[HOW-TO]: Sealed HID In Factory Fog Lights

How To Install HID Kit for 3rd Gen. Stock Fog Lights
Completely Sealed
No Drilling Necessary

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So I didn’t want to shell out $100+ for the Hella Micro DE’s so I decided it was time for a write up on how to make a sealed set of HID factory fogs. So I did some research and selected a Xentec baseline kit as the proper candidate for this. I have TRS components in my headlights so I know what quality gets you, so before anyone comments about eBay kits I must say there is a method to my madness. The reason I selected this budget kit was twofold; they are warranted for 2 years and more importantly these cheap kits come with physically shorter bulbs. This allows for enough room to get the back side of the bulb to fit into the housing and create a complete seal. In this write up I will cover everything that you need to do to make sure that your kit doesn't fail and that your fog lights will be water tight.

Overview:
1. Disassemble fog lights and remove halogen bulb
2. Remove connectors from the ends of the HID bulbs to facilitate routing
3. Install HID bulb and reassemble the light
4. Adapt power harness to use the trucks wiring
5. Profit

Material List:
1x Xentec H3 3000k HID Kit (H1 H3 H4 H7 H11 Xenon HID Conversion Kit 9005 9006 9007 9004 9145 D2S 880 PSX24W | eBay)
1x Heat Shrink kit
1x Roll of Solder
3x 3mm Screw Sets (optional if screws aren't rusty)

Tools Needed:
-Screwdriver
-Eye Glasses Screwdriver (or something similar)
-Needle Nose Pliers
-Soldering Iron
-Wire Strippers
-Heat Gun
-10mm Wrench (If you want to remove the fogs from the truck)
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The Process:

Step One - Disassemble fog lights and remove halogen bulbs



Remove the three screws holding the bottom part of the housing


Separate the cap from the fog light


Remove the light bulb without wrecking the bulb holder we will need that later


I don’t have a picture for this, but the ground will be screwed down under the catch for the bulb holder. You need to remove the screw to separate the bottom cap from the fog light, while being careful to not lose the catch. Then replace the catch to its original position.

Next cut the lead wire going to the fog light bottom cap



Step Two - Remove connectors from the ends of the HID bulbs to facilitate routing

Use the needle nose to remove the small red clip from the female plug



Take the small screwdriver and move the small clip that is holding the towards the outside of the plug and bull the wire out of the connector. It should slide out freely if it doesn’t try repositioning the screwdriver and trying again. Remove the small yellow grommet that is around the wire as well.





The larger male connector is a little more tricky to do, but I found the easiest way is to push the retaining clip in from the bottom. It may mess up the grommet a little, but nothing too bad that it won’t do its job. The picture bellow is also incorrect you have to insert the screwdriver on the opposite side I believe.






Step Three - Install HID bulb and reassemble the light

Insert the bulb into the fog light housing making sure to align the notches in the bulb with the ones in the housing. You may find it useful to bend the bulb holder a little to make it easier to latch down on the bigger bulb.




Pop the grommet out of the bottom cap of the fog light and take a small amount of WD-40 or some diluted dish soap and lube it up. This helps to be able to pass the wires through. Then simply push the wires through until all the slack is taken up.





Run the wires through the bottom cap and pull the grommet through until is securely in place. Test fit the bottom cap on the fog light and take up any extra slack inside the housing. If everything lines up screw the bottom cap back on and revers step two to put the connectors back on. (Note: You can simply push the pins back into the plugs, no need for the screwdriver.)






You’re Almost Done!!!!



Step Four - Adapt power harness to use the trucks wiring

This step is really optional and it’s up to you on what you want to do and how you want your truck to be wired. I wanted my stock fog light switch to still be able to control them so I wired them directly into it. Normally I would use a really and have the HID’s on a separate circuit, but the wire for the fog lights on the 4Runners is plenty heavy for 35W.

I started off by cutting off the extra wire from my stock fog light plug on the light side, not the car side, and stripping and tinning the wires with the soldering iron. You can ignore the one pin being out of the connector; I was going to do something else and changed my mind.

 

Proceed to solder the blue wire to the red wire on your HID harness and black to black. I recommend solder and heat shrinks for this because of how exposed to the elements it is.






Now all that needs to be done is to go install everything on the truck. Oh look at that!


Step Five – Profit

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Gallery and preliminary out-put shots

 

Wow.. Gotta say it makes me like the stock fogs a lot better. Looks like a fun project I'll have to do on the 02. Thanks for the detailed write up and the output is very nice.

 

You're welcome and if you need any help/have questions feel free to message me with the super cool new message app on here! I don't have these on the truck any more since I lost my front bumper, but I can always improve the write up for others!

 

Now I read this after I just bought new 55w PIAA bulbs. Thanks a lot. Now I'm having to rethink the fog light issue and think about this to go with the HID head lights I have.

Blue

 

Will this process work on an '05 T4R? How much did this project cost? Also, do you know of a good write up to do a hid upgrade on the headlights?

Thanks, man!

Gtiff

 

So you went with the Xentec kit because of the shorter H3 bulbs?...Why not get a better kit and just buy am additional set of shorter H3 bulbs for said kit? I've seen and heard nothing but horror stories about this Xentec setup vs. something like this Kensun kit from Amazon. Reviews for these two items are night and day.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KH2EYHG/ref=twister_B004ZF1MWG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I'm new to this, but aren't H3 bulbs a size designation also? Shouldn't all H3 bulbs be the same length?

Overall, I really love the look this setup gave your truck. I'm just really hesitant about buying such a cheap setup for the sake of short bulbs, when short replacement bulbs are available if in fact there is a difference in length. Please offer some clarity on this topic.

 

You are correct, it is a size designation, but the back side of the bulb has no specs on how long that is. So basically on the other hid's I have seen the length of the bulb base was the issue not the bulb it's self.

And to be completely clear it h3 refers to the mount style not necessarily the bulb length, but that doesn't matter in this case.

 

Excellent thanks. So have you figured out which bulb will work if I get a kit other than the Xentec? Will I just have to go to a parts store and try and find the shortest H3 bulb or have you upgraded to a better ballast system and have figured this part out as well? Thanks for the feedback.

 

Honestly I just lucked out with the xentec kit. I won it in an ebay auction for like $15 and the bases were shorter than any of the other kits I have had in the past (TRS, VVME, ect.). The rest of the xentec kit I just tossed because the ballasts are good for about a week until the crap out. I highly recommend VVME brand kits/ballasts from ebay their quality and longevity is right up there with the Morimoto and the other Retrofit Source stuff. I have had about 6 VVME kits over the past 5 years and they are all still working great.

The parts store will not carry any of this, you will have to venture into the magic of the interwebs to get this done unfortunately.

 

So no link to a bulb that you know would work other than buying an entire kit for some bulbs...?

 

Nope unfortunately I do not. There are xentec bulbs on ebay, but I cant guarantee they will work. Its really a crap shoot with these chinese brands

 

Great post! Thanks for taking the time to write this up!

Has anyone been able to find a different bulb that is short enough? Does anyone have any measurements so that I could source a better kit?

 

That is a sweet setup! Nice write up as well. Do you know of any retro fit for our headlights other than buying new aftermaket ones going to hid?