Fog light solution
Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 5:08 am
I read with interest and amazement the huge thread concerning all the problems people have with their fog light bulbs burning out. For those of you with all the problems you may find this interesting.
My 04 GXP has never had a fog light bulb go out. They both are still working just fine even though, as I found out today, the driver's side unit is severely damaged - beyond repair.
After reading the fog light thread, and since I had the splash shield off taking care of some other issues, I thought I would take a closer look at the left fog light that I knew had been tweaked about two years ago. It wasn't sitting quite right in its hole so I thought I would finally straighten it out today. I totally removed the entire light unit to inspect it and it has a huge hole in the light housing and the inner glass reflector around the bulb was broken into pieces just laying in there - and the bulb still works!! It's been like that for two years! There is just enough of the reflector glass around the bulb to hold it in place. All this time I thought it was undamaged and just tilted out of place a bit.
I pulled out all the glass pieces, put everything back together and mounted the unit back where it is suppose to be. Works fine and can't really tell any difference from the right side. I know I need a new one but it will work until I find one - I read they were expensive. From my experience all I can say is that those fog lights are tough SOBs.
Now here's an idea. From what I have seen with my car, it doesn't matter if there is a hole in the light housing to let it vent heat and operate cooler and possibly prolong the bulb life. Mine has definitely had water in it with no adverse effects. You probably don't want a jagged 3 inch by 1 inch hole in yours like mine has but a few strategically drilled holes may do more good than harm.
I wouldn't hesitate to try it if I was replacing bulbs every two months.
Sure, now that I've said all this, both of my fog lights will go out this week.
My 04 GXP has never had a fog light bulb go out. They both are still working just fine even though, as I found out today, the driver's side unit is severely damaged - beyond repair.
After reading the fog light thread, and since I had the splash shield off taking care of some other issues, I thought I would take a closer look at the left fog light that I knew had been tweaked about two years ago. It wasn't sitting quite right in its hole so I thought I would finally straighten it out today. I totally removed the entire light unit to inspect it and it has a huge hole in the light housing and the inner glass reflector around the bulb was broken into pieces just laying in there - and the bulb still works!! It's been like that for two years! There is just enough of the reflector glass around the bulb to hold it in place. All this time I thought it was undamaged and just tilted out of place a bit.
I pulled out all the glass pieces, put everything back together and mounted the unit back where it is suppose to be. Works fine and can't really tell any difference from the right side. I know I need a new one but it will work until I find one - I read they were expensive. From my experience all I can say is that those fog lights are tough SOBs.
Now here's an idea. From what I have seen with my car, it doesn't matter if there is a hole in the light housing to let it vent heat and operate cooler and possibly prolong the bulb life. Mine has definitely had water in it with no adverse effects. You probably don't want a jagged 3 inch by 1 inch hole in yours like mine has but a few strategically drilled holes may do more good than harm.
I wouldn't hesitate to try it if I was replacing bulbs every two months.
Sure, now that I've said all this, both of my fog lights will go out this week.
