Still More Lighting Questions

[Baz]

I was thinking about upgrading the bulbs in my facory foglights. The references that I have seen list the factory foglights as H3 bulbs. I checked mine; they don't look like H3s and are stamped 899. Are there upgraded bulbs for these?

 

[Alec]

Baz, you're right, they're not H3. I don't know exactly what they are, but I had to get mine through a Ford dealer. If I were you, I'd just get some aftermarket fog lights. You can put them in the stock location, or mount them somewhere else. After replacing the bulbs 3 times, I abandoned the factories 2 years ago and installed some Pilot projector fog lamps under the bumper.

 

[Baz]

Alec:
Thanks for the suggestion. Do you know of any aftermarket lights (w/upgraded bulbs) that would fit within the availible space and still use the factory wiring?

 

[EMStaxi]

I bought a set of pilot lights, retangular in shape and mounted them to the oem fog light bracket. (I took the original fog lights out) Then I just tapped into the wire harness for the fog lights. That was it. You just need to figure out which is positive and negative. These lights are still controlled by the factory fog light switch.

 

[Alec]

If you want to put aftermarket lamps in the stock fog lamp location, as long as they fit onto the bracket and are not more than 55 watts, you can use the factory wiring. I chose to mount mine elsewhere because 1) they're round, and 2) I wanted to have more control than the factory switch provides. As EMStaxi says, it's very easy to "replace" the factory fogs with aftermarket ones.

Actually, I think I'm about to take the factory fogs and bracket completely out and use that opening for ducted air either to the airbox, or back to the front brakes. When I bottomed out the front of my truck a couple of months ago, the brakets got bent out of shape, and they look bad right now. I'm rambling, it's 430, I'm going to bed.

 

[Ray Bates]

Another Foglight Question

I have a '98 Sport. Is it safe to assume the foglight bulbs are inferior and that the lenses and reflectors are ok? If so, I could just upgrade to PIAA's H3 Super White Platinum Series bulbs (55w = 85w). That's assuming they are H3's. Comments? Otherwise, new foglights.

 

[mattadams]

I believe the 98 sport is better then they were in previous models... the lens is not great but not as bad as it once was. To find out for sure what your fog lamps use, check your manual. Don't forget that not all H3's look the same, but should have the same connector at least. If it does use the H3's, the PIAA Superwhites would be an excellent upgrade, don't go higher power though (if your existing fog lights are 55 watts, get the 55=85 watts from PIAA, not the 85=110... the 85=110 will fry wiring, relays, etc. (just ask leebo, )

 

[Bill Kemp]

If you go to the trouble of changing the factory fog lights you should also use the new wireing with a relay.
I just changed the wireing on a set of lights so I could turn them on any time and they were much brighter using the relay and new wire than they were hooked to the factory fog wires.
Now I just have to find a use for the factory switch in the dash. Maby a Lumiglow or whatever...