them (standard bulbs not LED) and they really help when it's snowing and/or at night.
My main question is about the fog lights on the MDX. I know they're LED but I don't know how they perform when compared to standard bulb fog lights. Does anyone have real world experience with them? Also, how much does the dealer charge for them?
As an aside, I wasn't super thrilled with the LED low beams on the MDX when we took one for a night time test drive. I much prefer our current vehicle's HID headlights.

Other accessories we're considering are remote start and a heated steering wheel. Any thoughts on those would also be welcome.

Thanks in Advance MDXers!


Brian
Syracuse, NY

 

[mdxstang]

The LED headlights took a bit of getting used to for me since I came to them from old fashioned headlights but I think they're great and I think they generally obviate the need for fog lights. The LED lights actually throw quite a bit of light to the sides and they work very well in the fog (I live in a coastal area that gets its share of fog). I've had fog lights on previous SUVs but not the MDX. Perhaps the color of the light helps but they seem to cut through fog better than the old style headlights I was more used to.

From my experiences with the LED headlights and other posters' reports of the fog lights, it seems that most of the people who get them do so mostly for decorative purposes - not a significant, if any, added functionality. IMO they don't even add much of the way of decorative effect.

I don't have the fog lights, don't miss having them, and certainly wouldn't pay money to get them, especially for a dealer to install them ($$$). They're overpriced and add almost nothing. You could always try the vehicle without the fog lights and later if you decide you really feel you need fog lights, you can add them.

I really do like the LED headlights and maybe you will as well after you get used to them.

 

[skirmich]

New fog lights are virtually useless as fog lights as they cannot be turned on without the low beams which totally defeats their purpose. Today they are nothing but decorative add-ons that somewhat add some light near you in normal conditions.

So do not worry that much about their functionality when you really need them for fog light use they wont work.

 

[p07r0457]

The LED fog lights on my 17 Advance are wonderful. I'm not sure how much they help in foggy conditions, but I leave them on during normal driving as they do a much better job lighting up the area immediately around and in front of me.

 

[skirmich]

^ Exactly!
In foggy conditions you wont see them at all since the LOW BEAMS will glare the top level fog. If you turn off low beams? the fog lights go out leaving you blind.... Very stupid design.

 

[Wanderlust]

I had the LED fog lights installed on our 2014 MDX Tech ( at considerable expense ) cuz I've always had fog lights and I couldn't imagine driving on deer infested or snowy backroads without them. But I don't think they add much functionality. The "jewel eye" LED linear array low-beams throw a good bright, wide, low beam pattern. The fogs pretty much illuminate 10 feet in front of the vehicle and straight off to the sides. So I might get to see a toad or tree-frog I'm about to run over a few milliseconds before I squish it, or see a deer I'm going to miss when I'm right next to it.

As for white-out fog or snow, maybe the fog lights help a little if you're creeping along staring at the white fog line to stay on the road. But as skirmich said, they would help a lot more if you could turn off the low beams so they weren't reflecting back in your face.

 

[wasjr]

Fog lights work well on rural roads when you can't use high beams, but otherwise not much benefit.

 

[skirmich]

When I did my Fog Light Mod on the TL-S I fixed that issue (I can turn on fogs with the Key on Position II without running lights) but the MDX seems a little more challenging to modify so You can turn the fogs on the same way.

 

[Simi_MDX]

The LED fog lights on my 17 Advance are wonderful. I'm not sure how much they help in foggy conditions, but I leave them on during normal driving as they do a much better job lighting up the area immediately around and in front of me.

Any chance you can take a picture with it on and off from the driver seat? I had a 2006 with HIDs retrofitted in the fog lights and it made a world of a difference. Since these are LEDs and not replaceable, I'm a little hesitant to drop the $500 it will cost to install.

 

[Wanderlust]

And then there's the guy who thinks it's cool to blind every other driver on the road.

 

[Lorenzo Queral]

I agree that to get the proper effect from fog lights the regular headlights should be OFF. What you want in a fog light is a wide, THIN pattern, designed to go UNDER the fog. With headlights being on, they light up the fog particles and defeat any advantage the fog lights give. I used to think that having fogs on with headlights helped "fill in" just past the car, but the LED headlights have a wonderful, wide pattern and lessens the advantages of the fogs. For me, they are appearance items. I wouldn't have a car nowadays without heated wheel and remote start. Once you have these options, you don't want a car without them. If I lived in a warm climate, the heated wheel would not be so needed, but the remote start is very convenient.

 

[Simi_MDX]

So true on how the fog lights work and with Japanese cars, the fog lights can't be turned on without the headlights being on. However, in the 80s and 90s, there were two different kinds of lights, fog and driving. I use fog lights as driving lights since SoCal does not get very much fog (if any). I am a little opposite with you where I could go without heated steering and seats or remote start. My car is parked in an attached garage so I can't really remote start. The low speed follow cruise control is a game changer for me in bumper to bumper traffic.

That said, I will probably end up buying the factory fog lights anyway. Worse case, I wire up a light bar in the grill. I've never been able to drive with my auxiliary lights on but its something nice to have when in the mountains or desert.

I agree that to get the proper effect from fog lights the regular headlights should be OFF. What you want in a fog light is a wide, THIN pattern, designed to go UNDER the fog. With headlights being on, they light up the fog particles and defeat any advantage the fog lights give. I used to think that having fogs on with headlights helped "fill in" just past the car, but the LED headlights have a wonderful, wide pattern and lessens the advantages of the fogs. For me, they are appearance items. I wouldn't have a car nowadays without heated wheel and remote start. Once you have these options, you don't want a car without them. If I lived in a warm climate, the heated wheel would not be so needed, but the remote start is very convenient.

 

[p07r0457]

Any chance you can take a picture with it on and off from the driver seat? I had a 2006 with HIDs retrofitted in the fog lights and it made a world of a difference. Since these are LEDs and not replaceable, I'm a little hesitant to drop the $500 it will cost to install.

I've uploaded some pics here: https://imgur.com/a/X7Ylu

The pictures don't really do justice; there is a more profound difference in person, than what the pictures portray.

 

[skirmich]

^ Woah the Fog Light cut off on the LEDs is way too pronounced..
It looks like they have less output than the regular halogens fogs in the 2G.

 

[Simi_MDX]

Thank you so much. I'm sold. If you say the pictures are not as good as in real life, this works for me. I can see the area directly in front of the car is significantly brighter. I find that brighter light reduces eye fatigue when driving at night.

I've uploaded some pics here: https://imgur.com/a/X7Ylu

The pictures don't really do justice; there is a more profound difference in person, than what the pictures portray.

 

[Wanderlust]

Bright light in the foreground may actually reduce your ability to see objects in the distance at night, because it reduces the dark adaptation of your eyes. Bright dashboard lights and interior illumination have the same effect. Our eye/retina/brain system has a large dynamic range, but it is finite. Think of dark adaptation like changing the aperture and ISO of a camera.

So if you really want to see better at night, reduce extraneous foreground ( interior ) illumination and try to get your illumination on what you need to see. In most conditions, there is no reason you need to see fine detail of the pavement 10 feet in front of your car. Bright light there just messes up the "metering" of your eyes. And if some idiot coming toward you won't turn off their high beams, try not to look at it and look at the lane marker or fog line to your right instead. But this is exactly why headlights with excessive glare are dangerous.

 

[mdxstang]

The pictures don't really do justice; there is a more profound difference in person, than what the pictures portray.

You may be right because I checked out the pics and don't see a significant difference - just a somewhat brighter area fairly immediately in front of the vehicle but that was an area already fairly well lit by just the low beams - i.e. the fogs didn't light up an area that was unlit before, they just made it somewhat brighter. In addition to the regular headlights already lighting that area adequately, when driving at any speed above a few mph one isn't going to be looking where the fogs add some brightness - the focus would be well further down the road than that. The side view shows almost no difference with fogs.

After reading this thread I paid attention to the light pattern again last night when driving and again, the lighting pattern to the side as well as straight ahead with the regular headlights is great IMO - very wide and a bright white light.

I think objectively this comes down to the fogs not being categorized as a 'must' for this vehicle so I suggest that unless someone wants to buy them for decoration, like Christmas ornaments, they should try this vehicle with the regular headlights first and possibly save $500 or so, and only after deciding they think the headlights aren't adequate and they really think the fogs will add significantly, add the fogs. If possible find an MDX on the lot or somewhere where you can check out the utility of the fogs in person. Like another poster indicated - you can tell only so much from pics of it.

 

[skirmich]

A great way to test fog light performance is by covering the low beams with some rags.. This way only the fog pattern will be on the road. That is how I adjust them anyway.

 

[Simi_MDX]

The camera isn't going to do an excellent job capturing the differences, but I clearly see a good amount of light on the side and good fill in the front. $500 is steep, but oh well. I was worried it would be like the fog lights on my 335...totally useless.

 

[dreamG]

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