I recently replaced my OEM fog light bulbs with PIAA xtreme white H3's. I went to school (night class) with the fogs on the entire time, or approx. 20 minutes. When I got out of the car, my fog light were really smoking, I'm not kidding, something they've never done before. It wasn't cold out either - mid 70's.

Question: is this normal? I know I installed them correctly because I triple checked.

 

The outside housing is smoking? Or is smoke escaping from the crevices?

 

it is the outside housing, which I assume is glass, right? Literly smoking. Imagine you shut of your Maxima and look at the front end, which noticably appears to have lit cigarettes somehow attached to the fogs.

Also, I touched the lens and it was VERY VERY hot.

 

That's weird. It's been hot here in Chicago lately and I se no reason for smoke from the got lights.

 

is there a smelll to it?

 

It's plastic Mac. Me and Mike had the same thing happen except we painted the bulbs and the paint burned off making the smoke. Did you get correct wattage bulbs? We have some spare Hella H3 if you want?

 

Any pics of the painted bulbs?

 

The wattage of the bulb is too high. Your just asking to crack one of the housings. If you were to hit a puddle with the lens that hot it will crack in half.

 

Well no since the paint burned off. We used 500 degree paint so now I just ordered some 1500 degree paint.

 

I don't get it, custommaxima sells (http://www.custommaxima.com/PiaaFogLight.php) the PIAA xtreme white bulbs (H3 with 55watt), which is what I bought. It IS the right bulb (h3, 55 watt), that's what we need in there, right? So no the wattage is not too high, it's the way it ought to be.

Who knows? Like Big D said, maybe it's the bluish paint that the PIAA bulbs come with.

 

I'm guessing it's the blue paint from the Piaas also. I just want to see pics of the paintyed bulbs at night. I heard about painted bulbs and wanted to see how they really performed. What if you color the bulbs with Sharpie blue permanent markers?