Hella Fog light install (w/pics).
09-28-2009, 12:33 PM
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Hella Fog light install (w/pics). This project describes the replacement of the OEM fog lights on my 2000 T/A with a real set of Hella 90mm 55w H7 fog lamps (HL68142).
For those of you that are unaware of it, the OEM lights are 27w 880 bulbs in a plastic housing and lens. Even after cleaning and scrubbing the lens, two jars full of fireflies could be a better fog light than these OEM components. And the jars might not even have to be full.
I live in the Pacific NW, and we get real fog on many mornings and evenings, so fog lights are useful things to have. Note, that also rules out replacing the foglights with driving lights.
Another concern is that I really wanted to preserve the look of the round lights, without having either something so clunky it looked like my younger son tore loose on my car with his erector set, or something so tight to the bumper cover that at a higher wattage there would be a risk of melting or deformation.
One of the nice things about the Hella lights is that they are a solid metal housing and a nice glass lens with a great beam pattern. They are also round, and at 90mm, just slightly smaller than the OEM lights. Given the higher wattage (about double), having an extra 1/4 inch gap between the lights and the bumper is not a bad thing.
The challenge here is that the OEM foglight brackets are side mounts, with an overhead adjustment screw, while the Hella fog lights are designed to be a front mount, requiring four mounting points behind the facial plate. This called for some creativity and sweat equity, as well as a friend with the right equipment.
Step 1. I removed the old brackets and lights, leaving the existing wiring harness in place. I disassembled the lights in order to reuse the brackets.
Step 2. I placed the relay near the fuse box alongside the other relays for the headlights (Xenon HID upgrade). You can see the space for it here:
Step 3. Headed over to Dallas' house. Dallas is a friend that has a plasma cutter, MIG welders, and lots of stock steel. Dallas is a good friend to have...
Dallas cut 3/8 stock steel, ground it clean (yeah, he also has a large free standing grinder) and welded two tabs to the bottom of the OEM bracket. He also cut and welded a 1/8 flange around the top to accept the upper two mounting points. Using a drill press Dallas drilled out the mounting holes and for the bottom tabs, tapped threads into the holes.
Step 4. We spray painted the brackets black and test fitted the lights. You can see that the mounting plates here are still unpainted. Perfect! Now back to my garage.
Step 5. Installed the stock Hella wiring harness with a few minor mods.
Step 6. Now I was ready to mount the lights. I ran the wiring harness out. The harness I was sent did not have H7 connectors on it, but Rallylights included two ceramic connectors. This was actually fine as I wanted to use the rubber boots to weatherproof the lights.
You can see the outcome below.
Step 7. This is where I had the AHA moment. Chalk it up to lack of a double shot grande' in the morning. As I thought about removing the bumper cover to get the bracket mounted I realized that the only thing preventing me from fitting the bracket in through the front was the tall vertical tab that had previously been used for adjusting the OEM fogs.
Since the new fog lights had their own adjustment mechanism, why not simply cut the tab? One magic dremel moment later and the result was below.
The whole assembly easily fit into the opening in the bumper cover.
and was easily mounted. In the pic below you can see that I painted the fascia plate of the light black, to reduce the amount of shiny metal in the housing.
From this point it was merely a matter of mounting the brackets, and voila!
Final pics below...
Taking a gorgeous fall weekend day off to do a car project (possibly one of the last of the season) is not without its hazards. Althought the material cost was low, the home debt equity has been much greater than anticipated. I wonder if there is a market for derivatives...
For those of you that are unaware of it, the OEM lights are 27w 880 bulbs in a plastic housing and lens. Even after cleaning and scrubbing the lens, two jars full of fireflies could be a better fog light than these OEM components. And the jars might not even have to be full.
I live in the Pacific NW, and we get real fog on many mornings and evenings, so fog lights are useful things to have. Note, that also rules out replacing the foglights with driving lights.
Another concern is that I really wanted to preserve the look of the round lights, without having either something so clunky it looked like my younger son tore loose on my car with his erector set, or something so tight to the bumper cover that at a higher wattage there would be a risk of melting or deformation.
One of the nice things about the Hella lights is that they are a solid metal housing and a nice glass lens with a great beam pattern. They are also round, and at 90mm, just slightly smaller than the OEM lights. Given the higher wattage (about double), having an extra 1/4 inch gap between the lights and the bumper is not a bad thing.
The challenge here is that the OEM foglight brackets are side mounts, with an overhead adjustment screw, while the Hella fog lights are designed to be a front mount, requiring four mounting points behind the facial plate. This called for some creativity and sweat equity, as well as a friend with the right equipment.
Step 1. I removed the old brackets and lights, leaving the existing wiring harness in place. I disassembled the lights in order to reuse the brackets.
Step 2. I placed the relay near the fuse box alongside the other relays for the headlights (Xenon HID upgrade). You can see the space for it here:
Step 3. Headed over to Dallas' house. Dallas is a friend that has a plasma cutter, MIG welders, and lots of stock steel. Dallas is a good friend to have...
Dallas cut 3/8 stock steel, ground it clean (yeah, he also has a large free standing grinder) and welded two tabs to the bottom of the OEM bracket. He also cut and welded a 1/8 flange around the top to accept the upper two mounting points. Using a drill press Dallas drilled out the mounting holes and for the bottom tabs, tapped threads into the holes.
Step 4. We spray painted the brackets black and test fitted the lights. You can see that the mounting plates here are still unpainted. Perfect! Now back to my garage.
Step 5. Installed the stock Hella wiring harness with a few minor mods.
- I covered all the wiring with plasti-flex sheathing, which is not a must, but something left over from a previous career as a sub electrician. The relay mounted into the space left from the headlight upgrade.
- I cut the blue wire that the stock harness has running to the low beams. This supplies power for the switch LEDs, but as I was planning on usin the existing harness as the trigger for the relay, the switch and secondary power feed were not needed.
- I clipped the Hella harness switch plug and exposed 2 of 3 wires. Blue provides current for the LEDs on the aftermarket switch, so this was left unused. I also cut the end of the driver side 880 socket that led to the original OEM fog lights. A harness diagram is on
page 2.
Note: There is not a lot of slack there! I chose to expose the work through the driver side bumper fog light opening and it was very tight! It could be much easier if you remove the bumper cover but I managed to do without.
Using weatherproof spade connectors I connected the black to black and the yellow Hella harness wire to the purple OEM foglight harness. All were wrapped in electrical tape and the wiring was hidden behind the bumper.
Step 6. Now I was ready to mount the lights. I ran the wiring harness out. The harness I was sent did not have H7 connectors on it, but Rallylights included two ceramic connectors. This was actually fine as I wanted to use the rubber boots to weatherproof the lights.
- I ran the harness ends out through the bumper cover, and clipped the plugs off.
- I stripped the wire sheathing back, leaving the wires insulated, and ran the wires through the rubber boot.
- I then wired up the new H7 connector.
- This fit easily through the modified brackets.
You can see the outcome below.
Step 7. This is where I had the AHA moment. Chalk it up to lack of a double shot grande' in the morning. As I thought about removing the bumper cover to get the bracket mounted I realized that the only thing preventing me from fitting the bracket in through the front was the tall vertical tab that had previously been used for adjusting the OEM fogs.
Since the new fog lights had their own adjustment mechanism, why not simply cut the tab? One magic dremel moment later and the result was below.
The whole assembly easily fit into the opening in the bumper cover.
and was easily mounted. In the pic below you can see that I painted the fascia plate of the light black, to reduce the amount of shiny metal in the housing.
From this point it was merely a matter of mounting the brackets, and voila!
Final pics below...
Taking a gorgeous fall weekend day off to do a car project (possibly one of the last of the season) is not without its hazards. Althought the material cost was low, the home debt equity has been much greater than anticipated. I wonder if there is a market for derivatives...
09-28-2009, 11:40 PM
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Staging Lane
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The harness prep and install took about 5 hours net time, but you could probably do it in half that time if you weren't trying to be extremely precise (or as ****).
If you just want the lamp and do not need brackets, I could sell you the pair I took off with their screw, spring, clip and plastic push-pins. That is only a 30 minute job max to replace.
12-14-2009, 06:34 PM
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Staging Lane
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Long overdue night shots I kept wanting to get these done but only had my iPhone handy and night sensitivity is not great on these cameras. Tonight I bit the bullet and took some quick snaps in the parking garage at work. Hope this helps provide an idea of the spread.
This one is taken about 12 feet from the wall. Photo seems skewed since I was leaning over the roof on the driver's side tread.
This one is taken from the side, halfway between the vehicle and the wall.
The lights are currently aimed 3" below the centerline of the lens out at 25 ft. from a level wall. I did a quick comparison against my wife's Acura MDX and overall illumination was superior with an equivalent cutoff.
This one is taken about 12 feet from the wall. Photo seems skewed since I was leaning over the roof on the driver's side tread.
This one is taken from the side, halfway between the vehicle and the wall.
The lights are currently aimed 3" below the centerline of the lens out at 25 ft. from a level wall. I did a quick comparison against my wife's Acura MDX and overall illumination was superior with an equivalent cutoff.
