Picture Review: Replica Fog Lights v2.0 - Honda Prelude Forum

Shimee · 10-22-2009, 01:09 AM

Found these at my door after school today.

Inside the box was a stealthy black box.

Violently cutting it open

The box is free

Some seal proving where they were born

They were padded with what looked like sheets of bubble wrap

Make that envelopes of bubble wrap

This confused me, because why not just use regular bubble wrap?; envelopes make me angry

But then I got distracted by all the baggies of stuff

One had a switch

More pictures of the switch

Insides

Another baggy had the faceplate

Switch mounted

Switch sitting next to faceplate

Another baggy had mounting hardware

Shimee · 10-22-2009, 01:09 AM

And finally the last one had the harnesses.
Here's the interior harness ... well, one of them. Yeah I'll get to that.

From left to right: plugs into second interior harness, relay plug, switch plug

Same deal: plugs into #2 on fusebox, plugs into #5, fuse holder with 30amp fuse

Second interior harness

This is how it connects

Notice how the other end has another brown plug. Whoever designed this harness apparently didn't get the memo that preludes come with a pre-run for the fog wiring. And that inside the cabin there is a female bullet connector. I guess they want you to plug it into the exterior harness.

Oh wait!! They do ..............

lain:

Here's all of them hooked up

Here's a panorama of the exterior. Yes, I said panorama. They made it so ****ing long that I needed to stitch MULTIPLE photos together to capture the entire thing.

They also didn't get the memo that our Preludes ARE NOT 9 ****ing feet wide between fog mounting points

Here's close ups of the terminals on the exterior harness:

Passenger side fog connectors

The first - yes I said first - ground connector

What's this? Can't be another ground, is it? Oh but of course ...

Why be efficient when you can have two dedicated grounds! Even better, make them 4 feet apart and two different terminals!

Drivers side fog connectors

Well that sucked. So here's the piece de resistance

Shed of its cocoon

Pretty

More 360°

Molded inscriptions. Yay this is fantastic! Takes 55watt bulbs. These aren't melting!

For technical nerds like myself

This is also great news. Lens is polycarbonate and body is ADC. But that must be a mistake since I've never heard of ADC plastic before.

Close up of bulb-mount

Bulb removed. H3C.

And some final shots

So overall I give these a 8 out of 10. Even though the fog lights are molded superbly and put together very well, the harnesses will obviously give technically illiterate users trouble making these inevitably difficult to install unless you had existing wiring. (from buying the Version 1.0 replicas.)

The issue with the harnesses is that it appears the manufacturer wants you to run a dedicated harness from the cabin to the bumper. Yeah **** that. The car came with a pre-run and I'm going to use that. Not to mention the interior harness is put together very stupidly. Its no where near organized and connectors are in opposite places of where they should be. Specifically, one of the plugs that goes to the fuse box does not have enough slack to plug into the fuse box while allowing the harness to remain out of sight.

Surprisingly the faceplate that comes with these fog lights is very well made. The plastic used is definitely high grade and just visually I can see it wasn't made with cheap ****. I don't really have a mechanical/structural engineering background but the faceplate is definitely well made structurally. It wasn't rushed and there is proper bracing and support sub-frame so the thing doesn't snap.

The exterior harness is the worst of all. Whoever designed it either didn't have the real harness on hand or was blantantly ignorant to desgn something professionally. The size does not conform to any of the dimensions behind the bumper of the Prelude whatsoever. It is so long that upon installation there will be large amounts of slack remaining in the bumper cavity.

It's obvious though what is the attractive part of these replicas: their build. They are molded much differently than the previous attempt. In fact, they are molded so well they are an exact duplicate of the real thing, minus some mistakes. I held real JDM fogs in my hand and the first thing I noticed was their weight and the thickness of the main body material. Opening these up I noticed this same feeling immediately. The lens on the replicas is also Polycarbonate now, which is essentially like plexiglass. It's a very tough, durable plastic. This combination means they can handle 55watt bulbs no problem. Another plus is that the sealant used this time around is gray and not black, so they blend in much better.

These replicas are definitely worth the money this time around. They are so well made that they look as good or better than the real thing. And I say this with the utmost confidence.

jimnissan · 10-22-2009, 03:02 AM

where did you get them from? how much?

Shimee · 10-22-2009, 08:12 AM

eBay. From the user cosmodynamic for $78 shipped.

HavoK041 · 10-22-2009, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shimee

eBay. From the user cosmodynamic for $78 shipped.

That beats the $260 or whatever I payed for my real JDM ones. But the extra $180 bought me peace of mind.

Good find Shimee.

Ohyea: that's really sweet that the switch bracket still allows you to keep the three OEM switches active. Because of the JDM switch taking up one of those spots, I now have no dimmer switch.

thepreludedude · 10-22-2009, 07:40 PM

looks a lot better than the previous ones.

fastkill · 10-22-2009, 07:50 PM

I am actually kinda impressed

jimnissan · 10-23-2009, 01:34 AM

yeah im impressed to even if they dont fit as well as the JDM honda ones I bought.
I wish they had them like 5 years ago when i bought mine almost $300 cheaper

Asarine · 10-23-2009, 11:06 PM

I think ill buy, good post

Shimee · 10-24-2009, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimnissan

yeah im impressed to even if they dont fit as well as the JDM honda ones I bought.
I wish they had them like 5 years ago when i bought mine almost $300 cheaper

Fitment is great. I had barely even minimal issue, but I have an aftermarket OEM front bumper.

importrcr00 · 10-24-2009, 07:45 AM

Do they have better light output than the USDM ones. I have the factory fogs but I really don't like them.

cubanrefugee23 · 10-24-2009, 08:47 AM

Damn man, those look great. Really makes me regret buying the old version a month and a half back

Vanquished · 10-24-2009, 09:36 AM

Not bad, for a minute I didn't think you got these on ebay because of the switch and switch face plate you got, it looks really good.

4bangincivic · 10-26-2009, 09:01 PM

Picture whore

lol. This settles my fears about ebay fogs. Great post.

lilredlude · 11-18-2009, 08:27 PM

how did you end up wiring them?

tom27897 · 11-18-2009, 10:02 PM

i've never been so entertained by someone opening a box haha
Great find! definitely going to invest in some of these!

Shimee · 11-19-2009, 11:10 AM

I had the old harness from the previous version of replicas installed and just used that.

lilredlude · 11-19-2009, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shimee

I had the old harness from the previous version of replicas installed and just used that.

Haha. Well that doesn't help me

5hift · 12-01-2009, 08:59 AM

Fogs look great but I think the switch looks funny. They should've copied that, too.

4bangincivic · 12-10-2009, 02:46 PM

I bought kit and the harness is just rediculous. I managed to set everything up, but then the relay blew and so did the switch. The switch case rattles because it's not a great fit. To anyone buying this kit I would recommend buying the kit, taking the fog housings out of the box and throwing everything else away. Then get online and order OEM harness', relays, switch case and switch. This kit has shoddy craftmansship. Can't beat OEM quality.