Fog Light upgrade?
 

Is there a feasable bulb upgrade for the factory fog lamps? I've found they are mega crap lol

Ive been having some trouble with that. Here's my thread: https://www.rx8club.com/series-ii-te...lowing-239103/ The car is in winter storage for now so Ive pretty much just ignored it for now.

Bulb upgrade as in a Non-H11 type bulb?

I've used many different types of H11's and they all work like they should. I even installed a shitty H11 based HID kit from Ebay until it took a crap.

What exactly are you trying to gain?

I've found several brands of halogen bulbs to be crap. Sylvania is the crap one I remember. After running the OEM headlight bulbs in my Toyota DD for ~8 years, they finally went dark. In the next 2.5 years, I went through a half dozen aftermarket replacements. Finally went to the Toyota dealer, paid their outrageous price, and they've been good for the past 3 years.

YMMV.

they just aren't bright at all!!, a $1 store led flashlight puts out more lumens than they do lol It was bad enough last night i was on my snow packed street and was like "check this out honey, they suck so bad" when i turned the headlights off and turned them on there was hardly any difference at all. Like you almost couldn't tell anything was turned on :-P

Did you do the rewire? If not, they will turn off then you turn off the headlights.

I could use mine a driving lights at night if need be. not as bright as headlights but useable. Maybe something is wrong.

Indeed. I did the rewire and the fogs will light up the way quite well by themselves. I did re-aim them upwards because the normal settings is pointed down quite severely.

Bright?

Here we go again, S1 owners commenting on something which is incorrect...;)

S2 Fog Lights do not use same H11 globe as in Series 1, but HB4's they are not the same or interchangeable.

Hella H11 Bulbs

Hella 9006 Bulbs and HB4 Bulbs

Sorry. Just throwing an input :\ but there h.i.d 7 k bulbs. Idk if the s2 can be fitted but if it is. then i suppose its an option

for the sake of the safety of others on the road, don't use HID kits on your fog lights unless you plan on retrofitting a projector cone and lens in there.

I used a dremel so they are facing the road even lower then stock if you noticed in the photo im pretty low compared to the car and thats where the most light is being focused to. I do consider others.

HID bulbs cannot be focused properly by housings designed for halogen bulbs. It doesn't matter how many people say otherwise, it is still impossible. Two reasons:

1. The electrical arc in an HID bulb bends upwards in the middle, due to convection inside the bulb, whereas the filament in a halogen bulb is a straight line.

2. The electrical arc in an HID bulb is brighter at the ends and dimmer in the middle, which is the opposite of the filament in a halogen bulb.

A housing designed for a halogen bulb will try to focus light coming from the center of the bulb, because that's where most of the light produced by a halogen bulb will come from. It will also ignore light coming from the edges of the bulb. That light turns into glare, but with a halogen bulb it's minimal since the edges of the filament are so dim.

So, when you stuff an HID bulb into a halogen housing, you get minimal light captured and focused where it's supposed to go, because the center of the arc is both dim and in the wrong position, and you'll also get hellish glare escaping from the sides of the bulb, where the HID arc is brightest. Halogen projector housings (i.e. NOT the kind used in our foglights) partly solve this problem by using opaque cutoffs to block some of the glare, but they can't solve the incorrect-focus problem. Even with halogen projector housings you still won't get the extra light you paid for.

It is painfully obvious to me when someone drives past with an HID retrofit kit. Retrofit kits spray fuzzy blue glare all over the place, and the light actually hitting the road is no better than it would be with new halogen bulbs. It's illegal for a reason, and even if it were legal it would still be a waste of money.

The ONLY option you have, if you don't want to replace the housings, is to buy brighter halogen bulbs. It's the only solution that will ever work, no matter what anyone else says. Headlights are governed by physics, and physics always wins.

You could also get an HID lens and HID cutoff plate and replace the ones in the halogen housings...they are the main difference between the HID and Halogen housings. ;)

God dammit, you had to quote the one line I wrote that had a typo in it.

Anyway, I revised my post to account for cutoff plates. Replacing the lense and cutoff plate only works if the housing is a projector, but our foglights use reflectors. There is no way to retool the optics in a reflector housing to accommodate an HID bulb without replacing the entire housing, because the reflector is integrated into the housing.

fixed my quote for you lover pants ;)

And yes you are correct, i perceived your previous comment as a general one.

Also in standard OEM set ups (Fogs) short globe life span can be attributed to heat stress on the globe, as these fitting enclosures are very small, they are meant to operate as ''Fog Lights'' in misty, foggy, 'cool' conditions...

Not as DRL's which some owners use as, in the middle of summer.

Retro fit? Naw to simple.

As an industry specialist (globes) once emailed me a few years back....

He advised to stay with OE set up, all the blue bulbs or brighter globes actually reduces globe brightness and performance not enhance it....even though he sold the stuff he said it is just worthless.

Did you ever find good replacement fog ligh bulbs. My stock ones just went out on my 2009 R3. They were pathetic to begin with and I have always wanted something better.

I just ordered some 80W Optilux (Hella) Xenon bulbs on Amazon. Not expecting much, but I'll post before/after/comparison shots Wednesday/Thursday night. Anything is better than the horrid stock yellowish ones. I'm not a fan of installing HID's unless you have proper projectors and the S2's fog design doesn't facilitate that easily (see: Cheap).

I just read the review for those bulbs on amazon. They're not good. My friend at work is huge fog light bulb snob so I am going to sit down with him tomorrow and get his advice. I will let you know what he says and we will solve this problem once and for all. One of my OEM bulbs just went out so I have an excuse to replace them now.

Agreed on the reviews on Amazon, but most people just complain about the lack of bulb life for almost every aftermarket light available. For using the stock fog reflectors, it really comes down to what color you are looking for vs. how much usable light. Either choose a good yellow/white 2700-3500k bulb for *highest* lumen output, or pick a white/blue 4000K+ halogen to "color match" the stock HID's. Hoen xenonmatch would be my choice for that, 9kRPM can chime in on them. I installed the Optilux's this morning and they match the color output of the HIDS close. I'll try and get a pic after work tonight. No issues yet with the increased wattage bulbs (yet). Unbolted the HID autoleveling dogbone/endlink and ziptied it lower and brought the cutoff line up level to match my coilover ride-height change. Should have everything lined up by tomorrow. Looking forward to what your friends advice is. Also, don't forget to adjust the 10MM bolt on the bottom of the bracket to point them level!

OK – Here is what my friend just said. He knows his stuff.
“This is the absolute best bulb you can get. All in all, this is the best-performing bulb ever produced for optics designed to accept a bulb with a P(x)22d plastic base. I have used HIR bulbs for 4 years and they are the best halogen (non HID) bulb u can get”
http://store.candlepower.com/ph3rdge90h.html

Best Price-
And here is how u modify the 9012 to fit a 9006 plug - SUPER easy
http://store.candlepower.com/mohirbuba.html

Awesome bulb. The only issue being the top of the bulb not being painted and our fog lights having the ring style shield. Very interested to hear how these work out for you.