Hi all !

We just took delivery of our AM/Eb Monday.

We had great success with the Bosch Compact 100 aux lights we added to our TSX last year. See http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/612737 for images. Some people in the TSX forum hated the look, but it was terrific having 55-watt independent yellow fogs and 55-watt independent white driving lights to augment the HIDs.

The white drivers had a ~15% spread so they were almost spot lamps. Terrific to use as DRLs when you had someone choking the passing lane. But at night -- clear road -- the drivers were a 4x distance improvement over the halogen high beams. Great for deer spotting.

The point of all this is, we'd like to do it again with the TL: adding two sets of aux lights (on Hella relays). Here's where we have a slight problem.

TSX mounting points were determined by where we could find metal (a bumper) to drill through. (TSX OEM fogs clip to the polyurethane bumper -- there's no outboard steel within a foot of the lamps.) On the TL, we'd have to be inside the lower grill. Has anyone attempted to mount anything down there (like Hella horns or a laser shifter)--?

Note -- We don't want to just change the OEM fog bulbs. We want the independent optics and control of separate lamp systems. And a low mounting location is perfect for aux lamps.

Any input greatly appreciated! (Log in to the TSX forum and check my posts from about a year ago for additional background.)

John

 

Ummm, are you going to just leave the stock fog lights there? I guess I don't see why you couldn't change the stock bulbs, then change the wiring to make the fully independent on the stock switch.

 

vik has laser shifters mounted on the lower grills. you'd have to take/cut out the grills to mount lights in there though.

 

I think we'll probably leave the TL stock fogs intact. They're quite a bit better than the TSX OEM fog kit, but the TL beam pattern (optics) is not exactly how we like to have these lights set up. Also, there's an eventual sale or trade-in to consider... and we're thinking of adding two different light sets, white drivers and yellow fogs (for very different purposes).

The Bosch fog lamp set uses regular H3 bulbs (55 watt) and the beam pattern of ~90 degrees is done by a simple reflector. The yellow light comes exclusively from the glass cover. I was skeptical when I first saw this arrangement but, having driven with it for a year, can attest to its efficiency. (Replacement bulbs are $7 apiece. Eat THAT, PIAA!

The Bosch driving set uses the same bulbs, has a different-shaped reflector, and a clear glass cover. The reflector gives you the ~15 degree beam spread. We were quite happy with the halogen color -- which is quite different from HID/xenons -- but I suppose you could put in 8000-degree Kelvin blue lights, if you don't mind being blind in bad weather. ;-p


A couple cuts won't bother me, as long as there's solid metal to bolt to and I'm not blocking critical airflow. (The TSX didn't have an extra gram of metal any place it wasn't essential.) In driving operation, both Bosch light sets get hot at the glass surface but the ABS housings stay cool, so there shouldn't be a bad effect on a CAI, for example.

 

I personally like them farther spaced. In additon, what are laser shifters?

 

If there's outboard mounting locations, I'll try that. It would help having the fogs further apart ... the drivers can be closer. The problem with the TSX was that the bumper was solid only in front of the radiator, about 30" wide. (The corners were nothing more than molded polyurethane.) To mount non-OEM lights at the corners of the TSX bumper, you would've had to resort to sticky tape .... not conducive to long-term retention.

Laser shifters are similar in purpose to radar detectors, but the technology's different -- specifically, for countering troopers with handheld laser guns. Look up the Excort Passport X50, or the Beltronics RX55, and then look at the bottom of the website for "extra cost options"

A good installed shifter+detector set can put you back $1500, and so it's worth every penny. Or a plain old detector with POTS can set you back $150-350, and it, too, is worth every penny.

Depends on how you drive, and how hungry the bears are in your neck of the woods.