Okay, first off, get yourself the materials you need:
Fogs (Duh
)
1 Relay (I used the common Bosch type, got if off of a wrecked bimmer at the school shop)
Wire-light guage for switch-relay, heavy guage for relay-batt and relay-fogs
electrical tape/crimp connectors, heat shrink tubing, wirenuts, soldering iron/gun whatever you like to use to join multiple wires
Wiring clips to attach the wires to the relay and switch
Switch
12mm Socket wrench and extensions (I used a 3 inch extension, but longer might have been easier)
1 15A fuse
Let's wire up the inside of the car first, this way the switch is all ready when you get the fogs in, and you can work on everything outside last.
First, remove this panel, the screws are in the circled places. The two covers on the top screws pop off easily.
Next, find where you want to mount your switch, and clean it well so that the double sided tape can get a good hold. I mounted mine here:
It's right under the dash and lights up when the lights are on.
Now for the wiring itself. First, get yourself an extra 15A fuse, I found one with an open element that was quite easy to modify. Shave, snip or melt off the back corner of the fuse to expose one of the ends of the prongs that go into the fuse socket. Be careful not to damage the fuse element or break the fuse while doing this. Now solder on your small guage wire for the fuse power. I used a telephone line, because I had a very long coil of it handy. It also has very thick insulation. I just twisted the two wires inside into one when I stripped the ends. Put the fuse back into the box with the modified end down, so that the current flows down through the element of the fuse before it goes to your switch, just in case. The switch to relay wiring will draw miliamps of power so this is completely safe.
I am sure there are cleaner ways to do it, but this is very simple, fuses are cheap, and it saves long wiring runs out to the batt for the switch/relay power. Plus, when it comes to returning back to stock, there is nothing easier than plugging in a new fuse. I keep the old one in the glove box incase anything goes wrong. It is currently wired to the radio circuit, that way it can never be left on when the keys are out, so no dead batteries
Next, wire the ground. There is a ground bolt conveniently located here:
There is a plastic nut holding it to the firewall, unscrew it with your fingers. By the door there are two plastic clips holding it, pull up the door trim and pop this piece off to expose this:
Wire up your ground here:
Reinstall the panel and hide your wires behind it. leave your ground and positive switch connections in an easy to get to spot, we'll connect them to the switch later.
Here's the hardest part. Running the wire from the interior to the exterior of the car. This is where I did some thinking, because I didn't want to take anything apart (Other than the one panel inside) I saw the main wiring harness going out of the car, and found that I could sneak my wire in through the grommet in the firewall like so:
leave the grommet off for now, you'll need to pull the wire through to the right length and a little more, and then pull it back once your wire is where it needs to be. The one problem this caused, is that it leaves the wire on the passenger side of the car, when your switch is obviously on the driver's side. This is easy to remedy because toyota has coveniently left us a passage under the center stack. Use a coat hanger straightened out or other long stiff wire (I used welding rod) with a loop in the end and feed your wire through the center stack and hide it under the carpet (The carpet is held by velcro, just pull it up) like so:
Once on the other side, lead it to your switch, and replace the bottom dash panel. Hide any excess wiring up under it with tape and zip ties. I just trimmed my wiring to fit. Run the wire up to this panel from under the center stack like this:
You're almost there!
Connect the Switch and the interior wiring is done!
Now that that's done, let's wire up the fogs themselves. Find out how your relay is wired, and place it here, connect your switch wires. The wire comes out of the grommet and snakes around the side of the wheel well under/behind the plastic reservoirs This is where I put the relay. You can see the wires coming from the batt, fogs, ground and switch:
Place your fogs where you want them, I just mounted mine here with double sided tape until I make up my mind:
I ran all my wiring from the fogs and battery to the relay through the little gap under the headlight and along the metal rail on the bumper just under the grill. I used zip ties to secure the wiring. The battery connection is pretty standard:
I found an easy to get to ground point in the right front corner of the engine bay right in front of the wiper fluid filler. (As you can see I had a rat living in my engine bay at one point
, well my grandma did anyway, there were droppings in the air box
.) The ground is behind where the arrows are pointing:
Wire both the ground for the relay and lights to this bolt. Connect a wire from the relay's high power out to the positive on the fogs, I used a y cable but you could just wire two separate wires to one clip on the relay. I ran them through the gap under the headlights as mentioned before. Connect the ground to the lights and the ground, high in, high out and switch wire to the relay and you're done!
The best part of this method is that when you want to sell, all the wiring can be removed without having to leave electrical taped over spots or exposed wiring on your car!
Nathan
That way, if you want to sell it you can pull of your nice fogs without leaving stuff exposed or "damaged."
. Is anyone interested in seeing how I did it?
you
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