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Fog light installation


Tulo

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I put fog lights on my car, and now i'm blowing fuses left and right. They didn't come with instructions so I just did it as best I could. They'll work for a while, then the fuse will blow. I ran the red wire to my parking lights. The white wire to my positive battery. Three black wires to the body frame. Can all of the black wires be grounded at the same bolt? Does one need to go to the negative side of my battery? Thanks. -JP

 

[ 06. January 2004, 10:27 PM: Message edited by: Tulo ]

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I can help with 2 of the 3 wires.

1 - Yes, you can common ground all 3 of the ground wires.

2 - Your side marker lights do not run on a large enough circuit to support the draw of themselves + the new fog lights.

3 - 3 wires? All the lights I ever installed only had hot and ground. I grounded the lights under the hood / bumper area and ran the hot inside throught a HD toggle switch to the 'key-on' position of the fuse box.

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Gotchya.

 

That is only a two-wire set up (the red and white wires combine to make the hot(POS+) side. The toggle switch opens and closes the + circuit.

 

Did you get a toggle switch with the lights? If not, head to the parts store and buy a heavy-duty toggle. You can find one that lights up if you like.

 

The red wire can go to the fuse box instead of all the way to the battery.

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Originally posted by Tulo:

btw, it's not the fog light fuse I'm blowing, It's the parking light fuse. And this last time, my dash lights went out also. I don't know what the deal is. :confused::(

That makes sense; you have the red wire to the marker lights, overloading them.

 

You should end up with this...

 

Switch inside of car with:

a)(-) switch terminal grounded.

b)(+) 'in' switch terminal will be the white wire coming from your new lights.

c)(+) 'out' switch terminal to either your fuse box or to your battery if you want.

 

You really don't want to tie them into your parking lights.

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Here we go(it's not to scale) :D

 

http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/jpv04/Fog_Light_Diagram.JPG

-The white wire with the fuse that I ran to the battery is thicker than the rest and came with a ring connector thing like I drew on my grounds already on it.

 

First of all, wtf is a relay??

So now that I actually see how everything is wired, I guess I only have to run the red wire from the switch to a different source. But where?

 

[ 07. January 2004, 05:51 AM: Message edited by: Tulo ]

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Originally posted by Tulo:

Here we go(it's not to scale) :D

 

http://www.angelfire.com/ak5/jpv04/Fog_Light_Diagram.JPG

-The white wire with the fuse that I ran to the battery is thicker than the rest and came with a ring connector thing like I drew on my grounds already on it.

 

First of all, wtf is a relay??

So now that I actually see how everything is wired, I guess I only have to run the red wire from the switch to a different source. But where?

your setup is fine all you need to do is to put the red wire going to your fog lights to a different connection like you radio. or something that will only have power when th car is on. the reason you are blowing fuses is cuz your plug too much power from your turn singal lights. If you need help let me know will tak about 10 to 20 min to fix with the proper tools.
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So I can just take the red wire off my parking lights, and splice it into my red head unit wire? Would it be better to tap into the fusebox? I don't really understand how you do that, though. Are you saying to use a spade connector and put it where a fuse should go?
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Originally posted by Vin Diesel:

Yes, tap into the fuse box where a fuse would normally go.

 

Don't be ghetto and tap into other wiring. smile.gif

and having a wire sticking of the fuse box is not ghetto. Hes not looking for constant power so plugging into hte fuse box will not help is only needing power when the key is in the on/run possition.
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From the looks of it he's only powering the coil for the relay with his parking light circuit. I don't see how parking lights alone would be fine on a circuit and parking lights+coil is going to blow the fuse for that circuit?

 

Pluging it into something that is on while your ing. is on would be nice though (like the ACC for your radio, is that red, been a while). That way you can have it on whenever, as long as the ing. is on (or to acc), but will turn off when you take the key out if you forget to turn the switch off. Now you can only turn your fogs when your parking lights are on correct?

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Guest badmuthrfkr
Originally posted by My name... is Neo:

From the looks of it he's only powering the coil for the relay with his parking light circuit. I don't see how parking lights alone would be fine on a circuit and parking lights+coil is going to blow the fuse for that circuit?

 

Pluging it into something that is on while your ing. is on would be nice though (like the ACC for your radio, is that red, been a while). That way you can have it on whenever, as long as the ing. is on (or to acc), but will turn off when you take the key out if you forget to turn the switch off. Now you can only turn your fogs when your parking lights are on correct?

Which is why I'd tap into the fuse box.

 

If you forget to flip the switch off, the lights will still turn off once the key is out of the ignition.

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no the fuse box will have constant power.

 

look at the diagram again he has the fogs power going straight to the battery. the red wire that he is useing is for the light on the switch (red wire. He he wants he can leave it unpluged and the system will work fine. I understand what your saying but the fuse box recieves power if the car is on or off. and the ignition controls items like the radio for power. thats why i said to tap into the radio power wire. its quick and easy and only will take a couple of minutes to do.

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Originally posted by Jesus built my hotrod.:

no the fuse box will have constant power.

 

look at the diagram again he has the fogs power going straight to the battery. the red wire that he is useing is for the light on the switch (red wire. He he wants he can leave it unpluged and the system will work fine. I understand what your saying but the fuse box recieves power if the car is on or off. and the ignition controls items like the radio for power. thats why i said to tap into the radio power wire. its quick and easy and only will take a couple of minutes to do.

This is not true. There are several terminals on the fuse box that receive power only in the key-on position.
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Originally posted by NurkVinny:

This is not true. There are several terminals on the fuse box that receive power only in the key-on position.

Are there usually a few open ones, and some only have power on the ignition and others are constant on (I was under the impression that all the empty ones were usually constant power)?

 

Still doesn't explain why he's only drawing such a small extra amount of current, probably <.5amps to power the coil, but now blowing fuses. So why is he now burning up the fuse? I doubt that any car designer would put a 3.75amp fuse in the box for running lights, dash lights, etc. circuit that draws 3.25 amps. I would think this would be true unless he has also 'upgraded' elsewhere in the circuit so that it draws more current.

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I'm returning the lights... I had a couple mechanic friends help me with them and we tried a million different things(even tapping into the fuse box,and blew that fuse too), and nothing worked. When I got the lights, the box was kind of messed up and it didn't look like they were packaged real well, like they had been returned. Could the relay or some other component of them been broken and that's why wherever I hook it up to, I blow fuses? I might exchange it for another one or I might just say fuck it and get my money back. Could it be a lemon?
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Guest badmuthrfkr

Pilot brand lights have always worked fine for me, what kind did you get?

 

Nowadays with everything made in China, it's more than possible you got a defective set.

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