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Subject: My HID fog light install enclosed.............. Author: Magnum : member since January, 2004 : 3968 posts Posted on: 2008-02-25 17:14:17

I decided to install HID’s in place of standard halogen bulbs for a little more light and I guess exterior looks. I won’t be able to see them much so I hope you other driver’s like them ;). Here’s the kit, a standard 35 watt HID nothing fancy conversion kit. The only extra I bought where some load resistor to clear up any “check fog light” errors I may receive.

I hope there are no red x's, but if there are just Click Here for my PDF version, I'll update this should any updates come about. I'll also add some evening / night pics whe I get a chance to take some.

Here's the HID conversion kit:



H3 8000K bulbs:



Tools? Pretty easy stuff really, below if what I used. Your mileage may vary depending on how you plan on installing them. Here’s what I used:

- Screw driver
- Digital Multi-meter
- Drill with 7/8” boring bit
- 8 mm & 10 mm sockets
- T-50 Torx Bit for bumper cover bolts.
- Socket Wrench
- Silicone
- Heat Shrink
- Heat Gun
- Solder Iron & Solder
- HID conversion kit
- 2 load resistors

Let start by removing the fog light, insert your screw driver as shown and push in to release fog light. Have your other hand in front of the fog light because it may “pop” out:



Once fog light is out remove the main plug as shown:



Now you can move it to the work bench or where ever you plan to work on them. I first tested the lights and ballast so these pics are taken on a box. Release the fog light[s] back cover as shown:



Opening the cover, white is positive coming off old halogen bulb and brown is negative pig tail wire. Unplug positive and ground, release the metal clip and remove the old bulb:



Now it should look like this, just set the cover aside. You’ll drill a hole into it later:



Ok, in a perfect world you should be able to plug the positive HID wires into the positive post inside the fog light and then insert the negative HID wire into the negative fog light pig tail and the lights should fire. NOTE: You may get the dreaded “check fog light’ error message on the MID, but we’ll fix that later.

In my case the connections inside the fog light did not yield anything, i.e. NO lights, NO power although my stock halogen bulbs worked fine. Go Figure! So I thought maybe I got a bum kit, so I proceeded to test the kit at the battery and everything fired fine. After doing a little investigation, what I found was is if I plug the HID lights directly into the main fog light plug everything worked great. So rather than messing around and making a harness to pull power from the battery and then relay it down to the fog lights, I just proceeded with what I call “plan B” on my install. I WILL do further testing, but for now I’ll run with this install. I’ll update the PDF when new information becomes available.

When testing, if you plug your HD lights into the inside of the fog light positive / negative connections and they work, run with it. Anyway you look these directions should suit your install, EXCEPT for the positive and negative wiring coming off the ballast.

You can see how I have the wires plugged directly into the main plug that goes to the fog light itself, and the light shines bright.



Here’s a picture minus the glaring bulb:



Driver side same results when I plugged the ballast positive and negative directly into the fog light main plug:



Another pic minus the glaring bulb:



So now let’s move onto installing them. I took the fog lights to the work bench and with the back cover removed I drilled a 7/8” whole through the back of the fog light cover. Sorry no pic of drilling the hole, but it’s pretty simple stuff. After you drill the hole in the fog light cover slide the bulb through the hole and insert the rubber grommet in. The 7/8” hole I drilled was a perfect size and I probably didn’t need to put any silicone on, but just to be safe I put a bead of silicone on and then with your wet finger [spit works great ;)] run it around smoothing it out and fill and gaps and remove any air bubbles. I did this on my work bench and let it dry over night:



Now let’s take the bumper cover off and get ready to install everything. First remove these 2 bolts in the wheel well, there are 2 on each side [driver & passenger] that need to be removed and they are 8 mm. Once they are removed slightly peel the fender away from the wheel well.



Now remove the trim, with or without PDC it is the same. Pop the front loose like so and then carefully slide / pull the trim piece towards the side of the car [see the arrow]. Then once off remove the PDC plugs if you have PDC:



Now we move onto under the front bumper. There are 2 hooks that hold the lower portion of the bumper cover to the lower cover under the car. Simply push in and slide back. NOTE: I only have a pic of one, but the other just next to it:



Now we are ready to remove the bumper cover bolts, there are 2 of them. These are long, but don’t have a lot of threads so removing them is easy. These are T-50 torx head bolts:



Here’s a shot of them removed:



And a shot of the “bit” if you will:



Now simply pull off the bumper cover and set below the car or move it out of the way if you’d like. My situation is unique because I have my ZR3 sensors installed and those wires prevent me from just carrying it away. I just lay it in front and kind of tuck it under like so. Don’t forget a sheet or something to put it on, this way it won’t get scratched up:



With the bumper removed I’ve figured out my mounting points for the ballast and also the load resistors, so I’m going to connect my wires on the bench for ease of mounting on the car. What you see below is the black plug that plugs into the ballast and the gold thing is the load resistor. Rather than drilling 2 holes in my car to mount the load resistor I made a little plate that I mounted it to and then I will mount the plate to the car. These load resistors get HOT, so don’t plan on mounting them to plastic and make sure you choose a spot away from existing wires:



Here’s my work in progress and my mad soldering skillz ;)! Basically I took the positive and negative wires from the HID ballast plug and twisted them on to each wire of the load resistor, then twisted a 3rd wire onto both of those and soldered them together, applied heat shrink and finally some wire wrap.



Both of them are finished, aren’t they pretty:



Now I mounted them. Again, you DO NOT want to mount the load resistors on plastic nor do you want them to touch any wires. They get HOT and I confirmed that when I was testing them by letting them run and touching them. They get HOT. This is the passenger side, I mounted the HID ballast on the bolt that holds the snorkel for the air filter box and I drilled a small hole in the secondary air pump mount and mounted the load resistor to that:



Here’s the driver side. I mounted the ballast to an unused mounting point near the bumper cover guide and I drilled a small hole in the bracket that the horns mount to:



Another shot of the driver side. Ballast right and load resistor left:



Now that those are mounted in their respective places let’s put the bumper back on. I attach string to the PDC wires to make is easier to pull them through. Pick up the bumper cover and set it on the black bumper mounts in the front, then go to each side and make sure the side of the bumper is lining up with the bumper slide mounts on each side. Once that is all verified you can slide the bumper into place. Take your time putting the bumper cover back on. Once it is on and situated you can pull your strings to get the PDC wires through their respective hole and bolt everything back up / on:



Like so:



This is a shot through the passenger side fog light hole. You can see the load resistor [1] and the HID ballast [2], and they are clearly accessible should I even need to access them later:



This is a shot through the driver side fog light hole. You can see the load resistor [1] and the HID ballast [2], and they are clearly accessible should I even need to access them later:



Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of the document, I couldn’t get any power when I plugged the HID’s into the inside of the fog light itself so I decided for ease of the install to just tap power from the main wired going to the fog lights. I didn’t want to cut the factory wires so I just used these gel filled water resistant wire taps. Yellow is positive, brown is negative:



Passenger side, same thing:



Plugged in the lights and we have lighting:



Check Control OK:



Now it’s time to put the HID bulbs in the fog light housing. The bulbs fit exactly the same as the halogen lights, but you won’t be able to use the metal clip to hold them in. Rather than counting solely on the metal tabs being bent to hold them in, I decided to also thread some wire through the 2 little hooks on each side of the light. Basically, thread the wire through, make sure the wire is taut and start twisting the wire together with a pair of pliers. Once you feel it is pulled tight enough stop. Now pop the cover back on and move to the car for final installation:



I showed you earlier how I tapped the existing wire for power, well now it is time to cover that up. I simply took some wire wrap, slid it over the main fog light plug and taped it on:



Now plug the HID lights wires into the plugs that go up to the ballast, plug the main fog light plug into the fog light, insert the fog light back into the car and you are done!:



Here is a day shot of the HID H3 fog lights with my DDE’s on:



And a side shot:



And one more with the garage closed and the garage lights off:



So there you have it, HID fog lights. I must admit they are far brighter than the halogens I had in there and you really can tell a difference when driving at dusk or night.

Hope you enjoyed and this should conclude my lighting upgrades.


1999 740iL – Valentine One / Stealth One, Escort ZR3 Laser Jammer, Bluetooth w/ Blackberry 8300,
Victor Steering Wheel, Leather / Wood Inlay BMW Shift Knob, Instrument Cluster Gauge Rings,
16:9 Nav. Display, TVonNav, Soundgate AUX 3, 6 Disc DVD/CD/MP3 Changer “In Stereo”,
iPod [40 gig] Hardwired, XM, Backup Camera, 2 12” Rockford Fosgate Subs, Rockford Fosgate Amp,
1 Farad Monster Cap, Custom Enclosure / Trunk Shelf, Style 95’s w/ 245/40/19 F & 285/35/19 R Falken FK-451’s,
Clear Indicators, Tint, Chrome Grills, AC Schnitzer Pedals, M-Style Electronic Folding Mirrors, Xenons,
DDE's w/ Euro Fog Light Switch Activation, Brembo X-Drilled w/ Mintex Reds and Super Blue Fluid,
Blue Calipers w/ Silver BMW Decals, Blue Valve Covers

• My HID fog light install enclosed.............. (pic) (url) - Magnum 2008-02-25 17:14:17 (4323 views)
  • Sweet. Definitely on my list. (nt) - visionbmw7 2008-02-26 13:33:54 (123 views)
  • Excellent! I don't see any soldering work..... (nt) - mjzbong 2008-02-26 12:26:51 (121 views)
  • Excellent!! Write up - Where can I get those Resistors? (nt) - bofessional 2008-02-26 09:02:47 (142 views)
    • Collin( 04sshd)sells a fog kit with internal resistors.... - whiteil 2008-02-26 13:51:33 (165 views)
      • OK, If the GB has them, Then I wont need to buy extra, just waiting on my set:) (nt) - bofessional 2008-02-26 16:09:20 (113 views)
    • Link Enclosed. (url) - Magnum 2008-02-26 13:39:56 (170 views)
      • Awesome, I'll buy some just in case! Thanks Magnum! (nt) - bofessional 2008-02-26 16:10:18 (108 views)
  • Nice write up! looks good! (nt) - Edwin 2008-02-26 05:14:07 (109 views)
  • Anyone know where to get that wire wrap stuff (G-sleeve) that - sealbeach740 2008-02-26 02:31:46 (94 views)
    • I think I saw some at Lowe's when I was picking up some wire taps for my - mahmudb 2008-02-26 03:17:41 (117 views)
      • Thanks, mahmudb. I think you're talking about shrink tubing, which - sealbeach740 2008-02-26 12:26:04 (112 views)
  • Good Stuff man, That is my next mod ! (nt) - Krazy D 2008-02-26 01:10:28 (115 views)
  • Awesome!!! Better install mine, took 3 days to receive from ebay, 3 wks - JL 2008-02-25 23:46:18 (102 views)
    • 3 days? Man, that's QUICK... How much were they with the - sealbeach740 2008-02-25 23:55:33 (116 views)
      • Got mine with Slim Ballast shipped for $117 (pic) (url) - JL 2008-02-26 12:39:57 (205 views)
        • Are you ''paddling & puffing'' yet??? (nt) - TxDarth 2008-02-26 16:39:44 (123 views)
          • I am paddling, but not puffing yet ;-) Same old story, wrong parts, waiting - JL 2008-02-26 16:50:59 (115 views)
  • Magnum, another awesome write up! Someday I will do the same, someday....... (nt) - IBHenry 2008-02-25 22:39:52 (104 views)
  • I see those resistors worked : ) Good too hear. Great writeup. (nt) - a bunch of people off a few years back??// 2008-02-25 20:17:32 (135 views)
  • Nice job Magnum! I got them too but I didn't have to put resistors on them. (nt) - mahmudb 2008-02-25 20:08:13 (125 views)
  • Another great job, Magnum! Hope this makes it to e38.org (it should) - sealbeach740 2008-02-25 17:52:58 (96 views)
    • I guess I forgot to add that, I need a first revision to the PDF - Magnum 2008-02-25 17:59:17 (131 views)
  • Very nice Magnum. Lights look so much better. I've got a kit on order.....can't - beechy 2008-02-25 17:40:54 (108 views)
    • What do you mean ordered? Did you order a custom kit - Magnum 2008-02-25 19:46:33 (131 views)
      • I'm in on Colins low beam/fog HID group buy................... (nt) - beechy 2008-02-25 19:50:19 (119 views)
        • Huh, wasn't that like a month or more ago? What's the hold up, Colin? - Magnum 2008-02-25 20:15:07 (125 views)
          • Problem is paypal... - 04sshd 2008-02-26 02:37:04 (137 views)
            • That's an easy fix: You have their money in your locked PayPal Account, so - Magnum 2008-02-26 10:12:06 (132 views)
              • Problem is I need to pay through paypal - 04sshd 2008-02-26 12:28:06 (153 views)
              • That's what I would do. - a bunch of people off a few years back??// 2008-02-26 12:02:21 (129 views)
  • Wow, nice job Magnum!! (nt) - 750il96erbill 2008-02-25 17:30:34 (127 views)