skinsfan44

About a year ago I replaced both fog lamp lenses and housings on my 99SE. I seem to have a problem with the lenses cracking and water getting into the housing... pretty soon they are full of water and rusty. Well, it happened again. Both fog lamps are half full of water (automatic car wash?) and rusty. For the past few months I have been debating whether or not I should fix them again (the car has 162k on it, but looks and runs great). My local Nissan dealer charged me $140 for the housings and lenses (I think that was for both, but can't remember). It took about 10 days to get the parts. I did the installation myself.

To my question... Can anyone recommend non-Nissan housing and lenses to replace the factory ones? Hopefully ones that will fit right in the current "holes" and be a bit stronger. I am not sure why this happens to me. I have a friend with a 97 who never had the problem.

I did a search, but found little more than bulb discussions.
Many Thanks!

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

wow! I got quoted $211 for ONE, that's right, ONE fog lamp housing assembly on my 95

I know there's a slight difference in the housing, but Is there that much of a difference from 95-99 foglamps? eneways....

Carparts.com maybe, or go to a local wrecking shop and get a remanufactured unit, they're usually cheaper, but of course not as good quility as Nissan genuine parts though.

skinsfan44

My mistake in the original post... it was $130 each. Still better than 211 though

Albertt

...lies not in the design of the OE Nissan 4th Gen foglamps, but more in the fact that objects are striking the glass lens. Another cause could be the use of overwattage bulbs. Are you using the standard 55W H3s. In colder climates the use of 85W, 100W, 135W H3s can cause the glass to crack.

My advice is to buy a new set of OE foglamps, and apply the thick 3M headlamp protector available out there (ie. http://www.stongard.com). It's composed of a multi-layer urethane and can absorb the impact of decent sized objects when driving at freeway speeds.

skinsfan44

Good advice Albertt... I will give that a go as I also believe that rocks hitting the lenses is the cause. Anything that should toughen up the glass should help.

Yes, I used the standard bulbs.

Thanks for the advice! Off to find some Strongard... $20 seems worth it if it will save me the trouble of having to replace them again.

Thanks friend.

nigelcmf

xpel.com also has these. You get the full set for headlights as well. What I did was I asked my local body shop to put some scotchcal clearbra on mine. Seems to work fine. The Stoneguard and Xpel ones have a thicker gauge than clearbra.

Good luck!

nigelcmf

Oh by the way $140 is cheap! I didn't know you could just order the lenses for fogs. My dealer quoted $199 for each fog lamp assy no option for lens replacement

marcel

I have a 99SE.
last year (winter) BOTH of my fogs cracked (not from rocks, this was a thermal crack) I THINK it happened in a carwash, I did the fog mod where the fogs stay on with the running lights. and the fogs were on in the wash (it was cold, wintertime, NE Ohio).

I was still under warranty. The dealer shot my clain down, so I call the central US warranty manager and to make a fairly long story short the dealer replaced them for free (under warranty).

Here's the catch I was running PIAA 85W H3 bulbs when the lenses cracked so I was pretty sure the heat and the cool water of the car wash cracked the lenses (of course I replaced the stock 55W H3's when I went to the dealer to complain).

Now, a year later both fogs are cracked (shattered) again (this time I left the stock 55W H3 bullbs in them. So, it sounds like the stock lenses have a problem. I'm pretty sure the fogs cracked this time from rocks/road debris.

I just (today) ordered a new set from extreme Nissan (see my post "Best OEM Missan prices") for $240.00/set, they paid shipping.
The 99 fog lenses must be whimpy.
I had no such problems with my 1996 SE fogs.