[caverman]

So my 5202 bulbs for the fog lights came in today and I went ahead and installed them. All I can say is….WOW…..what a PITA!!! They were 20x harder to install than the Bi-Xenon kit. I tried doing them in the garage under a jack stand but ended up going to a shop with a lift to be able to get to them a little easier. Still they were not easy at all. I know it has to do with the fact that I’ve never done them before and I could definitely do them easier the next time but be prepared if you’ve never dealt with the Camaro fog lights. The design that GM used for the fog lights is not a simple turn and pull out like the head lights are. There are two clips on the side of the bulb housing that have to be pushed in order to pull them out. That by itself is not the really hard part. The hard part comes from not really having much room to get to them.

After trying to install the first 5202 bulb for a good 20 min and then breaking off the push in tabs for the clips I ended up talking to Justin at AAC. He did suggest pulling out the actual fog light housing to make it easier to plug in everything. I definitely agree to that….however, the first time you look at trying to take out the fog lights you’ll see it’s not the easiest thing either. There are about 5 clips that hold in the black trim ring….3 of them are easy but the one on top and the one closest to the fender is not as easy because you basically can’t see them. You pretty much have to pull up the clips by just feeling them.

By the time I was at the point where I had already pulled the factory fog lights out and figured I was close enough to just finish the job without taking out the housing….WRONG! I ended up breaking off the push-in tabs on bulb and one of the clips. This happened on both bulbs because there isn’t much give on the tabs or the clips. If you give them much of a push at all be prepared for them to break off….which of course means they are definitely yours by then. No returning and no one is going to want to buy them. Luckily it only needs one clip to hold them in. After it was all said and done I still had to pull out the fog light housing on one side in order to get it in properly. If I would’ve known that from the beginning it probably would’ve made the install much more tolerable.

So…after the hour and a half of working and a bunch of frustration I finally got them in. Turned them on to see what they look like. Hmmmm…..they are defiantly better than the factory halogen lights but they don’t really match all that well either. They are a bright white…..no hint of blue at all. Even with the 6000k bulbs you can see a fairly distinctive difference between the two. I then took a drive and turned them on/off….you really can’t see a difference with them on. With the factory Halogens you could definitely see a difference on the road when you turned on the fog lights. The Xenons on the other hand put off so much light that you really can’t see the difference in the road when you turn on the fog lights.

If I had it to do all over again I would probably not do the 5202 bulbs. The other option is to go with the HID fog lights that have ballasts and cost probably double the money. If I just had to do the fog lights again I would probably lean that direction but looking back I would have just left the factory ones alone since I probably won’t be turning them on much.

Here is a pic but the difference in the light color is not as noticeable as it is in person. You can see from the light hitting the ground that the 5202 bulbs don't have any blue in them.