Fog Lights - 9006/HB4 CREE Q5 LED 5W

When I had my windows tinted I also had a clear Llumar protection film installed over the headlights and foglights. Before long, the film on the fog lights became distorted looking with a rough texture and its really obscuring the light emitted from the fog lights. The shop says they will replace the film once, but only once for free and that the fog light housing is so small and the bulb is close to the lens that its melting the film.

I found that the OEM style bulb is around 55 watts (around 700~1000 lumens), I looked at HID kits that are around 45 watts and thought that might still be too much heat. I found the 6 watt bulbs that are wrapped in 18 LED's (rated at about 100 lumens) but really don't like the design. I just happened to do a search for 9006 Cree LED and turned up a 9006 LED bulb using a single Cree Q5 5 watt LED rated at 330 lumens. I searched PriusChat but couldn't find any previous discussion about this bulb so decided to order it. It certainly isn't easy to find, I ended up ordering them here for $37.89 with free shipping from Hong Kong.

It finally arrived today and they look great, but there is something inside the foglight housing that blocks any direct forward beam from the bulb which blocks all of the light being projected from the LED because none of it is reflected out the sides like the OEM bulb. Does anyone know how to remove the fog light housings? I need to get them off so I can look inside at what is obstructing the light and see if it can somehow be removed.

The new 9006/HB4 CREE Q5 LED 5W bulbs


Compared to OEM


How the light is projected


Holding the bulb just behind the fog light housing so a shadow can be seen of the object obstructing the direct path of the light


Bulb installed, virtually no light making it around the obstruction

 

Well, in this case it is not a bulb that is wrapped in many LED's like the other's I've seen that "emit" light in many directions. It is only one single LED which is sunken inside the cylinder therefore can only "emit" (interchangeable with project) light in one direction... forward. Unfortunately there is something inside the fog light housing that is obstructing light coming from the front of the bulb (which is where ALL of the light from the single LED is being "emitted" or directed) making them useless unless I can remove the obstruction.

What I need help with is if anyone knows how to remove the fog light housing from the car and if the obstruction can be removed. Let's work on that first, once I have the obstruction removed and the bulbs installed and functioning we can discuss the technicalities of how an LED functions and how these bulbs perform while keeping in mind that my goal is to minimize heat produced to prevent melting the protective film while maximizing brightness for functionality. 330 lumens is pretty darn good for 5 watts especially with it all being "emitted" in one direction.

 

I was thinking even if I had to maybe it's possible once the assembly is removed from the car to reach in the hole the bulb goes into with some pliers and break the obstruction into pieces and dump it out. I just need to figure out how to get the fog light assembly out so I can take a better look at it to see if there is any way to remove that obstruction.

 

F8L, I used your instructions for removing the bumper cover and that allowed me to get to the back side of the fog lights and remove them from the bumper cover. I found the obstruction inside the fog light housing, its metal and I was able to bend it back and forth until it broke off but its slightly larger than the hole so I can't get it out. I'm thinking about baking the fog light unit in the oven like you did with your headlights so I can pull the lens off and take that obstruction out. The fog light housing is all metal and the lens is glass. Do you think it'll be ok to do that? And once the obstruction is removed do you just stick the lens back to the housing and warm it up in the oven a little longer for the glue to set them back together again? Thanks!