LED fog light retrofit

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Old 02-23-2014 | 01:40 PM
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2snail's Avatar
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LED fog light retrofit

hello fellow Aziners

I have been toying with the idea of retrofitting led lights into the fog lights but the biggest issue has been the light output. With the current bulbs on the market they do not put out enough lumens during the day to serve as good DRL lights. Ofcourse this can be subjective for each person.

After seeing the drl led running lights on prius and volvo suv's i wanted that cluster led style and look for the brightness power and overall style.

My passenger side fog light finally gave up after being shattered from rocks and that prompted me to remove the entire assembly to begin taking measurements of the entire housing.

Thanks to super bright led's i was able to narrow down a style that I liked







Since the tl has a very complex electrical system I decided to run these lights externally of the oem harness. I went with the accessory harness that superbright led offers which makes plug and play much easier.

To do this you will still need to solder the leads on the lights to the actual harness plugs and then shrink wrap the joints.

The difficulty of the install is a 6-7 out of 10 as these lights require some fabrication to mount into the bumper. You will need 2 metal worm clamps and a 3-4 inch rubber coupler which will need to be cut to fit as a collar around each led lamp housing. You will need a way to make brackets that mount to the orignal screw holes that the OEM fog lights mount to. Again this is probably the most difficult portion of the job.

The harness is easy to run inside the engine bay. The front bumper will need to be removed completely as you will be mounting the lights and test fitting the brackets you make for each light.

The only way i was able to mount these was to take out the front black bumper grills that house the turn signal light housings. Once you remove these you can place the lights inside and then reinstall the grill from the front of the bumper.

The switch was then run to the inside cabin of the car through the fender liner and under the weather strip of the door. I did attempt using the grommet in the firewall but with so many other items in the way, this way seems to work fine for me. the only problem i have right now is that the lights will remain on even when ignition is turned off if you do not toggle them off. I will try using an accessory fuse slot inside the car fuse box and see how that works. For now this is working fine and i dont mind toggling the switch manually whenever i turn off the car. This also allows me to choose when i want to use the lights.

I have not disabled the oem DRL as i had trouble locating that fuse. does anyone have a picture that shows which fuse needs to be pulled to disable the oem drl?






The following 8 users liked this post by 2snail:
arpypat (07-01-2015), Blaze9 (02-24-2014), echodigital (02-25-2014), Grigio4G (02-23-2014), LADHAR (02-24-2014), mynameisjacob (02-25-2014), PinotGrigio (02-23-2014), Samba (02-24-2014) and 3 others liked this post. (Show less...)
Old 02-23-2014 | 01:55 PM
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PinotGrigio's Avatar
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that looks sick!!
Old 02-23-2014 | 02:18 PM
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potmilkz's Avatar
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nice diy
Old 02-23-2014 | 11:27 PM
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thePearl's Avatar
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wow! that looks amazing!
Old 02-23-2014 | 11:39 PM
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vtec260's Avatar
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Good job. When you get a chance, can you post some night time pics of the lights and lighting up the road?
Old 02-24-2014 | 01:06 AM
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carbonTSEX's Avatar
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Legit! I like the set up.
Old 02-24-2014 | 01:58 PM
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Flawless job! Very OEMish looks! Like it!
Old 02-24-2014 | 08:16 PM
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Sweet job bro. Do you know how much those lights pull, powerwise?
Old 02-24-2014 | 08:27 PM
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It looks nice. Definitely, uniqueness appears in the rear view mirror.
Old 02-25-2014 | 08:06 AM
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Originally Posted by 2snail
I have not disabled the oem DRL as i had trouble locating that fuse. does anyone have a picture that shows which fuse needs to be pulled to disable the oem drl?
That looks great...reminds me of the new Optima. It will definitely look much better once the DRL's are disabled though.

Here you go.

Old 02-25-2014 | 09:16 AM
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Thanks for the feedback everyone..ill try to take some pictures at night this weekend..things for the fuse diagram ucf..

Here's the technical specs.Product Specifications
Amps 0.82A Beam Angle 60 degree
Bracket Thickness 2.00mm Color Cool White
Color Temperature 6500 K Current Draw 820mA
Efficacy 57 lm/w Finish White
IP Rating Waterproof Submersible IP68 LED Amount 4 LEDs
LED Type High Power Lumen 630 Lumen
Material Aluminum Mounting Bolt Dimensions 9.50mm x 35.00mm
Standards And Certifications CE/ROHS Compliant Suitable for Vehicles Yes
Total Power Consumption 11 Watts Type Fixture
Volts 9~32 VDC Wire Length 35.5cm(14in)
Dimensions: 8.3cm(3.27") x 7.6cm(2.99") x 10.6cm(4.17")

Heres a technical drawing
Old 02-25-2014 | 09:19 AM
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Heres the direct link as well each light is 29.99 which comes out cheaper than the oem ones.http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ght/1499/3260/
Old 02-25-2014 | 09:23 AM
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great execution!
Old 02-25-2014 | 10:09 AM
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This deserves some kind of acurazine award or something...
Old 02-25-2014 | 10:59 AM
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I assume there are using the standard SMD type LEDs since it is 630 lumens?

Would be cool if they uses either CREE LED or COB LED but those would requires a heatsink to dissipate any heat.
Old 02-25-2014 | 11:32 AM
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Nice project, congrats it looks very nice.
Old 02-25-2014 | 05:10 PM
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hey guys heres the link again it didnt give the url properly.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/morei...ght/1499/3260/

according to the description they are supposed to be cree bulbs per below:
3.25 inch Round High Powered LED light with 4 x 3 Watt high power CREE LEDs. IP68 waterproof light with 9~32VDC operating voltage range. White painted aluminum housing with integral heatsink and polycarbonate lens. Available with medium flood 60 degree beam pattern.

also the heatsink is part of the housing for these lights see picture below:
Old 03-06-2014 | 03:22 PM
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aleo12's Avatar
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^^^ Wow I like the look!
Old 03-24-2014 | 11:42 AM
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Very nice looking mod!
Old 03-24-2014 | 02:07 PM
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i really like these lights. highway signs now reflect much brighter than before.
Old 03-24-2014 | 02:16 PM
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Soooo... any step by step DIY procedures planned for the future? =)
Old 03-25-2014 | 10:55 PM
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Nice job!!!
Old 03-29-2014 | 10:46 AM
  #23  
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Looks better than the HID fogs that I installed....GREAT JOB!!! Will be looking into this when I do the 2013 front and back bumper conversion.
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