HID Fog DIY
03-21-11, 12:46 AM
#31
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Here is a statement from one of our vendor Xenon depot:
"HID replacement bulbs do not burn hotter than halogen bulbs however they do put out a significant amount of UV which is why our HID replacement bulbs use German made Philips UV quartz glass. UV Quartz Glass provides more light on the road as well as the highest level of resistance to vibrations, extremes of temperature, and risks of explosion. "
BTW, those chrome plastic door edge trims are pretty blah as well
"HID replacement bulbs do not burn hotter than halogen bulbs however they do put out a significant amount of UV which is why our HID replacement bulbs use German made Philips UV quartz glass. UV Quartz Glass provides more light on the road as well as the highest level of resistance to vibrations, extremes of temperature, and risks of explosion. "
BTW, those chrome plastic door edge trims are pretty blah as well
GOT THEM FREE FROM A DEALER, I LIKE THEM
03-21-11, 01:01 AM
#32
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As for the calipers, i'd recommend g2.
Little on the expensive side but well worth the $$ imho.
03-28-11, 12:59 AM
#33
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APART FROM THE FACTS THAT I POSTED ABOUT THE HEAT. I HAVE ALSO WITNESSED MY BUDDY ACCIDENTALLY SET A 35W HID BULB ON HIS ENGINE COVER. THAT BULB WAS BURNING THE PLASTIC AND CREATING FUMES. SO WE THOUGHT "WOW, THAT'S HIGH HEAT" AND WE LATER TRIED EXPERIMENT WITH AN OEM 55W HALOGEN: THE PLASTIC WAS DEFORMING BUT BY FAR IT IS NOT BURNING THRU LIKE THE 35W HID BULB DID AND CREATING BLACK FUMES
.THIS FURTHER COMFIRMED THE HEAT OUTPUT DIFFERENCE FOR US.
BESIDES, THE HEAT ISSUE, I ALSO DO NOT RECOMMEND HID INSTALLATION IN A NON-PROJECTOR HOUSING AS THEY CREATE WAY TOO MUCH GLARE FOR THE ONCOMING TRAFFIC. (THEY ARE NOT FOR A REFLECTOR HOUSING AND COULD BE TICKETED)
AT LAST, I'M NOT IN AUTO PART RETAIL BIZ OF ANY KIND, BUT IF I WERE, I'D PROBABLY TELL YOU SOMETHING DIFFERENT. JUST KEEPING IT REAL...
THERE ARE SOME RELATED INFO YOU CAN FIND ON THE WEB eg. WIKI..
YOU MIGHT COME OUT A LITTLE MORE EDUCATED WITH THE TOPIC AND THAT BEATS JUST LISTENING TO A RETAIL SOURCE IN MY OPINION. GOOD LUCK ON THE FINDINGS!
03-28-11, 08:50 AM
#34
No, I don't play soccer!
I had 6K HID fogs installed in my 450h per the recommendation of my installer. I trust him well enough to know what can and cannot be used. He is one of the old school types (i.e. knowledge and common sense) versus someone trying to make a quick buck. Other than a ballast that fell victim to all the salt this past winter, I have had no problems with melting or anything like that.
04-04-11, 07:28 AM
#35
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no need to use caps, if what you said is actually true , then people will listen to you, no need to yell.
First of all, you and your buddy should never let a hid or a halogen bulb touch any plastic engine cover while its on. Its the same as tounch these bulb with your bare hands, the oil from the plastic cover or your hands will create hot spots on your bulb and shorten its life or worst yet, cause an explosion.
Have you ever heard of the term thermal efficiency? Given the same power, if one bulb produce more light, that means less of the energy is being converted to heat. Hid actually use less power and produce more light, therefore, it produce less heat.
Most of problem people run into is what you just did, you contaminated the glass capsule with oil and cause the glass capsule to over heat. The other problem is people buy these $40 hid kits form ebay and the glass capsule and is cheaply made and a lot thinner than say a philips or sylvania bulb, that can cause the hid bulb to run hotter as well. Finally, if you look at a hid bulb compare a standatd halogen bulb, the hid bulb is much longer, therefore it is mounted much closer to the lense when you install it. That can cause some lense melting problem in some application, but its usually with people who install 55 watt hid kits from ebay. If a quality set of hid is installed, there should be no lense problem at all. In fact, most people who convert to hid notice that after the hid conversion, the snow on their lense takes much longer to melt, this is because the hid bulb produce less heat.
First of all, you and your buddy should never let a hid or a halogen bulb touch any plastic engine cover while its on. Its the same as tounch these bulb with your bare hands, the oil from the plastic cover or your hands will create hot spots on your bulb and shorten its life or worst yet, cause an explosion.
Have you ever heard of the term thermal efficiency? Given the same power, if one bulb produce more light, that means less of the energy is being converted to heat. Hid actually use less power and produce more light, therefore, it produce less heat.
Most of problem people run into is what you just did, you contaminated the glass capsule with oil and cause the glass capsule to over heat. The other problem is people buy these $40 hid kits form ebay and the glass capsule and is cheaply made and a lot thinner than say a philips or sylvania bulb, that can cause the hid bulb to run hotter as well. Finally, if you look at a hid bulb compare a standatd halogen bulb, the hid bulb is much longer, therefore it is mounted much closer to the lense when you install it. That can cause some lense melting problem in some application, but its usually with people who install 55 watt hid kits from ebay. If a quality set of hid is installed, there should be no lense problem at all. In fact, most people who convert to hid notice that after the hid conversion, the snow on their lense takes much longer to melt, this is because the hid bulb produce less heat.
Zzzzzzzzzzz....
09-05-11, 10:49 AM
#36
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Hi
Great post. What exact kit did you buy? Did you have change socket because of putting HID bulb or you can just put HID bulb into factory socket? I thought when you do conversion to HID it has to have special HID hosing? Did you not convert your factory housing to a special HID housing? Thanks
Great post. What exact kit did you buy? Did you have change socket because of putting HID bulb or you can just put HID bulb into factory socket? I thought when you do conversion to HID it has to have special HID hosing? Did you not convert your factory housing to a special HID housing? Thanks
Last edited by HHRP; 09-05-11 at 10:54 AM.
01-08-12, 12:18 PM
#37
Hi
Great post. What exact kit did you buy? Did you have change socket because of putting HID bulb or you can just put HID bulb into factory socket? I thought when you do conversion to HID it has to have special HID hosing? Did you not convert your factory housing to a special HID housing? Thanks
Great post. What exact kit did you buy? Did you have change socket because of putting HID bulb or you can just put HID bulb into factory socket? I thought when you do conversion to HID it has to have special HID hosing? Did you not convert your factory housing to a special HID housing? Thanks
Last edited by happy1977; 01-08-12 at 12:25 PM.
01-16-12, 12:46 PM
#38
Pole Position
Finally getting around to making this. This is a DIY more for your hands than your eyes. I did this around 1am in night in the garage and didn't have a camera at the time and it would have been more or less useless since it requires mostly feeling around. I did the install without removing the bumper, so if you do decide to remove the bumper it will be much easier. For my IS I took the bumper off to do the install, it was a breez, but putting the bumper back on wasn't and I didn't get it on 100% perfect, so I didn't want to risk it on the RX.
Onto the DIY:
Driver side is easy. You can access everything you need from the vent holes under the fog lamp, as you can see here.
Looking up, you will find the Fog bulb. I have it circled here in red. If you're lying on your back and looking up through the access holes, this is what you will be seeing. Just rotate the bulb to remove it and replace it with the HID bulb, making sure not to touch the bulb. And leaving the two cables from it dangling.
You can mount the ballast on the metal chassis bumper support (to be honest I have no idea what to call this. haha
It's aluminum rectangular tubing that is in the front that supports the bumper. I used 3M Automotive tape on the back of the ballast and stuck it on and has held on for 2 months still strong haha
Passenger side is a bit harder, requires feeling around for mounting the ballast.
Remove the far passenger side engine cover to show this view.
Here is a closer view of the bulb location. You can rotate it and remove it just like the driver side.
For ballast location, best way to match the other side is just reach down in front of the washerfluid container and reach around for the aluminum tubing. The blue arrow is pointing at the aluminum that you can mount the ballast to.
Hope that helps, and here are some pictures of the finished install, 4300k stock lows + 5000k fogs.
Flash on:
Flash off:
Bad picture of cutoff:
Overall happy with it. From afar it looks to match, but from up close it's clear the 5000k is whiter than 4300k. When it comes time to change the fogs, I'll probably change to 4300k.
Enjoy!
Onto the DIY:
Driver side is easy. You can access everything you need from the vent holes under the fog lamp, as you can see here.
Looking up, you will find the Fog bulb. I have it circled here in red. If you're lying on your back and looking up through the access holes, this is what you will be seeing. Just rotate the bulb to remove it and replace it with the HID bulb, making sure not to touch the bulb. And leaving the two cables from it dangling.
You can mount the ballast on the metal chassis bumper support (to be honest I have no idea what to call this. haha
It's aluminum rectangular tubing that is in the front that supports the bumper. I used 3M Automotive tape on the back of the ballast and stuck it on and has held on for 2 months still strong haha
Passenger side is a bit harder, requires feeling around for mounting the ballast.
Remove the far passenger side engine cover to show this view.
Here is a closer view of the bulb location. You can rotate it and remove it just like the driver side.
For ballast location, best way to match the other side is just reach down in front of the washerfluid container and reach around for the aluminum tubing. The blue arrow is pointing at the aluminum that you can mount the ballast to.
Hope that helps, and here are some pictures of the finished install, 4300k stock lows + 5000k fogs.
Flash on:
Flash off:
Bad picture of cutoff:
Overall happy with it. From afar it looks to match, but from up close it's clear the 5000k is whiter than 4300k. When it comes time to change the fogs, I'll probably change to 4300k.
Enjoy!
But is this permitted to have fogs so powerful (i.e. regulation purpose)
What are the led/HID features?
Thx
01-16-12, 02:31 PM
#39
No, I don't play soccer!
Alpy, I had the same concern too. I was assured by my installer that going with 5K or 6K was ok since the fog lights are low. I haven't experienced any problems or been highbeamed by other drivers. The HIDs are pretty bright and cleaner looking than the standard halogen bulbs. LEDs are supposed to be good as well, the benefit being no ballast to install. I may change over to them when the weather warms up.
Also, I have to point out the install pictures here are for the 350. There is not nearly as much room in front of the engine on the 450h. You can remove the covers underneath the engine to access the fog lights. I would also advise unclipping the fender liner on the driver side wheel well for 450hs equipped with the towing package.
Also, I have to point out the install pictures here are for the 350. There is not nearly as much room in front of the engine on the 450h. You can remove the covers underneath the engine to access the fog lights. I would also advise unclipping the fender liner on the driver side wheel well for 450hs equipped with the towing package.
01-16-12, 03:59 PM
#40
I put some VLED 5000K LED fogs in and they are quite bright. These bulbs get better every day. The LED's put out way brighter and stronger light than the Halogen H11 that were in before. I am awaiting the advent of a CREE projector LED bulb for the fog lights. I will eventually get around to installing HID high beams as they are awsome on my Envoy.
01-16-12, 04:32 PM
#42
Okay I put some PIAA Extreme White Plus in but they are only 4100K so they are a tad yellow. I will order some Litech ones. What temp did you get? Where did you get them from?
Last edited by InRBigness; 01-16-12 at 04:43 PM.
01-16-12, 05:09 PM
#43
No, I don't play soccer!
Jairus, I'm not sure about the temp on the Litechs because my installer put them in for me. I can tell you the DRLs are slightly less yellow. The color is bright white on high beams.
01-17-12, 10:21 AM
#44
Pole Position
01-17-12, 12:06 PM
#45
No, I don't play soccer!
I've had the Litechs in for a year and a half already so it's hard to remember how they were before. I notice they fill in the area above the cut off. I'll have to take a picture, from inside the car. They are pretty bright.