Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods PIAA 510 Kit (5164 Driving Lights) Installation

I recently purchased this kit and, due to the weather up here, I'm now just getting around to installing it. While I have some ideas how I wanna do it (particularly the wiring), I was curious what experiences others CEG'ers have had when installing this kit. I've seen Slim Shady's how-to, but I'm not thrilled about cutting up on factory for PIAA fogs, to be honest.

Couple basic questions:

1) can the PIAA 510 kit be installed directly w/ some drilling, or is it necessary to do the mods in Slim Shady's how-to?

2) do the lamps get hot enough that they shouldn't be touching the bumper/valence like the factory fogs do?

3) has anyone successfully wired the switch into the stock/factory switch? I was thinking about using the stock switch for a power source, but still use the PIAA switch. I notice this isn't really covered in any of the how-to/info I've seen on the PIAA 510 kit when running a search on these forums. Any suggestions?

Any tips, suggestions, observations or how-to's would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'm most interested in #3 above. Ideally, I'd like to operate the PIAA lights with the factory switch. I noticed a few have mentioned doing this, but haven't provided details. It's been a while since I was under the dash to do the fog light fix, but if I remember correctly wouldnt the following work?

The PIAA harness has 2 wires going to the relay from the PIAA switch (there is a third wire for the switch power, but that's irrelevent if using the stock switch I believe)...red (positive) and black (ground). If I splice the red wire before the relay into the Orange/Yellow leaving the factory switch, and the black (ground) into the Black/Red leaving the factory switch, that should work, shouldn't it? I have a Chilton's manual with a somewhat crappy wiring diagram, so I'm not sure if this is 100% (I'm also at the office, not looking under the dash of the 'Tour, so bear with me).

*tap tap* This thing on? *tap tap*

I yanked off the factory fogs last night...man, they sure are pieces of $hit. With a little rust on the top screw, they were also a PITA to get off.

I noticed that the front bumper mounting bolts line up almost perfectly above the fog lamp holes in the bumper covere, so now I'm in the process of fabricating a mounting bracket (from some L-shaped brackets I snagged at Home Depot) utilizing those bolts, similar to the bracket many have used to mount the SVT exhaust on non-SVT cars and instead of mounting the heavy lamps to that flimsy bumper cover. I'll let ya know how it turns out. If it works, I'll try and get some accurate measurements so others can replicate it perhaps.

The car kinda looks cool without the fogs, though, to be honest...it'd make a great intake for front brake cooling ducts as well. =)

Hey 7DUST

Just cut the OEM wires and cut the wires that go to the PIAA lamps and splice them together make sure when you cut the piaa lights you leave enough wire to play with. By doing that you can still use the factory switch.

Did i miss anything?

hey slim where is your how-to?

I updated it a little bit so read the info in the pics please.

How-To

I added a couple of mods to Slim Shady's excellent Fog lamp mod..

Adjustment and brace pictures

The PIAA 510's are brighter and better than the headlamps. Expensive compare to Pep Boy's, but worth it, in my opinion. I have had cheap lights. The PIAA's are well built and put out a well focused pattern.

I'm not sure if you know it but my fogs won't need an adjustment because the 2 screws are nice and tight so the piaa's won't point straight up They will how ever shake because our nose is not supported very well so it will shake a little but not knock the beam out of whack. To adjust the beam all you have to do is take your thumb and push up or down very easy and it will adjust.

It's kool that you came up with possibly a better idea but FWIW i've had no problems what so ever with aiming them.

I'm glad everyone likes there piaa's and like i said you won't need your headlights anymore

FWIW,

My brackets were a little different then yours, Slim.

The lights touched the bumper and I could not adjust them high enough to be effective. Between the bumper contact and the shaking, the lights kept pointing downward too much.

Besides the braces to stop vibration (I see no light shaking when I am driving now), I used a dremel saw and cut away some of the surround by the lights. No problems now (the face of the light is about 1/8" away from the bumper opening) and they work great, as I said.

Thanks again for the Group buy and the install info. Even though I needed to modify the install, your instructions were still excellent.

N/P i'm glad you like them and glad i could help out, Save your how-to for the SE's just in case someone needs it.