Fog Light Mod Bulb Question?

Good morning TW! I am thinking about doing the fog light mod where I swap my blinkers to the corners and use the blinker housings as fog lights. However, my question is, What kind of bulb/lights do you guys use that fits in the "blinker housing"? I swear that I have seen some guys use hids down there or white/crystal white bulbs down there. Im just curious as to what works best. Any and all replies are appreciated.

 

I could be wrong but I doubt you will get any performance from the stock blinker housing as a fog light. Would be cheaper to just buy fog lights to put in it's place. Plus you will want to install a switch/relay wire harness to.

 

Honestly, its more for looks than anything. I hate the location of the blinkers on the first gens. Cant be seen from the corners. Not totally worried about performance of the lights.

 

Then just put an equivalent LED bulb in it's place and call it good.

 

Yea thats the plan I guess. I just swore that ive seen some guys running an hid bulb down there. May just be a bright led if i had to guess.

 

Im using this style. Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/301781687059

 

Some people have ran an hid down there. The housings cant really take the heat though. Either melt right away or get heat damage over time.

 

Makes sense. Ill probably just go with an Led down low. Swap the Positive wires and put a orange 168 halogen bulb in the corner. Unless i decide to go all out and make the Corners a blinker and a running light. If I was to do that, what kind of lighting would you recommend down low because then Ill have to get a separate wiring harness/switch.

 

I really advise to use fog lights in the, not reusing blinkers housing for white fog lights. These housing will not provide cut-off required by fog lights. You may not care about the performance, but everybody else might care when being blinded by your "good looking lights".

Did not intend to rant, but unless the truck is used off-road only, there is way more to lighting requirements than "good look".

 

I think that Im still goin to relocate my blinker location to the corner and the parking lights down low. It place if where a "fog light" would go but technically it'll just be a running/Parkin light

 

"Parking" is different from "Running". Different lights with different purpose.

Parking is used at night to highlight the position of the car. It does not need to be bright (it should not blind) the bulb equivalent is 5W that is about 80-100 lm. Most of cheep ebay bulbs will do that. The color should be amber.

Running (or Daytime Running Light) are used only at day time (not to be used at night). The purpose is to "blind" drivers from oncoming traffic and bring their attention to you. The light has similar to "flood" characteristic (different from headlight which are more "projector" type). For that reason DRL are not allowed to be used at night as they will blind other drivers. For DRL the bulb equivalent is about 20-30W, and in USA it is allowed to be amber or white.

So base on that information I think the best bang for bucks is turn the front blinkers into DRL - the reflector and lens shape is good for DRL light pattern. Use good output white LED bulb, something that will give you around 700 - 1000 lm per bulb (the true wattage of LED bulb around 7-10W (that is 0.6 0.8A without CANBUS resistors).

Keep in mind that only reputable companies (one of them is superbrightleds.com) give you the true light output. Most Amazon or Ebay sellers give false (to optimistic) values. For example "JDM ASTAR 800 Lumens Super Bright AX-2835 Chipsets 1157 2057 2357 7528 LED Bulbs ,Xenon White" on Amazon is more like 400 lumens or so. Same with "JDM ASTAR Extremely Bright Max 50W High Power 1156 1141 1073 7506 LED Bulbs ,Xenon White" - they are actually 10W bulb, producing around 900 lumens (they actually might work for DRL application, but they are pricey).

When using front blinkers housing as DRL just make sure you wire them the way so they will automatically go dim or off when you turn markers or headlights (night use lights).

 

Thanks for the write up! What I think I may do is somehow do a mod to where my corner lights still work as normal. But will also function as a blinker. I'll then remove the blinker housings down low and put some led off road lights and wire them to a separate switch in the truck

 

Make sure that corner light housing is sealed well after modification. Otherwise it will collect water from condensation. I had problem with condensation in one corner light (actually it collected water at the bottom corner) and it was a faulty seal between bulb and housing. I dont know why but little crack in seal works like a pump pushing water into housing.

 

How do you do the fog light mod? I really want to but I just don't know where to start

 

I think he really was talking about "off road" lights rather than fog lights per se. All aftermarket LED Fog lights I saw that would fit into the slot are really either "driving lights" or "spot lights", and they do not have specific light pattern to qualified as "fog lights". Fog lights require low cut off and wide pattern. Spot lights if can be aimed low do not have wide pattern, flood lights do not have required low cut-off. All true LED fog lights I saw are round (Osram, Sylvania, Toyota) or square (Rigid).

 

There's quite a few different right ups about it. Just search "Tacoma blinker mod" and you'll find what you need. If you just want to swap your corners down to the bottom. And make the corners your blinkers. All you have to do is swap the green(positive wires)