Fog lights to driving lights?
 

Ok, being that projector upgrades for facelifted housings are not easy (and props to those of you who did this), am thinking if it is possible to convert fogs to driving lights by putting in one of the smaller retrofit projectors (2 1/2")?

i did this, and find it not to be overly compicated - the mounting points for the short (facelifted) Valeo units are the same as the mounting points for the long (pre-facelifted projectors) Valeo units. On my 4.8iS there was an air channel that was getting in the way, but if you push it hard enough, the plastic will "give" and the longer housing sits just fine.

The main change over was in the connector and the pins - the original connectors was to be cut off and the new connector with new pins was to be crimped in. I even heard that some folks made a little wire adapter, that used the vehicle's original connector and adapted to the new projector recepticle...

not that hard... part numbers are on this forum, in other threads on this subject.

what smaller projectors are you referencing?

Hey TX5, yeah, I saw your thread on switching facelift fogs for the elipsoid older fogs, that was informative!

The added output of the ellipsoid ones are good, but I am wanting a longer throw light, sort of an auxilliary low beam. I see a lot of small main beam projectors out nowadays that are used for headlight retrofits, and was wondering if they can be put in our fog housings to turn them into driving lights.

there was a point in time, when my xenon housings were so dull, that i relied on the fog lights only - i adjusted the vertical throw and it was enough as if i had the regular Ford Taurus halogen lights...

you still can do it without using non-bmw projectors... use either the OE or DEPO projector - minimal modifications to connectors... and you have a 3.0i - should not have airduct issue... manufacturing projectors out of caddy or acura lights - not sure how to proceed... :)

g300d, the adapter wires (I'm making now, just waiting on parts) are not expensive. you just have to buy the 2 housing connectors and the 4 pins for those two connectors, and a set of H11 connector housings (for factory facelifted wireing) and the 4 pins for those housings too (usually come with the H11 connectors too), and voila, you have a conversion from the H11 factory wires to the newly needed projector style housing connector.
all said and done for $20 from stealership (ordered my stuff from e-bay and Gault BMW)

Fog lights as driving lamps is interresting, I could use them as DRL.
Anyone know if coding is available to set the fog lamps ON all the time or as DRL?

If you get rid of your old fog light housing let me know. I need to replace one of mine.

If you wanted to get fancy you could use a set of Matchbox projectors. They're bi-xenon and with a lens less than 2" in diameter probably the smallest *proper* projector for the sort of application your after. Of course the mounting is a whole different issue and will require some custom work. With a little bit of effort it shouldn't be that big a deal though if you have some retrofitting skills.

The eLight module is able to do that. And a lot of other nice things too.
BMW X5 E53

Regards, Helmuth

Thanks Helmuth, I will take a look in their modules.