How To: Change Fog Light Bulbs

[derrick1623]

ok, i don't think this is on here, but the headlights are,so...here we go.
first, get under the front of your car, then look up towards the back of the fog light. you will see a single nut holding the fog light onto a bracket. take that and two washers off.
ok, now get out from under there(you grease monkey)...and pull the fog light out as far as you can, it dont come out far, be careful.
alright, you'll need either an offset screwdriver, or a ratchet and phillips bit. remove the two screws that hold the assembly together. pop out the glass part, and move the spring out of the way. unplug the wire ging from the bulb to the harness, and replace the bulb. ok, now put it back together, and got to the other side...CONGRATULATIONS, you've just changed your very own fog light bulbs.

[Jeff Cote]

I'm just coming back from a trip business and I had a small accident. Actually it's nothing important but a rock broke my left fog light. So ... do you know how much does it cost here in Quebec to change just that light... 367 $ CAD not installed. So a friend of mine said that there's some «bosch» light pretty similar that will fit on my car for 175$ CAD installed. The result is so great... those lights are too powerful. They look's like the Subaru one... Actually I'm planing to doo your rewired fog lights MOD this week-end.

[derrick1623]

actually, this how to is for the bulbs themselves, the rewiring is a different thread.

[Jeff Cote]

But the problem's is that I needed to do an other relay for it. And because of that I loose the control on my Fog light switch, so the fogs are always on when you turn on the lights.By the way you'll be able to see the size of the bosch lights...

[Rider69]

Sorry to rehash this old thread but...

On my P5, as I am sure most newer mazdas are, you can take the whole fog light out.

When you are taking the nut off for the foglight to come out, if you look up next to the light on the side closest to the ouside of the car, you will see the wire for the fogs. You can detach this clip and then the light could be pulled out further and disconnected from the vehicle by undoing the connection. The clip that I am talkign about is a bitch to get back on but makes for working on the lights alot easier. Besides, the clip doesn't really need to be attached again as it is not going anywhere.

[1sty]

Don't forget Piaa uses a P5 as their demo vehical so a few Piaa lights drop right in.

[the_inkredible1]

okay, now maybe i'm a moron or just really not good with cars....i bought myself some sweeeet piaa fog bulbs and i went under my car just like you said....i found the nut you were talking about, but the space by the light is so friggin cramped. do you have any pics of the tools you used while doing this or step by step process as to how you got up in there to access the light. any feedback is appreciated.
:confused: :wtf: (bluep5)

[dzack02]

there will be a little blue knob where the clip is hooked to take the whole fog light out, just push it with a screw driver and the whole thing pops out

[the_inkredible1]

i can't check now cuz my area has about a foot of snow, but when i was under the car, i don't remember seeing a blue knob. not trying to sound like a smart ass, but is that for MP3 or for the P5? i've got the P5, but maybe i'm looking up at it in the wrong spot.
(smash)

[dzack02]

take the bolt that holds the fog light on and then once you have it pulled out as far as it will go there should be a little blue plastic(you wont see this underneath the car, you take the fog light out and there it is, it is on the upper right corner of the foglight hole!
and i have a P5 :)

[the_inkredible1]

coo beans my friend. gonna give it a try as soon as the weather round here gets better and i'll let you know how it went. thanks for feedback.
P5's are smooooooth.:cool:

[enry]

Stupid snow. I wanted to put in my PIAAs
:(

[RAAZ227]

Originally posted by derrick1623
ok, i don't think this is on here, but the headlights are,so...here we go.
first, get under the front of your car, then look up towards the back of the fog light. you will see a single nut holding the fog light onto a bracket. take that and two washers off.
ok, now get out from under there(you grease monkey)...and pull the fog light out as far as you can, it dont come out far, be careful.
alright, you'll need either an offset screwdriver, or a ratchet and phillips bit. remove the two screws that hold the assembly together. pop out the glass part, and move the spring out of the way. unplug the wire ging from the bulb to the harness, and replace the bulb. ok, now put it back together, and got to the other side...CONGRATULATIONS, you've just changed your very own fog light bulbs.

I just pulled the front bumper off. 15 min. job! :D

[Vicocola]

umm i left a washer out after i put the single nut back on... it shouldnt have any problems right?

[t3ase]

Why take the chance? Just put it back on.

[mspeedpro]

could sumone post the model #s of the driving bulbs and fog bulbs mentioned? whatever brand, piaa?

[t3ase]

One more thing, while trying to take off the bolt on my MSP, it was on so tight that we started striping the bolt. Is everyone else experiencing this?

[drA!]

t3ase, i'm having the same problem on my p5. i live in new york and the roads are salted in the winter, so bolts tend to get rusted in place. the bolt you are talking about is frozen in place on mine and i can't fit anything more than a standard wrench up there to loosen it--ratchet is too wide to clear the space. while i was attempting to loosen the bolt, the front bumper assembly was moving from the stress i was putting on it. i stopped because i was afraid i'd cause cosmetic damage to stuff like the paint from bending the bumper.

i'd be interested in seeing the tools used, too.

one other thing i'm curious about is how everyone is accessing the bulb--i'm just doing it flat on my back in the driveway. is everyone else using ramps to lift the front end?

i'm replacing the factory bulbs with PIAA icon crystal H3s to throw off an amber light.

[enry]

My mazdaspeed bolts were torqued so tight I was afraid I was gonna crack the bumper. Make sure your tools are good and of the EXACT size, or you will probably strip the bolt. At which point you will have to use a vise grip.

If it is siezed from lack of use (ha, ha, ha), get some "liquid wrench". It is a small bottle of penetrating oil (keep mind out of gutter please) that is designed to loosen (down, boy) bolts / screws. Leave it for a little while and it should make your life easier.

I went underneath the car on my back, and kind of bent the bottom plastic protector out of the way (remove 2 screws) for that. That made it easier to access the fog area. Ramps are very dangerous, be careful.

I think main reason the dealership can do it in a sinch is because they use percussion tools which will unscrew virtually anything with I think less overall stress but more vibration (pay attention ladies) than a normal tool.

Disclaimer: I am partially drunk right now.

[t3ase]

I think main reason the dealership can do it in a sinch is because they use percussion tools which will unscrew virtually anything with I think less overall stress but more vibration (pay attention ladies) than a normal tool.
Yeah, my dealership said they would not open the light because it would void my lighting warranty should the plastic melt. FEH.

[drA!]

I successfully replaced the factory fog light bulbs with PIAA crystal ions this weekend. There are some things I’d like to add to the install process:

1. The instructions that come with the PIAA bulbs suggest that you disconnect the negative wire from the battery prior to install. I did not do this and it didn’t seem to affect anything—maybe I was lucky, maybe it’s not necessary.

2. I removed 3 bolts and 2 plastic sunken pin screws from the plastic undercarriage shield. It gave me more room to work with underneath and also gave me additional room to access the rear bulb assembly.

3. I couldn’t find ‘Liquid Wrench’ at AutoZone, so I used PB Penetrating Catalyst which worked awesome. I sprayed small amounts on each of the bolts holding the rear of the fog light assembly to the frame and I loosened them right up.

4. I used a 9/16 flat ratchet to remove the bolt holding the fog lamp in place. This made it so much easier than using a standard wrench.

5. I don’t know if anyone else ran into this, but the two phillips head screws holding the glass to the rear cone on each of the fog lamps were made of brass on mine. One screw came out fine, but I stripped one on each of the lamps. I ended up having to drill out the two stripped screws on each of the lamps. So that I wouldn’t run into that problem again, I replaced the screws with 4 mm by 12 mm steel hex bolts and used nylon washers—they cost me about $2 for everything at Home Depot. I found that I had more room to work with using the allen wrench than the screwdriver when I refitted the assembly.

[seth]

in my opinion drA! did it the right way, he took the time to get at everything properly.
The people at mazda must frigging hate chaning these bulbs all the time, so much work for such a little thing. Couldn't they just make the wire longer?

[jono1200]

Just replaced my stock fog bulbs with some nice whites!! I can't believe what Mazda charges for that...it MIGHT have taken me 10 minutes per bulb. (partly due to the super instructions here!)
Jonathan

[loccusst]

I just did mine with 55watt blue bulbs (actually shines white). It took like 15 min total after you bend the plastic out of the way and remove the clips holding the wires. I used a flat wrench, no way a ratchet was gonna fit. Has anyone tried removing the part in the bulb that keeps the light reflected downwards? I know this changes them from driving lights to fog lights, thats why I want to do it. Was thinking of maybe baking the lense like you do headlights.

[Poseur]

Actually it changes them from fog lights to annoying lights. One of the biggest things about functional fogs is to have a level beam that will illuminate the ROAD only below the glare of fog above it. "driving lights" as alot of aftermarket companies call them are prettymuch designed as auxiliary high beams and rarely have no reflector to keep light level. Fogs also generally have a wider beam angle. Couple this with removing the reflector, and you've got obnoxiousness at it's finest. It's all up to you, but I prefer to be courteous. Hate to be that a-hole with the lights in ppl's faces. Additionally this will get you lynched by many truck drivers if you ever go on long stretches late at night...

[niko]

did mines couple weeks back! was pretty simple! heres a sample! i changed my headlamps and only the left fog (your left staring at pic) has been changed! the pic. was taken to see the difference before i changed the right one! dunno if you can tell the difference in the pic. but looks pretty nice in the norm!



peace.....

[Dlovtsur]

VERY helpful thread. Just finished putting in SilverStar heads and fogs, and this was a great help. One thing I would definitely agree with is that the wires need to be a little longer enabling better access to the two screws that hold the glass in place. Luckily I have a brand new car and the screws were only finger tight and I was able to get them off with simply a Phillips bit recessed in a socket, by hand. Had they been any tighter, I might have had to go buy a tool to get them out.

I also ended up removing the three small screws that hold the plastic undercarriage shield (didn't need to remove the sunken pin screws) in place.....gives you much better access to the bolt on the back of the fog light assembly.

Thanks, guys!

[DragonWagon54]

anyone gotta how 2 take the damn bumper off...a bigillion skrews and i cant seem 2 find them all...i think it would make it easier 2 change the fogs cuz i hate having 2 jack up my car.

[kherova]

Fog Light Bulb Replacement

So I replaced my fog light bulb mostly with the help of the instructions found in this thread and from p5sundevil (http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56549)

Although clearly detailed already, I thought I would post pics of my install with directions reworked from my experience so everything is together.

Before you begin, you should disconnect the battery, I didn’t but it is a good general policy when dealing with anything electrical.
I found this job easier to do with the car up on a jack and the wheel turned out (before jacking up). You can do on the ground, but you will need short handled tools.

1st, you will need to remove the screws holding the bottom plastic bumper guard. I also removed the bottom two on the wheel well to give me enough room to bend the plastic housing away.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(1).jpg

Once out of the way, you can get at the fog light housing retention nut with a #14 crescent or socket wrench.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(2).jpg

I am showing you the wire housing clip you will need to remove after you do the next step (just so you know what you’re looking at).
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(3).jpghttps://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(5).jpg

After you have removed the nut, washer, and split washer, go to the front of the fog lamp and slide out and tilt to the side (towards center of car) so that you can see a little blue plastic holding clip. It has been advised to take care to make sure that the lamp does not fall out in this process; which sounds like a wise precaution.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(4).jpg
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(6).jpg

Once you have access to the blue nib, pinch down with a pair of needle nosed pliers on the top and bottom and push through.

This will release the wire housing clip. Pinch the top portion and remove.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(7).jpg

Now carefully remove lamp from the bumper and place on something that wont scratch the glass.

Remove the two screws on the left and right side of the lamp.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(8).jpg

Now I did the next two steps backward from how I think it should be, so do as I say, (the first pic will show the second step already done).

Once you pry the glass carefully out you will see the back of the bulb assembly. First remove the bulb wire from the connector housing.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(9).jpg

Then release the spring clip by pusing in and towards the center of the bulb. While you are doing this, you can hold onto the wire going to the bulb to stabilize it, as when you release the clip, the bulb will want to fall to the side (and we don’t want any broken bulbs in the lamp).
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(10).jpg
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(11).jpg

For my bulbs I used MTEC Cosmos Blue MT-402 to replace my PIAA-15955 Super Plasma GT-X. Althought the PIAA’s are better bulbs, I wanted a bluer light to blend with my Midnight blue car.
https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(12).jpg

https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(13).JPG

https://sites.google.com/site/kherova/pics/(14).JPG