sorry....not trying to hijack this thread but I want HIDs in my foglights as well...my fog light housings are shot...water and generally nasty....cant seem to find them....ebay has them occaionally but used with tabs broken or repaired and they still want 100 dollars each...any place I can get them? If Im gonna pay 200 for them I would like them new....Thanks...after that I'll chop them up and throw HIDs in 'em!!!

 

nyc, brand new (from the dealership) fog light assemblies are only $142. If you look online, you can find them for $120 each (give Nalley Jaguar of Georgia a call, they are a sponsor here and will help you out). So, used ones at that price is just unheard of.

The prices I am quoting are from a dealership in Cleveland that I have used and have had good luck with them. The big trick with this dealership is that you only get the reduced price if you do everything via the internet. If you call them up, then they will charge you the higher price.

 

Thanks Thermo....ordered a set of fogs (housings)...waiting for them so I can do the HID mod....thanks for all of your help...

 

Hi Thermo, guess I need a little help, as you know I installed already all the HIDs on my headlighst (you helped me a bit while I was doing it), and now im getting ready to do the FOGs, my question is .. Can you guide me a little bit with how to give power to the ballasts?

Looks like you cut the OEM connector? How did you give power to both ballast?

Thanks a lot

 

When I bought my car the fog assembly was so rusted to crap I threw out the fogs for both sides. When I purchased another set, the fogs did not come with the bulb base. Is there another alternative to installing these or somewhere I can purchase the bulb base?

 

Fezz, do some looking around. You will find that the HID bulbs come in 2 bulb base styles. You have the generics that are based around working for a dozen or so style of bulbs. These will be noted as fitting "H1 H3 H7 H11 etc". Then you have the bulb specific HID bulbs. These will be what you are after. In your case, you want an HID kit that is specifically geared towards H11 bulbs. Here is a link to something like what you are after:

HID Xenon Conversion Kit Slim 6000K Bulbs H11 | eBay

Notice these only work for the 1 style of bulb.

Now, with all this being said, I have had more than my fair share of problems with HID kits. All of my problems have stemmed from bad ballasts. None of my problems have been with the bulbs. So, what I am trying out at the moment is going with a generic bulb but I have bought separately some Maxlux ballasts. This is kinda like trying to compare a Geo Metro to a semi truck. Yes, the Maxlux ballasts are much bigger. But, at the same time, Maxlux is who makes most of the manufacturer ballasts. So, I have a feeling that the lifetime of the Maxlux ballasts is going to be much longer. But, doing things this way also will make the cost a bit more. The Maxlux ballasts (2 of them) is going to run you about $60. Then you can plan on another $20 or so for 2 bulbs in the style you need and the connectors to go from the ballasts to the car. You can go to your local auto parts store and get some 9006 connectors and they will fit very well into the input port of the Maxlux ballasts. I bought the high temp ones more for assurance than anything, but these were only like $7 for the pair. Granted, may want to do some looking and see if your factory wiring will fit into the connector. It just may. You are wanting a really tight fit. You don't want to let any water get in there.

If you have more questions, let me know. I will pass on what I know and have found out the hard way.

 

Okay here's what I don't get. I bought the h1 HID kit like your tutorial showed, and now you're saying I should have bought an h11 kit.. The socket you drilled to put your h1 hid bulb in is what I'm missing and need. Is it just an h11 socket?

 

Fezz, looking, you have H1 bulbs in your car, not the H11's. Looking, your best bet will be to pull a fog light housing out (if not already out) and then take it to your local auto parts store and see if you can find a bulb that will fit in the housing like the factory bulb would. Odds are, you are looking at a 9006 or 9007 bulb to make things work. The big thing to keep in mind is the orientation of the tabs for the bulb. if you look, they are not all the same size and you will need to make sure that they will fit for your application.

Otherwise, what you are most likely going to end up doing is talking with an auto recycler and seeing if they will sell you just the adapters. You might be able to talk to them about a car that has had the front end smashed and the fogs are garbage anyways. The worst thing that they are going to say is "NO".

The newer X's have the H11 bulbs which makes the installation a bit easier. Granted, may want to look at the H11's also as they may be what wlil work in there without the adapters. But, a quick trip to the auto parts store will answer that for you. There are tons of ways to do this mod, the question is which is going to be the easiest for what you have in the way of parts.

 

THOSE HID LOOK GREAT IN FOG LIGHTS,I DO HAVE THEM ON DIPPED BEAM BUT HAVE TO TAKE THEM OUT FOR MOT EVERY YEAR(MOTOR VEHICLE TEST) WHICH IS HASSLE.
IN NORTHERN IRELAND THEY SEEM TO BE VERY STRICT AND ONLY ALLOW HID LIGHTS IF THEY HAVE A PROJECTOR DOOM LIKE DIPPED BEAM BULB COVER,BUT I WOULD GET PULLED OVER STRAIGHT AWAY IF I FITTED THEM DIRECTLY INTO SPOT LIGHTS AS THEY WOULD BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS TO OTHER ROAD USERS BEING SO BRIGHT.
I HAVE PUT CREE LEDS IN MY SPOTS BUT CASING ON SPOT LIGHT HOUSING IS OLD AND CORRODED SO WAS LOOKING AROUND.
THE NEW VOLVO CARS HAVE PRETTY COOL SPOTLIGHTS/DLR's ,NOT SURE IF THEY ARE LED's OR HID THOUGH.
I AM ALSO CHECKING OUT SOME SUPER BRIGHT CREE LED's WHICH HAVE A RESISTOR IN THEM SO WHEN YOU SWITCH OFF LIGHTS AND IGNITION THE LIGHTS WILL STAY ON FOR ANOTHER 30 SECONDS BEFORE THEY DIM AND GO OUT,LIKE SOME OF THE NEW BMW's DO,THOUGHT THAT WOULD BE PRETTY COOL.MAYBE.LOL!
I HAVE SEEN THESE ON MOTOR BIKE ONLINE PARTS.
I NEED TO CHECK OUT SIZES AND LOOK INTO BUMPER MOUNTING BRACKETS ETC.

 

Belfast, I am starting to do some looking into CREE lighting and the big thing that I am finding with my experimentation is that you need to keep those lights cool. If you don't, they will fail in a short period of time. I am currently playing with a setup of four 10W LED chips mounted to a 75W computer cool fin with a fan blowing on the fins. Not sure why at the moment, but one of the chips went out completely and another chip lost 1 row of LEDs. So, I am currently running at about 26W, but seems to be holding steady there. I think my problem with my current setup was I am running the chips up at their max voltage which is causing them to run at their max temp, if not possibly slightly above. I could probably get a lot more life out of them if I backed off the voltage by say 0.5 volts (down to 11.5 VDC vice at 12.0 VDC) which would drop the heat generated by a fair amount without significantly affecting light output (would be slightly less bright, but not by much)

My next project is going to be mounting a series of 1W CREE's on the underside of my cupboards to light up the counter tops. I think this is going to be a neat effect and should make for something that will last a long, long time without having to change out bulbs or anything of the like.

If you are adding CREE's to the car, you just need to make sure that you have a way of controlling the voltage to the CREE's. The voltage applied affects how much current they will pull and in the end, their life span. Also keep in mind that most CREE's are only rated for 3.6 volts or so, not the 13.7 VDC that the car runs on. So, this may complicate things slightly. But, something as simple as a resistor in series can correct that. Just be aware of how much power the resistor is going to have to drop so you don't get it too close to plastic body parts (may cause them to warp) or near any wiring (may damage the insulation, leading to future electrical issues).

On my car, I am currently running 0.5W/285K MCD LEDs in the side marker lights. They are about a bright as the W5W bulbs, but pull significantly less power. I have these same bulbs in the running lights in the inside front headlights. For me, they look much better than the W5W bulbs as these are the snow white light like what the factory HID bulbs are.

If you need any electrical assistance, let me know. I will assist however I can and even send you diagrams of circuits to do what you are after.

 

We replaced the lights in both Jag's with HID all the way around. Now we have 6000k color with 35w in the Fog's, 35w in the low beam and 50w in the high beam. Driving through the canyons now is like having daylight and is so much better!

 

I ordered the lights off ebay. 45 bucks with shipping. I will let you guys know how they work out. Thanks thermo for the link.

The Dr!