Here is the way I approached the yellow fog lamp issue - by using a clear yellow spraycan paint to create the yellow lens. The product and process is outlined below and came (with permission) from the Daniel Stern lighting website. I have found over the years that here you will find truth, not fiction concerning all the "magic" lighting products sold to the auto and motorcycle communities. I have used his recommendations to upgrade some bulbs on my '09 xle as noted in the email from him as well, no failures to date. The fog lamps are easy to remove, one screw is all, getting my arm in position while under the car was the most akward part involved. This coating has been on since December of '08 and has held up perfectly. I took great care to 'cure' the paint, keeping the fog units at about 110F for most of a week after the last coat to insure hardness. It seems the patience paid off, I am really happy with the results!
Here is the info I drew on for this project. See pix of lamps in forum gallery here. I cannot attach them to this post.
http://www.toyotanation.com/photos/s...&ppuser=169606
I hope you find this useful, I did.
Don M
-----------------------------
> Hi Daniel,
>
> I have a 2009 Toyota Camry with fog lamps using a bulb
> that appears in the configuration of the H8, H9, H11s shown on your
> website. My question is whether a bulb that produces a yellowish light
> (like the H3 CPI gold) is available in that configuration?
> Best regards, Don M
Don,
Your fogs take H11 bulbs. No other type should be substituted. No yellow
H11 is made in quality worth buying. If you're trying for yellow fog
lamps, the stick-on films don't really tint the light very effectively.
You can get good results by removing the fogs, cleaning the lenses
*thoroughly*, and spraying them with several coats of Dupli-Color
Metalcast yellow, which is a transparent yellow paint product:
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/metalcast.html . Let each coat "flash
off" (dry most of the way) before applying the next, and use thin coats
so you don't get drips and "sags" in the wet paint. With each
successive coat, the yellow tint will grow deeper. Make them about 2
shades deeper than you think looks right, and it'll turn out well in the
end. Of course, the coating needs to be permitted to dry and harden
completely before you take the fogs out on the road, otherwise dust and
grit will become embedded in the still-tacky surface.
Your low beams can be improved by replacing the H11 bulbs with H9:
http://store.candlepower.com/h-9.html You may need to shave a small
ridge of plastic off the H9 bulb's connector so that the H11 socket will
snap on. Other than that, it's a direct swap. Again, this swap is NOT
suitable or safe for the fog lamps.
Your high beams can also be significantly upgraded if you will Replace the
existing 9005 bulbs with 9011. The new bulbs are not some tinted or
overwattage version of 9005, but rather employ a relatively new technology
called HIR, Halogen Infrared Reflection. The mechanical dimensions of the
bulb are all virtually identical to the 9005, but the bulb glass is
spherical instead of tubular, with the sphere centered around the
filament. There is a "Durable IR Reflective" coating on the spherical
glass. Infrared = heat, so the coating causes heat to be reflected back to
the filament at the center of the sphere. This causes the filament to
become much hotter (producing more light) than it can by passing
electricity through it, *without* the shorter life or greater heat
production that comes with overwattage bulbs (to say nothing of
overwattage bulbs' incompatibility with stock wiring.)
Here's the comparison:
stock: 9005, 12.8V, 65W, 1700 lumens, 320 hours
compare: 9005+50, 12.8V, 55W, 1830 lumens, 175 hours
new: HIR1, 12.8V, 65W, 2530 lumens, 320 hours
These bulbs are costly as bulbs go - $23.95/ea - but their cost is worth
considering in context: Any number of companies will charge you more than
this for a tarted-up 9005 with blue colored glass (PIAA and Sylvania
Silverstar come to mind) that doesn't produce more light and has a very
short lifespan.
The HIR bulbs have a double-wide top ear on the plastic bulb base, this is
to comply with the law requiring different bulbs to have different bases.
The extra-wide plastic top ear is easily trimmed or filed to make the bulb
fit your headlamp's bulb receptacle. Once that's done, they go directly
into the headlamp, and the existing sockets snap on. Please see
http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/HIRmod.html for details.
The direct order link for these bulbs is
http://store.candlepower.com/9011.html
Can also make your trunk/cargo area light 60% brighter with these:
http://store.candlepower.com/2886x.htm
Best DS
Linear Mode
