Hi, I'm curious if there is any difference in the front fog lamps/lights as there they are sold 01-04 and 04-09. I have a broken lens on one unit and I'm looking at getting these http://tinyurl.com/LED-Front-fog instead of just getting one unit which is more costly.
After recently getting LED lights for the side lights and interior lights and seeing the difference I'd rather swap the fogs as well.
Thanks in advance!

 

Sean, the difference you are going to find is the earlier cars used an H1 bulb to make the light. Where the later cars used an H11 bulb. I would look at the connectors for the two style bulbs and see if they are interchangeable. if they are, then you can simply grab the new bulbs and fixtures and put them in. The only other question that I would have is how the fog lights are mounted to the front bumper. I know the 03 vehicles have it screwed to the plastic bumper cover. Not sure if the later ones use the same mounting holes. Looking at the two different fog light housings, they appear to have the same mounting. But, I can garantee the hole where the bulb mounts is going to be different. There is a key assembly there to prevent you from installing the wrong bulb style.

 

Hi Chris, thanks!
What about the bulb holder where the electrical plug fits, is there any difference in that do you know? As the new lamps in the LED ones look the same shape they may just be a simple and play fit.
(I may just get them and try )

 

The front wiring harness is different from a 02 to 03 and from 04 to 09. 10 wire plug to 16 wire plug. and for some reason if the main plug for your fog lights is unplugged. The right rear tail light does not work. what strange people those English are at wiring!


The Dr!

 

 

Sean, the H1 and H11 bulb sockets are slightly different in the keying that the it has. With that being said, you can modify the key on the bulb to make it work. The other option is to simply get an HID kit and then go that route. You can pick up an H11 HID kit (get one specifically for the H11 bulb, not a generic one that is for H1/H3/H......) and then your local auto parts store will have new plugs for the H11 socket. Granted, this can be done with traditional bulbs too. The big thing is making sure that where you joint the socket wires to the factory wiring is well sealed. Hate to see you have wiring issues in the future. To overcome this, I would say to get your hands on some "Raychem WCSF-050". This is heat shrink on steroids. Can be picked up on E-bay. I use the stuff at work to survive a nuclear reactor meltdown. I think it will handle the under hood conditions.

 

Thanks for contribution guys. Been busy, so apologies for not getting back sooner.

@Dr dome - Nothing wrong with the wiring on my vehicle. I have an unplugged harness for the front fogs and my rear lights all work fine - must be a US requirement for them not to work.

@Thermo - Got the LEDs last week and noticed the difference in the plug fitting sizes so considering the options, which you rightly point out. The quickest would be to just swap over the plugs, but I am thinking that the HID kit option would be the safer bet, for now I'm driving around with no fogs fitted so I will have to decide which way to go and find the time to complete the job (thankfully fog is not common where I live). As for the nuclear heat shrink as good as it may be the shipping and customs waiting times (sometimes the smallest items are kept waiting the longest) it may be best to just use a quality one available in the UK. I've seen plenty of H11 HID kits available, the only thing is they are direct replacements, so a slight modification for a H1 fitting to the original wiring harness on the car would be needed, but that's an easy thing. I even bought a 05 fog light wiring harness hoping for no modification, but that has a 10 point connection plug (even though only 2 pins are actually used) so that was a waste, glad it was cheap.

 

Sean, if you are not able to get the Raychem (though I still recommend getting it), a viable option is to get a little bit of red RTV and put about a 2.5 cm ring of it on each side of the wiring connection. From there, you can slide a 7 cm long piece of heat shrink over the RTV and wiring connection and shrink it down. This will do something very similar to what the Raychem does. The only difference being the wear factor as the Raychem will handle abrasion much better.

 

UK seller which lists WCSF-070-6/2-12N-B50

WCSF-070-6/2-12N-B50 by TYCO - Buy or Repair at PLCCenter - PLCCenter.com

If that isn't suitable, maybe they can order some WCSF-50 in

 

Santer, the WCSF-070 should work. If you have a dial indicator, you may want to measure the insulation diameter. The WCSF-070 will shrink down to just under 0.070" (0.1778 CM). The WCSF-050 will shrink down to just under 0.050" (0.127 CM).

 

Thanks guys!