I have a 97 SE with OEM fog lights. When I bought the car, the passenger side fog light was cracked. I was debating whether or not to just get it replaced. Last night I was driving on a road, took a turn onto another road to where I was going and lost control of my car on snow and ice and hit a snow bank at about 10mph. There was not much damage to the front of the car, just need to buff out some roughness on the bumper. Heres the kicker. . . my drivers side fog is now cracked and got pushed into the bumper and is now partially sideways!

Anyway, wanted opinions on whether I should shell out the money for new OEM fogs or if I should go with some better aftermarket ones. The next question is if I were to go aftermarket, is there a way to wire them to the current switch that is built into the car?

Thanks for your time!

 

I had the same problem. A week after i got my car last year, I slide on some black ice and crashed into a snow bank. There were no damages to the body or paint, but my drivers side bumper lights and fog lights are lose now. You can push my fog lamp in and make it face the side instead of straight, and the bumper light just feels lose. But I've had it light that for a year, and had no problems, jsut the drivers side fog off to the side a litte bit. I was wondering the same thing. I like the look of the oem fogs, but was maybe thinking of getting others cine they would be better.

 

Yes, the OEM fogs do fit nicely in the bumper, but I think that I like the fact that I could get a set of round ones that are small and very bright (for those dark back roads of Vermont!! )

Anyone know if they can be connected to existing wiring??

 

Have no clue. But I have seen people with OEM and aftermarket fogs on. They put the after market ones in the middle.

 

Yes, you can use your existing wiring! That is, if you don't mind chopping it up a little. There are a lot of ways it could be done, but here is how I would to it:[list=1][*]Cut off any connectors or excessive lengths of wire that come attached to your aftermarket lights.[*]Cut off the connector that went to your stock fog light.[*]Connect the negative (black) wire from the car to the negative wire on your new light.[*]Connect the positive (could be red or orange or just about anything, just not black) wire from your car to the positive wire on your new light.[*]Do the same thing for the light on the other side and you're set![/list=1]

The only potential problem would be if you got fogs with bulbs that draw more watts than the stock fogs, it could melt your wires just like some people (myself included) have done to their headlights.

 

This is a good write up ....only don't CUT the connector off, try to splice into the wire and tape the connector up, just in case you want to put factory fogs back in later.

 

Yeah good call, I'm just biased against splice jobs because I always screw them up and end up having to chopt it off anyways. He he... a Nissan tech would cry if he saw my wiring.

 

Look at my PIAA 1200XT's in my sig. They're much brighter than the OEM.

 

What wattage do the OEM foglights run at? I want to buy some aftermarket but want to make sure that I get the correct wattage to connect to the existing connectors (wiring) of the OEM.

 

Extreme Nissan in LA is selling complete OEM Fog Kits for $154.00 Shipped if you decide to stay OEM.

This deal only lasts another week or so.

Look for their posts in the FS Forums....do a search for "30%"

IanS

 

Someone correct me if I am mistaken, but I am pretty sure the stock fogs are 55 watts.

 

Yo deezo, how much did u buy ur fogs for? I want em cuz they look just like the ones on the fast n furious max

 

Got a simple solution for headlight/foglight wiring problems, mainly wires melting. Use relays to upgrade the wiring to a thicker guage and run the relays directly off the battery. If you use your high beams alot, this is especially useful. Use the factory turn-on (the wire that turns positive when you turn the lights on) to trigger the relay. You will need 4 relays for the headlights (One for each of the low beams, one for each of the high beams). Ground the relays to the car, not the factory ground on headlight.

As far as foglights go, most aftermarket foglights come prewired with a relay that needs to be connected to the battery. Once again just use the factory fog light turn-on to trigger the new foglights. I also had the melting issues with my lights, but this rewiring solved the problem and I can even use high beams for more than 5 seconds now without fearing melted wires.

Ryan

 

Couldn't someone just shell out the $30.00 for the APC Wiring harness?
Comes with relays, and is VERY durable.

 

You could do that, yes. It's cheaper to do it with relays though, at least for me and just as effective. Either way would suffice I guess.

 

I will say put back OEM fogs caz they look alot better than after market. If i were to go with aftermarkets, i will put them in the middle. just my 0.02 ;-)