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Tutorial: How to install HID's in Fog Lights

5K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  distroy3d 
#1 · (Edited)
I'm not sure if this is the correct place for this, if it's not please forgive me and move to correct place please.

My car: 2002 ZX3 This should apply to foci with 899 fog lights(Correct me if i'm wrong please)

What I needed for the conversion: Ratchet with 10mm socket ( I used a 1/4 inch ratchet), A phillips head screw driver, and a 10mm---> thing I dont know what it's called but it is pictured below,Electrical Tape, and of course the HID kit, which is the 880 kit




First I started by lying on my back and peeking under the bumper (if your car is lowered I would suggest you use a jack and jack stands).
I unplugged the connector to the 899 fog light and twisted the bulb and pulled it out.


YAY!! it's out, now install the HID bulb in the reverse order of the 899 bulb.



Now take the two prongs that are part of the HID assembly and stick them into the cars wiring harness RED mating to the GREEN SIDE and BLACK MATING TO BLACK (refer to picture) Once that is hooked up tape that sucker with electrical tape!





I apologize for the picture being blurry, camera wouldn't focus[thumbd] but you get the idea right?

Next is time to hook everything up to the ballast and I'll just show you how to do that as opposed to me trying to find the words to explain it.







You are pretty much done at this Point fog lights should look like this:



Once you do the one side the other side is exactly the same! :)

Edit:

Nightime, No one had to pull over when in front or next to me. i was even behind cops and wasn't pulled over, no problems basically. I believe i can safely say that HID's in fogs are ok if done correctly. But headlights are a seperate beast.


Edit #2: Will post better picture of the beam from a farther distance but for now this is all I have.


My kit came with a mounting bracket plus screws so i screwed the bracket to the ballast and mounted on the piece of metal directly behind the fog light assembly, your kit might come with a sticky pad which makes mounting a little easier. Goodluck! and hope I helped.
In case you were wondering the tools were for mounting bracket for the ballast.


Edit#3



Here is halogen vs HID low beams, and high beam halogen VS low beam HID (I do not have High beam HID's)
 
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#3 ·
I got the kit off of some local vendor here in San Diego, but you can get the same kit I did from fleabay. The kelvin color is 6000. Thank you for informing me of the name if the craftsman tool. I don't like the 3000 kelvin color I think it looks tacky. I aimed the fog lights with a machine so they don't blind anyone, so far it works well and it looks good. I will be doing my headlights soon and will be posting a tutorial on that.

I know putting HID's in stock headlights is a touchy subject but aiming them correctly shouldn't blind anyone, in my opinion.
 
#5 ·
You prove a great point friend. I will be posting the tutorial for poor people such as myself who cannot buy projector beam headlights. If I cant find a way to use HID's safely in the stock headlight I will revert to halogens and will not be posting anything. :)
 
#6 ·
Like I said, to each their own. I'm not in your neighbourhood so it won't bother me lol. But regardless, I think you won't be happy with them - especially when you get that first ticket from a cop! There are lots of alternatives to use HIDs safely.

You can grab a set of Machs. They usually go from $200-$350 in varying condition from what I've seen.

You can try to find a set of Hella projectors like the ones in my avatar. They're rare though and aren't designed for HIDs, but take well to them anyways with a good cutoff and no glare. The beam width isn't the best though. I got mine for $200 off Kijiji.

You can try to grab a set of the new Hella projectors that they have group buys for. They're brand new and designed for HIDs if you get the HID version instead of the Dynabeam ones. They're costly though at a tad over $500 I believe.

You can grab a pair of eBay projector headlights for anywhere from $40-$100 and throw an HID kit in. Won't be blinding, but the projectors are low quality and don't do much better than halogens in stock reflectors.

Lastly, you can do a full retrofit. Those are I believe $300 but one of the best quality and most unique setups. If you end up buying HIDs for your reflectors and change your mind, you can save money on the retrofit by using the "Plug-and-Play upgrade to Bi-Xenon" kits from The Retrofit Source and reuse your own ballasts. Saves you about $75 I believe on your retro.

Just some other options for whether you choose you don't like your reflector HID setup. In the end, you get what you pay for.
 
#8 ·
I agree. It isn't cheap. Honestly, I suggest you go high-performance halogen (Hella, Piaa, etc) over HID. But like I said, I won't attack you on a forum for what you do, and in the end it's what you wanna do to make your car stand out from the crowd :)
 
#9 ·
Can you post a picture with the light projected at a wall, about 20 feet away or so? I'm curious to see how high the hid fog light gets thrown/scattered. I'd assume since they are so low on the car and they are generally aimed several inches lower than your headlights, it should be better than dreaded hid in stock headlight housing.
 
#12 ·
You could. It's essentially the same process whether you're doing low-beam reflector, low-beam projector, or fogs. Just different bulbs and different ballast mounting locations. I can post pictures of my cutoff from my HIDs in Hella projectors if you would like some more variety and see how it looks? Also, did you end up keeping your HIDs in the low-beam reflectors, or did you go back to halogen?

And in terms of your edit on the fogs and not getting pulled over, most people conclude that since they are so low to the ground, the glare is so minimal that no one bothers you about it. I have yet to do it to my fogs, but plan on doing it soon. I currently have Nokya Hyper Yellow 2500k halogen bulbs in my fogs and they look fantastic. But, my dad recently bought a new car which coincidentally uses the same bulbs as the Focus and he likes the looks of my yellow fogs, so I might as well upgrade mine and give him my Nokya bulbs.
 
#13 ·
And also, out of curiosity, what colour temp did you get for your fogs and low-beams? You fogs look very very blue (8000k?) and the pics make your low-beams look almost green haha. And in regards to your last edit on your main post about your high-beams not having HIDs, that's how it is for the Focus because we use a dual-filament bulb, there's no HID high-beam available. What some companies do is attach a second halogen bulb to the HID bulb to act as a high-beam. Looks silly/stupid to me, but to each their own:


The other thing I wanted to say regarding HID high-beam, is that it isn't a good idea in the first place, as HID bulbs take time to "warm up" to their full intensity and power. That means that if you flash-to-pass with an HID high-beam, it wouldn't be very bright flashing anyways. Also, HID bulbs and ballasts don't like being turned on and off repeatedly like you would be doing when you flash-to-pass, so you would end up burning out your bulbs/ballasts very very quickly doing it.
 
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