Review: Revier JDM projector fog lamp with CCFL ring

I'm still waiting for the upgraded bulbs that I've ordered to arrive. The supplied 21-SMD LED bulbs are too weak to provide any appreciable light output for the comparison. They're fine if all you care about is cosmetic (as they match the CCFLs perfectly), but you should really upgrade to halogens or HIDs for fog light functionality. Nevertheless, I'm tired of waiting so I'm going to go ahead and install the other side soon. It's just one screw to swap out the fog lamp.

 

The supplied LED bulbs are H11 so they fit both the stock and Revier foglights. The aftermarket PIAAs I currently have in the stock fogs are a tad too long to fit the Revier projector (doesn't clear the internal metal reflector/cutoff by 1 mm). Contrary to popular belief, not all H11 bulbs are equivalent in length. I can in theory make them fit by lifting the metal tabs upward by 1 mm but I hesitate the modify the PIAAs. The distance from base to internal cutoff is 1.75 inches. Most H11 bulbs are around that length, but some longer ones won't fit unless you modify the metal tabs or tear out the internal metal piece.

 

I've installed the other side and taken some photos of the DRLs in the daylight. The bulbs I ordered are supposed to arrive in a couple of days, but I'll be out of town by then until after the new year so that'll have to wait.

 

Unfortunately, I returned from my trip only to find the HID bulbs I ordered from xenondepot won't clear the internal cutoff/metal reflector by 1 mm (even though I had the xenondepot rep measure them before purchasing the kit to ensure that they'd fit). I don't want to modify the metal tabs and run the risk of the bulbs scorching the metal cutoffs from touching them or being too close given how hot HIDs run. The factory fogs don't have the metal cutoff so it's simply a limitation of the projectors. The best I can do right now is use the supplied Revier bulbs to test the cutoff patterns but the light output is going to suck.

If anyone knows of a short size H11 bulb, let me know. I'd be interested in getting some in amber/hyper yellow to see how they look with the white CCFL rings.

I'll say, however, that I've grown to prefer to look of just the CCFL rings on when driving at nights with the headlights on. I've always had my factory fogs on with the headlights on, but the LED headlights do such a good job of lighting up the road that I could hardly tell if my factory fogs are on or off, probably due to how low we sit in the car and difficulty in seeing the front of the car. In contrast, I can detect a noticeable difference whenever I have the fogs on in my RX350 as the seating position is higher. Maybe switching to amber bulbs would make a more noticeable difference, but the biggest benefit of the Revier lamp combo is the DRL functionality as well as providing much nicer styling than the bit plain factory fogs.

They retail for the same as the Revier corner lamps so if the last group buy is any indication, they'd be $130-150 shipped depending on the number of participants.

 

Update: TWP has decided not to import any more of Revier's items given the instability of Revier's quality (as some of you saw). I know this will come as a disappointment for some of you waiting for the group buy to happen. However, you may be able to import them from Japan yourself like bino/w202mae given they're not that expensive to begin with, assuming you're comfortable with their limitation as fog lamps due to the bulbs they can take and Revier's quality control.

Personally, I plan to continue running them and have ordered a set of amber yellow bulbs for the fogs, which will be slow to arrive from China.

 

You can ask, but it's probably no different from http://revier.co.jp/products/prius/index.html However, the best person to ask is bino or w202mae as they have experience with getting JDM stuff from Japan, using a courier or a third party through Yahoo Japan auction, etc. bino got the Revier taillights not too long ago.