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W140 foglight to high beam conversion?

3K views 22 replies 7 participants last post by  Merc-S600 
#1 ·
Has anyone experimented with converting the fog lights to operate only with high beam? Has anyone removed the shield in front of the fog light globe?

I'm after some extra high beam power without adding driving lights and trying to avoid HID's.
 
#5 ·
Changing the fogs over to high beam and then removing the shield in front of the globe might let light spew out everywhere as additional floodlights (or it cold be a disaster). Right now the fogs beef up lowbeam quite nicely, but I'm happy with my low beam power without fogs anyway.

I think on both of my cars the low beam stay on with high beam, US cars might be different.
 
#6 ·
The fogs only spread light wide and short, they won't assist the range. Taking off the shield won't add much either. You have the post-facelift lights, which have 'good' high beams. The pre-facelift ones are even worse.

I have a set of pencil beam spots to put in the bumper once I get a working design that looks like the stock fogs put in the coupe.
 
#7 ·
Like Trevor already mentioned, the Fogs light up the sides around the car like a curve sort of thing .Consider the easier application of HID's & don't ever worry about this ever again .:thumbsup:
 
#9 ·
Taking off the shield will only send a glaring spot forward that blinds other drivers when you use the fogs on their own. I have tried all these, trust me. Tried post-facelift lights to no satisfactory avail so went back to some brand new, OEM pre-facelift lights.

Doing HID's is technically illegal here in Oz, but lots of people do it anyway and if properly aimed shouldn't attract police attention. I'm a goodie-two-shoes and have a set of ADR approved spots to go in instead.
 
#10 ·
I don't want to use the fog lights on their own with no shields, I want to possibly rewire them to be on with high beam only with no shields (but not if the light pattern with no shields is just a waste of time as everyone is saying).

Putting spots down on the bumper is not as good as you might think. When the roads are a bit hilly you have way too much light on the road directly in front of you while driving through dips in the road, only good on flat roads, so I want more light up high.

If anyone knows of quality HIDs that turn on basically instantly I will consider that.
 
#11 · (Edited)
HID's take a second or two to heat up ,but once on they are ok ,daytime driving lights under the bumper are mainly a show item ,nothing more to it ,those are illegal ,I know because I smashed my lights in front of a cop that wanted to book me for them years ago ,I copped the same cop twice for those ,that's why I smashed them in front of him ,he drove me nuts lol.
Joe get the HID's PERIOD ,you will be very happy with them ,Get 6000K lightning ,any ballast ,check which globe you got in the housing (H3/H4/H7 or so ) ,get a cheap $100 set at 1st to try them out ,those will last about 4 to 6 years .:thumbup:
 
#12 ·
You are not meant to use DRL's at night, was he booking you at night?

I've had HID's before but they took too long to warm up for my liking, how am I meant to flash people to get them out of my way? :D but also for safety, I have turned my high beams on after an oncoming car went passed, 200m in front of me was a kangaroo, 1 or 2 sec would be too slow. There must be kits out there that are instant like OEM in modern cars.

I just got back from a little night drive, the fogs stay the way they are, such a well controlled light pattern and they don't shine into oncoming traffic at all.
 
#13 ·
Check on e'bay ,there are some that light up instantly for flashing ,pretty expensive but .
I have HID's in my high & low beams ,next are the fogs as well ,once you get bitten by them its not easy to go back to halogen .
The cop stopt me I think it was in the 90's around that time I had the Audi 100L (2 of them) ,he must have been jealous ,twice at that ,lol. :thumbsup:
 
#17 ·
The ebay HIDs all look be no name kits. I don't mind paying $200 but not for one of those if I can help it.

I ordered in some Narva +120 globes, with see how they go for brightness.
 
#18 ·
The Narva +120 globes I ordered still have not arrived. So far one thing is for sure, cleaning the headlight lenses and mirrors really improves light output.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Wishing you luck with those but I already know there wont be any improvement ,just slightly .Been there done that .
The only option to see a real difference is to go HID 6K ,brand name or not ,the once I had for testing in my S500 lasted aprox 4 years before one light started to flicker & that was a no name brand as I was just as skeptic as you are now .
Joe ,trust me ,take my advise and get HID's ,you wont regret it a second .
A $90 dollar kit is all you need ,not $200 ,this way when your 4 year test decision ends , you don't have to waste to much money if you don't like them ,installation is extremely easy .:thumbsup:
 
#20 ·
The thing is I want instant on for high beam. The cheap kits don't do that. I had $50 kits for everything in the Soarer, highbeam too, and I did regret it. (on that car the negative is switched, so it was not easy to revert back to stock). Lowbeam was fine being slow to warm up as they just stay on anyway. If there is an instant on $90 kit I'll be all over it, if I know it will be instant on.

6K is too blue, 4300K is all I want, and even then driving in the rain it's harder to see than just normal halogen globes. Also, if you go too bright the reflections/glare off big road signs is blinding, have to go to lowbeam just because of road signs LOL.

If someone can recommend a kit that does actually turn on instantly I will install it if it doesn't break the bank.
 
#21 · (Edited)
If there is one thing that I can assure you is that 6000K is NOT blue at all. My FACTORY 6000K HID's are not blue at all. They are white when ignited and then warm up to a more natural "halogen like" ...erm... warm light

Ok, you can tell that they are HID but not "crazy white to blueish" light colour.

It is the factory HID's after all. I want the same for the high beams, since they are instant ON.
 
#22 ·
OK so factory ballasts work "instant on" with the correct bulbs. I guess I need to find some H1's that play nice with them, if I can find some factory ballasts.

When I say 6000k is too blue, I mean I don't want any blue at all. I find it tiring and worse in wet weather than lower temp light color. If anything I want some yellow, I don't care if it doesn't look cool. These cars are my daily drivers.

As I understand it anything other than 4300k (or is it 5000K?) is filtered to color the light output. The 4300K I had may have actually been a different colour, lucky dip from cheap kit manufacturers perhaps.

I could just get 6000Ks and wear shooter glasses at night. :cool:

BTW great info everyone. :thumbsup:
 
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