Posted by Joe H. on 10/11/2016 to Products

One of our valued customers, Joe H., created this awesome write-up on installing our R4 bulbs into E36 Fog Lights. Joe definitely went all out with this and it shows in the end product. You get a clean OEM look with modern lighting technology!

Thanks Joe!
Bryon

How to achieve a "Factory Look" with R4 LED bulbs and E36 Foglights?
By Joe H.

Got my R4 LED bulbs in the mail with the intentions of installing them in my ZKW headlights on my E36. Unfortunately, I was not able to get them to fit properly in the ZKW housing and still retain the ability to adjust the beams and use the leveling motors. Just to clarify, this is a result of the ZKW headlight design and not the bulbs! I ended up buying a cheap set of E36 fogs and installed them in there with a bit of modification and they work great! Definitely brighter than the original halogen bulbs and they run much cooler than HID's so they're perfect for smaller light housings if you're worried about heat. Install process (this is for an E36 fog light but the same process can be used for most housings).

Fog, bulb, and one of the supplied grommets for sealing out water:

Remove the back cap and snip the wire leads:

Cut the plug out of the back of the cap, try and trim as close to the plug as possible. My housings were pretty cheap so the plastic was a bit soft and I was able to cut it with a box cutter and a fresh blade:

Using your box cutter or a craft knife, trim the hole to a 7/8" circle to fit the grommet:

If you are able to keep the little box on the wire in your light housing you can skip this step, but I did not have room so I cut the wire between the box and the bulb:

I also took the grommet and cut a slot slightly smaller than the wire so that I can pass it through the grommet with the heat sinks:

Thread the heatsinks through the grommet along with the wire:

On the other end of the harness, I snipped the wire terminals and connected the plug I removed from the fog light cap, this makes the bulbs plug and play with my car's harness:

Solder everything back together and heatshrink to seal out the elements (I also covered the open terminals on the plug in the picture, don't worry):

On the housings, the openings for the H1 bulbs weren't quite wide enough to clear the slightly wider LED bulbs so I trimmed the housings to fit.

Before:

After:

Install the grommet in the fog light cap (with the bulb and everything assembled) and then secure the bulb in the housing:

Slide the grommet and cap down the heatsinks towards the housing and secure them together. you're left with a sealed LED fog light:

Once both sides are done, pop them into the car and admire the results!