As many people have figured out, the FC fog light bulbs cost a lot of money, since the only place to get a H3C 55w is dealer... my dealer wanted 53 dollars for a single fog light.. i think this is retarded.

All of the auto parts stores i went to only carried H3 55w wich is also what their computers say for a rx7. Now, thats correct, thats the bulb that the FC takes. But, they switched the style of connector on the light bulbs.

The new H3 55w has a wire comming out of it, and it looked damn near impossible to wire it up, without doing more work than i wanted to do.

I saw the H7, looked VERY similar except that the crest inbetween the light and the prongs was larger, and had a different shape. I decided to buy the H7, and just commit to making it work.

I baught the H7, tried fitting it in the connector first, the prongs were very very slightly too far out, so i went the violent method , and bit down on the prongs and squeezed them together, then it fit. Tried to insert the bulb in the connector into the fog light housing, wouldnt fit, so i toor the paperclip'ish thing that hold the light in, off. Now that wasnt in the way, and the bulb would slide into the housing, but i couldnt get the plastic nut (type of thing) to screw onto the housing, the crest inbetween the light, and prongs was too large.. i grabbed a tin snip, cut the crest off so it was MUCH smaller, put it back in and that did the trick!


Everything went into place as it should, the light is snug, and not going anywhere, and i didnt have to grab my soldering gun and shrink wrap to wire an h3 into place. Both H3, and H7 are just as bright (there both 55watts) And once again, i can use my foglights without looking stupid with just 1 on.

If anybody has any questions, i can snap some pictures or explain it more. But, i mostly posted this cause i was happy to finaly have my fog light back. and most threads dont explain how to fix a burnt out fog light.

 

so you're trying to say that the H7 55w works, just with some slight modification though, correct?

 

It's people like you that should've be working on these cars in the first place.
If you're too cheap to properly use the right parts for replacement, you really shouldn't be giving advice to "getto-rig" parts, especially stuff like electrical components.


-Ted

 

calm down there buddy, been workin on my rx7's for a few years now, and generaly dont go the cheap route.. But since your so up in arms, can you tell me why my ghetto rigged fog light is bad, unsafe, and/or electronicly fucked up? Because i dont beleave you can do that.

Im not a rich guy, but I generaly spend the money that needs to be spent, but in this case, i didnt really want to spend that much money on a bulb, just seemed a little ridiculas. I mean, **** if my fog lights burn out, and **** up a bunch of wires, i'll just pull the fog lights, repair the harness, and then buy aftermarket fog lights, and still save money over buying 1 bulb from the stealer.


Yes carzy driver, the H7 55w will work perfectly fine with a combination of common sense, and slight modification.

 

Ebay has H3C bulbs for $14 a pair delivered. How much did that H7 cost?

I avoid the dealer like the plague also. But, prior to rednecking it, I always 1st google, then ebay, and trip to a salvage yard.....to see if I can find what I need.

Post a side by side picture of the H7, your modded H7, the stock H3C, and an H3.

 

I guess you've never seen this...

http://www.1300cc.com/howto/how2/h3.htm

 

NZvert, that is exactly what I ended up doing to mine to make my yellow bulbs work but that link would have really come in handy so that I didnt have tou make 3 trips to the parts place to find out that I DID have the correct (sorta) bulbs. That link goes in the favorites!

 

My H7 cost me 12 dollars at autozone. Im very anti online ordering, i just find it to be a pain in the ***, i like dealing with cash MUCH more.

I can only post pics of my modded H7, and an H3c as those are the only ones that i have. (and i can prolly post pics tonight, need to find my digi camera) I already checked the salavge yards, in my area, theres only 1 S5 FC out here, and its already had its foglights removed.

nope, i hadnt seen that, and after looking at it, i still prefer my way. i dont know Id feel safe knowing i had those wires sitting in there like that, hoping they dont accidently contact during hard driving.

 

There's nothing unsafe about it. If you had a short the worst thing that would happen is the 15A FOG fuse would blow. If you insulate the wiring and terminals properly that won't happen.

 

I am gonna agree with Ted, here. This is way to getto rigged.

#1 you are cutting the frame of the bulb, which with even minor deflection will have the light source in the wrong location.

#2 the H7 uses a Longtitudal filiment:

While the H3 uses a Latitudal filiment:


#3 The light source is too long (too far into the lens assembly) in the H7 to replace a H3... no now there is no focus at all.

So now there is absolutly no correct light source placement, so the beam output is no longer a fog light, and you would be lucky if it even would work as a driving light.

This is a bad modification as far as lighting is concerned and would never be recommended. It would only be useful if you didn't care about anything but that the light came on, and not where the light shined.

 

I'm sure the original poster is competent dealing with electronics.
What I'm worried about is people who are not...trying to do this cause "they read it on the Internet"...

I can't even count how many people who emailed me asking for advice cause they fucked up their cars cause they were trying to do something someone suggested on some website.

I still insist you should be using the proper components to replace, especially when dealing with electronics.
Bitching about a $50+ price tag versus a ~$10 substitude part is just petty.
Work longer...wait till your next paycheck.
I find this kinda attitude kinda disgusting.


-Ted