3) The Install [Interior]:


Let's start with the turn signal stalk:

First thing you'll wanna do is remove that pesky upper cover on top of your steering wheel column. Unlock the wheel adjustment lever to telescope it completely out towards you, and also as far downward as it will go. Lock the lever back in place. It's a little hard to grasp, but try your best and yank the cover upward while holding it at the sides with both hands. It should snap off with some medium effort (reduce effort to "light" if your hands are less girly than mine), and pull it completely out, like so:

Your days are numbered, inferior turn signal stalk.



Next, you need to loosen, (but not necessarily completely remove), the lower cover. If you stick your head under the column you should see two screw holes. Remove them both, and then you can pull the lower cover slightly downward on the left side of the column to reveal the second screw connecting the signal stalk.

Just pull the left side of the lower cover down a bit. There's no need to do the extra work of completely taking it off.



Pictured below, are the (2) screws connecting the stalk. Remove them both with a fiery passion.

Screw #1

Screw #2


The entire signal stalk should easily pull out from there.
But what's that I see? Yep. The bane of my existence. The destroyer of skin cells . A hand model's worst nightmare. A Wiring Harness Connector.

Don't even get me started.


I hate 'em. They turn my weak girly hands into a bloody pulp. Do your worst (meaning your best), and disconnect it by pressing in that worthless removal button. It doesn't help that the inner part of the stalk is well-lubricated and makes your hands too slippery to effectively grab onto anything. A paper towel and a couple swear words are mandatory to complete this part of the process.


After that, do a reverse install with your new stalk. Plug in the harness, slide the stalk into its slot, replace both screws, and re-install the lower column cover (two more screws), followed by the upper cover (just snap it back in).

Voila!


This concludes the interior portion of the installation instructions for your career-furthering, happiness-inducing new fog lights. Stay tuned dear reader, to have the second half of your brain further blown.

 

4) The Install [Exterior]:


Let's begin this second portion by removing the front bumper. It would be futile to attempt to reinvent the wheel by providing instructions to remove said bumper, as user ntechnic has done just that -- in his stickied thread Very detailed post on installing upgraded horns on 2010 Mazda3 with pics. Though I'll inelegantly summarize it with "it's about 30 screws and a tug." That sounds dirty.


If you've made it this far, you might as well work your way to the bottom of that page and actually upgrade to dual tone horns. It's really cheap, and is a far more pleasant (and quicker, at this point) process than doing it through the lower-right access hole like I foolishly did.

My pre-installed, yet completely unnecessary for these purposes, sweet sounding, Dual-Tone Horns as pictured below. Heck yeah:

Front bumper removed

With your noble bumper lying sorrowfully on the ground, take this opportunity to further strip it of its dignity by removing its bumper covers!. Remove the two screws pictured below and that goofy-looking metal clip that should pry off easily with a screwdriver. Do that same for the opposite end of the bumper.

Note the dummy plug in green, where you previously removed the power harness while taking off the bumper. That will soon be put to good use.


Continue the job by removing both upper bumper covers . Remove both screws, as pictured below. Then, press in the 3 tabs on the opposite side. When facing the inside of the bumper, this should allow you to press the once-proud cover away from you and off of its stylish and mighty pedestal. The tabs were a little tricky, and began to approach my innate hatred for wiring harness connectors. Use a screwdriver to depress them instead of your fragile and precious fingers.

Push the cover forward after valiantly dealing with the 2 screws and 3 pressure tabs.

The front bumper, now lacking a soul. Every eye penetrating the black hole in its vacant heart.


Now, you can begin to install the hardware for your new fogs. Begin by placing in the new lamp hole cover. It will slide into the obvious slots, and with some pressure, will engage those tabs that we had previously removed. Don't make the mistake of installing both tapping screws. Do only the upper screw -- the bottom one will come later.

Next, screw in the new lower bumper cover. Again, don't re-install all of the previous screws just yet. Just do the one closest to the interior of the bumper, and also replace that goofy looking metal clip you removed from the other bumper cover.

Don't mess with the X'd out screw hole just yet.


Slap on the actual fog light enclosure. It should be placed such that all 4 pictured screw holes line up, which will overlap the 2 previous screw holes you had declined to use when installing the upper and lower bumper covers. Install all 4 tapping screws and marvel at the beauty.

The 4 screw hole locations, 3 of which are actually visible from this angle.

Beauty



More to come. Almost done.

 

5) Putting It All Together


Commence the end by installing the wiring harness. Begin by plugging in the narrowest end of the harness to the driver side lamp harness connector.

Driver side lamp harness connected. So fun to slide in (click!). So horrible to remove. I think Michael Scott, of The Office, has an applicable catchphrase that eludes me.


Continue by securing the harness to the bumper with clips or hooks in the 11 different designated areas. They're pretty easy and obvious to spot.

One of many of the harness -> bumper clips and its insertion point.


Next, (1) Connect the passenger side lamp to the harness, and (2) affix the bumper->vehicle power connector in its appropriate downward position by placing its clip in the slot. This will soon be attached to the vehicle's power supply. (3) The relay will also soon be mounted on the vehicle, except it will attach to 3 distinct points behind and around the windshield washer reservoir. You'll see that later.

Take off that blue tape btw. It's just part of the packaging materials and shouldn't have been included in this picture.



Now you will be re-attaching the bumper. I found this to be the hardest part of the entire process. Specifically, I had some trouble lining up some of the bolts on the bottom part of bumper. Just be patient, make sure the sides of the bumper are snapped into place, and don't fully tighten any of the bottom screws until all of the other lower ones are in place.


Before you screw the bumper on, the relatively long relay cable from the bumper needs to be secured to the vehicle, though it won't explicitly plug into any other power supply or circuit. It will attach to 3 points on or around the washer reservoir. These were a little difficult to spot, so the next three pictures should be helpful. Just snap in the connectors on the relay cable, in order, when you find each location:

Relay Connector Point #1 (Above and behind the left of the reservoir. It's farther back than it looks. Hope you have small hands)

Relay Connector Point #2 (right behind the reservoir)

Relay Connector Point #3



Then, attach the downward positioned power connector from the bumper to the free power cable that previously attached to a dummy slot when you removed the bumper. This will juice up your sweet new lights!

Connect us!


Now you should be good to fully reattach the bumper. Snap it back into place and replace the 30 or so screws/bolts. You didn't lose any, did you?

Reconnect the negative terminal on your battery and give the fogs a test.


Results:

Lumos!

The front bumper, now beaming with wrathful vengeance.



Note: I also did this along with the H11->H9 conversion for my low beams. If you don't already have HIDs, and want a far cheaper, safer alternative to the questionable eBay offerings, I can't recommend this inexpensive simple-to-do mod enough. If you're the type of person to be browsing these forums, you're the type of person for this mod. Do it!

 

Great installation guide!!!!:clap 1::clap 1::clap 1::clap 1::clap 1::clap 1::clap 1::clap 1::clap 1:

so where'd you get those fog lights from?!

 

Thanks for the kind words guys.

so where'd you get those fog lights from?!

I actually shopped around for quite a bit, and was shocked to find that my good old dealership parts department had the best price out of everyone. It's not exactly cheap, but I picked it up for $215 for the fog kit (bulbs included), and $46 for the new turn signal stalk. One could do worse, especially considering there were no shipping costs.

 

even though i don't need it, AWESOME guide dude! two thumbs up for you!

 

Great write-up!!! I can't wait to get some extra money to do this mod!!!!!!!!!

 

Great write-up! Thanks for contributing to the forum. I'm sure a lot of people are going to find it useful

 

nice write-up. Very funny comments

 

damn nice write up. it i didnt already have fogs id be using this guide

 

Excellent write up!

 

Just out of curiousity... what would happen if you didn't spend the money on the new turn signal tree?

Would the fog lights just turn on with the regular lights? ??? ?

 

I think it may be kind of a "package deal" where everything needed is included.

 

for the fogs, can you turn them on even when your headlights/ parklights is still off? just curious.. :blush 1:

Very Nice write-up BTW.. FTW!!

 

for the fogs, can you turn them on even when your headlights/ parklights is still off? just curious.. :blush 1:

That was the first thing I tried, and nope. The low beams must be on for the fogs to kick in.

 

OMG I FREAKING LOVE YOU I'm going to do this on my next paycheck SUBBED SUBBED SUBBED

 

Awesome writeup!
I do have the fog lights, but this is the type of stuff we need to have up for anybody's needs.
Excellent layout, everything is great.

 

I know this thread is on the top of the list since it is the most active, but can we get this stickied so we can access it easily at a later date?!?!?!

Thanks!

 

I know this thread is on the top of the list since it is the most active, but can we get this stickied so we can access it easily at a later date?!?!?!

You should probably send a PM to either josh, SHIFT_zoom, or axelaspeed. That would get it done the fastest rather than waiting until one of them see your post (which they may never).

 

Yo mike, the dealer you purchased off of have a website that sells the parts? I checked with my local mazda dealer and its like 400!

 

Here's a good place to buy: BuyOurMazdaParts.com - looks like $234 + $50 for the required switch, with free shipping.

 

Great info. What did you use for the photos (software) and how did you get the x's circles, etc.?

 

Good old Photoshop.

 

I have 3000k HiDs waiting to be installed with my fog setup. Where exactly should i put the box and how should i install them?

 

Amazing thread was debating on doing this, defiently going to do this once it get a little more money. But I was wondering if any one has seen a fog kit with the mesh bumper insert. Like Below:

Do you think this looks better or the ones in this install? Thanks

 

Amazing thread was debating on doing this, defiently going to do this once it get a little more money. But I was wondering if any one has seen a fog kit with the mesh bumper insert.

Do you think this looks better or the ones in this install? Thanks

It is not a matter of which one looks better, it is a matter of which trim you have. The one that you show in the picture is for the s trim, where the ones in this guide are for the i trim. The front fascias are slightly different, and the s trim comes with fogs where the i trim does not, thus the difference in the styling.

I don't think anyone makes a fog light kit for the 3i's yet. Someone might eventually, but nothing now.

 

damn thats a chunk of changed i dont quite have right now. maybe santa will bring me my fogs :thumbup 1:

excellent write up though.

 

It is a little much but it is OEM!!! I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for! (obviously there are exceptions)

 

I agree nice write up... Im learning more about my car everyday...

 

How would i install an hid kit for my fogs?

 

Just take the bumper off and plug 'em right in. You could mount the driver side ballast (preferably slim) somewhere above the horn, and the passenger side one could fit somewhere below the washer reservoir. Zip ties will do the trick.

 

So after reading through your amazing how-to about a dozen times, I finally ordered my fog kit yesterday and hope to have it in time to put 'em in this weekend. One quick question - how heavy is the front bumper? Could I remove/replace it myself, or should I invest in a 12 pack to bribe a friend with? Thanks again for the detailed instructions!

 

It's shockingly light. I doubt you're scrawnier than I am, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck!

 

wowwww nicee guide, u are awesome ,, how much did u expend buying all thaat
i have the same car but in gray lol, and I was curious about the price

 

how much did u expend buying all thaat

Reading fail.

I actually shopped around for quite a bit, and was shocked to find that my good old dealership parts department had the best price out of everyone. It's not exactly cheap, but I picked it up for $215 for the fog kit (bulbs included), and $46 for the new turn signal stalk. One could do worse, especially considering there were no shipping costs.

 

hhahahahaha i didnt notice