Installing foglamps on 2010 Legacy

I also installed foglamps today and they seemed a bit more involved than I gathered from the instructions, but it's still pretty easy.

For starters, I could not get the blank trim pieces off from the front of the bumper with any of my trim tools. I ended up pulling down the splash shield below each section to access the trim (and I needed them down later as well). To drop the shield, I removed two of these:

I have a special pair of pliers made to remove these but again, a normal pair of needlenose pliers or even 2 flatheads used together will free the center pin. Just pull down on it enough to make the head pop out and then pull the whole pin out. Now the shield can be pulled down. I should also add that even doing this, it was a bit tight and I scratched my hand to hell. Either be ok with this or wear gloves.

To remove the blank trim, I reached under to the tab on the inner portion of the panel (pointing toward the center). There are two clips you need to release while pushing outward:


With the inner portion freed, you can pull the trim out from the outer clips:


Here is the taped up plug on the passenger side. Driver side is similar:


Better view of plug:


Take the metal clip nut and install it with the ridge facing to the FRONT. This seems weird but it's how it works. I reached around from the area that the fake "grill" part of the foglamp trim will cover. It just pushes on. Installing the foglamp itself again is where I had to go through the splash shield, there was no other way I could figure out how to make it go in. The lamps are not marked left/right as best I could tell but from previous experience, the connector on the light always pointed downward so I used that, along with putting the manufacturer name (Valero I think) at the 12:00 position. After the light was placed behind the panel from underneath, I reached around from the "grill" area again and picked up the light, sat the taps (they look like screws go in them, but there are none) into slots on the outer part of the bumper than seated the inner ones. There is a pin for the bottom inner one to sit on/in and the top inner one is secured with the supplied 10mm bolt. You'll need a ratchet or ratcheting wrench to make this easy to tighten.



After both lamps are installed, slide the outer portion of the new trim panels into the bumper and push in the clips, moving inward.

The next thing I did was the switch. Pull down and remove the fuse panel door and reach up and push off the black trim panel. Remove the two phillips screws and pull down this portion of the dash.


I couldn't get a good picture of removing the switch, but this takes some finesse. Look at your new switch to see where the clips are. Once released, the switch pulls out from behind the panel and the new one pushed in, plugged in and then put the dash back together.



Last is the relay underhood. It is the blue one that is not seated in this pic:


Turn the headlights on (they won't work with just parking lights on) and enjoy:

I just did this install and want to thank you for this write-up, it saved me ALOT of time.

Your suggestion of pulling down the splash shield to remove the trim pieces AND to install the fog light housing is the only way to go! It makes this install so much easier than following the Subaru Instructions.

Thanks!!!

I'm glad it finally helped someone! I was beginning to wonder- I posted it back in April and didn't get any hits.

i want to get them but there are a little pricey

Hey mike thanks for the write up. I will be doing this install soon. Moms wanted to front the fog light money for Xmas.

Nice write up. I'm lazy and just had the port installed it.

Originally Posted by Magic Marker

Nice write up. I'm lazy and just had the port installed it.

Thanks! I bought mine off the showroom floor and tired to get them to do fogs as part of the deal but they wouldn't budge and quoted me like $450 installed or something insane. The foglamps and mirror were maybe 2-3 hours of work, stopping to take pictures and notes to do these write-ups.

thx for the writeup, my dealership quoted me $355 for parts+install, i am still deciding...

btw, any way to turn on/off fog light independently?

$355 isn't too terrible. I think the kit was $250. But no, they only will come on with low beams and shut off with high beams or if you turn to parking lights.

I finally bought the kit and decide to install myself. I saw a couple of threads on how to make fog lights independent but none of them is for 2010/11 models, that's why i asked. =)

Local dealer had a pair in stock so I bought them. Thanks to this thread I was able to pop them in fairly quickly. Ran into trouble with the dash switch that other knuckleheads like me should be aware of...get enough light to see where to pry it apart. I (doh!) ended up prying on the ones to get into the switch itself, not the ones keeping it on the dash panel. Oh well, it went into the garbage anyway.

A couple notes...like someone else mentioned, wear gloves. The plastic retaining pins that stay on the underpanel cut your hands up pretty good. These are Valeo fog lights. They make fogs for numerous companies. Our Saab 9-3 had Valeo fogs that were pretty substantial units. These don't seem to be the same quality, but installed much easier. The 9-3 need the dealer to go in with the computer and set a default. It also required almost the entire front clip to be removed.

Again, thanks for sharing the great pictures.

Just wanted to say "thanks" to MikeNH for his detailed write-up. This was much easier than it has been to do the same on Honda's I've owned, but there's still a few places where the instructions could be a little more clear and Mike's post helped immensely.

I just want to caution anyone doing this to be gentle with the tabs on the foglight assembly - they are brittle and will break easily. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way - I had the fog light oriented in the hole badly and broke one of mine off. I was able to fix it (hopefully permanently) with a bit of generous Krazy Glue, but I could have easily prevented it by taking a little more care with the way the tabs seat into the bumper cover.

Also, heed Mike's advice on opening the apron below the bumper cover. It takes just a minute, and since the lamps have to be installed BEHIND the bumper (not all that clear from the instructions), you definitely want to be able to have plenty of access - and this will do the trick.

As far as effectiveness (in case anyone was wondering), the difference is dramatic - I would say "night and day", but that might come across as a rather bad pun

Seriously though, the projectors are decent headlights, but they have a very harsh cutoff and the fog lights do a great job of filling in the gaps. Well worth the $215 or so it will cost you through one of the online dealers that sell Subaru parts.

We still love our Legacy after a year and a half or so of ownership. Would buy this car again in a heartbeat.

Anyone know if this is the same for the 2012 legacy? I think it is but not sure. Thanks for the info.

Should be. There was some question as to the switch changing location- seems that Legacy models with factory installed fogs have a switch on the turn signal lever whereas the add-on kit you buy (or that the dealer/distributor may use) will have it pictured like here on the mirror control panel.

Just finished, not hard at all, I got mine $215 and installed in five minutes once I got over my stupidity