All About Challenger Fog Lights

Fog lights, in design, are meant to increase visibility in foggy conditions and can be used to alert other drivers of one’s presence. For safety reasons, it’s a great place to spend some time and show some love to this part of a Challenger - or any car for that matter.

They can also be customized to compliment the vehicles appearance. Headlights are often modified to emit light that matches the cars color schemes or personality. Leaving the stock fog lamps in place can really put a damper on these efforts. Matching them to the headlights can make all the difference in the world.

From the factory, Most Challengers are equipped with fog lights; this makes upgrading them a lot easier. If you’re considering making upgrades here, it’s not that different than upgrading headlights.

Housings or bulbs can be upgraded separately or in conjunction. Understanding what the factory calls for can make all the difference in the world. To save you some time, we’ve put together a list of factory bulb options so you know what you have to work with.

Some Challengers may not be equipped with any fog lights from the factory. No particular submodels are subjected to this as it is up to the buyer’s discretion on whether to include fog lights on the car or not.

So what do you do in this case? Well, not all hope is lost. Mopar offers complete kits that include the assemblies, the proper light switch, all the hardware for the job, and comprehensive directions to get the job done.

For the installation process, most of the work is already done for you. Even if a Challenger isn’t equipped with fog lamps from the factory, provisions are present to mount the lights to the car.

About the hardest part is changing out the light switch, which is a plug and play unit anyway.  It’s either that or having to feed wiring through the firewall. At the end of the day, making the upgrade should only take experienced techs a little more than an hour to do while new timers will take a Saturday afternoon.

If a Challenger has fog lights to begin with, then why upgrade the housing? While style may factor into this decision, it’s important to remember some housing options may offer better lighting than others.

For instance, LED and projector beam options are capable of producing greater light and focused beams of light. The idea of fog lights is to light the way in low visibility conditions, so making the swap may be ideal in any case. With existing units in place, the installation is much simpler as wiring harnesses and switch panels will not need to be installed.

For many, the factory housings will work just fine. However, the bulbs themselves may still be subjected to an upgrade.

The light bulbs aren’t any different than headlights and can be swapped out just the same. HID, LED, or simply brighter bulbs can be swapped in their place. As long as the law allows them and the industry numbers match, you should have no issues.

Doing this alone is still a great way to improve visibility and can still act as a personalized touch. For instance, 2015-current SRT8’s come equipped with LED headlights, adding LED fog lights is a great way to match the lights together for a complimentary appearance.

As with all late model cars, not everything is easily accessible. On all third generation Challengers, the fog lights are on the hidden side. To access them, the installer will need to have a pry tool along with a screwdriver if they are installing new assemblies. The good news is despite the tight working space, it really is as easy as changing a lightbulb.

The first step is to turn the wheel toward the inside of the wheel well. Along the fender, where the inner wheel housing is attached, you’ll find plastic rivets. Only a few will need to be removed and once they are, the housing can be pulled back for access to the fog lights. Keep in mind it’s a bit tight to work in there.

For those just looking to change bulbs, it’s as simple as disconnecting the harness, removing the bulb from the housing, and then simply installing the new bulb. For housing swaps, be patient it’s easy to get claustrophobic but the install shouldn’t take more than a few minutes once you’re in there. After the installation is complete simply replace the rivets and move on to the other side.

Installation Steps:

• Turn the wheel toward the inside
• Remove plastic rivets securing wheel well liner
• Peel back liner
• Swap bulbs/housing
• Replace plastic rivets