wiring on fog lights

[bowlofturtle]

I'm trying to figure out where would be good places to splice my foglights or should i just run a straight switch to my battery and junk.

How are these normally wired up? I wanna know my options before i start striping wires. Thanks guys. Oh also are there any brands to stay away from because i'm looking at some $40 Pilot ones from AUTO Zone

[alex86]

i got one from i believe super street at advance auto nd they really good for just 50 bucks fogs. i just hooked mine up directly to the battery where the instructions tell u to hook it up with the parking lights. i believe that just takes to much unnessary sodering and other junks when u can just hook it up to battery and ground it then use the button they gave u. if u really want to waste time go for the parking light thing.

[bowlofturtle]

yea see i was thinking the same thing, just hooking it up directly and running the switch to somewhere in the car.

[88 LE]

It should come with a fuse, relay, and switch. The good ones do anyways.

Most of the stuff plugs together, but theres a few wires you need to hookup.

1. Ground for the lights.

2. Power (+12V).

3. Trigger for the relay (tap into the parking light wire).


Hooking them up directly to the battery with a switch is a bad idea. But hey its your car.

[bowlofturtle]

how would it be a bad idea sir? Thats what i'm trying to gather up. I see it as just the fog lights not depending on a switch (headlights) itself. because the triggering device should normally have a toggle switch.

[88 LE]

^ Fog lights draw quite a bit of current.

Lets say their 60W each. Thats 5 amps per light or 10 amps total.

P (power) = I (current) x E (voltage)

60 / 12 = 5 amps.

5 amps x 2 = 10 amps.

I wouldn't try to switch 10 amps through a little switch. Thats why I suggest using a relay.

[alex86]

ive had no probs wat so ever nd my "expert" electrical friend told me its perfectly fine as long as you have a good battery and hooking it up to the parking lights is going a b*tch. want less pain hook it up to the battery. but yer move buddy not mine

[bowlofturtle]

88 LE - good point i never saw it that way. there goes my idea. Now off to get wiring diagrams to see how hard it is to splice into parking lights.

[88 LE]

^ Green wire at the bottom of the fuse box.

In a white connector just below the fuses with the wires exiting out towards you.

[slammineon95]

i think wiring it to the parking lights is easier. if you do a seperates switch with a relay, theres to many wires to run. hooking it to the parking lights you just have to add wire to the existing wire on the foglights and splice into the wire that has constant power when the parking lights are on.

[paradizecityz]

yea i bought my foglights and it came with a remote so i ran the wires to the battery

[es250nut]

The factory fogs in Toyota vehicles that come with them are switched on via 2 relays the main relay is triggered by the fog light switch and a secondary relay that is triggered by the low beam circuit. So if the high beams are on the fog lights and low beams are off. This prvents too much drain from having the fogs and high beams drawing power at the same time.

[xrs22]

yeah, i was thinking of getting fog light for my Matrix XRS. I sold the front bumper cover and forgot to take the damn fog lights out . So now I have to fabricate something because i don't want to mount them on the bodykit. Besides it already has the wiring harness from the stock so i'll just splice them into that and use the foglight control on the inside. I just don't know what kind to get, u know shape and size and stuff like that.

[88 LE]

Originally Posted by slammineon95

i think wiring it to the parking lights is easier. if you do a seperates switch with a relay, theres to many wires to run. hooking it to the parking lights you just have to add wire to the existing wire on the foglights and splice into the wire that has constant power when the parking lights are on.

If you do that you'll end up with melted wiring and blown fuses.

You need a relay or relay + switch (if you want the ability to turn them on/off manually).

[Hamsterman]

hey 88le i got a Q for you and it wouldn't let me mail you/pm you, so sorry to kinda post a long Q, but if you got time to read it i hope you can help me, I really sucked @ physics (took 2 semseters @ university and got a C both times )

I have a bunch of accesory shit going off my optima, basically what i did was a ran a 60 amp fuse on 4G wire to a distribution block, and then ran that 4 gauge back to my amp, and had an 8G going off the distribution, i have a 20/30 amp fuse on that and it goes in my firewall behind a kick panel.

Now connected to that is the power to my interior neons (5A fuse) and exterior neons (5A fuse) and then power to all my gauges (5A fuse), i have more fuses than i need, cuz i like to be more safe than sorry, and neons and leds use such low current that it should not be a big deal anyways, just have them there in case of shorts...

But i read you said that you would really use a relay for fog lights since they usually require a 10/20 amp fuse. First off is a relay kind of like a "self reseting" circuit breaker? Cuz i used to have some fogs just with a 15 amp fuse that when from the distribution block with power and then to a switch... i figured if there was a power surge the fuse would blow and all wire heat/problems would cease... is that crappy logic or wouldn't the relay not really be needed as long as you have a low amp fuse to block stuff... i guess since i have tried to "teach" myself my wiring knowledge through self tests and a some TN/web research, i want to just know for real if it is safe. I have never hooked up a relay and want to undestand why it is important, because it is not something to guess around with when i could really damage my car/self... i just always thought that a fuse stops a wire short/over charge problem sufficently

thanks for reading this is you did, hope i made sense
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