im having a hard time doing anything more than unscrewing the lamps from their frame bracket. is there a disconnect on the back of the lamp assembly? i cant rotate it in the stock bumper assembly without scratching the inside of the bumper. any tips would be greatly appriciated. thanks, heath

 

You need to remove the lamps from the brackets first. I don't think they need to be unpluged, but it would help. I think it's sideways screws towards each corner of the mouth. With the lamps removed, look underneath (I think) and you use a quarter in the slot to turn the water tight hatch.

Sorry, not at home and trying to type this by memmory. I have used Amber but unless you are normaly in snow and/or fog I don't recomend those as they are a weak beam. The best i've used so far are the Nokia Atric white (55w).

 

thanks go racer... i ended up just yanking the wires out further.

First of all: the lights ARE aimable.... however they need to go alot higher than they already are and have cutoffs placed strategically to limit light output (thanks DOT standards).

Secondly: i replaced the stock 35w h3 with a silverstar 55w h3 (way too blue for my liking). the notches in the new bulb base are too small so the bulb doesnt fit exactly flush in the base. the wiring harness seems to be ok with the extra 20w of power however (although admitedly the wires ARE pretty thin) so far the fuse is holding as well.

at the highest aiming point the fogs do little more than light the ground between the bottom of the headlight cutoff, and the front of the car (most of which you cant see when seated in the car).... making the lamps rather useless.

im going to pull one of the lamps to see if there's an easy way to allow the beam to be raised further, or if its somehow possible to grind down the upper cutoff.
-heath

 

at the highest aiming point the fogs do little more than light the ground between the bottom of the headlight cutoff, and the front of the car (most of which you cant see when seated in the car).... making the lamps rather useless.


THERE IS A REASON THAT THEY ARE CALLED "FOG LIGHTS" AND NOT MINNI HEADLIGHTS....

 

thanks , but thats what im here to "fix"

 

ok well they're "fixed"

i did a little bit of dremel work, and bracket bending... in conjunction with cutting the adjustment spring to make it shorter. also since the bulbs dont fit exactly you can angle them a bit helping with propper light dispersion. i have SO much adjustment now that i can illuminate the houses down the block if i so choose however i put them back down to a sane level. here are a few pics:

 

stock on the right, 55w on the left (before adjusting)



using a dremel cut-off wheel, i trimmed off the lip on the lights where the bracket would meet them when folded closer together (raising the beam level). i also cut a bit of the corner off of the bracket that folds down in order to gain some more clearance.


next i removed the spring and cut 4 or 5 coils off the spring so i could screw it in further (raising the beam)


shorter spring


the new bulb doesnt lie flush in the housing.... you can use this to your advantage as it allows you to tip the bulb back or forward.

 

Nice ideas, you could also try some Permatex lense cleaner . I will be replacing mine with Hella micro HID's. The Nokia's Artic white are not bluish. I also had good luck with Razo bulbs. PIAA's are just too expensive. I don't think those stupid ridges on the front of the lenses help either.

 

long story short here's the results:






before


after



the next thing to do is see if i can run 85W H3 bulbs. if it wasnt for the wires, i would no hesitate to try it as the housings are pretty good quality... all glass and metal. if theres anyone out there that is good with electrical stuff... how can i measure wether i can safely hook up an 85 watt load??? can i measure the resistance of the wires? or can i hook up an 85 watt load and somehow test the circuit to see if i can run that wattage indefinatly?

thanks, heath

 

I had 80w bulbs originally for the headlughts. No problems with the wires but they didn't last very long. I think like 6 months for the ones I had. Well, one of them burned out and then I went with PIAA's, then Nokia artic purple. Nice job btw, that's a huge improvement.

 

BUMP

any electrical gurus know how i can check wether the circuit can tollerate a continuous 85w load?? thanks

 

man...... I really want those fog lights....... need them so bad for vision~~~

 

Just use a relay capable of handling the 85 watt load (35 amp should do it) and the original wiring to run the relay. Beef up the wires from the power source through the relay to the 85 watt bulbs and place a fuse inline withe the new power source.

 

has anyone done anything with the 922 mini bulbs in the indicator? with the silverstars in the head and fog lights, the white front marker lamp (indicator/parking??) lights looks pretty yellow.. any options?

 

thats what im looking into at the moment. there are two options, LED 194 bulbs, or tinted 194 bulbs. piaa makes some tinted ones, albeit they are a little TOO blue. im going to order some LED's off ebay and see how that works out... ill report back.

 

thanks let us know

 

I have an extra set of H3 HID's that I am going to install in the fog light position for some extra lighting. I just need to find the right driving light housing that will cast the right beam. I bought some el cheapo "projector fog light from ebay and I couldn't even tell if they were on.

I already have HID's in the stock pop ups.


I'm thinking of something like these off ebay: $44