Replacing Disco 4 fog lights with Spot lights

**Plutei** · 23rd March 2015, 01:15 PM

Hi Everyone

First off, I know next to nothing about the inner workings of a disco 4 (I own a defender myself but I'm doing this for dad). 2011 TDV6 Discovery 4

He's absolutely not interested in auxiliary driving lights as he likes the stock look so the plan is to replace the factory fog lights in the bumper with a pair of small spot lights. Then wire the lot up so they are linked to the Hi-Beams instead of the separate switch for the fog lights. And then (optionally, this depends on the difficulty) wire the new spotties to the now defunct foglight switch so that they can be turned off when hi-beams are on.

How I plan on doing this is: wacking in new light units (I guess I'll examine the details of that later), splicing the current hi-beam wires and running them to the new fog-spot-lights, and putting in inline fuses (and I presume I might have to upgrade the current hi-beam fuse?).
Then, to separately turn off the new lights with the fog switch I can use the defunct foglight power circuits to control relays in the new fog-spot-light circuits. If I'm not mistaken this should prevent me from needing to run any new wires anywhere besides behind the bumper.

So, is this a bad idea? Is this possible? Are there better ideas?

Cheers

**BMKal** · 23rd March 2015, 02:45 PM

The wiring part wouldn't be too difficult to figure out - but I'd be questioning the value of fitting "spot lights" as small as the OEM fog lights anywhere on the car. Any lights of this diameter are not going to be worth two knobs of goat poo as far as light output is concerned.

If you really want to improve the lighting while not changing the "stock" look of the front of the D4 - I'd be mounting a single row LED light bar behind the grille. I just had a look at mine, and the gap below the bottom bar of the grille is wide enough - you just need to pop the grille out and make up some sort of mounting bracket to sit in the right position behind it.

Buy a decent quality LED bar and you'll be surprised at the light it will put out.

**Plutei** · 23rd March 2015, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by BMKal

I'd be questioning the value of fitting "spot lights" as small as the OEM fog lights anywhere on the car. Any lights of this diameter are not going to be worth two knobs of goat poo as far as light output is concerned.

I was planning on moving them forward and creating larger holes to fit a larger unit

Originally Posted by BMKal

Buy a decent quality LED bar and you'll be surprised at the light it will put out.

But this is a great idea.

Thanks

**PeterOZ** · 23rd March 2015, 03:05 PM

might find some legalties in replacing the fog lights with driving lights, ADR or the like.

Philips do a legal replacement HID inssert that also is adaptive, think there are details on the disco3.co.uk site

I'd love to be able to squaeeze a light bar on my D3

**Plutei** · 23rd March 2015, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by PeterOZ

might find some legalties in replacing the fog lights with driving lights, ADR or the like.

I figure as long as it's wired to the hi-beam switch and not the foglight switch then it's the exact same as installing a pair of driving lights into a bumper that didn't have fog lights to start with.

Originally Posted by PeterOZ

Philips do a legal replacement HID inssert that also is adaptive, think there are details on the disco3.co.uk site

The issue with them is that while you get more light it's all thrown on the ground directly in front of the car and not up ahead where it's useful, but thanks for the tip Peter.

**rufusking** · 23rd March 2015, 05:28 PM

Have a read of this thread. http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...g-harness.html I put a suggested wiring diagram in the tread which can be altered to suit you idea.

**TerryO** · 24th March 2015, 04:40 AM

Originally Posted by BMKal

The wiring part wouldn't be too difficult to figure out - but I'd be questioning the value of fitting "spot lights" as small as the OEM fog lights anywhere on the car. Any lights of this diameter are not going to be worth two knobs of goat poo as far as light output is concerned.

If you really want to improve the lighting while not changing the "stock" look of the front of the D4 - I'd be mounting a single row LED light bar behind the grille. I just had a look at mine, and the gap below the bottom bar of the grille is wide enough - you just need to pop the grille out and make up some sort of mounting bracket to sit in the right position behind it.

Buy a decent quality LED bar and you'll be surprised at the light it will put out.

You asked if there is a better idea, the idea above is a way better idea for a number of reasons.

If your father is concerned with looks then cutting holes to put in larger spot lights where the fog lights are in his D4's bumper apart from not working as well as a light bar mounted in the grill will in my opinion look terrible.

Good luck with it.

**Plutei** · 24th March 2015, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by TerryO

If your father is concerned with looks then cutting holes to put in larger spot lights where the fog lights are in his D4's bumper apart from not working as well as a light bar mounted in the grill will in my opinion look terrible.

Good luck with it.

Thanks Terry, luckily after some convincing that light bars DO actually put out useful amounts of light, he seems rather taken with the idea. And it will be much easier, particularly aiming the spot lights would have been a mission.

Thread: Replacing Disco 4 fog lights with Spot lights

Thread Tools

Replacing Disco 4 fog lights with Spot lights

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions