i did the oven method and the damn thing wouldn't budge. i heated the fog light for more than 10 minutes. now all i have is a fog light with stab wounds in the crease. man, i don't wanna open them up using a dremel!!

 

IIRC, the writeup said to use a dremel. man good luck, i wouldn't trust myself with a dremel and plastic housings. especially at this hour

 

IIRC?

 

haha^^^i believe the dremel was the last chance resort to the oven

 

It always looks easy in the mind....

 

if i remember correctly

 

any luck? how have other people dones this???

 

i'm gonna go over my mechanic today and borrow his dremel =(

 

The way the foglights are put together don't use the same type of glue and I think there are either ball joints or screws that are holding it together. They pretty much don't come apart.

 

They do come apart but it's tough tough tough.

 

I tried doing the same thing to my I30 fogs, but they too wouldn't open after a long time in the over. I thought about a dremel, but really don't feel like paying $250 to replace them if I mess up....

 

dremel and hacksaw to open it, then JB weld it back together. It shouldn't take you more than 10 mins to open it up. Dont be scared of using God's tools, DREMEL OWNZ ALL KTHNXBYE DIAF BUHAHAH!!!

 

meanbean cut they open, didn't he? it's doable.

 

well this post is pretty old, but the only way to do it is through a dremel.

 

Well, haha, I know it's possible because I have one of mine already opened...but the story behind that was my fog had broken glass so I bought a used replacement off eBay, but the housing on that one turned out to be broken, so I combined the good glass with the good housing, discarding the bad glass and the bad housing...so I might have damaged the housing a little getting the good glass off but I got it off and I don't remember it being super hard.

Anyway, I don't own a Dremel so I'm going to try to get the glass off my other foglight without destroying the housing. I'll post here with results.

 

so vquick, you were able to just heat them up like one would with head or taillights? there aren't any weird ball joints or screws? it's odd that some people can pry them apart easily and others cant't for the life of them. i hope i'm not the later when I try...

 

No there is definitely nothing except the sealant, I have photographic proof of that that I can post when I get a chance. However, the sealant is very sticky and if you try to pry the glass off with a flathead, you usually end up deforming the plastic housing, nothing more....

The above refers to the more angular looking 97-99 fogs, but I bet the structure of the 95-96s is similar.

 

Becareful, don't cracke them, they are expensive!

 

I dont see what the problem would be with cutting the back of the housing open...I mean once you pu the fogs back in you waont even be able to see the cuts marks...when I retrofitted my stock fogs with H3 2004 maxima fogs, I just cut the back platic housing completely off and also cut through the metal middle layer and the chrom housing to fit them in there. Then, I just sealed them with aquairium silicone sealant.

 

in closing, go nike style and "just do it"....don't be a ***** about it.

 

You have pics of what you did?

 

See, it's possible, but I can't remember how badly I damaged the other housing getting this glass off, if at all... I didn't have time this weekend but I'll report as soon as I try to separate the second fog assembly.

 

How exactly did you get it off?

 

No, not yet...I'm waiting on some new yellow h3s and then I'll take pics and make a thread...I'll let you know.

 

the main thing I'm trying to accomplish is to get mine to look as good as the yellow capsule mod, If not better than...

 

See post #15. It was about a year ago that I did the passenger fog and I really don't remember much (haha). All I remember is my passenger fog had a big hole in the middle of the glass and it was all cracked, so I stuck a scredriver in the hole and was able to pry the glass out chunk by chunk, making it much easier. What I really don't recall is how much I messed up the housing of the donor foglight (the foglight where the good glass came from).

 

While I applaud VQuick's work, he is definately in the minority. I have performed this mod on 3 other 4th gens and they have all needed to be dremeled. Kuddos to you VQuick for the proof that it can be done without dremeling. For those of you still thinking about doing the mod, don't be scared. This mod is very easily performed by even a novice using my How-To. Just follow it step by step and you will be done in no time.

 

So it was brokeN? was the whole glass already off? how did u do the other one? post 15 doesnt say much.

 

Thanks meanbean, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get the glass off the other fog...

But I don't have a Dremel so I'm going to try very hard! I was thinking today, though, that it might be simplest to dremel the housing on one corner, back from the glass, to get more leverage to pry. Of course, you'd have to be careful not to damage the reflector or anything. Then just JB Weld that one part.

Here's what the passenger foglight looked like when I bought the car. Note the small hole that I'm guessing a rock made, and the big cracks across the lens. So I just stuck a screwdriver in that hole and popped the glass out chunk by chunk. That kind of proves that the glass isn't on there THAT tightly; rather, the problem is that the housing is so flimsy at the edges that you can't get decent leverage. It's better at the corners since they're more rigid.

 

So to get them off we have to break them lol

 

hmmm... is there any noticed difference between the 95-96 fogs and the 97-99? (in terms of adhesive used or ability to seperate lens from housing)

 

I would say no, I mean...both fogs have the same glass type and semms to be the same adhesive(looks the same) and constucted with the same plastic type....I don't see why the would be different from e/o...

 

yea, i figured. just curious as most of the people who have posted about trying in here were 97-99ers. nm then.

 

Well, I was rummaging around and just found the old housing...and it's completely undamaged! So that means I was able to get it off. I believe I used a heat gun and just pried, probably at the corners. Tiny chips of glass might come off where the glass meets the housing but they're completely unnoticeable. Now I just need to find time to try this on the second fog.

 

so using the heat gun, you were able to get heat right where you needed it. i would think this would be better than the over if you're careful. also, just heat it back up and the adhesive reseals just as strong, right?

 

I wouldn't recommend it. If you heat up the stock grey sealant (it's very firm, doesn't seem to soften at all) and then stick it back in, it does stick and you can't pull it off by hand but it's probably not an airtight seal. I plan on keeping it but then adding a very thin bead of silicone in the groove of the housing before putting the glass back on. I don't think it would be advisable to remove the stock sealant since it is so firm and forms a base for the glass.

 

I would definately recommend using silicone. I used aquarium silicone, and it worked perfect. Its made to seal water in....so, it will definately keep the water out.

 

I have high-heat RTV silicone for my valve cover, it's gray and I think it will work fine on the fogs. Unless someone thinks that's a bad idea.