Fog light removal ...85 Carrera

[Wil Ferch]

As I consider removing the fog lights and replacing them with a long range driving light ( Cibie 35....others here have done this using Hella 450's)....

Notice that the wiring goes straight into the fog light housing...and the "other" end disappears through a fender grommet and continues within the bowels of the car in a "clumped" wiring harness.....

For those who have done this..would it be reasonable to simply cut the exposed wire between the body and the fog light and install weather-proof connectors ??? Seems logical but I don't want to "hack" the car if there is an elegant way around this.

Wil

[Joeaksa]

Would find the connector in the wiring bundle and not cut the wire. Just asking for problems when the connector may be close.

Also you will get more for the old fogs when you sell them if the wire is not cut.

JoeA

[Wil Ferch]

JoeA:
Good points...but the new "owners" will have the same problem reinstalling... I was thinking of providing "mating pairs" of connectors if I cut the wire and soldered/shrink wrapped the proper connectors...which are now "accessible".....

How would others feel about receiving OEM fogs set up like this? ....I consider this an improvement of sorts....

Also...if you have the recessed Carrera Bosch fogs....have you seen how they wire to the fog itself? Goes right into the housing with a H3 termination. I guess I would need to modify the termination anyway to install my NEW driving lights...

Zoanas...you did this mod with Hella 450's...what did you do?

Wil

[KTL]

Don't cut 'em Wil.

The connectors are right inside the trunk. Not hard to trace at all.

I'd rather see the new fogs with no splices, if I were purchasing a car. But maybe i'm the wrong guy to ask since I really don't care much for fogs at all.

I ditched my fogs and plugged the right side fog light leads into the connector for the oil cooler fan. So I can now use my fog light switch to manually turn on the oil cooler fan. Not that it's necessary on the street. We'll see if Blackhawk makes the simple plug 'n play worth bothering?

[boomvang]

I just went though this when I removed front valence on my '85. The connectors simply pull though the grommets, no need to cut anything.

[KCinBR]

I'm interested in doing the same thing, just to get more light at night for driving.
Can you tell me what type of fixtures you are using to replace the fog ights with?

Thanks.............KC

[Wil Ferch]

As I said in the beginning.....Zoanas used Hella 450 ( available as fogs or driving lights...he used driving lights), and I've since found that Cibie Airport model 35's.....driving lights...might actually mount a bit nicer seeing the difficulties that Zoanas had with the Hella 450's...

Other responders....so the OEM fogs plug into the "system" once we're past the grommet, as we move from outside the car toward inside...is that right? So it's relatively "close"? I guess then the new Cibies will require a matching plug to duplicate the end-terminal of the old Bosch fogs?

I guess...as usual...this will all become a bit clearer as I get all the parts together in one place.....

Thanks all...

Wil

[jyl]

Will, please post more as you do this.

I don't like my Carrera fogs. I tried putting in bigger bulbs, this helped a bit but now they are burning out. So it seems a change to real driving lights is next.

I intend to copy you slavishly. :-)

[Wil Ferch]

Well....ahh....don't do that , exactly... ( blush)

I will say this...if you find Zoanas' post, you will see that he went ahead with the lights I found ( Hella 450's) that seemed to fit the "hole" in the valence. It does. But ....

...the mount gave him a bit of a bother, that he overcame with some re-mounting and JB Weld. I *think* the rearward-located vertical mounting post of the Cibie 35's...will work better. I'll report back how it goes.

Also...I'm going with 2x Cibie 35 driving lights ( beam pattern) which is not a long range pencil beam, nor a short/fat/low fog beam. I think the Cibie 35 in fog pattern will likely throw a better light beam than the Bosch fogs....so Cibie fogs might still be OK, if that's what you want.

Another option is to use a driving beam light on the driver's side ( aimed slightly...1 degree or so..to the right), combined with a Cibie 35 fog in the passenger side hole. Might make for an interesting "blended" beam pattern....

You might want to consider *that*, as an alternative.....

- Wil

[ZOA NOM]

Wil,

You are correct, the Hellas did pose a mounting problem due to the location of the molded mounting bracket on the light housing. I had to slice it off flush, fill in the remaining depression with JB, and use the metal mounting bracket from the stock fogs on the opposite face of the back of the Hella housing, so they were of no use to sell. (They were damaged from rocks anyway). I am interested in how the Cibie's work for you. Let me know. The Hellas put out a nice flame, however, and I use them quite a bit due to my rotating work schedule.

As for the wires, I removed the wiring from the original fogs all the way to the tabs inside the housing, so I simply plugged them into the new Hellas.

Here's the old link to my install with pics.

[KTL]

Wil,

The wiring connectors are indeed close. They're in the bundle(s) near the front corners of the tub. A little tugging will reveal the right wires.

The existing terminals are your basic male-female spade terminals. So no problems making connections from the new design to the existing wiring.

[masraum]

It's been a really long time so I don't remember the specifics, but I think the wires are pretty easy to trace out. I think the wires are only about 2-3 feet long. Of course that was on an '88 so it could be a little different.

[Wil Ferch]

KTL and Steve:
The 88 should be identical to my 85 with regard to fog lite wiring....

Pieces will be arriving soon, so we'll see how it all goes...current projects on the car aren't finished either.....so maybe it won't happen all that quick ! We'll see.

Wil

[Wil Ferch]

Update:
I've installed the Cibie 35's and used this board's suggestion *not* to cut the wires. Worked great..although a bit more work to crimp/solder the connections ( RoninLB would be proud !). Also re-wired the lights to have a dedicated ground wire ( like originals)...instead of depending upon the mounting stud as the ground path.

I like the way they fit into the "hole"...much like the Hella 450s look in the posted pictures by ZOANAS. Even a little "gap" around all 4 sides so it gets a bit more "air" into the brake/oil cooler area...always a good thing.

The only fly in the ointment right now is that the Cibie mount uses a convex circular mounting tab ( with the stud), and these don't allow getting the beam "square" down the road...they're ever-so-slightly angled down/outboard. We'll work on this when I get back to the States...but for now this approach looks good.

Wil

[ZOA NOM]

Good work, Wil, I wanna see pix!

[S785Carrera]

Wil, I want to see pics too , but before you can provide them do you have any modifications in mind to be able to aim them better? In your opinion is it still a cleaner / easier installation versus the Hella 450's?

Thanks,
Mike

[84toy]

I would really like some driving lights as well and lose the fogs. However, I have not seen anything that matches the shape of stock ones. They are tapered shaped to fit the front of the car so they don't stick out the corner of the opening. If you find some that look good and don't stick out, please post

[Wil Ferch]

I haven't done both so I can't say....
In general...I don't like the idea of cutting and "re-gluing" a set of mounting points on the light housings.

The mods I have in mind would require the drilling of a hole on the topside ( horizontal ) strap that forms the top surface of the foglight "opening". A mouthfull...but maybe a look at Zoanas' pics might help. This wouldn't disturb me..since even if you replace the Bosch lights to go back to "original"....you'd never see this hole unless you took the fog's out.

I'm about 4000 miles away from my car....so I can't do any better than that right now.....

Wil