DIY H.I.D. Fog Light write up

[akaEsCo01]

It seems many people don't know how to get the install done and not have any bulb out warnings and no flickering of lights. It really is very simple, so I am doing my part to help the community. It isn't the best because these pics were taken from my setup which has been done for months, I just took it apart and took the necessary pics.

Before you start, you will need:
-Electrical tape
-T20 torx bit
-Soldering iron or a pack of these:


1. Take off fog light grills

2. Unscrew the 2 screws holding the fog light


3. Pull the fog light out, you may need to use a little strength

4. Take off harness plugged into fog bulb

5. Snip off the harness and leave yourself some slack if you ever want to reinstall it without having to buy a new on from Audi


6. Snip off the male connectors going to the H.I.D. ballast. In your instructions these two connectors whould have been plugged into the fog light harness plug that we just snipped off.



The reason for this is to provide a secure electrical connection that will ensure no bulb out warnings and no flickering.

7. Connect the wires that used to have male connectors on them to the wires that used to be attached to the fog light plug.
You can connect them buy using new waterproof insulated male and female connections, solder and shrink wrap, twist them together and shrink wrap or electrical tape, you get the picture?





8. Make your connections to the ballast.




This is what you should have left.



There are plenty places to mount the ballast, just make sure it is somethere it will not get wet.

Now you have H.I.D.s galore, go out and piss off a bunch of drivers while the rest of the bunch think you car looks cool as hell . Mine are 6000K in the headlights and fogs.



If you have no light and you followed these directions correctly, flip around the plug on the ballast, you may have installed it wrong.

[CO AVANT]

Good write-up.

Just to add for others: A good place to mount the ballast is under the headlight support. I just have mine zip tied to that and never had a problem. I wrapped the ballast with electrical tape to prevent any water damage. Also make sure you don't ever touch the xenon bulb with your fingers. The oil on your fingers can cause the bulb to not fire or even fail.

[akaEsCo01]

Thanks for the add in

[tvotvo]

It looks amazing

[Asharp27]

yeah nice DIY
this should be added to the DIY section!!

[Gondi Stylez]

Great write up!

[Hotel Guy]

what brand headlights/fogs do you have?

[akaEsCo01]

Thanks guys, just doing my part to contribute to the community.

what brand headlights/fogs do you have?

Headlights are single xenon e-codes with Xtec H.I.D. kit and the fogs have the VVME H.I.D. kit.

[JerseyShoreA4]

Ese, do you have 6000k headlights or are they the stock 4300k replacement? I'm probably gonna do the fogs in the near future when I do my usp front. Thanks for the writeup. Definitely a simple install if you know what to do.

[JerseyShoreA4]

Nevermind, my blind ass read your last sentence about blinding people and I answered my own question. lol, Found the pics of the silver avant w unpainted usp so I have my inspiration between your car and his. lol.

[akaEsCo01]

Nice, can't wait to see it Brian.

[DownhillA4]

Really good write-up make this a sticky! Definately inspired me to get a HID kit. One question... for the VVME kits, I assume the foglights are all one size, but for the headlights what size is the B6's?

[B6driver]

I've installed 3 HID fogs on A4s before and never had to snip anything... never had a light flicker or bulb out warning... i dont know why you have to change harness..

[ThatGuyAlex]

I've installed 3 HID fogs on A4s before and never had to snip anything... never had a light flicker or bulb out warning... i dont know why you have to change harness..

X2 what HIDs did you get. that looks like the shit I put on my GTI 2 years ago. They have new ones that are plug and play and you dont have to cut anything. I did not cut the ones i have in my car. And i payed 150shipped for 35w 6000k and they are plug and play and have the super small ballasts. If anyone needs HIDs hit me up.

I can get them in 3000k and 6000k and they are full plug and play. Hell i might make a write up too with the plug and play ones. Also i have never got a cell light from them!

[A4 KiDD 810]

Damn those look good, wish I had the wiring skills to install some on mine cuz my aftermarket headlights just arent cutting it with brightness.

[romell]

how much where ur fogs?

[B6driver]

Damn those look good, wish I had the wiring skills to install some on mine cuz my aftermarket headlights just arent cutting it with brightness.

read the 2 posts above you... if you get the H11 setup, it should be plug and play. about 90% of the balasts out there comply with our car's voltage requirements, if not, ask the seller if they can include a capacitor (the ebay source i got my set from included capacitors with my order)

[DownhillA4]

So would this set-up work on our cars for headlights if we are Non Bi-Exnon? Although I don't see a foglight kit on their site. http://www.vvme.com/product/detail-20023.html

I assume in the Size H11 as B6driver stated. Sorry for the newb question, never experimented with aftermarket lights.

[akaEsCo01]

As stated earlier, I have the extremely popular (on AZ at least) VVME kit on my fog lights, and only on the fog lights (different kit for headlights)

The reason I made this post was numerous threads I read about H.I.D. fogs were all about the issues they were having which include flickering, not turning on the first time all the time, bulb out warnings etc. This DIY ensures that will not happen because you're hardwired in. The adaptors included in the kit are not the best which result in poor electrical connection to the ballast which means no power and no reading to the car's electrical system which makes it think your bulbs are out. Do a search and you will find the threads I speak of. I chose this route because I saw no cheap solution when I was looking for H.I.D.s for my fogs, and I wasn't going to spend $$$ on something this small.

For the record, I paid about $60-$70 shipped and this is not a new mod, had it for months but never took pics of the install so I took my current setup apart and did it over again in an effort to help others.

Hope that answers everyone's concerns. If you found a kit that is plug and play AND cheap then I am very happy for you and I wish you would have posted in one of my threads when I was looking for one lol.

P.S. I didn't buy them on their website, they were and still are cheaper on eBay, Click to see

[A4 KiDD 810]

If you found a kit that is plug and play AND cheap then I am very happy for you and I wish you would have posted in one of my threads when I was looking for one lol.

lmao

[aaaudiprotein]

Good write-up. Now we need to move this thread to DIY's.
Like CO AVANT said, that place is really good for the ballast.
My passenger side ballast went to the same place where the horn is.
Also, maybe it happened to me only, but when i was trying to get the driver's side fog unit out, i broke one of the wires. So before pulling it out, try to see if that it because of the wires.

[JerseyShoreA4]

I'm assuming the pic of the h7 bulbs are the actual bulbs you got? That's not a pic from a website is it? The h7 is for the fog and the H11 is to upgrade the halogen headlights? I was just about to order from that link you posted but I wanna double check the bulb before ordering. That auction just ended so I'll search em on ebay tomorrow when I get to work. Thanks in advance and I'll keep ya posted as the front end goes through it's changes. ;)

[sadpandas]

H11 is the FOG lamp bulb size.

p

[A4B603]

i had those EXACT hid and they threw a code u didnt get n e codes?

[akaEsCo01]

I'm assuming the pic of the h7 bulbs are the actual bulbs you got? That's not a pic from a website is it? The h7 is for the fog and the H11 is to upgrade the halogen headlights? I was just about to order from that link you posted but I wanna double check the bulb before ordering. That auction just ended so I'll search em on ebay tomorrow when I get to work. Thanks in advance and I'll keep ya posted as the front end goes through it's changes. ;)

Nope, the fogs are H11 and headlights are H7. That pic of the bulb is a generic picture I found through google, but it is very similar. I needed a pic that showed the two wires to cut.

i had those EXACT hid and they threw a code u didnt get n e codes?

No codes at all, that is the purpose of installing them this way. Try it again and you won't be disappointed.

[ThatGuyAlex]

If you found a kit that is plug and play AND cheap then I am very happy for you and I wish you would have posted in one of my threads when I was looking for one lol.

Im going to wait 2 more weeks to see if i get a light or something goes wrong and if not ill do a write up and ill talk to the shop about a group buy!

Also they are out of stock for 1 to 2 weeks as they always sell out fast

They have 3000k and 6000K. Also if i get them to do a group buy they will be 135 - 145shipped. Not sure yet. And they have the new generation small ballasts that is as thin as a Blackberry curve and 3/4ths the length.

Yes it is pricer then the other kit but its also got smaller ballasts and its also plug and play and it has a 6 month warrenty

[akaEsCo01]

My balllast is 3"x3"x.75", small enough for me and it has a 1 year warranty. Plus it was only $60.

[ThatGuyAlex]

My balllast is 3"x3"x.75", small enough for me and it has a 1 year warranty. Plus it was only $60.

Ya but you cut your wire harness and just Ghetto Rigged a Audi. This is not your 1995 Honda Civic. This is a more expensive car, so it would be nice if everything on it was done right without hacking it up!

Thats my 2 cents.

[WhoisMario]

Gee Alex, did you have get all John McCain and pull the race card. He makes the payments so he gets to choose whether he want to "ghetto" hack HIS Audi. There was a time when there wasn't alot of off the shelf for any import car Honda or Audi and most every aftermarket part had to be rigged up. What you and your VISA card chooses to do to your Audi is your business. Props to Aka for sharing his experience with us.

[littleredwagen]

I wired resistors to my stock harness with out cutting the connector, then used one side to act as trigger for a relay. so my HIDs fire without a problem ever and I h ave no bulb out warning and can easliy go back to stock at anytime

[CO AVANT]

I think hardwiring with soldering and waterproofing the connections is the way to go. I had flickering issues before I hardwired and have never had a problem since. I do not use any resistors and never had a bulb out warning after the hardwire. Alex, I don't think his wiring is "ghetto rigged" at all. He even used shrink wrap. You could even add electrical tape over that if need be. Don't think any water should be getting in there. I never had a problem these last 3 years while driving in the rain and through puddles...

[ThatGuyAlex]

Gee Alex, did you have get all John McCain and pull the race card. He makes the payments so he gets to choose whether he want to "ghetto" hack HIS Audi. There was a time when there wasn't alot of off the shelf for any import car Honda or Audi and most every aftermarket part had to be rigged up. What you and your VISA card chooses to do to your Audi is your business. Props to Aka for sharing his experience with us.

What do you mean pull the race card?

Well if im to be honest im glad he atleast soldered it. But be could of used shrink wrap to be safe versus electrical take. Also he could of just went to audi and got a conector clip and soldered wires to that and he would of still not cut the harness.

Also we are past the "oh there is nothing for this car" its been out for 6 years now.

Also its not about the VISA card son. Im a full time student and have work too and pay for the car so dont tell me about "budget". lol

All i did was put in my 2 cents. I did not wanna start a war. To each his own.

[ThatGuyAlex]

I think hardwiring with soldering and waterproofing the connections is the way to go. I had flickering issues before I hardwired and have never had a problem since. I do not use any resistors and never had a bulb out warning after the hardwire. Alex, I don't think his wiring is "ghetto rigged" at all. He even used shrink wrap. You could even add electrical tape over that if need be. Don't think any water should be getting in there. I never had a problem these last 3 years while driving in the rain and through puddles...

All im saing is there are other way to wire without cutting your wireharness. Also he did not use shrink wrap. he only used electrical tape so that might come off or get wet underneth. And he lives in Jersy not cali

[ExpLlclT]

nice write up

only things missing

-Solder

-heat shrink wrap

[akaEsCo01]

Ya but you cut your wire harness and just Ghetto Rigged a Audi. This is not your 1995 Honda Civic. This is a more expensive car, so it would be nice if everything on it was done right without hacking it up!

Thats my 2 cents.

Alex, I think it is time you leave my thread. As far as "ghetto rigging" my fog lights, so be it. Anyone who as seen my car can vouch that there is nothing ghetto rigged about it. And let's be serious, my car shits all over yours. You want to talk about this is a more expensive car lol, dude, I bought my USP new and my wheels alone cost more than all the mods on your car so don't preach to me about what's the right and wrong way to do things on an "expensive" car. This coming from the guy that chopped his coilovers in half to get a lower ride. If you knew anything about anything then cutting a harness is small fries compared to real custom work done to cars. You don't like the way I wired my fogs, oh well, go cry me a river about it because nothing you say will convince me this is not the right way. As far as going back to stock, I can go buy another harness, that's what the parts counter is for.

Thanks everyone else for adding useful content to this thread and good luck to anyone doing this on their car.

[coowhip]

Good write up man, looks great. I may be doing this soon as well and may PM you for advice.

[JerseyShoreA4]

Can definitely vouch that Ese's car is sick. I'll will be hardwiring my fogs the same way when I order mine. I was gonna order on friday but got distracted and may be buying a laptop on monday so I can play with some vag.

[likedatyall]

I wired resistors to my stock harness with out cutting the connector, then used one side to act as trigger for a relay. so my HIDs fire without a problem ever and I h ave no bulb out warning and can easliy go back to stock at anytime

Littleredwagen, what type of resistors? where did you get them? I tried a relay kit and I tried hard splicing them, nothing. I am still getting fog light out warning on dash.

FYI: The fog lights do come on for a moment then shut off. when I flash the brights a few times, then they stay on. Any suggestions.

[T0M3K]

Nice write-up, I wrote mine long time ago, it didn't cover cutting. My fogs worked great out of the box.

[mdzaudi]

Somehow i missed this DIY, good to know its out there for whenever i get off my ass and do my fogs.