This is for all those interested in installing after market fog lights. My older son bought these for his younger brother for $70 to $80 on Ebay. They appear generic and have NO instructions. He bought these to surprise his brother while he's away. He'll be suprised when he comes home tomorrow and sees the damage I did to his car while backing it into the garage. I side swiped the garage heater and put a 2 foot gash in the passenger side rear quarter panel. I feel terrible about it and will get it fixed. But this is the first damage to his car that he takes good care of.
Over the years I have been on many forums and was very appreciative of those that posted pictures for people like us. So I took the time to pay back the favor with the below instructions. I hope it helps someone.
Step 1 is to back my son's Camry into the garage and inflict it with it's first damage. I couldn't believe I did this. My son is away and we are installing fog lights to surprise him. Oh he'll be surprised alright.
Closeup of the damage. I side swiped the garage heater. So much for saving money on this project.
This is one of 2 pieces of the underside carriage cowling which must be removed for the light installation. There are quite a few screws and clips holding these on.
These are those plugs/clips that hold the cowlings on. I used a small screwdiver and pryed the inside upward at the seam to release them. They don't hold as well when you reattach them.
Here is a look of those plug/clips after you pop the center up.
This is the factory trim piece that you remove to install the new ones with the lights. The factory trim pieces have much better tabs/clips to hold them in place. The trim pieces that come with the lights have weak tabs/clips and do not hold the trim piece to the car well at all. I broke several tabs off the new trim pieces. I put one screw in each piece of new trim to hold them on which you will see later.
Here is the back side of the factory trim piece. You can see the clips/tabs that must be released from behind to remove it. It isn't hard at all.
Here is one of two harnesses that come with the fog lights. The white plug will connect to another white plug on the other harness. The yellow and black connector attaches to the new fog lights. You only see one connector because the driver side connector is already attached to the fog light. Then you have a ground wire you must attach to a gound somewhere. You could even drill your own hole and attach it with a new screw. I attached this ground and the ground on the other harness to the same screw located up high below the driver side headlight.
This is the other harness that comes with the kit. A relay comes with it plus a fuse and fuse holder. No one that helped me knew where to plug in the gray connector with red wire and the brown connector with white wire. I took apart the driver side dash and couldn't find antwhere to connect them or anywhere under the hood. If you mount the switch in your dash, which I did not, then those gray and brown connectors MUST be connected under the dash because of the length. If you mount the switch in the dash those connectors are not long enough to stay in the engine compartment. I personaly think the connectors are generic and all the sets for all makes of cars have them. I think they are to be used if you splice into something you can get the matching ends to attach them to. I cut the connectors off as you will see later and left the switch under the hood in the "ON" position. This is a cheap switch and I don't like the feel of it. I wish it came with a better one. It does light up however. It's the switch mechanism that feels cheap. And the white connector to the right attaches to the other harness that I already showed you.
All the examples I show you will be from the driver side light. Those 2 tabs above are attached to the lights and slide into a slot in the body. They stay there because there are two tabs on the other side of the light of which one gets screwed to the body. That will stop those two above tabs from sliding out. But I wanted more security.
These are the other two tabs on the other side of the light. They are located behind the body and the upper one gets screwed to the body fom the back side which you will see later. You can't put a screw in the lower tab because it doesn' fit flush against the body. The body for the upper tab has a raised piece that meets up with this tab. I don't know why the lower isn't the same way.
Here are the left two tabs from the light again. The center of the tabs have holes. I stuck the drill bit in the hole and drilled a small hole all the way through so I can attach te tabs to the body for better secuity.
This is the trim piece for the new fog lights. The tabs/clips that are supposed to hold this piece in are cheap and weak. They do not stay on. So I drilled one hole in each trim piece up high and drilled through the body behind it. I then used one of the black screws with the kit to attach the trim piece.
Here is the screw attached holding the trim piece in. That screw WAS NOT for this purpose. It was for me to hold the trim piece on. I did not have a smaller black screw any where to use. I don't think I could have drilled a hole upward to attach it from underneath. Some of you might have more patience and try it. I'm cramped for time because my son comes home tomorrow.
Here is the backside of the fog light, To the left is the tab where you couldn't put a screw unless you put a spacer in there. You can see the one screw to the upper left. And you can see the other two tabs to the right which I drilled a pilot hole in from the front. The black knob I assume is the light beam angle adjustment. No instructions come with these kits. The green plug to the lower right is the factory plug for the factory fog lights. There is no power in it and you would probably need the steering wheel stalk to operate it. Any way it is of no use in this installation.
Tab screws attached
Another view of everything. I read somewhere on the forums that the yellow connectors are airbag sensors and to leave alone. They said yellow normally means airbag and there is yellow everywhere!!!
Driver side light in. It IS NOT on. It's a reflection. This harness I ran along the underneath front bumper. The harness is plenty long so don't worry. HOWEVER when you run this harness keep it away from sharp edges, the radiator and radiator hoses. Keep it away from the fan also. When you zip tie the harness in be careful YOU DO NOT USE ONE OF THE HOLES underneath that are for the plugs and screws for the under carraige cowling!! If you run a zip tie through one of those holes you won't be able to reattach the cowling.
This is the fuse box under the hood by the headlight. The first 2 blue 15 amp fuses to the lower ight are for the left and right high beams. The two above it are for the left and right low beams. They are marked. To you novices there is a lid for the fuse box so if you can't find it that's why!!
I cut that connector off the red wire which wasn't very long. I spliced in a longer piece. I soldered it on and used heat shrink to cover the joint. I'm a big fan of solder!! You can also see where I ran the red wire and entered the fuse box from. There is room so don't go drilling holes in the fuse box or fuse box lid.
To the left is the fuse that is in the harness and you can once again see the routing I took with the red wire. The red wire will eventually be hooked up to the Left Low Beam fuse.
To the left is the positive side of the battery. I cut the connector off the white wire and soldered on a connector to attach to the positive terminal screw. I crimped and soldered that connector. You can also see that cheap on/off switch for the lights next to the harness fuse. Bottom center is the relay that is attached to the kits harness. And to the right is the red wire attched to the 3rd from bottom blue fuse which is the Left side Low Beam fuse. You have to make sure that the bare red wire doesn't touch BOTH spades or you defeat the purpose of the fuse. I stripped a little off the end and ran it along side the spade. It doesn't matter which side of the fuse/spade you use. THIS HOOKUP turns on the fog lights when you turn your headlights on. The fog lights are on whether you use High beam or Low Beam. When your headlights are on your fog lights are on. Your supplied switch must ALSO be on or the fog lights won't work!! I'm not crazy about hooking the lights up this way. But when my son gets home I'll see how he wants the fog lights to work and see if he wants the switch in the dash. This is the only way I know at the current time. I might find a different way later. There is also plenty of slack left in the harness and the switch, fuse and relay are just laying there. I zip tied and taped up some of the slack.
Radiator cowling back on with those clips. Take your time with the clips. Make sure the inner plug is pulled upward and you will most likely have to squeeze the bottom part of the plug so you can get it in the mounting holes. You must push the cowling all the way down to the hole, then push the outer part of the plug all the way in and then push the center part of the plug in and and you will hear it lock. Like I said before these plugs never work as good when you reuse them.
All done. The fuse box lid is back on. It's a somewhat neat looking job. The only thing that needs to be done is AIM the fog lights. My kids can do that!! I gotta get a hold of the body shop to get an estimate of the damage I did while saving money!! One other thing. You can't put the 2 under carriage cowlings back on until you aim the fog lights. If not you can't access the fog light adjusters. Now to find a website that tells you how to properly adjust them. It drives me nuts to go down the road and someones fog lights are aimed high.
They are in but not on. But they do work!! Hope I was able to help some of you.
Linear Mode
