LED bulbs for factory fog lights

Darsmith

Darsmith

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 27, 2019
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Location
Pacific NW - Eastern WA
Sorry if this has been discussed before but has anyone replaced the bulbs in their factory fog lights with LED bulbs? What did you use and how did it work out? I changed to LED headlights and the fog lights look incredibly yellow compared to the headlamps. I'd like to stay with the factory fixtures since my Sahara is pretty much all stock.
 
The factory bulb is an H3 which can be found at Superbright LEDS, but you will not receive too much of a performance increase other than a change in color due to the reflector design.
IF you search thru the Off Road lighting manufacturers you will find lights that are similar in size and their performance is much much better.
Rigid Industries, KC HiLites, Baja, Hella, and Vision X are to name just a few.
 
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I didn't think I would get much of a performance boost but just wanted to match the color temperature. Thanks for the response. I'll look into the replacement bulbs.
 
I found some H3 replacements on either Amazon or eBay that fit just fine - and are yellow, as the Gods intended fog lites to be! With that said, they're not particularly brite, but better than stock...

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I tried one set in my TJ before my boys took it over. They were too long to fit inside the deflector. Still looking to find a replacement. Or may end up going back to stock.
 
Thanks. Looks like the same set I tried and has the same problem - too long to fit under the shield, so you don't get the correct light pattern that it was designed for :( So it becomes more of a flood light than a fog light.
 
The factory fog light lens is not meant for an LED light. Sure, you can fit one in, but the beam pattern is going to be less than ideal due to the fact that the housing was designed for halogen light output.
 
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High quality vendors like Headlight Revolution that sell LED bulb replacements sell them with LEDs configured to match the size and position of the conventional filament so the pattern doesn't change when the bulb is used in a standard housing. The problems is most high quality bulbs don't fit because of the heatsink.
 
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My only complaint is that I'm not particularly happy with the brightness of those particular LEDs. Anything brighter (apparently) needs a heat sink. The tradeoffs of retrofits...
 
For more light output, you might look into a 100 watt bulb. Same size as any other H3 bulb. The stock wiring wasn't meant for 100 watt bulbs, so you would probably want to add a relay into the system, but you'll get more light.
 
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Darsmith said:
Sorry if this has been discussed before but has anyone replaced the bulbs in their factory fog lights with LED bulbs? What did you use and how did it work out? I changed to LED headlights and the fog lights look incredibly yellow compared to the headlamps. I'd like to stay with the factory fixtures since my Sahara is pretty much all stock.
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You have to decide if you will really be using them as fog lights or as de facto driving lights. As fog lights I wouldn't go to an LED, or at least I'd make sure it had the right color and intensity. Fog reflects light back and an amberish color is what you want. Too bright will also blind you in the fog which is why we don't turn our high beams on in the fog.
 
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C.J. Roberts said:
For more light output, you might look into a 100 watt bulb. Same size as any other H3 bulb. The stock wiring wasn't meant for 100 watt bulbs, so you would probably want to add a relay into the system, but you'll get more light.
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Housings are plastic. Be careful with how high of wattage bulbs you use.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
You have to decide if you will really be using them as fog lights or as de facto driving lights. As fog lights I wouldn't go to an LED, or at least I'd make sure it had the right color and intensity. Fog reflects light back and an amberish color is what you want. Too bright will also blind you in the fog which is why we don't turn our high beams on in the fog.
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So a H3 amber bulb is ideal for a fog light?
 
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