since i saw a thread about swapping H3's to bigger bulbs and retrofiting lamp housings for projectors, i figured i'd share an old secret if it hasn't already been shared:

it is possible to get a lot of light out of a H3. First, get a good bulb, such as any of the PIAA plasma series from Japan. Then disassemble the foglamp assembly, remove the old bulb, and take a pair of needle nose plyers or something thin and hard and push the glare guard upward and out of the way of the lamp. If you haven't noticed,....if you look into a foglamp,...you see a lil black dot in the center, and it's very dull,... your bulb sits in this, and you only get rear illumination off of the reflector,...thus probably as once discussed on the Z forum, about 20-30% of the total light produced. My fogs are bright as hell,... plus are a lot more colorful.... you see an array of blueish-green,...with a purple hue to it,... a lil pink in there too,... pretty cool lookin' on the lense, but from a distance,... pretty damn near close to HID,...(my 9006's are same series of bulbs as well ) it also, gives you a wider beam when the glare guard is move out of the way.

In my Z,..I was able to break it out, and remove it completely,.. i haven't spent the time to figure out how to do that yet,... I will try to post a pic of my lights later.

hope this saves time and $$$$

NAZTY97

 

Fog lamp bulbs, reflectors, and "masks" are designed such that the roadway light from them has a fairly sharp and low cutoff. If you ever have the opportunity to actually need foglamps you will soon discover that changing them to more impress your oncoming motorists can be severely detrimental to their actual functionality.

It's bad enough that the Japanese haven't figured out that there is a definite need in foggy (sometimes in snowfall) conditions not to have the low beams on with fogs. One of the first things I do when I buy a Lexus is rewire it so the fog lamps can be used alone.

 

by bending the glare guard up,... yes, the lense is a great deal brighter,... and with it still in,... it's position after being bent upward is almost linear,... so it does retain it's half beam cutoff ( i used to design lighting fixtures for holophane,... so took this into consideration since i couldn't see any easy way to get it out ). It doesn't glare upward by design of the housing, and it actually illuminates the ground immediately in front of the car and to the sides it actually comes back towards the rear of the car at about maybe a 30 degree angle from perpindicular to the car,... so more light on the ground is produced by allowing the beam to shine outward and forward.

I've let others drive my car, and i have seen it, and the lights are not blasting into the eyes of oncoming traffic... just noteably brighter than any stock configuration.

I did it for visibility improvement solely,... the looks are a added benefit that I like. I works.... I send a pic,..you'll see the difference.

 

there is also a screw I believe, next to the foglight that you can use to adjust the aiming of it

 

post a picture

 

see subject

 

Don't bend it or break it off. The H3 bonnet is held in by two small phillips' head screws. Disassemble the foglight reflector, held in by two slightly larger screws, to access the back of the foglight. There, you'll see the two other screws I was talking about. Unscrew them, and te bonnet slides out. I just snapped some shots of the H3 bonnets so you get an idea of how much obstruction they create. Your H3 bulb essentially tuks right into these two metallic buckets. Light output improves about +50% with them off. I did a left right comparo a while back when I first performed this mod, but I didn't snap any pics unfortunately .

 

As per the suggestion of OLT, not creating new threads, so using the search feature.

I see other Lexus cars with yellow fog lights. How can one do the yellow fog lights on the 98+ SC? Thanks for the help

 

First off 97+ SC...The front end was changed in 1997 not 1998.
So here's what I found when I searched.
~~You may want to look up 97+ or 97 conversion when your searching.~~

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...7+SC+foglights

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...7+SC+foglights

This ones good!!!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...7+SC+foglights

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...7+SC+foglights

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...7+SC+foglights

 

Thanks man. I dont understand the "clear foglights" they are talking about. Do the 97+ have the clear foglights?

 

Clear meaning the glass itself is clear and not covered in yellow film or anything "not clear"

 

I tried getting the bulb out, can't. How do you get to the foglight, otherwise? Do I have to take the headlight off, and go from top?

 

you cant get the bulb out of the foglight itself? or u cant get the foglights off the car... u can do it from the bottom, either take off the under guard, or feel ur way around from the airduct next to the foglight. theres the visible one to the side, theres one on the top, and 1 in the opposite bottom corner of the foglight. (bolts/nuts)

 

going from the top is the easiest way that i've noticed

 

Boaser, I just wasn't able to get the light off. Thanks for bearing with me. Do I need to take the whole foglight assembly out, or can the bulb just be taken off?

My 92 doesn't have fogs, so this is new to me.