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A super quick tip on the Circuit Doctors 90-96 fog light remedy, that makes things much easier.
I went a different route as far as LED units.
I purchased Hella H4 housings and Beamtech LED H4 bulbs.
They send you the Canbus short length decoders free, even after I purchased.
The tip: Zero wire cutting!
Headlight wire is fairly short & wire rubber very hard from age, which makes it awkward to do.
All I did was insert the wires from the Dorman socket into the sides of the original headlight socket.
Then plugged in the decoder in, wrapped with electrical tape.
Done!
Can do without a decoder as well, better than cutting old wire.
Took all of 10 minutes start to finish & work great.
Rock on Santana! Rock on!
Six decades strong!
93 Vette
74 Capri MK1 modified
Last edited by vivasantana; Mar 27, 2022 at 01:22 PM.
Just finished doing this fix on my 94. My lights were similar to bsneade's, in that it looked like a molded cord, so I didn't want to cut into that. I bought an extension H4 harness, and did all the wiring to that.
Here is the harness after making the connections;
And this is the finished product, all taped up;
Everything works as designed. I really have to pull back on the stalk to get the high beams to activate, but that's an unrelated issue.
I also like the modularity of my solution. I can easily remove it like it was never there. Also, if there's a warranty with the headlights (doubtful, as these were cheap eBay units), they can't deny the claim since the lights were never modified.
OP: yeah, I'm an EE plus MS in Physics, 40+ years of engineering including 9 years teaching at an engineering college with a small participation in the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics. The point is, I understand most of this stuff but one thing I learned years ago is to forget everything you know about the principles of mathematics and the laws of fizzics when it comes to cars. If the auto makers could save one foot of wire but using the filament in the return path, multiply that by 1,000,000+ vehicles manufactured you have saved 1,000,000+ feet of wire. That translates into mega bucks. There should be a Nobel Prize category for motor vehicle wiring.
Thanks for the detailed description which worked. I was able to wire in my 168 bulb by just stripping off about 1 3/4 inch off the wire and directly inserting it into the wiring harness connector which is on the left hand side. Then I just reconnected the harness. That way, I don't have to cut/splice into any wire. I made a short video:
Zip tie the small light bulb so it doesn't rub against anything and melt something. This will only be on when you are using your high beams and only uses 5 watts(which would be very rarely). This retains the full functionality of turning off the foglamps if the high beam is on and is a lot easier than tearing apart the dash in order to ground the fog light relay.
To properly install LED headlights into a C4 Corvette (1996 specifically) you need:
7 x 6 headlight converter kit which switches you from H6054 sealed beam unit to H4 Bulb. This is inexpensive ($20) and is made of glass and metal. There are other options like projector lens, but I wanted it to work like stock and I wouldn't trust other types to preserve the hi/low beam pattern. I also don't like the bug eye look of other H6054 LED replacement units :
You can then use any LED H4 hi/low beam bulb. I used Auxito 12000LM. They have very good support. If their bulb doesn't work, they will send you the decoder/resistor pack for free to try to fix the problem.:
If you only install this, when you turn on your foglights, the high beam comes on instead. If you don't mind this, then you are done. Otherwise, you have to attach a small light bulb to the wiring harness.
You only need to attach the bulb to one side. The result will be a much brighter and whiter light for your Corvette. The high and low beams work the same without blinding oncoming drivers and it looks exactly the same as stock except much brighter.
Last edited by Franklin Hu; Nov 27, 2022 at 07:11 PM.
Corvette Forum at its best. Very interesting written by people who are a lot brighter than me. (yes i went for the pun) Followed by somebody who left all the Amazon Part Numbers so I could almost do the whole thing from my couch! Once I got the above parts it took a little over an hour.
https://www.holley.com/brands/holley...ar_headlights/
Wow! Those are expensive! $199 each? What is the lumens rating?
Using LED parts from Amazon cost only about $70 total for both.
After using this setup for a while and driving through the inky blackness of a rainy Seattle night, I'm thinking I need still brighter. So I am trying the newest 20000LM 6000K Auxito LED bulbs:
Anyone figure out how to do this on an 89?
I really want to try the Holley Retrobrights on my 89, but AFAIK no one has published yet a how to for modding the wiring to get the full correct factory function with an 89
I did read one user say that the 89 wiring is unique to that year and the 90-96 solution does not work while iirc 84-87/88 have a relatively simple fix to get factory fog and headlight function with LEDs
https://www.holley.com/brands/holley...ar_headlights/
Wow! Those are expensive! $199 each? What is the lumens rating?
Using LED parts from Amazon cost only about $70 total for both.
After using this setup for a while and driving through the inky blackness of a rainy Seattle night, I'm thinking I need still brighter. So I am trying the newest 20000LM 6000K Auxito LED bulbs: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09JZ6QZ6T for $55 for the pair. If that don't cut through the darkness, I don't know what will.
I didn't realize You were a fellow Seattlelite. I'm in the North Beach neighborhood.
The Auxito 20000LM bulbs measured almost twice as bright as the 12000LM, but visually didn't seem to look much different. It's still hard to see the wet pavement and line markers in the dark and the oncoming headlights make it even harder. Brighter is better, but not much better. You might as well go for the brightest, they don't cost much more.
Bump for wondering if anyone has figured out a solutions for the 1989 year...
If I understand correctly earlier years don't have this issue and are just plug and play, while the later years have this well established fix documented, but the wiring for the fog and high beam relay is unique to 1989 and no one has documented a fix yet?
@IHBD
As per usual, your electrical expertise is always appreciated!
I currently have my headlight assemblies removed while I do some body and paint work to my front bumper and hood, so I was thinking it would be a good time to upgrade the abysmal factory headlights.
You are correct to ask me to specify! I don't actually want exact factory function!
In fact it would be cool to be able to have the high beams and fogs working at the same time for maximum illumination!
What would you suggest as the best route and way to wire things?
I should bust out my 89 wiring diagrams shouldn't I lol. Would be even better if I could upgrade BOTH the fogs and the headlights to LEDs.
Would be cool if I could have the fogs on, with the taillights on, but with the headlights flipped closed as well for "around town" driving, or when I am trying to NOT blind people eating dinner!
New owner of a 1990 that already had the basic H4 glass conversion. I'm a bit confused after reading through this thread. I installed H4 LED bulbs.
My fog lights seemingly don't work at all when the headlights are on. I can't tell if it's high or low beam I just know that when I turn the headlights on, the fog lights automatically go off.
1) Does the 168 bulb fix this?
2) Is there a way to get the fog light bulbs to function 100% independently of the headlights giving me the ability to have them on or off whenever I want?
New owner of a 1990 that already had the basic H4 glass conversion. I'm a bit confused after reading through this thread. I installed H4 LED bulbs.
My fog lights seemingly don't work at all when the headlights are on. I can't tell if it's high or low beam I just know that when I turn the headlights on, the fog lights automatically go off.
1) Does the 168 bulb fix this?
2) Is there a way to get the fog light bulbs to function 100% independently of the headlights giving me the ability to have them on or off whenever I want?
If you have another cup of joe and reread the thread it will probably make sense.
In a nutshell, the foglights are grounded through the high beam filament of the stock sealed beam or halogen H4 bulb. When you upgrade to an LED (which has no filaments) there is no where for the foglight to ground to. Adding the small 168 bulb to the circuit gives a place for the fogs to ground to and they will work independently of the headlights being on or not.
That said, I actually removed my LED's and went back to a Hella E-code with a traditional H4 Bulb. It just looks more period correct, everything functions as intended from the factory without any weird hacks, and honestly the lighting is better in my opinion.
