Upper Grille Foglights & Modification

[Yosemite Sam]

A couple of months ago I installed a pair of foglights behind my upper grille. The first thing to do is remove the front bumper (Sticky: Front Bumper Removal).



The next think that I did was to clamp the foglights to the bumper brace, put masking tape outlining the brackets and mark the holes for drilling.



After drilling the holes, I bolted down the foglights then removed the tape.



I routed the wire harness behind the bumper brace and into the engine compartment next to the radiator. Not the best picture!



I connected the power wires directly to the battery.



Next I routed the switch harness from the inside through the firewall at the large grommet above the dead pedal. I did this by making an "X" slit with a box cutter. This area is very tight and rough on the hands!!



I connected the switch harness to the main harness where it came out of the grommet.



After getting the lights mounted and wired, the next project was to open up one more upper row of the honeycombs. I took a 1/2" drill bit and made a couple holes in each honeycomb. Next I took a hacksaw blade and cut out enough of the honeycomb to get my Dremel sanding bit in. I used it at about 1/2 speed so that it wouldn't jump around and score up my grille. I used a small triangular file to get the angles on the ends of the honeycombs. The last step is to reinstall the bumper!

Grille before:


Grille after:

 

[Beastlick]

Great write up! pics with them on?

 

[SouthFLSonic]

I've been wanting to do this to my white sedan for a while now, thanks for the write up.

 

[Macehammer]

Small inquiry, have you noticed any improved/reduced mpg from opening the grill more?

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Small inquiry, have you noticed any improved/reduced mpg from opening the grill more?

It's hard to tell because I have also started using 91 octane only recently which did improve my mpg. Even though I opened the grille more, the lights block about the same area.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Great write up! pics with them on?

As requested! :banana:















Notice the license plate is on the bra and not the bumper!!

 

[Macehammer]

It's hard to tell because I have also started using 91 octane only recently which did improve my mpg. Even though I opened the grille more, the lights block about the same area.

I'm not looking to put fogs in, as you've done, and they look nice, btw.

I was just wondering what the benefits/drawbacks to opening up the grille would be, besides the obvious it is likelier to break under force of impact...

I figured there might be a small mpg loss, but better air delivery into the engine compartment...

 

[Yosemite Sam]

I was just wondering what the benefits/drawbacks to opening up the grille would be, besides the obvious it is likelier to break under force of impact...

I figured there might be a small mpg loss, but better air delivery into the engine compartment...

The grille doesn't seem to be significantly weaker since all I did was hollow out the honeycombs. The increased airflow would be nice out here in the summer. Since I have switched to using 91 from 87, I'm unable to determine the effect that opening the grille has on mpg.

 

[Dirt55]

Awesome thread.

do the lights normally change color like that?
Also what does the switch look like inside?

thanks for the thread though--prety cool, I will be using it soon.

 

[RoXXXanne13]

question, when u drilled the front uppegrill out did u notice like any reason for every hole in the honeycomb thing upper grill like did u notice any reason for them not being open in the first place? I wanted to drill mine out for a while too but I didn't know if they were support or anything and I cant tell when I pop the hood n try n see.. thanks! btw looks badass I might give this a go when I get back

 

[Inferno]

Great idea.!

 

[Yosemite Sam]

question, when u drilled the front uppegrill out did u notice like any reason for every hole in the honeycomb thing upper grill like did u notice any reason for them not being open in the first place? I wanted to drill mine out for a while too but I didn't know if they were support or anything and I cant tell when I pop the hood n try n see.. thanks! btw looks badass I might give this a go when I get back

There is a plastic duct that channels the air through the radiator but if you only open 1 row like I did then there's no problem. You can see it in the pictures with the bum:bananaer off.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Awesome thread.

do the lights normally change color like that?
Also what does the switch look like inside?

thanks for the thread though--prety cool, I will be using it soon.

The switch has a button to turn on the foglights and a button for the different color halos. You can't see the halos with the fogs on. My car is in L.A. with my son so I can't get a pic of the switch until next weekend. I may have one on my computer so I'll check when I get home.

 

[Dirt55]

The switch has a button to turn on the foglights and a button for the different color halos. You can't see the halos with the fogs on. My car is in L.A. with my son so I can't get a pic of the switch until next weekend. I may have one on my computer so I'll check when I get home.

Cool, I was checking out the blinglights website. I couldn't find any lights on there that had changing halos. did you modify those yourself?

Was it the Nissan Titan ones you bought?

Thanks--as you can tell I am really interested in this mod

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Cool, I was checking out the blinglights website. I couldn't find any lights on there that had changing halos. did you modify those yourself?

Was it the Nissan Titan ones you bought?

Thanks--as you can tell I am really interested in this mod

I bought these on eBay. If you look at item#190510848549, they are the same lights even though they say they are for a different vehicle.

 

[KartRacer]

Thanks for posting! They look great. I will be looking at pencil beam driving lights for that position! :banana:
KartRacer

 

[jayrq2o1]

Awesome mod. Your Sonic looks happy!

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Thanks!! :banana:

 

[KartRacer]

I have been looking for the light package I want to install like you did. Interesting thing is that my upper grill is already open! Every cell every point. All open. So I will be blocking area for cooling instead of being concerned about extra airflow.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

That's one of the many advantages of the RS!! :banana: