Fog Lights?

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 7:23 pm

For me personally, I would settle for a bit less light intensity with an LED, and not have to change them out again and again.... I'm sure they have more light than the H3 bulbs that are currently in my GXP! Both of those are burnt out... again...

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 7:38 pm

I just posted those stats in my last post. They don't. It isn't like they're even close.

Stock 55w H3 bulb = ~1,500 lumens
27 SMD LED H3 bulb = 177 lumens.

Might as well just leave them off at that point. If the LED were putting out 1,300 - 1,400 lumens, I'd agree.

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 7:48 pm

If I am reading this right, these are putting out 1140lm. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-NEW-H3-30W ... fc&vxp=mtr

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:37 pm

The issue is how bright is it 360*. The strongest part of that bulb is straight ahead. Your housing is designed for the equal distribution of light all the way around that regular bulb gives off for it's reflectors and refractors to work.

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:45 pm

Understood. For the price of them, I am going to give them a shot. I'm just so tired of only getting 6 weeks out of the standard H3s. I will report back once I have them installed, and will take some pictures as well.

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 8:46 pm

Yea it would be interesting to see.

Juggernaught · Post by **Juggernaught** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:32 pm

I'm also waiting with anticipation!

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 11:28 pm

Ok, had a chance to look at these more (more of the tech specs);

1) This is 7k for the kelvin rating. These are going to be very "blue". Natural light is about 4,500k. 6,000k is where it starts to turn blue. Hence why most OEM HID's are in the 4,300k range. Your halogen 9005's in your low beams are about 3,200k. So your headlights are going to look almost yellow compared to these LED's.

2) Taken from the specs below the picture- Lumens: 760lm-1000lm Total/380-500LM Per pc.

That means together, both bulbs are making 1,000 lumen. Individually they're making 500. Again, your regular, single, H3 55w bulb is 1,520 lumen, or 3,040 lumen combined.

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 7:47 am

The proof or lack there of, will be in the pudding once they are installed. I will install one reg 50W H3 in one side, and one of these new ones in the other. I will take some pictures in daylight and at night to compare them. I should have them in about a week, so stand by.

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:41 pm

Don't just take pics facing the vehicle. LED's (like HID's), will almost always look better to the human eye/mind. We're programmed to think that the more "pure white" that the light is, that it's brighter and more luminous, when in fact it's not. This is the whole advertising mantra that Sylvania does with Silverstars, and has people dumping large amounts of cash senselessly on them.

Lumen output is the actual important measure of sheer light output. Also, the camera's exposure will have a hard time adjusting and both lights will look relatively bright as the camera just picks up the bright "blur".

So be sure to go out to a dark road at night and take a field of vision view from behind the lights, with just the fogs on. This is where the Lumen output of each will become prevalent and I think you'll still see that the old school Halogen bulb still simply puts out more usable light as evidenced by the stats.

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer as I'm all for LED *if* it has comprable (or preferably better) lumen output and 360* luminosity. But if it doesn't...

Case in point...

This was my GXP with H3 100w bulbs in the fogs;

This was my GXP with H3 55w bulbs in the fogs;

Nearly indistinguishable between the two (and it doesn't help that the headlights washout some of the fog light, light because again the camera just can't adjust).

Or here, this is the Caddy;

3K HID fogs;

6k HID fogs;

The only way one can see the difference is the light output on the ground. Otherwise, the camera just can't pick the contrast looking directly at the light.

This however tells a different story;

3k HID Fogs;

6k HID fogs;

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:42 pm

My bulbs arrived yesterday in the mail, and I just installed one of them in the side that was burnt out. I will take some pictures after dark tonight, to compare them. I will say it is definitely more of a blue color than the standard H3 bulbs. Having said that, I'd likely be ok with almost any color... I'm just so sick of having to change them.

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 1:05 pm

Again, two main components of light output that most consider important;

1) Kelvin rating. This is the temperature of the lighting. The blue'er color you're seeing is that higher kelvin rating. That doesn't translate into any additional light output though, and the blue'er it gets, actually the lesser the actual light output in many cases.

2) Lumen output. This is the actual measure of light being put out. THIS is what is important. This is what gives you additional forward visibility.

added
3) which is important to you is life span.

But to me #2 is the most important. I can sacrifice #3 and I am happy with #1 being between OEM HID levels of 4,300k to 6k. But I want the most actual physical light on the ground and down the road in front of me, and that is where #2 comes into play.

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:39 pm

Well, it didn't work out well. Because the bulbs are longer in length, this changes the way the light comes out. Instead of being a concentrated beam down low, the light just comes out kind of scattered. The reflectors in the housing, must be designed for the shorter stock H3 bulbs. Oh well... Back to square one.

Can anyone recommend a good aftermarket HID fog light system?

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 11:18 am

DDM Tuning, Morimoto 3 fives, Retrofit place (or whatever it's called).

The components are pretty much the same design and components. Some will endlessly argue quality of those components, but in reality, they're all made in the same shop in Chinaland. I've seen people with 3-fives that have had issues, as well as cheaper DDM kits. It's all cheap electronics. Most of the time, it's flakey ballasts (my issue with in the Caddy and recently one in the Suburban).

Here is DDM's most common one (they have a "better" kit as well as CANbus kits, which you wouldn't need);
http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-H ... 35W-or-55W

You can also get similar setups on Fleabay. Again, it's all the same overall kit in terms of design and PnP setup.

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:43 pm

For those of you who installed aftermarket HID systems in your fog lights, did you just leave the caps off? The bulbs I have looked at on different makes, all have two wires coming out the end, which would prevent the caps from going back on.

BBamm · Post by **BBamm** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:25 am

300sflyer wrote:For those of you who installed aftermarket HID systems in your fog lights, did you just leave the caps off? The bulbs I have looked at on different makes, all have two wires coming out the end, which would prevent the caps from going back on.

Yes, they're off and have been off for almost a year now. No problems.

CMNTMXR57 · Post by **CMNTMXR57** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 10:48 am

You wouldn't be able to fit the caps over anyway as most aftermarket HID bulbs are longitudal in there base and wiring. Meaning they're not in an "L" shape like the headlight bulbs, or the hot wire out of the bulb, doesn't come out of the side of it like a stock halogen H3.

I had the covers off when the regular bulbs. Bulb life increased to roughly 3 months. So I wouldn't put them on with HID conversions. I never had water/moisture issues.

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:09 pm

So I bought an HID light kit, and now have it installed. It was fairly straight forward, once I figured out how to seal up the back of the fog lights. I did not want to leave them exposed to the winter weather. The extensions on the back of the housing you see on the pictures below, were done with ABS pipe fittings. They are all cemented together and attached to the back of the housing with ABS cement. It worked like a charm. The cap on the very end where the wires come through, has no cement, so I can still change a bulb if I need to. I drilled a 1"hole there for the supplied wire seal. I also used the original o-ring between the fittings and the end cap.

The bulbs I went with are 6000's and have a slight blue tint to them. I will take more pictures tonight after dark.

You can see there was no way the caps would go back on.

Juggernaught · Post by **Juggernaught** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:27 pm

Just curious, what HID kit did you buy?

300sflyer · Post by **300sflyer** » Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:30 pm

Juggernaught wrote:Just curious, what HID kit did you buy?

It's made by http://lumenshid.com/

PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

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