foglight/driving light question. (please help!)

[Spitfire]

ok well i got pilot driving lights a few months ago. I Absolutly love them!! they are halogen and even are fully glass which is amazing for only $40 and being pilots. only downside of course being a pilot system, the switch is cheap and shitty on top of the wireing harness being complete crap. so my question is.

There is both a white wire (power) and black wire (ground) off each light. could i hook the power and ground the the power and ground of the parking lights? would that be enough to power them? or blow a fuse... i had them on an after market switch but its bein a bitch so i ripped it out. so can i do that and they work fine? just like turn on when my parkin lights are on.. and if that doesnt work cause not enough power. would hooking them up to the headlight wires work?!?!? please help! im not looking for a switch (for now) just to turn on with parking lights or if need be headlights.

Thanks!

Chris

[rebel8ball]

if ya do that use a relay

[Spitfire]

kk do i need one for each light? or just one?

[rebel8ball]

to be honest im not sure, id think one would be enough since you would only be using it as a signal wire, the catch is im not sure if the parking lights stay on or blink when you use the blinkers

[Spitfire]

the parking lights stay on... the bumper lights blink lol. do u think it would work without relay or would i have blown fuses all around?!?

[rebel8ball]

dunno i have heard that the wiring for the lighting is not the beefiest, im sure someone who has more info will chime in, but, if i was gonna do it, id use a relay

[Black95Cam]

this is how i did mine. i used most of the harness. but what i did was, i cut the power wire that leads up to the relay. then if your came with an in line fuse, splice one of the end to the wires that are coming from the fog light itself.. then tap the other end of the wire coming from the inline fuse to the fuse for the parking light..

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by Black95Cam

this is how i did mine. i used most of the harness. but what i did was, i cut the power wire that leads up to the relay. then if your came with an in line fuse, splice one of the end to the wires that are coming from the fog light itself.. then tap the other end of the wire coming from the inline fuse to the fuse for the parking light..

Well i trashed the relay along time ago cause it failed out my entire system like 3 times lol.

So basically ur saying to hook the 2 power wires from the fogs together, splice them into one end of the inline fuse and tap the other end into the parking light fuse? Then could i just take the ground wires to the fogs and splice them into the parking light ground wires? or even make another ground to the chassis?

[Black95Cam]

Originally Posted by Spitfire11690

Well i trashed the relay along time ago cause it failed out my entire system like 3 times lol.

lol

Originally Posted by Spitfire11690

So basically ur saying to hook the 2 power wires from the fogs together, splice them into one end of the inline fuse and tap the other end into the parking light fuse?

correct. and to be safe i used a fuse (for the inline fuse) that was rated lower then the fuse used for the parking light..

Originally Posted by Spitfire11690

make another ground to the chassis?

that is what i did


comp is being gay and wont let me upload a pic of my harness..

[Spitfire]

what are the parking light fuse ratings 20? The inline fuse i have for the fog/driving lights is 15. if so im soo tearin apart the shitty harness for the drivinglights/fogs and making my own tomarrow

[cykaaro]

Firstly, adding any foglights or the like should ALWAYS be done via a relay. If not it gives the risk of possibly causing a fire at worst, melting wires at best.

Relays are pretty easy to do though. Use a 30amp and you'll be good to go. Basically the relay gives direct power from the battery, while allowing a switch to turn on and off the relay, thus the power to the lights. This keeps it safe from frying anything, and will give enough current to adequately power them. Don't scrimp with wire as well. Use a good size guage to give enough power. It can effect how well they are lit. It then needs a trigger [switch] to turn on and off the relay Smaller guage wire is ok for the switch as it's not taking the load to the lights. one 30amp relay is fine for a set of lights. It's usually easiest to run the one light to the other, splicing them there, but giving enough space between the second light and the splice, then directly into the relay. Keeps the wiring nice and neat.

This is how any added lights should be hooked up. [see below -- I used to on my jeep have about six sets all done this way on their own circuit without issue. Just needed a good battery!]

Now, if you don't want to actually put in a switch, and have them come on with your parking lights, simply instead of putting in a switch, hook to your hot wire of your parking lights. This just gives a permanent 'on' position when you run your car.

[Spitfire]

i guess the stock pilot relay was just straight shit. but ill go out and buy a 30 amp relay tomarrow and maybe some more wire then i already have just to be on the safe side. thank you soo much for the help!! and the diagram is just what i needed!!! im gonna run the lights off the parking lights for now. cause thats what i use to do with the old harness and they came on with the parkin lights. cant wait to work on it tomarrow!! thank you so much!!

Chris

edit: if i taped the wire from the relay to the fuse for parking light would it then only come on with parking lights? and act kinda as a switch?

[cykaaro]

85 is the trigger where the switch would normally go. If you put that to a power source, it'll put the relay in a permanent 'ON' position.

[Black95Cam]

Originally Posted by Spitfire11690

what are the parking light fuse ratings 20? The inline fuse i have for the fog/driving lights is 15. if so im soo tearin apart the shitty harness for the drivinglights/fogs and making my own tomarrow

yeah it something like that.. i think i used 10 or 15 amp for the inline.. wasnt sure..

BTW i had it wire for a few months and had no problem.. only down fall is that it come on when the parking lights are on.. but other then that it worked fine.. nothing burnt or fried.. but then i decided to get yellow fog light and instead of tapping it into the parking light, i tapped it into the seat heater.. so i can turn it on when ever and dont have to worry about it leaving it on when the car is off..

[cykaaro]

15amp is the usual fuse rating to use on lights. None is needed for the switch because there's no real load on it. It's just the trigger to turn the relay on. Once the circuit is 'on' the load goes from the battery to the lights via the relay. Without a relay if you connected direct with a lighted switch, firstly, you'd blow the lighted switch, and then it will get quite hot to touch and be a potential fire hazard. It will not necessarily blow the fuse. [yes, I've tried it!] Now with the parking lights, to hook 55w lights to a circuit that is designed to run low wattage bulbs, it's along the same lines. Running a higher load than the circuit was designed for. The trigger can be a fairly small wire because theres not much load, but for the wires actually running the light you want definitely a higher gauge starting at the power source. This is why with some headlight upgardes or retrofits give problems using stock harnessess. They're not designed to run anything other than the OEM specs. The lights on my top5 roof rack I had problems. They worked, but they never seemed they were bright enough. What I did was use a smaller gauge of wire than I should have. [4 100w lights] I ended up rewiring the entire set up with higher guage wire. Once this was done, they were noticeably brighter as they should have been.

The way a lot of the fog/driving light harnesses in the kits seem to work is that although having an on/off/indicator switch, it gets its trigger source through one of the parking lights and the main power for the lights direct from the battery. It in effect works the same way. You can control on/off still but at the same time no worries about accidently leaving them on unless you leave your parking lights on. Most switches I find are pretty cheap made. Easiest is to put in a lighted switch. Works the same way and usually you can get better quality ones fairly in expensively.