I have an 08 Cabrio with Xenons & fogs. I would like to modify a couple things about the lights. First has anyone rewired the fogs so that they don't turn off when your high beams are on? I was thinking I could wire them to my parking lights, but I don't know anything about the power draw and if this is a realistic approach.

The other question is I would like to swap out both the fog and high beam bulbs to the brightest/bluest bulb I can to match the Xenons. Obviously I don't want to put a bulb in that gets so hot it will cause damage, but I figure there's something out there better than the yellow light I'm currently throwing.

 

You can have brighter, or bluer, but not both.
Bluer bulbs are technically dimmer than clear glass halogens, and scatter light more.

 

I went with the Hoen "XenonMatch" bulbs for my driving lights. If they're dimmer than the yellowish stock bulbs, I can't tell. I think Hoen makes a XenonMatch bulb that will replace the stock foglights as well, although I haven't done that yet.

As for modifying the foglamps so that they'll stay on with the high beams, that might be a little tricky. The car's computer has to be programmed to let it know you have the foglamps, and I don't think the modification would be as simple as changing the voltage source for the lights. In other words, when you turn the high beams on, the computer senses this and sends a "turn off" signal to the fogs, just as if you had flipped the toggle switch yourself.

 

If you can find one of GBMINI's auto up window circuits with the fog light add-on then you can have the fogs come on with the parking lights. Ian stopped making the circuits but from time to time one comes up for sale in the classifieds section as someone moves on from their current MINI.

The nice thing about the circuit is, once installed, you can change form having the fog come auto to not in just a few seconds. The circuit itself is a little tricky to install if you find one but only takes a few minutes itself.

 

Or you can buy a Xenon aftermarket kit to match them. I think they about $100 on eBay last I checked.

 

I bought some 8500k bulbs off ebay and I LOVE them, Direct plug in and I think they were like $20. Let me know if your interested and I can pull the vendor for you.

 

Thanks Scott, always good advise from your wisend fingers.


Ian is actually making more of these as we speak and I will be among the first on the buying list. Unfortunately, it won't do what I want it to which is keep the fog lights on all the time. What the circuit does is set which way the toggle default is so in the case of the fog lights it turns them on automatically when the cars lights are on.


Are you saying that these kits turn the fogs into xenons?

Please. Always interested in good-n-cheap.

 

Yes, the Xenon kit turns you fog light into xenons, they use a H.I.D. blub to replace you H3 blub. You can pick any color from 5000k to 30000k. The 8500k blubs are just halogens with a color coating on them, so you will lose light I just check eBay and they are even cheaper then I first said, I saw some for about $60 with shipping. Seach H3 Xenon kit.

 

I think you'd have to wire up an extra switch that lets you manually override the standard fog light behavior.

The fog light retrofit document has a circuit diagram: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t_Retrofit.pdf. The fogs power come off a relay, and the relay is controlled by a signal from the BC1 computer. It is the computer software that turns off the fogs when the highbeams are switched on, and it would be difficult to hack the software. However, you can make a simple circuit and splice into the wire (brown/green) that controls the relay, so that you can manually switch on the fogs independent of the computer.

 

A true 8500K would be too purple to provide useful illumination. 30000K should be invisible and may cause skin cancer .

 

So if I run a new power source from the lights to a new switch and bypassed the current setup entirely it sounds like it should work. Unless the computer controlling the whole thing gets freaked () out and starts randomly shutting down various functions which would no longer be covered by warranty. Otherwise a great plan

Do you know any bulbs out there which match the xenons in color and are as bright as possible?

 

About 4200-4300K would match oem xenons.

 

What I was suggesting is that you rig it up so that when your switch in the off position, it operates using the OEM setup, and when the switch in the on position the fogs will be on. I think the risk is very low based on the circuit diagram, but it depends on your level of comfort with having mods.

I'm still on the stock bulbs and don't have personal experience with this. As cristo said, the xenon headlights are around 4300K, which would suggest that a 4300K xenon H3 conversion kit should give the brightest light with matching color. The fog light reflector was designed for a halogen bulb and the light pattern will be different with a xenon bulb.

If your primary goal is to increase light output when highbeams are on, also consider adding driving lights.

 

That's better than what I was thinking. It might be one to wait for the warranty to be over though. Anyone want to beta test this?

Good point, what is my goal. I guess first is to match the color of the xenons with both fogs and high beams. Second to complete the first goal in the brightest manner available. I don't really need to add lights (at this point in time), but since I'm changing bulbs why not go as bright as I can?

 

Yes there is no point on going above 7000k unless you like the Super Ricer look. 30000K is a real different pink in color, and is illegal in every state I think.

I thought stock BWM and mini xenon color temp was 5000k?

 

MiniDaMoocher:
With a little reserach and focusing on PIAA. My best guess:
Low beams: H-7 Xtreme White Plus Rated at 4000K
Fogs: H-11 Xtreme White Plus Rated at 4000K
You are doing good if you can get both sets for <$150.

Can anyone find anything that will match the Xenon color while maximizing brightness better than this selection?

Finding the proper upgrade for the parking light is a bit more challenging. Daoe anyone know what would match the above best? PIAA has several incandescent as well as LED options that might work.

Lastly is the lisense lights, not sure what would be the proper selection there either.

 

I have factory Xenon's and I have the PIAA H7's for my high beams and they are a super close match. I can hardly tell where my low beams end and the high beams start they are that close.

 

So, it would seem the OEM Xenons are in fact very close to 4000K color. Thanks much for the confirmation. My path is clear, for the low beams at least.

 

According to their web siteSilver Stars are 4000K, 55 Watts . I ended up taking ScottRique's advice at the beginning of the thread and went with Hoen Xenonmatch bulbs. Their also 4000K, but they sell a bulb which puts out 65 watts, 10 more than the Silver Stars. I don't have the high beams installed yet because they sent me the wrong bulb, but the fogs look great. They appear more white in the pic, but they throw really close, if anything a little bluer than the xenons.

 

One of the easy tweaks is to modify the stock foglight sockets to accept an H-9 bulb, which is a lot brighter, without adding too much additional wattage.

Best lighting advice available and best quality brighter bulbs can be found at http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

I'd suggest not going crazy with the additional brightness - some have reported frying the lighting control computer, and it's not cheap to replace. It is apparently sensitive enough that simply doubling up the stoplight bulbs on some early cars was enough to kill the computer.

My own strategy for my `05 was to replace every exterior bulb with new ones from Stern, but only going about +20% on the wattage, i.e. replace 55 watt high-beam with 70-watt.

 

OldRick:
What bulbs did you replace you parking lights, and license lights with?

Thanks........

 

I couldn't find a brighter bulb for the side-marker/parking/repeater, and didn't bother with the license plate light.

I also installed an inexpensive kit that uses the "rear fog light" location to provide a third backup light.

 

can you mention what kit this is?

 

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