15 amp fuses keep blowing: fog lights - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

hollowreaper13 · 03-31-2009, 04:04 PM

i just bought a fog light kit and after the day and a half of trying to find a mounting location on my bumper (there was this huge metal bar that was like 1 inch thick wrapped around the inside of the bumper) the lights wont turn on

- the problem is the 15 amp fuse keep blowing the second i turn on the lights (switch), i've gone through 5. i checked the wiring to make sure nothing was exposed and the wires are all intact. the lights themselves are grounded and so is the switch in the car.
- i don't know that much about electrical wiring but any suggestions would greatly help.
(ae92 sedan)

Hooker Hunting · 03-31-2009, 04:11 PM

try grounding the lights through a body ground and not through the light bracket.

Ghostyman · 03-31-2009, 04:30 PM

Doh, that means I forgot to post my pictures about the lightbar. Damn, I'll get those up later today.

Most of the time, the switch shouldn't be grounded. The exception is if the switch lights up when it's turned on. You usually just want a positive wire coming from the battery and then another wire extending to the lights.

Hooker Hunting · 03-31-2009, 04:38 PM

the switch should never be grounded. that's why your blowing fuses. i'm a 4 yr. toyota tech. and a 7 year air force electrician.

hollowreaper13 · 03-31-2009, 05:54 PM

ohhh thanks hooker,ill try not grounding the switch, and the switch has a light inside that turns on when the lights are on
-any suggestion on what kind of gauge wiring would be best for the fog lights??

Ghostyman · 03-31-2009, 06:41 PM

You'll need one ground wire from the switch to get it to light up. There should be three plugs on the back... two of them will be positive (one to battery, one to fog lights) and the other will be GND to light the switch.

The switch will work without the GND wire so try wiring it up first without it.

hollowreaper13 · 03-31-2009, 07:43 PM

ill try that soon, i already went through a whole pack of fuses, so i need to go get more, im also thinking of replacing the wiring to some higher quality wire. just to be safe.

***SCT*** · 03-31-2009, 08:52 PM

I noticed on my switch there's three prongs as well. However, if all three were wired the switch would light up when it's on...

Anyways, I just have wire problems that keeps corroding after a few months... Cheap wires from AutoZone. Now the wires heat up from resistance like hell so I disconnected it for now until I can do the rewiring...

Ghostyman · 03-31-2009, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCT

I noticed on my switch there's three prongs as well. However, if all three were wired the switch would light up when it's on...

Yes, that is how those switches are supposed to work. On a non-lighted switch you would just have 2 prongs. Both of those would be positive because the switch just sits inline between the battery and lights.

With a lighted switch, there is an extra GND wire so that the light can come on (which it can't do with just 2 positive leads -- the circuit must be grounded for the light on the switch to come on.) If you don't have the GND connected, the switch will still control power to the foglights but the light on the switch won't work because it is never grounded.

Don't worry about upgrading the wires yet. See how everything works with the switch wired up properly first. What type of foglight kit did you get?

hollowreaper13 · 04-01-2009, 09:01 PM

the only reason i thought of changing the wires was to make 100% sure there wasnt a snag i missed ( higher quality wire wont melt as easy, some wires might not be in ideal locations).
- http://www.amazon.com/Blazer-All-Wea...8637249&sr=8-3 these are the lights they are really bright at least from what i saw for 15 min before the first fuse blew.
-i also talked to a friend, he said that using a better quality in line fuse might help and also that using to inline fuses would slow down the power from the battery and not send as many amps.

Ghostyman · 04-01-2009, 09:24 PM

Here's the lightbar I was talking about:

The picture is bad (cell phone camera) but you can see three open holes -- one in the middle and two on the ends. Those are spaced the same as the flat bar underneath the front bumper.

I cut the bolts down so they don't stick up past the nuts. I still need to make three spacers so I can use extended bolts to mount this bar just underneath the bumper. This means no drilling or cutting of the Corolla at all. Just stock mounting points.

hollowreaper13 · 04-02-2009, 12:11 AM

your middle lights look alot like my fog lights, the only difference is mine are amber. and i did drill holes but your idea is alot better.

Ghostyman · 04-02-2009, 12:44 PM

I drilled holes initially too... and taking them off or adjusting them was a complete pain. I ended up having to grind a slot in the carriage bolts so I could fit a screwdriver on 'em to get them off.

I'm hoping to get the bar mounted in a few days and I'll post pics.

I've got my driving lights in the middle and the fog lights on the outside. I figured that would give the best light dispersion.

My lights are from Harbor Freight and all four cost $24 on sale.

freakinbox · 04-02-2009, 02:34 PM

I just grounded to the the bracket for the headlight assembly. There is a large nut there and it was easy to get to. I didn't ground the switch on mine, didn't care for it to light up. Besides the switch went shorty after that and I have replaced it a couple times since with ones that don't light up meaning I would have drilled the hole to ground it for nothing.