[BigSank]

Hi guys,

I'm new to this forum and was looking for some help replacing/changing some of the lights on my 2011 mazda 3 grand touring (sedan). My one of my foglights recently kicked the bucket and I was hoping to replace them with something that matched the color of my bi xenon headlights a bit more, so a cooler light bulb. I walked into my local auto zone today, hoping they might be able to tell me what kind of bulb my car uses, but the guy said their system was bugging out a lot and he wasn't able to look it up. I was peaking around the bulbs and noticed most of the cooler light bulbs said they were rated for 100-150 hour life. That seems pretty darn low right? My original foglights lasted over 6 years and I'm sure those babies ran for way longer than 100 hours. No idea what kind of bulb I need though so if anyone has any idea, that would be great. Also, if you have any recommendations as far as a particular bulb that would be great as well.

While I was checking out my fogs, I decided to check up on the other lights around the car and noticed my third brake light is out as well. I saw a tutorial on youtube for how to swap it out and its ridiculously easy but again I don't know the type of bulb it takes and I wasn't able to find out from auto zone. The guy there did say they have red and white bulbs for the brake lights and that I should use whichever the car comes with. Does it matter all that much? If anyone knows what kind of bulb the third brake light takes or has any good recommendations, that would be much appreciated. Hopefully brake lights don't have a 100-150 hour life...

Lastly, while I was checking out the foglight I noticed that I didn't really see a difference in light between the side the foglight was working and the side that was out. I guess I never really noticed since I always run my fogs with my headlights. Turns out they don't really provide much in terms of usable light and are basically aimed at the ground. I definitely don't think foglights should be aimed THAT low. I tried to look up a youtube tutorial on leveling or aiming the foglights but I wasn't able to find anything. I figured it would be a more common issue unless I just got unlucky with how they were leveled when I bought it. Does anyone know how to level them? I figure I might as well take care of this while I'm down there changing the bulbs out.

I'm a bit nervous about changing these things myself since I've never done any self repairs/changes short of wiper blades and wiper fluid. Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[jegonzo3]

Hey BigSank,

You can get your bulb sizes from different places, but try these first: Philips Automotive Bulb Look-up | Find bulbs for your vehicle or https://www.sylvania-automotive.com/apps/vlrg-us/Vlrg/. Plug your car info in and you should get what you need.

The fogs on our cars are not that good and most of the people on this forum will tell you so. I swapped mine out with some Morimoto LED fogs, but I do not run mine all the time, only when needed. They can be adjusted, I just don't remember how, but you may be able to just slide under you bumper and find an adjustment screw you can reach, should be pretty easy.

Bulbs are fairly easy to replace, don't be nervous. Most covers of the bulbs should just pop off or you may have to use a screwdriver or something similar.

 

[m_blind]

Check your owners manual page 8-44 for how to replace and page 10-10 for all types of bulbs

 

[BigSank]

Thanks for the replies guys! I was able to find the bulb sizing on the pages in the manual and the phillips website also gave me a list of all the bulbs used in my car. Super helpful site. It seems like the phillips bulbs have a bit longer life (300-350 hours) and the same prices as the sylvannia ones so I think that's probably what I'll get unless I can find a white light bulb that'll last as long or close to as long as my oem fog light bulb (3-4 years would be nice).

The one thing I wasn't able to find anything about was leveling the foglights. There's nothing in the manual and even though I found a lot of people on the forums talking about how poorly they're aimed, I couldn't find anyone mentioning how they might have aimed them. Maybe because a lot of people upgrade them to LEDs and the aiming procedure for those is different? Not really sure. I'm a complete novice with this stuff so I doubt I'd even know what to look for once I'm down there changing the bulbs. Is there anything in particular I should look for? Do I have to take the whole housing out and set it differently or something or just adjust a few nuts and bolts? I saw something on a video about a toyota where the guy mentioned tightening a screw. Is that a universal thing that carries over to mazda?

 

[jegonzo3]

Hey BigSank,

As for the bulbs, you can also try LED's, brighter and last a whole lot longer. I know some places sell "kits" for our cars, to replace most, if not all of the interior bulbs. Check out Corksport.com.

If you can get under your front bumper, right under the fogs, look up and see if you see a screw. You may have to lift the front end somehow (jack or ramp) to see it. If I have time this weekend, I'll check mine out to see.

Ok, I found it, go here, https://mazda3revolution.com/forums...057-fog-lights-installation-instructions.html, on the very first item in the thread, look at the pages listed there. The second to last page has instructions on how to aim them.

You may want to start looking at the do-it-yourself page, https://mazda3revolution.com/forums...guides/14276-do-yourself-diy-how-threads.html, it has a lot of great information compiled by our members over the years for our model years.

 

[BigSank]

Wow, thanks so much! I've never seen those instructions at all and they're definitely not in the owners manual. I wish I had found those earlier or that mazda provided those in the owners manual. I did try to get under the car a couple days ago to take a look and I just saw some clips and a plastic cover. I'll have to get under and take another look and see if there's a screw, now that I know what to look for. I might just have to remove that cover to get access to it though. I do remember some youtube videos where people removed the cover to get to the actual bulb. Hopefully the screw can be accessed with removing it.

I never thought of going with LEDs just because I figured I'd either have to change the whole housing or I'd have to install load resistors or run wiring or do something else since they're meant to take halogen bulbs. But, if I can just pop in LED light bulbs without any issues or flickering then I'd be okay with that. I don't know if that's how it works though. I figure if I get LED fogs then I'll eventually have to get LED headlights also. Don't want my foglights looking nicer than my headlights

 

[jegonzo3]

You can check https://www.theretrofitsource.com, they have lighting available, interior and exterior, but I went with a Morimoto HID set for my low beam headlights and it made a big difference and I believe the fogs were Morimoto also.

The only thing about my LED fogs, they were the entire fog light assembly and were a limited run of (I think) 1000, so it wasn't just a bulb switch.