I havr been trying to find a tutorial to change the fog light for F45/F46 but to no avail. Hope this guide helps F45/F46 owners get an idea of how it is done.
F45/F46 is unlike most Bimmers, where fog light bulb change is done through accessing from the wheel arch. F45/F46 fog light bulb change is done from the front.
This project is a conversion of the stock yellow fog lamp to Philips Diamondvision 5000K white fog lamp. The fog lamp specifications is 12V 35W H8. Do not attempt to use H8 LED which does not have canbus canceller, otherwise F46 will give error code "Fog Lamp Failure".
Locate the air vent of the fog lamp front cover.
Reach your fingers in and locate a clip. Loosen the clip and start prying open the cover. There should be 2 clips on top and 2 at the bottom. Just yank them out with brute force. Don't worry as the material is slightly soft and will not snap.
Unscrew the 2 torx screws holding the fog lamp assembly.
Lift out the whole fog lamp assembly.
Unplug the clip connector of the power supply cable, by squeezing the sides.
Dislodge the H8 bulb by turning clockwise (passenger side) and counter-clockwise (driver side).
Remove the bulb by pulling it out from the rear by holding the plastic stalk.
IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT USE BARE HANDS TO TOUCH THE QUARTZ GLASS PART OF THE BULB. THE OIL AND DIRT FROM FINGERS WILL CORRODE THE BULB PREMATURELY WHEN IT HEATS UP.
Insert the new bulb in reverse order of removal.
Mount the fog lamp assembly back into position and fasten on the 2 torx screws.
Do the same for the other side.
Look! Matching colors!
The reason why F45/F46 are different from other Bimmers in terms of fog lamp replacement is due to the driver side, where the rear of the fog lamp assembly is blocked by the washer reservoir. There is no way to access it from the wheel arch.
Project DiamondVision Complete!
Now you can have matching white light as the headlights.
If your headlights are led like mine, 5000K fog lamp may be slightly warmer than the headlight. For a perfect match, you can try Philips X-treme Ultinon LED H8 fog lamp which illuminates at 6000K. However, you need an additional canbus canceller, because the bulb is 12V 15W and will trigger an error code.
Have fun trying it out on your F45/F46!
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