Richard H

I've got a broken front fog lamp, with cost of replacement about £75.00 for one I was considering replacing with Brake Ducts at about £50.00 a pair(just for looks). Have never used the fogs in 3 years of ownership.
What would you do?

Richard 1990 C2

Thomas Linser

Richard!!
It's just a question of aesthetic's, the brake ducts are just for the show if they're not hosed with air duct behind to guide fresh air to the rotors.

Personnaly I prefer the Fog Lights

Greetz Thomas

Christer

I also have never used my front fogs, so I guess I would be tempted to use ducts, but especially if one could make them actually work properly - i.e. actually direct cooling to the brakes which is as I understand it questionable under normal installation....

plus you save some weight I guess...

Riccardo

I think the brake ducts look great and have often wondered whether to swap my foglights out for them. However, again in my opinion, they suit the lowered cars better.

One question to consider, what will you do with the wiring and switch of the fogs? Remove them or leave them?

Bill Gregory

There are two basic styles of fog lamp replacements. The first is just a duct, with a variation of a duct/fog lamp combo, and the second is one of those with a hose leading to the wheel well.

The duct by itelf will let more air into the oil cooler and a/c, and does nothing for brakes. Ditto on the air duct/fog lamp combo. The second variety adds a hose which takes air from the duct through the hose and exits at the wheel well. Many have curved pieces to help the air over towards the rotor.

This system, while a help in getting more air to the inside of the face of the rotor pales in comparison to the pre-89 cooling kits which provided air directly to the center of the hub, so the air could exit the rotor vanes. Some people have started working with extending hoses from the front duct all the way to the rotors, although these are all one-offs. There is one kit I know of that gets air to the rotor hub, however, after looking it over I wouldn't use it.

The difference is cooling of the existing setup is noticeable. I have the duct with hose leading to the wheel well variety of brake cooling. I recently installed new pads, and pulled them out after one day on the track. The back plate of the pad, on the inside, where the cooling air is hitting the rotor face, was orange (as in Pagid Orange's). However, on the outside, where no forced air is hitting the rotor face, the back showed a combination of orange turning to black. I believe this is caused by heat. And after heat cracking my new rotors after 3 track days, it underscores that a better cooling solution has to be found.

PS. Riccardo, I just taped up the fog lamp wires and pushed them out of the way.

Richard H

Riccardo,
I agree with them looking better on lowered cars, mine is lowered so okay there!
I would do as Bill did and just tape them out of the way. I would leave the switch in place in case I wanted to go back to fog lamps.
The point of doing it would be purely for cosmetic reasons, the car doesn't go on the track and spends 90% of the time with wifey driving the kids around.
I assume you can go back to fog lamps if required later?

Richard.

marc 1xx1

Bill:

Whose duct opening and what kit if any did you use for your install?

From what I have heard many of the fiberglass kits require lots of fitting.

Thanks.

Bill Gregory

Marc,

I used a Porsche kit that was available through Porsche Great Britain. Don't know if it's the same kit that Porsche currently sells through Tequipment, though. Last I checked Porsche had about 4 of the kits in the US.

chas911

Bill, I presume you order the cooling kit directly from a Porsche Dealer? You mentioned that there were 4 kits available, when did you last look and any idea where they were?

Bill Gregory

Chas911,

It was last year - I don't remember whether they were in the CA or GA Porsche warehouse. Call your favorite Porsche dealer, and ask them if they show US stock on 000.043.300.90 which is "brake cooling air system without fog headlamp" made up of two air inlets and a parts kit (I think they have the same kit with the foglamp, too). If they want to look this up, tell them to look in the Tequipment catalog in the body section. You may want to ask them what's in the parts kit, to ensure, for example, that there are two air hoses. Although, even if you bought just the air inlets, you could get some SCAT or similar hose and route it to the wheel well yourself. The kit I installed uses a smallish hose with the wheel well fittings.

eion

I replaced my fog-lights with brake ducts - I went with a pair of carbon fiber ones from the Racer's Group, not wanting to pay tequipment prices ($160 or so for the pair, compared to a similar amount for a single replacement foglamp and something silly like $700 for the tequipment kit). Some drilling and dremelling was required, unfortunately, and the back-side of the CF isn't the neatest I've ever seen, but they're perfectly decent parts. Lots of fitting, no, not especially - maybe a couple of hours worth, mostly measuring rather than cutting. They aren't ducted, but they still work for my oil cooler and AC condensor. One thing I *did* do was fit some mesh (of the type used to repair screen doors) to prevent insect ingress.

The switch is easy to replace (with a blanking plate made for the purpose) if you take your stereo out, and really finishes it nicely (something about having a switch I couldn't use would bother me).

One thing I've been contemplating/wondering about, though... pulling the fog-lamp fuse, R31, from the fuse block. Is this sensible, pointless, or stupid? I'm going with option 2 at the moment, but I am bored enough to do it.