Those "reserved for jeeps only" parking spots are the greatest.

 

Yeah, I have gotten a couple of those looks too! Haha! But hey, not my fault they can't do that! Shoulda picked a better vehicle!

 

Well, I have the JWs to install now for headlights, and their performance is absolutely unquestioned, but I have been looking at many, many different fog light options to go with the JWs as I want something that is gonna look nice, and be extremely useful! I was looking into the JW fogs, as that is a no brainer if you have the JW headlights, however a couple of other options came across my radar that I was looking at. So from my research, I was down to the JW 6145s (Which are 100% proven, but are on the pricier side), the amber Quadratec LEDs (for something totally different, but not 100% sold on the amber), and the Morimoto XB LEDs for Jeep (which I have not seen too much about, but the little bits that I have seen, they are impressive).

So I sent some emails and did some research, and obviously, the JWs are reviewed everywhere with a lot of information and pics and all that about them, so I am confident in what I know about them, The Quadratecs, I still see nothing about the amber fogs and they themselves could not provide any pictures of them on, or too much info on the performance of them, and lastly, one of the other members on the forum here reviewed them, and they definitely impressed me with the output from them, and the price is only $170! So $190 less than the JWs and I believe the output is more! Here are the links that I have to the fogs I have discussed above:


JW Speaker 6145 LED Fog Lights for Jeep Wrangler JK


Quadratec LED Amber Fog Lights Kit for 07-16 Jeep® Wrangler & Wrangler Unlimited JK - Quadratec


Jeep Wrangler XB LED Fog Lights - High Performance Fog Lamp Upgrades - The Retrofit Source

ANd to be honest, my favorite out of the 3 LED fog lights was definitely the Morimotos, however, that big, chrome reflector in the middle was off-putting to me, and the shape of it just didn't seem to go with the shape of the fog light holes. So I thought I wasgoing to end up going with the JWs to match the headlights, and go with my black and tan look on my Jeep, or the Quadratecs to be completely different. So I ended up getting in touch again with Ben at Rubitrux and he gave me some really good information, and a brand new product they just got in! So he informed me that the JWs, as I already knew, were definitely good, and if I got those, I would not be sorry, but he got in a brand new design of the Morimoto XB's, exclusively requested by Rubitrux in all black! Check these out!


Free Shipping on Morimoto XB LED Fog Lights!

I will say, this is exactly what I was looking for, and they are still only $170! And I have been informed by Ben that they perform better than the JWs, and in his opinion, these are the lights to go with! I am thinking I am sold, but I am thinking it over for a week, but these things in my opinion are sick, and I am excited to see how they look on the JKs and how they perform! Once I do order, I will post up and then when I get the install done, as I have three or four projects that I want to do right now and just absolutely no time! Let me know what you think! Just wanted to share this new option, that in my opinion, is pretty sick!

 

I knew you would get the headlights installed before March lol.

Awesome on the fog lights ! I've been looking for some fog lights as well but didn't want to spend a ton of money on them. Those look great.

 

Got to love a good mall parking lot flex photo shoot...

 

Haha, yeah! Well, I was waiting for someone in a store and had some time to kill!

 

Well, I finally got a chance to get these LED bulbs into the dome light! And I feel kinda stupid that it took me this long! But those dang bulbs are hard to get a safe grip on to get them out of the socket without breaking them! But man do the sockets hold those bulbs in good! Anyways, I was finally able to get the stock bulbs out today, and man do the new ones look nice! Here are some before, comparison, and after pics:

Before:


Comparison:



Final Product:


These lights look really nice! And once you figure out how to get the stock bulbs out, this is a cheap, fast, and simple mod with big benefits! I will post up the installation and video and all by tomorrow, but just wanted to show the finished product!

 

First off, I wanted to upgrade the dome lights to LEDs for two main reasons: 1, the amount of light that was output by the stocks bulbs was terrible and I always had issues at night with needing a flashlight to actually find stuff, and with the 2011 2dr, you only get the two bulbs in the sound bar for the whole interior. And 2, I am trying to get all lights switched on my Jeep to LEDs as I like the newer, cleaner look of the LEDs compared to standard bulbs. So, for starters, the bulbs that I used in the dome are the same as the bulb that was installed in the license plate light, as well as the marker lights in the front on the fenders. These lights came from SBL (superbrightleds.com) and are the 194 CANBus replacement bulbs, and mine for the interior are in the cool white color. Here is the link and picture of the bulbs:


https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...car/1127/2672/

The size is overall not too far off the stock bulb, so you are able to use these as plug and play for most applications. They are rated at 85 lumens, which is plenty for the job they are doing! Here is the measurement diagram from SBL as well:



Before we get started though, make sure that you have turned the dome lights off and depending on how long they have been on, gice them a chance to cool because these lights may be small, but they do get extremely hot, extremely fast, just a little warning and fyi on the install! So, to start the install, here is how the lights looked beforehand:




A little hard to see from the pictures, but if you have the stock bulbs in your sound bar, then you know exactly how it looks and how the light output does kind of suck and the placement is not the most ideal, especially with those bulbs. And to my eye, they also give off that yellowish tinted light which sometimes just feels dirty/older to me, especially compared to the new LED lights.

So the first step to remove the lights is to remove the lens cover on the sound bar. This can be done in a few ways. I tested two ways and each worked fine, so dealers choice on which way to go. But for my purposes, you can take a plastic trim removal tool, or for me a thin pocket knife blade and slide it under the edge of the lens very carefully:



You can also push the button on the side to activate just one light in and use your fingers from the side, but with a trim removal tool or pocket knife you can be a bit more gentle and work it out slower, as you do not want to break any of the tabs. ***IT IS ALSO KEY THAT YOU START FROM THE SIDE AT THE FRONT OF THE LENS (closer to the front seats) AS THE LENS IS MEANT TO PIVOT OUT FROM FRONT TO BACK***

So once you have you method of choice ready to go, you gently an carefully start pulling down the front edge of the lens until the entire front of the lens is released:



Once this is done, you can go ahead and set you tool of choice aside, unless it was your fingers, and carefully rotate the front of te lens down/towards the back, and you can pull down some, and it will eventually pop out of the clips and be fully removable. (***Note: this install is for the front dome lights only! If you have an unlimited, this will only work for the front roll bar dome lights, not the rear! For the rear, you would need a different light, as well as the lens removal is different and the lens does not completely detach!) Once the lens is off, you can see the two bulbs seated in their sockets with reflectors cupped around them:



So here is where my issue came in and why it took me so long to actually swap these bulbs. The bulbs set very close to the reflectors above them, not leaving a lot of space to grip the bulb good enough to bulb it out, as these sockets hold the bulbs extremely well! I also wanted to be careful and not get in there with some pliers or something as I did not want to break the bulbs and have to clean glass up, but nothing was working for me for a long while, but then I finally came across a solution with I absolutely feel like an idiot for not thinking about a long time ago but I grabbed some packaging tape, just a small strip, and fished the tape above the light to give me the all around grip on the bulb. I pressed the tape down to make sure it was secure, and pulled the end of the tape that was sticking off, and the bulb popped right out, no problem at all! Here is a pic of the bulb to show what I did:



And this method worked like a charm! I highly recommend doing this if you are going to do this mod as it is simple, quick, no hassle, and does not add any extra stress to the bulb when you pull so no risk of breakage! But while I had the bulbs out, I took the chance to take a comparison pic between the two bulbs here:



As you can see, the bulb is a bit bigger, but still fits quite nicely into the socket, and is a 360* bulb as well! So with one bulb out, you just grab the LED bulb and slide it right into the socket in the dome light and test for function! (***If the light does not light or only partially lights, remove the bulb, rotate it 180* and reinsert and that should fix any issue!***) Once I put in one bulb, I tested, and took some comparison photos:





As you can see, the LED with the Cool White light output is on the right, and the factory bulb on the left. The output is much greater from the LED, and it covers a lot more area in the interior of the Jeep! I could actually see the dashboard and cup holders and all easily with it completely dark in the garage, which usually I cannot with the stock bulbs. And the pictures definitely do not do it justice as to the difference in light output! But color-wise, I think the LEDs look so much nicer in there! But, with the comparison pics taken and knowing this method works, I repeated the above couple steps to replace the other bulb, and that led to the finished product:




So with both lights installed, I reinstalled the dome light lens cover, making sure that the openings for the light come through are in the correct location (towards the front of the Jeep). You reverse the steps from above by first inserting the rear of the cover with the front tilted down, and once the back is seated in the correct clips, rotate the front of and snap everything back in making sure the fit and flush and secure! And there ya have it! LED dome lights! Here are some more pictures of the finished product and the light output, but like I said, the pictures do not do them any justice:







Thanks for checking out another one of my installs, any questions on anything associated with it, I have done a lot of research like usual, so I can probably give you a pretty good answer! Enjoy!

 

Just wanted to add a couple pieces of additional material that I have for the Dome Light Swap. Here is a video that details how to install the Putco LED system, but it does has good, relevant points to removing the dome light covers which was helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8tfBPTcbeU&list=PLc92kHHlACzy2DuMGMsLGEo9TxHJnITZa&index=26 And here is my own video of the comparison/fit/function/output/etc. of the lights in my own Jeep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DACzleKCTg4&feature=youtu.be

 

Well, I did it! Pulled the trigger on these brand new black lens Morimoto XB LED Fog Lamps from Rubitrux! Ben over there made me another great offer and I scored these fogs for $155 and the accompanying fog light connector harness for $20! Those guys will really take care of you over there! Now, I do still prefer American products, and JW makes awesome products, but for the price, that is $205 less than what I would have spent on the JW 6145s, and I can go and spend that on some other mods then! I will update once they are installed with some comparisons between stock and these Morimotos, as well as how they fit, function, the output, etc. I am super excited to get these because they are so new, and you don't see many guys running the normal Morimotos either, but Ben swears are better than the JWs! Here some pics of the product, as well as the link to the fogs!

http://www.rubitrux.com/morimoto-xb-led-fog-light-pair.html

~
~
~
~