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I got a question about fog lights

7K views 35 replies 9 participants last post by  Ludacrisvp 
#1 ·
What bulb does it take an or can I get a kit to match the HIDs? I like to ride around with my fog lights on and the passenger side one went out this morning.. Any advice helps
 
#2 ·
DO NOT put HIDs in the fog light assemblies. They're designed to disperse the light from a relatively low output, incandescent bulb, at a wide angle. Installing HIDs will just cause a lot of glare for anyone driving near you.

Not sure on bulb number. Check your owners manual, or look on the bulb itself. You can get a slightly brighter incandescent bulb, that comes very close to factory HID color temperature.
 
#16 ·
Generally speaking, you are right, but in this case, no.


They are designed to disperse light from a somewhat low output source, but that doesn't mean that swapping a 55w kit is going to blind anyone.

The housings are only slightly reflective. The projector-type lens also reduces reflection. I ran a 55w 6000k vvme kit with no modification to the fog light housing and even at full output, they are not aimed in a way where oncoming drivers are getting hit right in the face with glare nor are they any brighter than the OEM HID headlights.

I've since sanded the inside of the fog light housings and painted them gloss black. This has focused the output quite a bit, but still not even close to being high enough for the arc to touch an oncoming driver even if he's in a lambo. Even at that, they are nowhere close to the scattered blinding shit that was the result of my moron neighbor putting HID lights in his (halogen reflective housing) Silverado.
 
#3 · (Edited)
The lamp is the H3-55w.
If you want HIDs you will need to retrofit a different projector into the fog housing, the projector is not designed for HIDs nor long enough for any lamp to use in it that will be safe.
Might look into retrofitting the morimoto mini matchbox projector or the morimoto mini h1.


 
#7 ·
Many places offer H3C HID lamps for sale, we are just suggesting that you do not use them.
There are 2 versions of H3C HID lamps out there, the one with the green arrow (not sure where to get them) matches the filament placement of the H3-55w halogen lamp and would likely work OK in the fog light, however I can imagine they are likely very fragile in comparison to the other H3C HID lamp (red X). The second lamp which is more like a normal HID lamp places the light source too far inside of the fog light thereby reducing the output significantly.

 
#10 ·
I had them in mine, they both burned out in less than 2 months (I did not touch the lamps either, the glass fractured at the base of each lamp causing them to go out which also happened to the previous lamps in the car and possibly the most recent set that the dealer just replaced)... mind you I have my fogs on anytime the parking lights are on (not when DRL is on) and I have overrode them so they stay on during the autohighs. But color wise, yes they were a little closer but not worth the money.
 
#12 ·
Ludacrisvp said:
I had them in mine, they both burned out in less than 2 months (I did not touch the lamps either, the glass fractured at the base of each lamp causing them to go out which also happened to the previous lamps in the car and possibly the most recent set that the dealer just replaced)... mind you I have my fogs on anytime the parking lights are on (not when DRL is on) and I have overrode them so they stay on during the autohighs. But color wise, yes they were a little closer but not worth the money.
How did you get your fogs to stay on with highs?
 
#13 ·
May be frowned upon but basically a jumper triggering the fogs on whenever the parking lights are on in the relay center under the hood. Which works out fine for me since if you turn on fogs the parking lights come on anyways and anytime my headlights are on I want to have the fogs on and since the parking lights stay on during high beams its all good. Added benefit is that fogs are on during remote start now.
In my Deville I did this with a couple of diodes instead jumping between the high low and fog relays. I chose parking lamp this time as the headlight relay wasn't doing it for me in the STS.
 
#32 ·
Ludacrisvp said:
The service manual says that the bumper comes off for _headlights_ not for fog lamps.
The service manual calls for removal of front wheels and fender liners to access fog lamps.
Likely you could get by just turning the wheels all the way over to get to them.
I'm just putting it out there for the members who mislead the others. And that's the way I did it and took me 30mins for both of them even though I needed to replace one.
 
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