Ok, a few of you were interested in putting HID bulbs into your fog lights, here is what I went through.

First, I started with this kit. It was all inclusive in the manner that it has the bulbs, ballasts, the connectors between the ballast and bulbs and even some mounting hardware. I had to add some zip ties (to mount the ballasts), some silicon (to seal the bulb to the factory bulb housing, and some shrink tubing.



I put the front end of the car up in the air, removed the fog light housings from the bumper cover. I then removed the H1 bulb base, removed the bulb and put the base into my vice and using a 1/4" bit and a 1/2" drill bit, I removed the internals and made a hole big enough to allow the plugs on the HID bulb to pass through. You can see what a modified and stock bulb base look like.



This is what the bulb looks like in the base. Of note, there is a flat side to the HID bulb that needs to go to a specific spot in the base. If you don't align it properly, the bulb will not fit into the fog light housing. I filled the whole base with silicon and put more on the HID bulb too and then pressed it all together. Not a clean process, but should not leak on me.



Here is a better picture of the flat side to the HID bulb base.



This is a picture of where I ended up mounting the ballasts. There is a flat spot in the center of the pic. You can see the foglight hole in the bumper cover on the left and there is a rectangular hole on the right. The ballast fits right in there for my particular kit. This picture is from the driver's side.



This is the same picture (except on the passenger side) with the ballast installed. I used 2 tie straps to hold the ballast in place. One runs around the ballast up and down, the other tie goes around side to side. I ran the tie straps through holes in the metal structure.



This is what everything looks like fully installed when looking up from the ground. I did have to cut the factory plug off so I could attach the wiring harness for the ballast. I soldered the wires together and then covered the solder joint with shrink wrap. THis tends to give a better joint long term as the shrink wrap tends to seal against the insulation. THis prevents corrosion from forming on the wire.



Front shot of the car with the headlight and fog light HIDs turned on. Of note, my HID fogs were 4300K bulbs and they appear slightly more yellow than the HIDs in the heads. I'm not sure if the headlight HIDs have been upgraded or if they are 5000K HID from the factory. I have not found any specific reference to the temperature rating of the factory bulbs.



Here is a closer view, more in the line of beams to get a better idea of what the colors are like.



If you have any questions, just ask. It wasn't a difficult project. The hard part of it all was on the passenger side. There is not a lot of room there due to the A/C system's reservoir there. If you remove the bumper cover, that would make accessing stuff easier.

 

thats hype but shuld have got some niteshots instead

 

Are you running 5k all around? Car looks awesome!

 

Christo, I have 4300K HIDs in the fogs. I am not sure what came stock in our X's. Reading around, I got the impression that most factory HID systems are also 4300K. When I bought the kit, I was looking to pick up 5000K bulbs, but the company did not sell them. So, based with the above statement I chose the 4300K bulbs. I figured also that by going with 4300K bulbs, having the slight yellow tint to them might help them cut through the fog (why else would you have "fog" lights on?).

I will admit, the color is really close to the factory bulbs, but if I had to take a guess, the factory bulbs are probably 5000K, if not 6000K (not blue enough to be 6000K in my opinion). Absolute worst case, I can upgrade the bulbs to a different temperature and go from there. The ballasts are generic to a type of HID bulb (you need to pay attention, there's a few different gases used in the HID bulbs and a ballast for one type may not work with a different type bulb), so, as long as I get the right bulb type, I can go with whatever I want. I haven't tried them out at night, but I am sure with 4 HID bulbs shining forward, I will have no problems seeing.

I am still tempting the idea of upgrading the high beams to some 50W HID bulbs. Most HID bulbs are only 35W. So, going with the 50W HIDs, when I need the long distance light, I'm sure I will have it with those bulbs. But, as most people will point out, how often are you driving around with your high beams on. Well, here in year hopefully, I will be living in the middle of the country and having high beams on a lot might be possible.

 

jesse, what are these "niteshot" bulbs that you are talking about? I did a search on the internet and all I was finding was posts about IR movies with a Sony camcorder. If you have a website where I can look up the details about them, I would be interested in reading up. I am always looking for something "bigger and better".

For the given wattage, a 35W HID bulb in the 4300K range outputs about twice as much light as a standard 55W halogen bulb. So, unless the "Niteshots" are using a super-wampodyne bulb setup or a massively high powered bulb, I really doubt I would get more light to the ground. The 4300K HIDs put out 3100 lumens of light. I don't know of any light bulb in the 35W HID or the 55W halogen design that puts out more light than that. Most 55W halogen bulbs are down around 1800 lumen.

I'm not preaching the HIDs are the way to go, but at the same time, I look at more than simple word of mouth.

 

I already did my hid's, bought them off a fellow member, said they were 5000k and they have some kind of bluish tint. Either way I like the way you went with the 4300 fogs, I have even been tempted to go with the 3000k for a very yellow look. The high beams now this can get expensive right? I was thinking on just going with silver stars, they have some sot of bluish tint to the lights. Maybe youjust want to stick some silverstars in highs? Funny thing is those guys are $40 for the set. Make you wonder if they are worth it...

 

LOL I meant to take pictures at nite in the dark to really see how those bad boys look haha.

 

Jessy, ok, gotcha now.

Christo, I have found the 50W HIDs for about $80 delivered to the house. So, overall, I don't think that is too bad money wise. As for installing them, it is a bit more work than the fogs as you will be forced to remove the bumper cover and remove the headlight assemblies. But, in the big picture of things, not that tough to do.

 

Ok, you guys and gals wanted some night shots, here you go.

In the rain:
Fog lights only


Head lights only


Both head lights and fog lights


In dry conditions
Fog lights only


Head lights only


Both head lights and fog lights


Just for reference, it is about 40 feet to the corner nearest the car and 70 feet to the corner at the far side of the side street.

I have to admit, the HID fogs radiate a lot more light to the sides than the factory standard bulbs did.

Chris "Thermo" Coleman and K'Re Ann, the 03 X

 

Those fogs give off an insane amount of light bro!

Those 4300 seem to be very white no?

 

Thermo.....great write up c/w pics on HID's in the fogs......gotta FAQ this bad boy


Jim

 

Christo, yes, they are 4300K bulbs and the light is very white. If you look at the light head on, there is a very, very faint yellow/blue halo to the bulbs. It is very close to what the factory HID bulbs give off. The fogs are slightly more yellow in the halo than the heads. But, at a quick glance, the difference wouldn't be noticed.

 

Thermo, whether by choice or chance, I think the 4300's are the best option for those fogs. Anything higher or lower will result in less actual 'output' which will just hurt the intended use of the fogs. Good writeup and thanks for not going all blueish on us.

 

thermo,your hid's are nice.I have a question my brother had a spare hid kit for my fogs i installed them and it blew a fuse in the fuse box.did you use relays or anything?

 

V8, I wired them directly up to the fog light wiring. I didn't add any relays or rewire anything. Keep in mind that as the HIDs turn on, each ballast pulls in the neighborhood of 20 amps (required for the initial 23KV spark to get the plasma arc going). So, in some cases, the addition of a relay may be required. In the case of an X-type, there is a 40 amp relay that feeds the headlights and fog lights. So, the need for an additional relay is not required. If you let me know the year of your S-type, I will look at the schematics and tell you the best way to go. Keep in mind that if you are having the fog lights flash with the door locks or something else like that, use of a relay is almost always mandated.

h20boy, oh, don't worry about the blue bit. I don't get into the whole blue halo bit. The highest that I would ever go is 6000K bulbs. I figure if you are going after HIDs, you are after light output, not looks. BUt, people do things for very silly reasons. I don't question what people do as I have found that trying to hear the explanation only makes my head hurt.

 

 

Very nice!!

 

dennis...where did you buy all your lights?

 

Lwysl8, you can buy these kits on ebay for around $30. They are h1 headlights and you have to make sure you buy a kit with a ballast as well.

 

So its H1 and not H11....I just ordered some h11 and they fit except there are no notches for them lock onto when you twist them into the socket. Ive tried an H1 bulb (non HID)and it didnt fit at all. so im assuming that the stock has to be used on the h1 bulb?