LED Fog Light Conversion for Denali
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LED Fog Light Conversion for Denali
I'm not sure what all models this will interchange with, but our specimen for today is a 2004 Yukon XL Denali.
Here she is:
So, here is a little closer picture of a stock fog light. Its basically all plastic, weighs next to nothing, and generally seems like a $0.02 part. I've tried it out and wasn't impressed at all.
So, normally I would just leave them turned off and not worry with them. However, a guy named Hilton gave me a pair of LED lights and wanted me to put them to good use. The reason I chose this truck as the recipient was because of the driver light being cracked and filled with rain water when I bought the truck. I drilled a tiny hole in the lens to relieve the water and never thought much about them again....until now. This is a match made in heaven. Now after I did a quick measurement I gave myself the green light. Here's the culprit, likely a victim of a flying rock...
Here is a complete foglight assembly on the table. 3 10mm nuts hold it on the truck, and the studs are hard mounted to the fiberglass support behind the bumper. Notice the wing style adjuster, it will pivot the light up and down but there is no side to side adjustment capability with the stock bracket.
This is our replacement, they are readily available on amazon or ebay as a general 27w LED round bulb. Search that and it should pop right up. Price seems to be about $30 for a pair. I think this will work well as a fog light because the light should be very focused.
You can see it contains 9 LEDs total.
You can see here the size comparison. Its so close its spooky.
---------- Post added at 02:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------
Remove the stock light by two pushpins and unthread that wing nut. Place the LED in the bracket and you can see the general location you want it to be mounted. We are going to cut and remove the entire lower portion of the bracket as it won't be used and focus on just the top plate.
Here's a view from the top. Notice how close it is to following the natural line of the stock bracket. Well, we are gonna run with this idea. The LED bracket is a tad to wide so we are going to tweek it a little. Also, notice the corners aren't exactly the same curve..
We did 2 things here. One, we opened the hole up enough for the silver bracket to slide in, and two, we squared off the corners so it could seat all the way.
A few tacks top and bottom and they are mated for life.
Basically just bolt the LED light to the bracket with the one through bolt. Quick coat of paint over your welds if you like and its ready to go on the truck using two of the original 3 stock studs.
Here's the comparison, driver is LED, passenger is still stock. The LED seems brighter overall and definitely has a whiter light. I'm hoping that aides in clarity during general use.
Here it is complete:
And what it looks like turned off:
Questions, comments, suggestions? As for adjusting them, the stock bracket is that great metal: that's soft enough to bend and tough enough to hold the bend after its bent. I'm gonna wait till the sun goes down and adjust by hand until they are how I want. These are hooked to the stock wires and work with the stock fog light button.
Alright, comparison pics:
Lows:
Fogs:
Highs:
Here she is:
So, here is a little closer picture of a stock fog light. Its basically all plastic, weighs next to nothing, and generally seems like a $0.02 part. I've tried it out and wasn't impressed at all.
So, normally I would just leave them turned off and not worry with them. However, a guy named Hilton gave me a pair of LED lights and wanted me to put them to good use. The reason I chose this truck as the recipient was because of the driver light being cracked and filled with rain water when I bought the truck. I drilled a tiny hole in the lens to relieve the water and never thought much about them again....until now. This is a match made in heaven. Now after I did a quick measurement I gave myself the green light. Here's the culprit, likely a victim of a flying rock...
Here is a complete foglight assembly on the table. 3 10mm nuts hold it on the truck, and the studs are hard mounted to the fiberglass support behind the bumper. Notice the wing style adjuster, it will pivot the light up and down but there is no side to side adjustment capability with the stock bracket.
This is our replacement, they are readily available on amazon or ebay as a general 27w LED round bulb. Search that and it should pop right up. Price seems to be about $30 for a pair. I think this will work well as a fog light because the light should be very focused.
You can see it contains 9 LEDs total.
You can see here the size comparison. Its so close its spooky.
---------- Post added at 02:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:46 PM ----------
Remove the stock light by two pushpins and unthread that wing nut. Place the LED in the bracket and you can see the general location you want it to be mounted. We are going to cut and remove the entire lower portion of the bracket as it won't be used and focus on just the top plate.
Here's a view from the top. Notice how close it is to following the natural line of the stock bracket. Well, we are gonna run with this idea. The LED bracket is a tad to wide so we are going to tweek it a little. Also, notice the corners aren't exactly the same curve..
We did 2 things here. One, we opened the hole up enough for the silver bracket to slide in, and two, we squared off the corners so it could seat all the way.
A few tacks top and bottom and they are mated for life.
Basically just bolt the LED light to the bracket with the one through bolt. Quick coat of paint over your welds if you like and its ready to go on the truck using two of the original 3 stock studs.
Here's the comparison, driver is LED, passenger is still stock. The LED seems brighter overall and definitely has a whiter light. I'm hoping that aides in clarity during general use.
Here it is complete:
And what it looks like turned off:
Questions, comments, suggestions? As for adjusting them, the stock bracket is that great metal: that's soft enough to bend and tough enough to hold the bend after its bent. I'm gonna wait till the sun goes down and adjust by hand until they are how I want. These are hooked to the stock wires and work with the stock fog light button.
Alright, comparison pics:
Lows:
Fogs:
Highs:
Last edited by 01ssreda4; 11-21-2014 at 08:09 PM.
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I attempted to aim them last night and couldn't really tell where they were focused so I figured I would just drive it and go from there. This morning was rainy and they were nothing short of amazing. They did focus light on the road but lit up entire 18wheeler trailers as I passed them as well as made the street signs glow very brightly on the hwy. So the light is somewhat focused but still had the dispersion similar to a headlight. I will snap some pics soon.
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#8
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Cool, but now you have light above the horizontal and as such they are classed as driving lights and not fogs. Most states have laws about minimum distances from other vehicles that driving lights may be in operation. That light that bounces off trucks and signs is also in other people's eyes.
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Laws like that arent enforced here. My concern is not for laws but rather to be courteous. During my short drive home tonight (roughly 20 miles) I gazed about and spotted a minimum of 50+ cars driving with fog lights on. Since when did they become so popular that such a big portion of people drive with them on?
#10
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Most people treat their fog lights as extra light on the road. Not that they do anything more than put a little extra light on the 20' in front.
The laws aren't enforced here either, well, except for the ones that swapped HIDs into the housing and drive around blinding people.
The laws aren't enforced here either, well, except for the ones that swapped HIDs into the housing and drive around blinding people.