Alex's MK4 jetta Timeline/Build thread

[rodgertherabit]

Looks Great Alex! Glad we got that crazy hella relay figured out haha.

shouldnt need to mess with them too much, adjustment wise, maybe a turn or two on the inner (height adjusters)

[Shameless]

Yeah but I got some pretty crazy rake, my rear is a good inch or more higher than the rear.
Also I didn't remove everything from my battery box so it messes with the driver side light. Gotta finish pulling that out. 2 minute deal.
I'm not even sure my front fenders are equal to be honest. I didn't adjust them after I put a new stretch bolt in the spindle. It's winter so I been lazy with all that.
Going to shim the bottom screws should put me up where I want them.
Then I can just spin them down l and level them after all my suspension adjustments.

Yeah glad you had the manual haha. Made it a breeze once I knew what wires do what.
Swapped the pins so the lower fogs come on first as you can see.

[rodgertherabit]

Yeah, rake will do that haha...You should be able to get pretty close with the adjusters, there should be enough room inside the housing.

[Shameless]

Going to bump this, hate when posts like this are the last one on the page and no one sees it.

Originally Posted by Shameless

Roger does some damn good work I tell you what. Wish I had a camera that did them justice.

All wired up!
These fogs are crazy bright. I didn't expect them to be so bright but hella makes great products and these fog lights in particular are awesome!
Coupled with the fogs in the headlights and the HIDS I'm putting out a huge amount of light. But with all the cut offs(Even the fogs have sharp cut offs) the other drivers on the road won't have any complains about it.



Looking at these two pictures you can see how much light my car is putting out.
Even under a street lamp there is a clear area of light projected from the car.
I'm completely satisfied with my light set up, can't thank roger enough for helping me get to this point!



I do still need to get around to lining up the HID cut offs It's just been cold. I'll probably do it in the next couple days.
Daylight pics of lower fogs will come once I get the jetta grilles. This was just a mock up so I could see what they look like when they're on and how much light they put out. I have to take a hammer to the horn mount on the driver side to get the fogs to fit (hella micro DE fogs are pretty deep)
You would also have to cut up your intercooler shroud but that has been gone for a while.

[vwGLI]

damn dude nice light output. me gusta.

[Shameless]

Going to switch to full yellow fogs soon.
I figure I'll share my research for anyone looking into oem mk4 headlamp and hella micro de fog lights.
*Some of this information is VERY specific to these lamps.
Please mind that when choosing lighting options for your fogs, this is not a guide for how to rig up your f-150 but an explanation of my choice in lighting on my mk4 jetta.


I picked 85w Hella Yellow Stars for the headlamp fog
I've done research on the wattage increase between the 55 oem and 85 yellow star.
****I would never suggest using anything more than 85w for a lamp intended on 55w and I'm not going to suggest using even 85w until I run them for months and can state my own claim.
If you choose on doing this, you're on your own buddy! I'm not accountable for it.
There is a significant heat, light and load increase.

-Load: My fogs are wired with a relay and a fuse so my wiring will be completely safe for the load. I am using an ECS relay, I highly suggest similar if you run any sort of fogs.
-Heat: These suckers will push out a lot more heat than the oem, however it shouldn't be so much as to distort the fog housing since it is in fact metal.
I found threads of people who have been running them for years with no problems on the mk3 fogs. The mk4 fogs are better built.
They are metal and the reflector is magnesium(about identical to the hella micro de). The lens is spaced further away and quite thick. There shouldn't be any issue here.
-Light: This one isn't thought about so much. Increasing your light output can actually create problems.
You're putting much more light through a housing that was built for a certain amount of light.
So a very small amount of glare from a housing with a 50 watt bulb could be completely intolerable at 100 watts.
This however isn't a reflector housing and they cut off below my main bulb very cleanly.

I feel these three tolerances are within mk4 headlight fogs capabilities. 85w is quite an increase but it's not overboard. You could say I'll be pushing it a tiny bit.

These are not tuner yellow, however they look quite yellow when viewed head on. There is only a light coating on part of the bulb.
I'm choosing 3000k color and higher to keep away from getting pulled over for having stupid tuner yellow lights.
**** Yes, you WILL get pulled over every week if you're running tuner yellow 2,500k lights. 3000k is OEM lexus yellow, so I feel safety in this.

These are picture of Hella yellow stars in the oem MK3 fog lights.


This last picture is with the e-code halogen low beams and fog lights on.



I will be upgrading to a 35w 3000k HID kit in the hella micro DE's.
These I would suggest putting in you hella micro DE's. There isn't much room to mess up.
I found diy and full information on spacing this bulb to work perfectly in the lamp to the halogen H3 bulb. I want to make sure the efficiency of the lamp isn't compromised by bulb dimensions and light angle.
It requires a small spacer between the bulb and where the bulb sits.
I need to make a small bracket to hold the bulb in, found DIY for that as well on vortex, it's very simple.
piece of tin, drill and tin snips, too easy!
VWVortex.com - DIY bulb retainer for H3 HID's

This is a picture of hella micro de's with 3000k HID kit.
And this is the 50$ hid kit. Many run this kit with this lamp DDM Tuning 35W and 55W HID Kits
Notice sharp cut off, this lamp is very compatible with HIDs.

*The fogs are 100% controllable and can be put on or off during any beam. So during night driving I will switch to main bulb which is white.
It would be unlikely for me to have all the lights on at once. There isn't much point of shooting 10,000 lumens onto the road unless I'm on a back road in the country with no street lamps.

[Miller7204]

Keep up the good work man

[rodgertherabit]

Fun fact: oem Mkiv fog are Micro DEs!

The only problem with higher wattage is reducing the lifespan of the chrome reflective finish. More heat will wear on them faster. 35w xenons are solid for this application.

Also, there are h3 bulbs made to proper length. No spacers needed. Pm me and I'll set you up!

[Shameless]

I'd be uneasy about putting HID's in the housing fog unless you flipped the fogs so the cut off is on top. I took a look at my e-codes, sitting my in closet. The cut off on the headlight fogs is blocking the bottom. Seemed really odd to me.

If the chrome finish does deteriorate say 5 years down the line. I could always just replace the lamp housings. Hella probably has a part number for it? Or hell I could order it from you haha.

You have slim ballasts kit with mounting hardware in 3000k?
thanks miller.

[rodgertherabit]

Yeah the new morimoto ballasts are basically slims.

Why would you want the cutoff shield on top?

Another fun fact: ALL projectors have cutoff sheds on the Bottom your low beams and fogs (remember the Oem fogs are DEs). This is so the light doesn't go up into on coming traffic.

We should be posting this info in the headlight thread. On e I get some free time ill make a diagram that explains how it all works. Heck I'm sure there's already a few on the interwebz

[Shameless]

Good I need a diagram that's a mind fuck.

[rodgertherabit]

Posted Projector Diagrams/info in the headlight thread

[Shameless]

So, to get the jetta fog grilles I ordered this set.
For 99 04 VW Jetta Bora MK4 Convex Lens Fog Light Front Bumper Grille Kit | eBay


It arrived today, 10 days after being ordered. Not bad timing from china. But stand the fuck back cause this is where it gets really weird.
This seems to be an oem quality piece! I'm dead serious. It's a perfect mold with the right plastic, the lights are solid, good paint, sealed up properly.
The harness it came with is very simple, everything is labeled on it, came with a sheet of paper to show where everything goes.
All the wires are shrink wrapped and the terminals are rings.
The relay has a fuse for the positive side. The finish is nice. It's really a nice piece!
I definitely would suggest grabbing these if you're thinking about fog-lights. They were 80$ shipped.

I'm going to pull off the fogs it came with and swap them for micro DE's. The chrome shroud is held on by 3 screws. Going to either now or eventually, unscrew those, pull the shroud off, rip the chrome off it and paint it satin black. Just not a big fan of chrome and nothing else on the car is chrome.

[_FUBAR_]

A tip to making the fogs last a while...do nt run them during they day! I want to throw a brick through people's windows when I see idiots running fogs on during the day. Its stupid.
I have been wanting fogs and new headlights for five years now

[Miller7204]

Didn't you buy RodgerRabit's fogs?!

And by the sounds of it, those fogs sound good. I'd like to read a review once you have them all hooked up and everything. I'd like some for all the snow and rain we get here in NY.