rear fog light question ?

I noticed my right rear fog light did'nt light up. checked bulb it seemed fine. called dealer they told me only the left rear fog light will light up that is standard. euro style. Is this true ?

Rear fog light is one side only otherwise most drivers will think that the brake lights are on. For once, the dealer is telling you th truth

Yeap! one side only.

Thanks you.

I wired both rear fog light bulbs into the brake light circuit, more pronounced notice that I'm on the brakes. Use as fog light useless IMMHO.

With one side only 99% think we have a burned out bulb.

That's just American ignornace thinking that. Which is why I never use my rear fog (996 or MB). Besides the only times it SHOULD be on is in fog or parallel parking so as to be seen. Not sure why they even included it here in the states....like SYMA said, 99% think we have a bulb burned out!

I ran a wire from the connected rear fog light to the other lamp to get them both to light up. The other taillight has the connector and bulb already installed, all you have to do is to get the power to it.

I have wired both together. I could never figure out why they only wire one. All my other cars had both. Whenever I drive down the motorway in pea-soup fog and see one fog lamp I assume motor-bike!

Berny, Here in the U.S. fog is really not the problem that it is in the U.K. and motorcycles are generally toys and not usually used other than on sunny warm days (a few exceptions of course). Been here for nearly 10 years and have probably only had a few occasions when I would use fog lights (with 2 of those being last night and this morning!) I don't even think they are required to be fitted to the car. I use them more in heavy snow and rain which can come on hard enough here to seriously reduce visibility. Barry

Here in the US the rationale is that 2 rear fogs would be confused with brake lights being stuck on.

Yeah, I used to think that MB owners had a rear tail light burned out all the time. Finally I realized that about half of them are driving around even in clear weather with the rear fog light on. I seriously doubt that most have a clue that it's on or even what it is for.

Rear fog lights started in Germany around 1974 (I'm dating myself!), and were originally separate light fixtures attached on one side under the rear bumper. They proved so useful in preventing rear end crashes in heavy fog on the Autobahn that many drivers installed them as aftermarket items. This led to the automakers integration of tail-light and fog light. In Europe it is understood that one light means fog, and two means braking. I believe it is against the law in Germany to use this light in non-fog conditions.

That's not correct. In Europe it is illegal to have side indicators that are red. They must be Amber. Stop lights (red) are more powerful (wattage) than night side lights (also red). Fog lights are an order of magnitude brighter than stop lights (also red). Any European driver knows when someone is driving along with their fog lights on when no fog is out. It's almost blinding. However, in bad fog which is not unusual, the point of having such powerful fog lights is so that they cane be seen. In bad fog you can't see ordinary night side lights until its too late to stop. Now if you can imagine driving along in fog that is so thick that you can't see past 10 feet then you would understand why "two" lights are important. If you see one, it is easy to assume its a bike and so you don't take a wide enough angle to pass. If there are two lights then you know exactly how wide the car is in front of you. Truck drivers often have a plethora of lights across the back of them for this reason as they are extra wide. While its a PITA to see drivers going along with rear fog lamps on (with no fog) I am fairly certain it isn't against the law. Just in case you are wondering, if the side night lights and fog lights are on at the same time, it does not hinder the use of stop lights too. They are 3 different cicuits and 3 different brightneses of red lights. Also rear fog lamps were out in British cars way before the 1970's.

Heres a non related of no use addition re the tails lights. My Aston Martin 74, has automatic dimmer on the brake lights, yes dimmers, these activate when the tail lights are on and the manuals states they glow with reduced intensity so as to not dazzle drivers behind. Being dual circuit globes it was almost impossible to see the difference. Needles to say I bypassed this circuit. AD

I'm drawing a blank, but one of the manufacturers now wires both rear fog lights instead of just one because they got so many responses from customers about it. Damn, why can't I remember!!!

Teflon, that would be Jaguar. Both right and left fog lights come on at the same time on Jaguars. Question about wiring up the rear fog lights to light up with the brake lights -- what happens when you turn on the rear fog lights? Doesn't that light up the brake lights as well?

Wwest: can you elaborate on how you wired the fog light bulbs into the brake light circuit?

I simply terminated the fog circuit by cutting the wire and taping the hot end with eelctrical tape. Wired the passenger side "fog" bulb into the existing brake light circuit.