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LOL. It's because they stay on when you turn them on...

I guess I was always cognizant and shut them off after each use, so that they wouldn't be on if I didn't need them. Kinda like shutting off your headlights.

She probably doesn't know they're on, or equipped...

My fog lights didn't work when I got the car last week. I bought new bulbs and learned that the bulbs already in the car were fine. My issue is that the ground wires for each housing are all messed up and the wire insulation has burnt off causing them to arc and get poor connections. I popped off the connectors and cleaned them up. I pinched them a little tighter, re-twisted the burnt wiring for a tighter connection and re-wrapped the exposed wires. Everything works now! But My drivers side lamp seems to still work when it wants to. Any suggestions? I'm debating soldering on new wiring.

You may actually have to completely remake the black ground wire. 90* female connector and all. The other thing that it could be, is a loose metal mount plate for the bulb. What I mean by that, is that when you install the bulb, it mounts to a little stamped metal plate attached to the ceramic light housing, which is what the ground wire is attached to. From age, heat, etc, that metal plate loosens against the ceramic housing So to the extent that the metal may be moving around OR the metal spring clip that holds the bulb in, may be loose, would cause intermittent issues.

In the pic below, you will see the metal piece I'm talking about, along with the remains of the ceramic/glass housing after mine shattered.

CMNTMXR57 wrote:You may actually have to completely remake the black ground wire. 90* female connector and all. The other thing that it could be, is a loose metal mount plate for the bulb. What I mean by that, is that when you install the bulb, it mounts to a little stamped metal plate attached to the ceramic light housing, which is what the ground wire is attached to. From age, heat, etc, that metal plate loosens against the ceramic housing So to the extent that the metal may be moving around OR the metal spring clip that holds the bulb in, may be loose, would cause intermittent issues.

In the pic below, you will see the metal piece I'm talking about, along with the remains of the ceramic/glass housing after mine shattered.

That's exactly what I've had to do now on both sides. I also removed the metal plate and used some new heat sink material like they use on computer processors to reattach the metal plate. I used insulated 90* connectors and new connectors for the cover on the lamp assembly as well. None of it was hard. I did both lamps yesterday and replaced the standard bulbs with 100wt replacements that I found at Autozone. They look really nice while they last!

The cause of all these issues is due to the heat in the housings. So putting in a 100w bulb, then putting the moisture cover back on, they'll last ~1 month. Leave the covers off, and you'll get ~3 - 4 months out of the bulbs.

Just replaced my drivers side fog light. What a learning experience! *dang*!! I made the mistake of taking the WHOLE retaining clip out. Bad move on my part! I fished out the little holes that hold the pins to the clip, that took a little while. But altogether it wasn't too bad. I'm going to have to get in there again, as my light id high in the lens. I'm running out of daylight and I had to get the headlight back in. I agree, I don't think the replacement bulbs have a slight curvature like the originals. I'm going to leave my moisture cap off to lengthen the life of the bulb. With the huge splash shield, I don't think water can get to it much. Those scrunched up wires against that hot bulb is one stupid idea. What were they thinking? Passenger side tomorrow. It should be a little easier, with me learning what I did today.

Don't worry, I ran through torrential downpours and blizzards with it and I think moisture getting down there only impacted them once.

The H3 bulb has a round notch taken out of the base on one side (I think this faces the bottom of the housing), and a regular rectangular notch out on the other side which faces up. Sounds to me like you have the bulb flipped around if it is sitting too high. It's not fitting flat into the tabs on the metal base as posted above in my pic.

So i finally got a good chance to dive into why my fogs aren't working.

After getting the headlight assembly to break away from the body (literally, who thought these ball socket joints were a good idea?), this is what I found:



One very done bulb and a separated bulb retainer.

So is the retainer fixable or does it need to be replaced?

Drew

Now you know why this thread exists.

Aye, I'd hoped for the best, however didn't expect much after having read through this thread.

But do I need to replace this assembly, or can it be fixed?And if so how?

Drew

I would replace. It becomes brittle from the heat and attempting to repair (while perhaps sucessful), may actually crack it elswhere.

That's what happened to me. I took it out, started to try and re-attach the metal base to the housing, and it shattered in my hands.

Having the same burnt out bulb issues... Getting tired of replacing them every few weeks!

Instead of leaving the caps off, [I'm worried about the wires breaking from all the movement while driving] has anyone just drilled some holes in the plastic housing to allow the heat to escape?

I did that too.

I wouldn't worry about the movement in the wires. It won't hurt anything. They hardly move if at all, unless you're tackling the rubicon or something...

I've read through this long thread, and didn't see anyone trying LED fog lights. Has anyone tried this? It would seem to eliminate the issues with heat generation and short bulb life. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I'm willing to try just about anything... Mine burnt out again and I'm tired of changing them.

How about these? https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led ... 00--84931/

Juggernaught wrote:I've read through this long thread, and didn't see anyone trying LED fog lights. Has anyone tried this? It would seem to eliminate the issues with heat generation and short bulb life. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I tried several different types of LEDs but non would fit into the housing properly. Because of the projector, the hole only fits a standard bulb and typically LEDs are larger. I wound up with a good set of hids and a relay harness from theretrofitsource.com and haven't had an issue since!

On top of which, Most bulb retrofit LED's are really more decorative than providing much, if any actual lumen output.

Those LED's that DO provide sufficient lumen output also DO get hot. Not as hot as a halogen or HID bulb, but still, very warm.

Case in point, for my bike (pedal), I bought one of those Super CREE LED lights (as I ride at night), and after but a few minutes, it's housing gets very, very warm if you don't keep the bike moving and air flowing over the heat sink.

This is the exact one I have...

This is 850 lumen. Figure an H3-55w fog light bulb is in the 1,500 lumen range (an H3-100w is probably over 2,000 lumen), that is nearly double what I have above, so it would be roughly double the heat.

So out of curiousity, I just went out to superbrightLEDs.com to see what exactly was available.

Here is a link for a Bonneville GXP H3 Fog: https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led ... 00--84930/

Option 1: 27 SMD LED Tower H3. 5,600k kelvin rating... 177 lumens
Option 2: 9 SMD LED H3. 6,000k kelvin rating... 130 lumens (this looks to be discountinued too).

Anyway, either 177 lumen or 130 lumen < 1,500 lumens from an H3-55w halogen bulb.

Another thing, is the lighting pattern LED's provide. You would want one with 360* of lighting to match a regular halogen light output. Anything less and the light won't project well, if at all, out of the projector housing. Even a few higher powered LED's (in the 800 lumen range), wouldn't get the light out properly anyway.

Thanks for your responses everyone. Perhaps an LED solution will become available someday.