Fog Lights?

[bwmiller]

I too will be watching for you report and pics on those HIDs. My passenger side has been out for several months and if I am going to do something, I want it to look better and last longer.

[donky4444]

Ok, so I got some bad news on them. I got home and opened the box and the guy sent me 9006 bulbs of 10,000k color. I am working with him to get me the correct bulbs and color. I figured since I had the 9006 bulbs and ballast here I would stick them in my low beams for the night to see how they looked and worked. I know there are a lot of people that say you shouldn't put HID bulbs in regular housings but I figured I would give it a shot. They actually look really good and provide a lot more light than my factory bulbs or even the aftermarket ones I had in. I drove around and even had a friend of mine drive towards me to see if they were blinding or bothersome to oncoming drivers and he didn't have a problem with them. I think I am going to keep them in there for now and I will keep waiting for my fog lights to come in. Here are some pics.

[CMNTMXR57]

They look to have better coverage than the stock headlight bulbs.

Question: What aftermarket bulb were you running in there? I removed my 9006's right after I bought the car and swapped in an HIR equivalent just like the high beams. Night and day difference from a driving perspective, but when you look at the lights when they're on, due to the smoked housing, they look dull and yellow.

[donky4444]

They do have quite a bit more coverage than stock. I had XD5 9006 headlights in there for aftermarket. They are brighter than stock and had a pretty blue tint to them. I still have the XD5 9005 bulbs in my high beams. I used to think that my high beams had the most amazing blue color to them but now when I turn them on compared to the HID light they look almost yellow.

[00Beast]

Wait, you have 9005 bulbs in the highs? You took out the HIR's??

[CMNTMXR57]

I was gonna say, GXP's came with HIR's stock in the high beam. The HIR's are light years ahead of the 9005's and probably the closest halogen derived bulb you can get to a HID that will fit that housing.

I liked the HIR's in our highbeams so much, I put an HIR in for my low beam too! They work great in terms of coverage and brightness, but like you mention, boy are they yellow vs. others. I think much of that has to do with the smoked lense housings.

[Bvill_GXP]

Why does all of the autoparts stores list the Bonneville GXP fogs as H11 and not H3? I know i have H3 bulbs!!

[donky4444]

I did swap out the HIR's right after I bought the car before I ever drove it at night and before I realized what I had in there. I stayed with the replacements due to the color of them. I got the H3 kit today but I needed to do some very slight moding. The HID ballast has male ends on both the positive and ground wires but the car is female for the positive but male for the ground and I didn't have any wire ends to make the change. I had to go to dinner with my wife and then we went to see Paranormal Activity so I will finish them up tomorrow and post some pics.

[CMNTMXR57]

Eagerly awaiting your results.

[donky4444]

Ok, I got everything done tonight without too many problems. I am uploading the step by step pics to photobucket and will post a write up shortly. They look amazing, now only time will tell how long the last.

[donky4444]

Ok so here goes the write up.

Here is what comes with the kit

The ballast

The bulb

The wiring to connect the bulb to the ballast. Both wires have male ends on them but the car has a male end for the positive and a female for the negative. Also the male end didn't fit really tight so I changed that out since I was doing the negative one already.

The bracket to mount the ballast if you choose to use it and the two sided tape, wire ties and some mounting screws

Wires modified.

I mounted the ballast to the support beam near the front of the fender. On the drivers side this is between the air box and the fender. I used the 2 sided tape and some zip ties just to make sure it didn't move around.

I mounted the ballast for my low beams right behind the headlight assembly

All of the bulbs come with a rubber grommet attached but you don't need it with our cars so I cut them off.

Once the ballast was mounted I moved on to the putting the bulbs in the housing. I suggest to leave the bulb in it's protective plastic during this step because it is a little cumbersome at first. The little metal part the holds the bulb in place needs to be spread out a little in order to fit the wire ends through it. Be careful with this step, I actually broke the metal mounting bracket free from the housing and had to epoxy it back in place which is not fun to do when you really can't see what you are doing. Here is the wire ends pushed through the metal part that holds the bulb in place.

Once this step is done you can take the plastic case off the bulb being careful not to touch it or hit it against anything. The bulb has a squared notch and a rounded notch on the base, the square notch goes on the top. Once you get the bulb set you need to lock in the metal part that holds the bulb in place. This is not an easy task because the base of the bulb is bigger than a normal H3 but it is possible. Again be careful not to pull the metal bracket out of the fog light assembly.

Now hook everything up and use some zip ties to make things look as nice as possible. I recommend leaving the headlight assembly out until both sides are done, tested and aimed. Do the other side the same way and put it all back together. Here are some completed pics

Just the HID fogs (I still have some adjusting to do)

HID low beams and fog lights.

This is the end result







Also, I put the HIR bulbs back in my high beams while I had everything taken apart. I am very happy with the results and I have a lot more light output compared to before. Driving with them is pretty cool, all of the road signs just glow when the light hits them and the lines and writing on the road seem to glow as well.

Here is a link to the person I bought them from on eBay. They have some that come with a 1 year warranty and some that come with a 2 year warranty. They are all about the same price $43.50 shipped. I went with 10000k bulbs for the blue color. I actually ordered 8000k because they have more light output but not as much color but they sent me the wrong bulbs (9006 instead of H3) so I kept those for my low beams and ordered the H3 in 1000k to match them. Feel free to ask any questions.

http://motors.shop.ebay.com/fishersmleo ... rom=&_ipg=

[Bvill_GXP]

wow... Looks very nice!!! Thanks for the write up on this also!!!!!!

[CMNTMXR57]

Yes, nice!!!

Now you've got me wanting these!! :D Thanks!!!!

[donky4444]

It's been a week and they are holding up great. We got 2" of rain Friday and there were no problems with them. I even ordered a set of fogs and low beams for my wife's 2003 Alero. I went with 6000k for her because she doesn't like the blue tint.

[SAMzGXP]

whoaa!! not sure how old this is...

but ive been running HIDs in my fogs ever since i bought my car.. sinnce april i think lol

but looks nice!!
i dont like where you mounted your ballast though.. i have 3 hid kits in my car high low and fogs, so total of three ballasts on each side.. and you cant see a thing

[2.3 turbocoupe]

The 100W bulbs are still running strong with daily usage. They are Sylvanias. I have the back covers on the fogs installed, but no o-rings.

I think an hid kit in the headlights with halogen fogs might look good. The yellow fogs bring out the blue in the headlights.

I have been running 2005 silverstar ultras for about 6 months now, and that is longer than any of the regular siverstars ever lasted. I got them on ebay for $17.99. They wanted like 50 bucks at the auto parts store - sorry that ain't happening!

[Bvill_GXP]

Im still wondering how come all of the books say the bonneville fogs are H11 bulbs when they are H3's? No way a H11 will plug in the fog connector!!

[donky4444]

I was thinking the same thing but I think Sylvania updated their website to show the correct bulbs.

[CMNTMXR57]

Im still wondering how come all of the books say the bonneville fogs are H11 bulbs when they are H3's? No way a H11 will plug in the fog connector!!

I know. It's also compounded when you do a search for replacement housings (like I did), the only ones that come up other than on a GM parts website, are all the regular Bonneville driving lights in the center of the front bumper EVEN if you select a GXP.

[Bvill_GXP]

Im still wondering how come all of the books say the bonneville fogs are H11 bulbs when they are H3's? No way a H11 will plug in the fog connector!!

I know. It's also compounded when you do a search for replacement housings (like I did), the only ones that come up other than on a GM parts website, are all the regular Bonneville driving lights in the center of the front bumper EVEN if you select a GXP.

lol you know, i remember seeing the same fogs on ebay.. i was like those look more like the ones that is on my moms 99 SSEI... Is there a difference between a GXP and non GXP headlight housing? I see that alot too!