Front fog retro-fit - how to

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ribs
Joined: Sun 16 Jul, 2006 11:06
Posts: 343

  Z3 roadster 1.9i
Location: Bromham, Bedford
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Front fog retro-fit - how to

Post by ribs »

I promised a ‘How To’ on retro-fitting front fog lights to a Z3… and here it is:

I have a 2000(X) 1.9 and I felt something was missing from the front… especially in the fog.

Parts needed –

Set of fog lights – about £110 a pair from the dealers or about £75 from Ebay. I found a supplier from Hong Kong called HK-PLUS that has a shop on Ebay (US) that are selling a set of clear fog lights for $78 (£39) including delivery! One point, these have angle adjuster screws between the fixings… watch out, some on Ebay do not!
H7 bulbs – Autobulbs Direct, Xenon Extreme white 55w about £14
Relay – 61.36.1.388.364 £ 9.37 + Vat from dealers
Front/rear fog light switch – 61.31.6.901.958 about £10 + Vat from dealers, got mine from Ebay for £7.
Fog light fixings (a must!!) – 4 x bolt 07.11.9.916.922 and 4 x body nut 07.12.9.925.717 total of 96p + Vat from dealers.

Total price paid for parts - £72.00 inc Vat

First wiring – all the wiring was already in place for my Z, I assume all Z3s are pre-wired for front fogs. Check to see if the relay base in the pic below is installed, not the relay itself, just the base. If it is then all the wiring is there too.



Install lights –

First remove the two black covers from where the fog lights should be. These are just clipped in and can be levered out quite easily with a screwdriver… being very careful not to damage the paintwork.
Once these are off you will see the mounting behind with too fixing holes. I found it impossible to fix the fog lights with a nut and bolt because you cannot get your hand behind to hold the nut. This is where the fixings from the dealers come in. The connectors are taped to the headlamp/horn looms, see pic below.



Install the bulbs into the fog lights (I was a little worried about HK-PLUS at first, being in Hong Kong, so I sent them an email first. But they turned out to be great, even sent me a replacement lamp when one was cracked during delivery. Delivery time was about 8 days).
Push the connectors on and mount the fog lamps. Now cut the black plastic cover so that it fills the gap and covers the fog lamp fixings. As you can see in the pic there is a little nitch cut out by BMW to show you where to start the cut. Offer the cover up to the installed fog light and mark the other side. When the covers have been cut they clip straight back into the gap.



Install the switch –

Three screws need to be removed so that you can get to behind the old switch. I found that the hardest thing was removing the black plastics covers to get at the screw heads. I found the easiest thing was to push the plastic cover to one side using a wide flat screwdriver and gently prise the other side off with a small instrument driver.



Once these and the screws are removed you can get a hand up behind the switch, with a push the switch, and probably bezel, come out the front. You will find just one pre-wired connector on the back. Just swap over the switch with the new one and push it back into the hole.

Install relay –

Just push the relay into the existing base, it only plugs in one way around.

That’s it. Total time, if you already have everything to hand, about 1 hour. It took me a bit longer to work everything out.



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