anyone recommend a good set of high wattage H3's for my fogs? they're tinted yellow, and i really want them to stand out and light up the road more. thought about HID's, but I need a new kit for my heads and i wanna save money.

 

ddmtuning.com.

you'll spend more on high wattage halogen bulbs than you will on a 55w HID kit.

 

cool, ill check them out. i am still kinda tossin around the idea of the 55w HID's, im gettin a 55w kit for my heads soon for sure. fogs are kinda on the back burner, thats why im considering the halogens for now.

love the new sig btw, lookin good.

 

Amazon has some Hella ones but they are standard colors $20

btw 100watt is the max you can go

 

thats perfect. standard color is fine, i got lamin-x tint on the lenses.

 

thank you.

you also gotta look at it in a long-term aspect. even the cheap HID kits they make these days will outlast the higher wattage halogens. compare buying a set of silverstars every year versus an HID kit every 2-3.

 

I'm using 100w bulbs right now, but am looking for a 55w alternative... the 100w bulbs are hot. Real hot. It concerns me, making me think the lens will be ripe for cracking once the colder weather sets in.

 

oh eff silverstars, i already decided against them. im looking for an oem replacement, i believe GE makes the bulbs that nissan manufacturers install stock. im looking for something trustworthy like that except high wattage.

 

id be concerned too, but i have a 5th gen with plastic fogs

 

Piaa 55w/110w output 4150K Extreme white H3 foglight is one of the best out there, Raybrig 55w/85W output is close behind, JC Whitney carries 130w H3 oem replacement, 130w xenon white and 130w xenon blue and these suckers are extra bright and hot...if left on they will crack you glass or burn your laminate protective film. But they're right up there with Piaa and they're only about $15.00 a set!

 

get a harness for those biatches. You think your 100w bulbs are getting 13.8v through 10 feet of 18ga wire? Hell no!

 

I think that's good advice. I'm liking the light, but am very concerned about the heat. So much that I stopped using them until something changes.

I've got a 5800K, 55w set on order through ebay right now for real cheap. We'll see. If I'm not happy with the 55w bright cheapies, I might just get the HID harness and do it up right.

"biatches" Isn't that female ghetto slang from the 90's?

 

it ran fine on my old s10 truck and maxima for weeks

MOHFPro has them on his 4th gen and has yet to have a problem with the harness its fine

 

maybe ill go with something closer to 85W. i've done the fog rewire on my max, so they are always on as running lights (unless i switch them off). theyll get pretty hot.

 

100w bulbs will work with stock wiring and not blow any fuses or melt anything, but have you measured the voltage drop? Running 100w bulbs off the stock harness is like putting a supercharger on your max, but leaving the stock manifolds and y-pipe. Yea, you can do it, but it's a dumb idea. Going from 11-12v at the bulbs to 13-14v at the bulbs will increase output by like 50%.

 

My electrical knowledge is admittedly weak... so on one hand it's good to hear there's little that's unsafe about the 100w bulbs except the heat. But on the other hand, I don't understand why it's a dumb idea, and I don't entirely get the analogy, Nalc. I mean, I understand the whole choked-supercharger thing, but I can't relate that to electricity.

Let's be more direct: Is it safe? And why is it dumb?

 

What he's talking about is current flow through the smaller gauge wires is restrictive so you're not getting your full 100w potential because the wiring is to small! That's why I would suggest using the Piaa Extreme White H3 bulbs, they're 55w but the brightness is close to 110w bulbs!
Hope you get his analog regarding the supercharger! It's quite simple but true!

 

The cornerstone of basic electronics is called Ohm's Law. it says that for a resistive material (such as a thin wire or something), the voltage dropped is calculated by the formula V = IR, where R is the resistance, and I is the current.

Higher wattage bulbs = more current. More current, with the same resistance of the wire = more voltage drop. More voltage drop before your foglights = bad.

Your car puts out roughly 13.8v. However, if your harness is weak, you might only have 12v or so at the bulbs. They'll light up fine, and work fine, but they won't have the same output.

This is an example graph that someone made with a H4 bulb. Notice how much brighter it gets, even after a small change in voltage. The thicker wiring you use in your harness, the closer the voltage will be to 13.8v, the alternator voltage. As the wire gets thinner, your voltage decreases.

 

OK. I get that now. The bulbs aren't functioning up to their potential because they can't get the current they're designed to handle. Right?

While that makes sense, these 100w bulbs are still WAY brighter and whiter than the OEM bulbs. Which brings me back to my original concern: excess heat. A valid worry, I think.

Very helpful, guys. Good job.

 

Personally I've ran some 130W H3 foglights for years on my D21 pickup and they did thier job plus cracked my foglight lense when I accidently left them on....Unless you're gonna replace all the wiring from the relay to the bulb it's unless!

 

Yes. A harness will make them whiter, brighter, and hotter.

Not a 5th gen expert, but I know that the 4th gen foglights are pretty much useless. The beam pattern is terrible, and they don't actually do anything.

If I were you, I'd cover up the headlights and determine if the foglights provide any actual useful lighting, before spending $$ on upgraded bulbs.

If you're really that serious into lighting, search for AndrewR2442's thread on blazer HID foglights. He custom-mounted a projector with a 35w HID bulb in his foglights, and used a piece of plexiglass as the cover. It's definitely something that's doable with the 5th gen as well. If you're willing to drop $200, you could make a kickass set of projector foglights with HIDs in them, and put some really heavy duty lexan over them to protect them from rocks and stuff.

 

That's actually a common marketing lie used to lure in the ignorant and ricers, sorry to say.

Physically you can't give a bulb 55W and have it output 85W of light.

That is what they want you to think, but what they mean is that the color from those tinted/xenon/HID wannabe bulbs at 55W is EQUAL to the kelvin rating as if the bulb ran at 85/110W....etc. To clarify even more, the kelvin rating is a color measurement, NOT a brightness measurement.

 

my fogs run on their own circuit. ive done the rewire, and know that the beam pattern isnt that bad. thats when i decided i wanted brighter bulbs, i drove around my house at night with the headlights off one night. dont ask.

and they make replacement projector housings (ebay, so probly not that great)

 

Yes. And in the case of untinted halogen bulbs, the hotter the filament burns, the higher color temperature of the output. Have you ever noticed on some cars with headlight DRLs, the lights are a very buttery yellow when they're on as DRLs, but they're much whiter at night when they're running at a 12-14v for lowbeams instead of 6v for a DRL.

There are a few ways to increase color temperature. You can tighten the coils on the filament, so that it burns hotter, reducing lifespan and increasing light output (but the total heat output is the same). You can run more power through the filament, which does pretty much the same thing, although it has more heat output. Or, you can tint the bulbs blue, which blocks the longer wavelength red/orange light, shifting the spectrum more into the blue. This does not affect bulb life or heat output, but it significantly reduces the light output.

I like to stick to reputable (non-ricer) brands like Osram, Philips, Narva, GE, etc. I use Osram and Philips bulbs in my retrofit. "110w of light from a 55w bulb" most likely means the bulb is tinted blue to shift the color temperature higher, while reducing lumens. If you're interested in real high-performance lighting, try Osram Nightbreaker +90. It's a better designed bulb that has almost twice the light output of a stock H3, but keeps the same wattage. It does it by focusing the filament better, and burning it hotter.

Stick with a real company, not one that relies on "JDM" slogans and "ricer math".

 

True... mostly brighter by measurement of kelvins rather than lumens...But I'm telling you the PIAA Extreme White line in H3 bulbs are really bright and put out more light lumen wise than most other 55w H3 that I personally tested. Believe me I must have at least 12 to 15 different brands of H3 bulbs I did test with...There are alot of fakers/liars out there with the most common lie of all: "LIKE HID". No halogen will ever be like HID no matter who's his/her parents are...But I most say those cheap *** JcWhitney H3 are bright as hell and are one of my favorite " bang for the buck!"
http://www.jcwhitney.com/CEC-INDUSTR...RecordCount=15 surf all 36 pages CEC has many other exterior lights available along with HID replacement bulbs!

 

Absolutely correct.

 

so you use JCW's 100W's? got pics of the light output? im curious, that price is right for me. also, how long have you been running them for? i want bulbs that will last too.

 

I've got them installed in my truck, not my 03 Maxima that's all HID,... the 90 I believe has my Raybrigs or Piaa's fogs....The H3 bulb can be bought in Xenon white, Xenon blue, Diamond blue, amber, Oem replmt, in 55w 100w or 130w I'll see if I can pic you the 130w xenon blue off my truck! You can't go wrong with these but you can't leave your fogs on accidently either they will crack them! Awesome price and I tested thier H4 130/90 xenon bulbs against Piaa's $75 extreme white H4 and there was no difference other than the pretty container the Piaa's came in....I ran these in my truck for 4-5 years without any problems...Until it got hit by some big a$$ rocks off a concrete truck...

 

no dice if i cant leave them on. my fogs double as running lights

 

And they will old boy...they will.

 

good call

 

Don't get what I stated all twisted....You can't leave them on and go shopping or go to work and forget to turn them off for an hour or so and expect your lense to be AOK! Those lights are hot enough for an easy bake oven! You can run them all day but if you're in bumper to bumper traffic, creeping @ about 1/2 mph. I would turn them off due to lack of airflow> I run my fogs on my truck everyday so that won't be a problem...

 

cool, youve all been real helpful. ill let you guys know what path i choose and show you pics when/if i do it.

 

just pocketed a pair of 100W sylvanias from the zone. gonna go put em in now, and see what happens.

 

You have plastic lenses, and were warned 100w bulbs run hot...

...so you went and bought them anyway.

I don't get it.

 

Plastic doesn't crack as easily as glass. As long as the lens doesn't melt, you're fine. Just check for discoloration on the chrome - I had an A32 fog where all the chrome had flaked off due to overwattage bulbs.

 

I'm thinking plastic would yellow under the heat.

Chrome certainly would flake off the plastic, just look at the engine cover burger on, well, just about every Nissan made.

 

my fogs are already yellow. sry if you dont think its a good idea but back off with being so condescending. im not the only one whos put 100W bulbs in fogs, and ive gotten through general concensus that it doesnt cause problems.

 

Condescending? Nope. You might be feeling that, but it's not me. Remember, I'm using 100w bulbs, too. But the heat has me freaked out, and I'm swapping them out for something 55w. I've tried LED's... pretty, but not enough light.

Why are your lenses yellow? Are they discolored, or did you tint them?

 

The yellowing of polycarbonate plastic lenses is due to ultraviolet light. Halogen bulbs don't put out a ton of UV, especially if they're tinted yellow. HID bulbs put out a lot of UV, and the sun puts out a lot of UV, and those are far more likeily to cause yellowing.