[basuk]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

The need for more light

The pre facelift Ecosport's headlights are really weak, almost like candles. Every time I hit the highway at night, I used to curse the useless HLs.
...

Thanks for this article @chiranjitp.
Lately, I am doing quite a lot of highway driving. I also do not feel safe and comfortable driving at night due to the poor throw of the light of EcoSport.

Can you please provide further details of the kit that you used and the mechanic shop who helped you to install the same?

[Mickey1986]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

Dr. Naren gave me the contact number of Blaze India, I contacted him over Whatsapp. He answered all my queries properly & seemed like a genuine guy (except one slight issue, more on that later). There is only one type of Bi-Xenon projector sold by these guys, but there were few options with regards to the 55W HID kit (HID bulb & ballast). The HID bulb was available in 4300K, 5500K, 6000K configurations. I decided to go with 4300K bulbs, since warmer light is better for illumination & also due to the fact that these will match with the stock Halogen HLs better. There is one more option (though a bit costly) of buying a 35W OSRAM HID kit (around 7k) & projector separately from Blaze India. Blaze India sells the Bi-xenon projectors & the HID kit for 6.9k (including shipping). I decided to go with Blaze India & informed him that I want 4300K bulbs (he was advising me to go with 5500k bulbs).

Hi Chiranjtp,

Amazing post. I have been talking to blaze india - they have quoted me - 8300 for the IPH housing with GS Taiwan xenon conversion kit with 4300k bulb and 55w GS ballast. Wondering about the same. The guy is good to talk to and explained about the details of the same. Now the point is the durability and the pricing. Is this a good deal?

PS: He sent me pictures of your car as a reference as well

[dish]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

Hi Chiranjtp,

Amazing post. I have been talking to blaze india - they have quoted me - 8300 for the IPH housing with GS Taiwan xenon conversion kit with 4300k bulb and 55w GS ballast. Wondering about the same. The guy is good to talk to and explained about the details of the same. Now the point is the durability and the pricing. Is this a good deal?

PS: He sent me pictures of your car as a reference as well

Did you buy and install this combination of iPH housing + GS ballast + GS conversion kit + 4300k bulb ?
I am looking to upgrade the fog lamp setup of my 2013 Ecosport. Blaze India suggested AES projector + GS ballast + GS conversion kit + 4300k bulb. Mr. Amit of Blaze is strongly suggesting AES projector over iPH projector and says that the newer AES units are much better in terms of focus and light delivery. Does anybody have experience with AES projector kit ?

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by dish

I am looking to upgrade the fog lamp setup of my 2013 Ecosport. Blaze India suggested AES projector + GS ballast + GS conversion kit + 4300k bulb. Mr. Amit of Blaze is strongly suggesting AES projector over iPH projector and says that the newer AES units are much better in terms of focus and light delivery. Does anybody have experience with AES projector kit ?

I have used the GS Ballast + bulb kits from Blaze & they are fantastic. I've read about AES projectors a fair bit elsewhere - and feedbacks overall seem to be quite good. Amit S from Blaze has been genuine and frank in all my dealings with him. If I were in your place - I'd have taken his advise and gone ahead with AES projectors as well. I'm sure they are at the very least - as good as IPHCar, if not better.

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by Mickey1986

Now the point is the durability and the pricing. Is this a good deal?

Sorry for replying so late, somehow missed your post. Hope you have already done the upgrade. As for the durability, 1 year & 20k km later the projectors & HIDs are working perfectly. I am very satisfied with the upgrade, easily worth the money.

Originally Posted by dish

Does anybody have experience with AES projector kit ?

I don't have any experience with the AES projector, but from my experience, Amit of Blaze India is genuine in his advice. So you can go ahead as per his advice.

[Harjot37]

My first DIY

Thank you, @chiranjitp, for this amazing thread! It gave me the confidence to go ahead with this upgrade!
You have covered almost everything needed for the DIY, and I would like to add more to it.
I will explain in detail the problems I faced during installation, and, the customer support [read: distress] I received in a separate post.

Tools needed:

1. Star Allen Keys- T25 (Cost: ₹150/set)
2. Hex Allen Keys (Cost: ₹150/set)
3. Screw driver (Cost: ₹50/pc)
4. Multimeter (Cost: ₹130/un)
5. Scotch Locks/ Wire Taps x2 (Cost: ₹10/pc)
6. Earthing Rings x2 (Cost: ₹5/pc)
7. Electrical insulation tape
8. Insulated copper wire- 2m
9. Zip ties x4
10. A pair of scissors

Star allen key T25 was needed to unscrew the OEM fog lights. The screws cannot be reused with the fogs.



The kit
Purchased the fog lights + HID kit from Hotcarshop.in, size- 3" (Cost: ₹6600)

The HIDs are from Crystaleye, temperature: 4300K. They don't have their temperature or power rating mentioned, and looked flimsy (relayed this concern to the seller). I was assured that they will perform as advertised.




Warranty: 1 year
The projectors are from iPHCAR, same as the ones posted by @chiranjitp.
The kit had missing H11 connectors. The 9006 connectors' other end had naked contact points.


Installation
The procedure laid out was followed, except minor differences, that I will mention here.

The fog lights will NOT fit the OE holes. The fog lights are simply too large to completely go inside, and on beam adjustment, they won't let the chrome trim fit in the fog light bezel.




Like mentioned in this thread, the EcoSport has 2-point-mounting arrangement. Had it been a 3-point one, it would have made complete sense to balance the fog lights (3 non-colinear points lie on a plane). Also, the brackets don't align with all four of the mounts, and I didn't force it much, because it would not have been balanced anyway. Now, the fog lights rest on three mounts only, and haven't come misaligned.



The ballasts were installed on the cross members, and the wiring was secured with zip ties.



Testing
The HIDs fired up without a hitch. If you don't have a multimeter to check the polarity, no issues! You can do it the hit-and-trial way! I blew out a fuse while testing, so, here's the #23 fuse (15 A) (Cost: ₹6) in the fuse box that I had to change:



High beam activation:
Unlike the 2015 model Ecosport, the 2013 model comes with a 5 pin connector for the HL.



The single pin is the negative terminal, while the others are positive.

The high beam activator is the last terminal (green wire). Tapped it with a scotch lock.



The earthing (negative) wire was secured to an inconspicuous metal plate.



I have to say, when I first tested the high beam, the cut-off plate made such a greater-than-expected sound that I was taken aback! Dropped the earthing ring in the process, and got scared that I had blown out something! Was relieved to find everything in working condition.

Beam Adjustment
I took 4 hours to learn how to work my way around the darned mounting arrangement! The problem was with the chrome trim. Every time I tried to force the bezel onto the fog light, the adjustment screws wouldn't hold (a shortcoming of the fog lights), and the low beam level would go out of whack! Removed the chrome trim, and they happily obliged! Makes me wonder if I should've gone with the 2.5" variant of the fog lights. Anyhow, even after a million adjustments, the cut-off line is still not straight (it's tilted).

But, I should say the fog lights looked better with the trim. Still, function over form!





The brackets should've been provided with vertical adjustment so that the fog lights could be rotated to level the beam.

[Harjot37]

Final Result




Jokes apart, the fog lights are spectacular! I will let the pictures do the talking.

(clicked on my phone)

Fog lights in action

ISO-100
White balance- 4300K
Shutter speed- 1/10s
Aperture- F1.8



Only HL Low beam



Only Fog lights Low beam



Fog lights + HL Low beam



Only HL High beam



Fog lights + HL High beam

Fog lights beam- 25ft away from a wall

ISO-50
White balance- 4300K
Shutter speed- 1/10s
Aperture- F1.8



Only HL Low beam



Only Fog lights Low beam
The right fog light was deliberately kept lower to help the oncoming traffic; couldn't have not done it, knowing that I am a member of T-BHP.
@chiranjitp, if you have any advice regarding the leveling of the beam (4 hours and 100s of mosquito bites to get here), please do share! This doesn't pacify my mild OCD!



Fog lights + HL Low beam



Only HL High beam



Fog Lights + HL High beam

The pictures actually portray the difference the fog lights have made to illumination. The difference between day and night couldn't be any starker! The newly found light makes me love nighttime driving even more!

The fog lights have held up very well- they've taken potholes and rains (as is evident in the previous post) with aplomb, without flickering, fusing or coming out of alignment. This DIY was worth every rupee, every minute, and every gram of blood! I have never been more satisfied with anything else in my 21 years of life! Looking forward to more DIYs!

[Harjot37]

Customer support: Hotcarshop.in
Or rather, the lack of it.

I purchased the fog lights from Hotcarshop.in, as they provided the fogs at the cheapest price. I should've guessed the customer support that came along with it- cheap, as with their pricing.
Attaching a screenshot as proof of the unprofessional attitude of the customer support.
In short: Don't contact them for any queries. They don't provide support without asking for money, and do not accept the shortcomings (flimsy looking HIDs, lack of fog light adjustment) or acknowledge missing parts (lack of H11 couplers, no scotch locks) of their product . They will only recommend 'professional' installation, whilst being pricks. They also had the courtesy to showcase their 'perfectly working' product using the picture I sent them.
God, I can only hope that they honor the warranty in case something goes wrong with the fog lights, seeing their 'support'.

Sorry, I had to vent! And, thank you, @chiranjitp, for the knowledge you shared!

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by Harjot37

Thank you, @chiranjitp, for this amazing thread! It gave me the confidence to go ahead with this upgrade!
You have covered almost everything needed for the DIY, and I would like to add more to it.
I will explain in detail the problems I faced during installation, and, the customer support [read: distress] I received in a separate post.

Thank you for writing such a detailed post regarding the installation, glad my thread was of some help to you. In case of my installation there was no issue of the fog light bezel touching the projector, there was more than sufficient gap. Our Ecosport is from 2016 (Ecosport did receive a minor update in 2015), maybe Ford did some changes to the bumper (internally, as from outside it looks exactly same). The 2015 Ecosport did get slightly different fog lights in the top end Titanium + variant (our variant), there was DRL integrated in the fog light, maybe fog light size is a bit different (as in bigger). This is just a wild guess from my side .

[Taha Mir]

@chiranjitp @Harjot37 Great DIY thread guys.
I've a 2013 trend EcoSport and I'm gonna be installing these projector fogs.
The fog lamp wiring in my car does not have the h11 connector, instead it's just naked wire ends. Would it be okay if I connected these to the projectors or shall I order a set of h11 couplers?

[Harjot37]

Originally Posted by Taha Mir

@chiranjitp @Harjot37 Great DIY thread guys.
I've a 2013 trend EcoSport and I'm gonna be installing these projector fogs.
The fog lamp wiring in my car does not have the h11 connector, instead it's just naked wire ends. Would it be okay if I connected these to the projectors or shall I order a set of h11 couplers?

The trend variant does not have fog lights pre-installed, as far as I know. That would require fog lamp relay wiring, and necessary fuses. We had gotten the OE fogs installed from the dealership, so that made the replacement easy. I unfortunately do not know the procedure of a complete install ab initio; you may need to order and install the relay wiring, fog lamp switch (extra wiring for a separate switch if not OE), fuses for the fuse boxes (glove box and battery- location given in the manual), connections to the instrument panel, or so I think, if you choose to go the OE way.
You may skip all the hassle by getting it done at a car accessories dealer for ₹500, and trust me, it is worth paying for.

[Taha Mir]

Originally Posted by Harjot37

The trend variant does not have fog lights pre-installed, as far as I know. That would require fog lamp relay wiring, and necessary fuses. We had gotten the OE fogs installed from the dealership, so that made the replacement easy. I unfortunately do not know the procedure of a complete install ab initio; you may need to order and install the relay wiring, fog lamp switch (extra wiring for a separate switch if not OE), fuses for the fuse boxes (glove box and battery- location given in the manual), connections to the instrument panel, or so I think, if you choose to go the OE way.
You may skip all the hassle by getting it done at a car accessories dealer for ₹500, and trust me, it is worth paying for.

The trend variant does come with all the wiring, relays, fuse and switch. (Button on headlamp leveler)
I had gotten aftermarket halogen fogs installed and the only thing required was enabling the fog lamps through OBD.
So the only thing missing right now are the H11 couplers. Can I go ahead and connect the naked wire ends?

[Harjot37]

Originally Posted by Taha Mir

The trend variant does come with all the wiring, relays, fuse and switch. (Button on headlamp leveler)
I had gotten aftermarket halogen fogs installed and the only thing required was enabling the fog lamps through OBD.
So the only thing missing right now are the H11 couplers. Can I go ahead and connect the naked wire ends?

I did, too, without the h11 couplers. Met with an accident, and one side fog lamp stopped working. Haven't checked the issue that caused it; will update once I get time.
Water ingress may cause problems. You should get h11 couplers to be on the safe side.

[Taha Mir]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

As for the durability, 1 year & 20k km later the projectors & HIDs are working perfectly. I am very satisfied with the upgrade, easily worth the money.

I've just ordered a set of AES projectors and 55w HIDs. The seller didn't have 35w bulbs in stock, I'm a little concerned about the high heat from 55w damaging the projector bowl. Is this a legitimate concern?
The seller did mention that these 55w kits run around 45w.

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by Taha Mir

The trend variant does come with all the wiring, relays, fuse and switch. (Button on headlamp leveler).
So the only thing missing right now are the H11 couplers. Can I go ahead and connect the naked wire ends?

I think you can go ahead & connect the naked wire ends, just make sure the final connection is properly insulated.

Originally Posted by Taha Mir

I've just ordered a set of AES projectors and 55w HIDs. The seller didn't have 35w bulbs in stock, I'm a little concerned about the high heat from 55w damaging the projector bowl. Is this a legitimate concern?
The seller did mention that these 55w kits run around 45w.

Mine are rated at 55W as well, I haven't yet faced any issues with them. Regarding the 55W claim, I too have my doubts. Branded companies like Osram market their HIDs as 35W, so I would say there is a big possibility that these Chinese companies are falsely claiming 55W, in reality it's only a 35W kit.