[George incleveland]

Sorry Mel, I just saw your post about taking pictures, damn that would have been a good idea. Anyway, it took the better part of 5 hours with a quick bite to eat along the way. I did the fog mod as well (high beam, parking light use etc.). Much easier to do it before install. No matter what it takes time to figure out what those directions are showing, they arn't the best by any means. But once you figure out what they're saying it's like "Oh OK thats what they're talking about" and it was easy. If I had to do it again, I'm sure I could do it in about 2.5 hours. Cutting out the bumper was easy but think I would have had a better cut if I took the bumper skin off first and cutting from the back. That way you are not cutting blindly on that right side. So I had to do some triming, a Dremmel tool worked great here. I was able to take the bumper off by myself, no problem. It does take a little coercing to yank it off though. The screws for the fog mounting brackets would have been a pain but thanks to the heads up from this forum, I went to AutoZone and bought some 12mm screws. I used up all the long "special" ones, I think there were 5, but still needed a few more. I was only able to use the small OEM 10mm screws for the 1 non snap clip tab on each lamp (2 total). So those AutoZone screws came in handy. Routing the harness was self explanatory, just remember that A is B and B is A on the harness label. I did get a little confused as to which way the harness connector connected to the back of the lamp, it fit both ways. There also isn't any kind of click and lock mechanism to secure this 2-pin connector to the back of the lamp. I tried both ways and no click, I pressed hard to. Does anyone remember this? Am I supposed to get a click? The way they are attached now I can wiggle them off. Inside was fairly easy, I have a 2002 and I used my heated seat fuse, which I think is also attached to the power outlet, need to get the 2002 fuse tap from the dealer tomorrow. Everthing else went smooth. Be careful removing that upper and lower steering wheel housing, it's fragile. I was suprised to see the lamps aimed perfectly against one another. These lights do an incredible job of lighting up the sides of the road. On the driver's side if you were to draw an imaginary straight line from your eye to the tip of your side view mirror to the side of the road, that's how far over it illuminates, and it's bright! As I drove down a street with no street lights I thought about how a cop car would love these because it illuminates the persons yard AND house as you pass. You know how cops have those side lights on their light bar to scope out a dark alley while on patrol, that's what I mean ;~) So overall what a great mod, the front of the car will look much nicer during the day without those black holes. And with an installed price of under $200 I'm lovin that; now I can buy that HDTV digital decoder I've been wanting. If anyone has any questions while installing, feel free to float me an e-mail and I'll try to help you out.

George
'02 SSEXL

[This message has been edited by George incleveland (edited 02-22-2002).]

 

[ckonarske]

Congrats!

They *ARE* nice, aren't they?

One caveat for those still considering the mod: Yes, it's possible and very easy to take the bumper skin off by yourself, but, especially for the first time when you're trying to figure out how it comes off, I'd still suggest having someone standby to assist just to prevent scratches if one end pops loose. Prevention is a hell of a lot cheaper than repair.

I know I'd have kicked myself from here to wherever if I'd scratched the skin by dropping one end of it while trying to figure out why the other end wouldn't pop loose.

What I'm trying to say is that you will probably be able to do it yourself without any damage, but with an extra body helping it's almost impossible to damage anything.

It's not that a second pair of hands is required, just prudent.

A relatively easy mod that's well worth the time and money!



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Chuck

 

[George incleveland]

One other thing I forgot about. Chuck, on your fog light mod in the tech section it says to look for a blue wire and a green/yellow wire. I would lable it as the blue/silver wire and the RED/yellow wire. When I enlarged your photo of the two wires it was clear which ones they are. So perhaps you could change that FAQ to read as above. Before looking at the blown up photo, I actually connected the blue/silver and the green/silver.

G

 

[ckonarske]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by George incleveland:
One other thing I forgot about. Chuck, on your fog light mod in the tech section it says to look for a blue wire and a green/yellow wire. I would lable it as the blue/silver wire and the RED/yellow wire. When I enlarged your photo of the two wires it was clear which ones they are. So perhaps you could change that FAQ to read as above. Before looking at the blown up photo, I actually connected the blue/silver and the green/silver.

G</font>

Send Jim a note about that. He's the one who'd have to make any changes.



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Chuck

 

[voyager]

I totally agree that the fog lights really improve the looks of the van (day & night). Besides the cost, I'm a little intimidated by comments that the factory instructions are not clear or even incorrect. The written directions are helpful, but I'd really like to see a few photos of the install for reassurance. Other than that, I'd just have to send my wife shopping (ugh) for the day so she won't see me remove the front bumper of her brand new van.

 

[ckonarske]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by voyager:
I totally agree that the fog lights really improve the looks of the van (day & night). Besides the cost, I'm a little intimidated by comments that the factory instructions are not clear or even incorrect. The written directions are helpful, but I'd really like to see a few photos of the install for reassurance. Other than that, I'd just have to send my wife shopping (ugh) for the day so she won't see me remove the front bumper of her brand new van. </font>

The main problem with the factory instructions is just a mislabeled cable. It's only confusing if you don't know about it before you start. If you already know about it, it's a no-brainer. Don't worry about it.



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Chuck

 

[George incleveland]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by ckonarske:
It's only confusing if you don't know about it before you start
</font>

Agreed, take a day or so and read over the directions a couple times. The only photo in the instructions I was confused about was the pic of the 14 pin harness area on the steering column, I had no idea what that was a photo of.