Mercedes yellow fog lights...my little GRM project of the day.

I have two cracked fog lenses in my 09 wrx. Thanks for glass, Subaru....also haven't yet found a yellow bulb that I am happy with (some don't last very long, most aren't yellow enough), also don't want HID fogs.... so wanted to go the way I did with my old Maxima. On the Maxima I used HIDtech "lexus yellow" capsules with stock bulbs for a REAL yellow, but HIDtech apparently doesn't exist anymore, and it's impossible to find the capsules for a reasonable price on car sites these days.

So, after much junkyard-diving, I got my hands on a set of yellow capsules from the inner fog lights from an 80s-vintage Mercedes. A bit bigger, but looks like they'll work.

Since my stock lenses are shattered (thanks alot for GLASS fog light lenses Subaru, great idea!), I just smashed them out rather than dealing with oven heating, etc. I won't be re-using them. Going to find some cheap 3 1/2" aftermarket fogs at Walmart or something (hopefully plastic) and fit those lenses to my factory fogs. Will have to look tomorrow.

In any case, some photos of the progress so far. I'm pretty happy with the fitament and the stock bulbs fit well inside. Plus the Mercedes bracket that I"m using to hold the yellow sheath gives about 1 cm of space at the bottom, so it won't overheat. This is the Benz OEM setup, so it probably will work well. It has a built-in glare shield as well, which is nice.

So here are som photos. I'll update once I find some lenses and get it all hooked up again (tomorrow, with any luck):

The Benz lenses

my stockers, nice lenses...

parts removed from Benz lenses. I'll be using the brackets on the right.

OEM lights opened, glare shield removed, and same screw used to attach the Benz brackets

And here's how they are at the moment.. and yes, there should be clearance for the lens, which sits up another 2cm or so from the lip of the base...

Jumped down to the local Advance auto and found some $18 ricer foglights with 3.5" lenses. Got them, took the lenses off (it was easy, and also, they are glass too dammit). And lo and behold, they are an EXACT, PERFECT FIT TO THE GROOVE ON THE OEM HOUSINGS.

So basically, anyone who cracks their OEM lenses on an 08+ WRX can now replace them with lenses from some $18 cheapo lenses with ZERO modifications.

Anyhow, got one put back together now. New Pics! :D

these lights:

come apart easily

a little more rounded than the stock lenses, but same overall depth

put back together vs. the original

sneak preview. They won't be fitted to the car until tomorrow, but plugged them in and just set them in the ports there, so not attached, not aimed. But shows the color pretty well against the 5000k HID headlights.

That looks sweet! Well done. I really like mods that look OEM.

Very nice! Now edit your post to take out the info about the replacement lenses, go back and buy all they have and sell the lenses on subie sites for $25 each

In reply to pigeon:

lol, not a bad idea....

Wouldn't plastic lenses be much more prone to breaking than glass ones?

Time to get some of the clear plastic protector film ASAP!

Niiiice. Do you think some clear vinyl could give the glass a lil' protection?

m4ff3w wrote: Wouldn't plastic lenses be much more prone to breaking than glass ones?

^ This. Glass is good.

I broke a low-mounted fog on my S80 after just 3 weeks of ownership. I got a set of the Lamin-X selective yellow applique and they've held up great for year now.

m4ff3w wrote: Wouldn't plastic lenses be much more prone to breaking than glass ones?

The plastic lenses on my 2000 maxima went 180k miles with nary a scratch or crack on them.

The glass lenses on the 2002-3 maxima (same body, same light location) were known to be cracked often.

I really wish manufacturers would make the lenses screw-on or bolt-on so they could be replaced easily....

The fog lights on my camaro are quite small so I won't be taking them a part but I did find that krylon makes yellow stained glass paint which comes close to the same look.

http://www.krylon.com/products/stained_glass_color/

I also want to use it for the high beams on my fairlane, like this mopar has.

I was going to suggest Laminex film until I realized it would cost more than a replacement set of cheapie lenses.

Krylon yellow glass paint.

Actually now has another pair of matching fogs below. With the car lowered so far, the lighting is not that great, so it's now got low beams, two sets of fog lights, and high beams.

lol....have used yellow bulbs, Lamin-x, and yellow "stained glass" paint on other cars and true they do all work fine. For this one I kind of wanted a different look (clear lens when off). Plus wanted to do something different

so, some installed daytime pics...will take some night shots later. Figured with the car washed and installs done, might as well

flash

no flash

Those are VERY yellow. Me likey!

Now i have other stuff to look for when i'm at the junkyards.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

look for any 80s Benz 190E, or most other Benzes for that matter. The lenses will all be clouded, so you won'tbe able to tell if it has the yellow capsule inside without busting it off. Alternately, most 90s Lexus's also have them, though the capsule/yellow projector is different.

There is also a Honda version that you can find in the center lights of Acura Legend/Vigor headlight housings. They have a smaller capsule but nothing to cover the end of it.

sobe_death wrote: There is also a Honda version that you can find in the center lights of Acura Legend/Vigor headlight housings. They have a smaller capsule but nothing to cover the end of it.

great call...totally didn't think about those! They are pretty similar to the ones HIDtech used to sell as "Lexus" capsules. The HIDtech ones could fit under the glare shields of most OEM fog lights, wonder if the Honda ones can.

In reply to irish44j:

They probably can; they are only about 1.5 inches tall

cool project. nice way to keep the oem look and parts intact.

I found the yellow laminx looks good, until you turn on the white bulbs behind it, then the light output just looks off-white.

the krylon stained glass spray works well though and will change your light output to yellow, seems pretty durable in my experience.