Hey everyone,

Finally got a chance to swap out the 2009 round fogs for the new LEDs. I was terrible taking pictures as I didn't take any until the bumper was ready to go back on but I'll give a quick explanation. The LEDs are all OEM from the dealership. Cost about $900 for everything, that includes back brackets, lights, front grill pieces, chrome trim piece and some hardware.

1) Remove front bumper.
2) Remove fog light trim grills and lights.
3) Dremmel the fog light opening completely (round fog opening is completely different from LED one so you need to clear out the room for the new housing/light. This is ok because the new lights almost 'sandwich' together for a nice snug fit in the bumper.
4) Install the light to the back bracket into the bumper. Use the little metal selp-tapping clips to secure the light to the back bracket.
5) Install the front grill trim piece to the back bracket.

So that is it to get the new fogs/LEDs in place. Now comes the electrical

1) Insert some sort of electrical conductor to properly make contact with the LEDs positive and negative contacts in the light. I connected them with small clips (sorry, I don't have a pic but I can PM anyone a pic if they want to do this) with a wire sticking out so now from my fog, I have a positive and negative wire sticking out.
2) On the car, remove the connector that went into the old style halogen fogs to just leave 2 wires, again the positive and negative of the car's electrical system.
3) At this point, I tested a direct connection and sure enough, I had flickering due to the car recognizing the low draw of the LEDs and down grading from 12V to about 3 which caused the flicker. A simple capacitor installed between the connection was enough to solve the problem.
4) Soldered the fog to the capacitor then to the vehicle's fog wires and bingo, LED fogs

5) I also added LED strip eyebrows at this point but that's not really related to this so I won't go into that.

6) Installed the bumper back on and now have new LED fogs.

Here are some pics of the back of the light prior to reinstalling the bumper and then the new look. Enjoy!

 

really nice job, looks very good. I was checking out my new 2011 yesterday on the lift and looked behind the fogs and noticed the bumper is exactly the same as my 2008. The DRL strip looks like it goes into the bumper a little on the outside edge. Do you have any issues with the light out message on the dash?

 

Thanks, I'm very happy with the way it all turned out and wow, those LEDs are bright!

The bumper is definitely NOT the same as the new one though...just unscrew the 3 small screws that hold the fog light grill on and pop it off and you'll see exactly what I mean. That's why you have to dremmel out alot of the fog opening before the new LEDs will fit. It was a little scary at first hacking up the bumper but as soon as I fit the new LED back bracket into it, I was relieved that everything went back together nicely. No problems at all with the dash so long as the capacitor is installed...if not, you get bad flicker and you may get the 'fog light out' error. I confirmed this when I did the test without the capacitor but sure enough, it gave problems but was a simple fix.

 

looks very nice, good job.

 

looks great but geez, $900??

 

Ya, I know wasn't cheap but unfortunately nothing through the dealership ever is. My round fog lenses were constantly getting cracked anyways and I was spending $ replacing those so hopefully this at least solves that problem. Plus it's my b-day this month so happy birthday to me

 

Were can I get capacitor from

 

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...me=493-1822-ND

 

are the last three digits of your license plate a coincidence...

 

420? Am I missing something? Sorry, it's Monday so maybe I'm a little slow today.

 

area code? I have no idea what he is referring to.

Anyways, nice job on the LEDs, I want them soo badly. What did you do about the programming? Do your LEDs come on under the fog light setting on the dash? If so, that means that your headlights have to be on to get these puppies on?

 

Thanks.

No programming necessary but ya, they now operate as my fog lights so I have to have to actually turn them on as my headlights are still the DRLs as it functions just the way the stocks did. They don't work the same as the new model with the fogs as the DRLs. They are simply turned on/off as my fogs. Understand what I mean?

 

yeah. I remember that another person on the forum contacted a japanese company that created a module that allowed the LEDs to be actual DRLs and also they would dim a bit just like the stock LEDs when the headlights turned on.

his cost was more like $1400 though IIRC

 

my 2011 dims down when the lights are on, I was thinking of bypassing them for full power all the time. Any idea how bright they are at night w the full power? are they overwhelmingly bright?

 

W204 is the body number for C Class.

 

Ya, but W420 isn't

 

I wouldn't say overwhelmingly bright but they are nice and bright, light up the road well. I really like it actually because I have the AMG headlight housing with the regular non-HID headlights (did a retro-fit last year) so my headlights are a little dimmer than stock so this makes a nice difference.

 

looks good! did u have the Light package with the fogs that turn on when u turn? I want to do this but I think it'd be stupid when i only have the left one coming on when i'm making a left.

 

No, just basic lights, on or off.

 

420 is a pothead reference...It is also my son's birthday and someone seems to mention it every year...

 

Pothead references mean nothing to me thankfully, too bad people mention that in relation to your son.

 

man, i'm really digging these. I would love a more 'finished' solution to the Ebay rig job I did. It's too bad there are no aftermarket suppliers for a cheaper replica plug and play unit. Seems like that would be a big hit.

 

NICE CClement! I wish there was someone local that would be able to do the install for me. I don't trust myself lol!

 

looks good, i like the black accents on the white with the grill and bumper

 

Sorry Mandalay, would definitely help you out if I was local...I think I could do it fairly quick second time around!

Thx for the compliments...will send a few more pics of the entire car shortly.