FYI: brighter H9 bulbs for fog lights

[bootymac]

I thought I would share a common modification here for those who are looking for brighter fog lights.

The Kizashi uses H11 bulbs for the fog lights, but you can easily modify H9 bulbs to fit. H9 bulbs are 55% brighter but they run at 65W. The higher wattage probably has negligible side effects in reality.

Here are the ratings of various H11 and H9 bulbs from Osram:

H11 (standard):
- 1350 lm
- 3200K
- 55W (4.6A @ 12V)
- 500 hrs (Tc)

H11 Silverstar (+60%):
- 1350 lm
- 3200K
- 55w
- 450 hrs (Tc)

H11 Nightbreaker (+110%)
- 1350 lm
- 3600K
- 55w
- 250 hrs (Tc)

H9 (standard):
- 2100 lm (+55%)
- 3200K
- 65w (5.4A @ 12V)
- 500 hrs (Tc)

H9 versus H11 socket:


H9 versus H11 alignment tabs:


Modifications required:



Modified H9 socket:


Comparison (H9 is in LHS fog light):




I'm not endorsing this modification but I'll probably do it anyway

[murcod]

Good find.

Looking closely, it appears like the H11 bulb is designed to not emit any light from the tip, whereas the H9 is all glass? That might result in oncoming driver's getting irate, but the bottom pic shows a clean cut off for the fog beam pattern. (Perhaps it doesn't affect the Audi due to the fog light lens/ reflector design?)

The Kizashi fog lamp design appears to possibly rely on that tip


Bootymac what year/ model A4(?) is that? It would be interesting to see compare fog lamp design.

[murcod]

Bulbs like this are available off the shelf too: http://www.powerbulbs.com/au/product/os ... imited-h11

[bootymac]

Here's a photo of my Kizashi's beam pattern with the HIDs and fogs on. It has a distinct cut off so I believe the fog housing have something built in to deal with glare

[attachment=-1]uploadfromtaptalk1393749519127.jpg[/attachment]

[krell]

did this to my Elantra couple year back.

[bootymac]

Bootymac what year/ model A4(?) is that? It would be interesting to see compare fog lamp design.

It's a B7 as far as I know. Here's a close up of the fog light:

[bootymac]

Bulbs like this are available off the shelf too: http://www.powerbulbs.com/au/product/os ... imited-h11

Those are the best H11 bulbs but that's not saying much. They're still rated at 1350 lumens (ignore the +110% marketing gimmick) with a lifespan of only 180 hrs

[SamirD]

Pretty neat! I was actually just going to go with these since they did so well in the Altima:
http://www.piaa.com/store/p/42-H11-Plas ... Bulbs.aspx

[murcod]

They look good and are actually made for use in fog.

Bootymac, I don't know what the go is with the rating on the Night Breaker H11 bulbs, but I do know that they make a noticeable improvement in H4 and H7 (which I have used.) The shorter lifetime is a tradeoff.

PS: Osram also rate their "standard" H11 for 100hrs extra life over the equivalent H9 in the lifespan b3 test. (350hrs vs 250hrs.)

For its products in the automotive sector OSRAM specifies a B3 value, which indicates the time at which 3% of the tested bulbs have failed. OSRAM also specifies the Tc value (characteristic Weibull value), which indicates the time at which 63.2% of the bulbs have failed.

Tc for both is 500hrs.

Night Breaker Unlimited H11 is 150hrs and 250hrs.

[bootymac]

Pretty neat! I was actually just going to go with these since they did so well in the Altima:
http://www.piaa.com/store/p/42-H11-Plas ... Bulbs.aspx

I have these on my GTI. They're good but are still restricted by the H11 bulb's inherent limitations. I consider them a decent "safe" plug and play upgrade but they are a bit pricey.

Nokya and Hella also offer yellow H9 bulbs. I might get the Nokyas for the Kizashi