I'm very interested in doing this as well. I previously had it configured on my 2009 Corolla and would guess it's wired similar on the Venza. I just don't know how to locate the correct wires.

On the corolla you basically find the wire that makes the fog light dependent to the low beam, cut it and ground it. This gives you independent control over the fogs.

Important Note: Instead of doing a straight ground, it's highly recommended that you put in a relay to trigger it only when the car keys are in. Otherwise you'll forget to turn them off and drain your battery.

Maybe someone has the resources to find the wiring for us. I sent a PM to Jeff Lange who helped us with the Corolla wiring in this thread:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/325-10th-gen-exterior-forum/305549-fog-light-mod.html

 

I like to know a simple way like the link above too. If I really wanted to, I can rewire the fogs to a new relay and tap power straight off the battery and run control wires to one of the fuse in the fuse box that provides AUX power. But it's too much work. I've done that to a few of my old cars in the past to add extra fogs and driving lights. I don't think I'll ever need to use the fogs with the HIDs that's already there. It's more like for show with the LED headlights. I'm thinking of changing the fogs to amber bulb for the JDM look.

 

If you do, be sure to stick to the halogen bulbs. Don't get the yellow HIDs. they create too much glare and are faded yellow, whereas the halogen bulbs are pure yellow.

Right now I have Yellow bulbs for lowbeam, DRL/highbeam and for fogs. Great for snow and rain.

 

What is it like on the highway at night with yellow high beams. Can you see far down the road?


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Once I get some downtime I am going to compare the fuse box of the Tacoma and the Venza as I did this with my 2010 Tacoma. The foglights would work standalone provided the ignition was turned on. I was able to run them independently and they would also stay lit with the high beams. It was a simple mod that required no addition of relays. All that was needed was an 6" length of wire to use as a jumper from one of the relays into another fuse slot. Here's a pretty good Youtube video showing the process on the Tacoma. I would imagine if the fuse/relay panels on the Venza are similar that we could achieve the same results. Just a matter of finding the time to tinker.

 

Once I get some downtime I am going to compare the fuse box of the Tacoma and the Venza as I did this with my 2010 Tacoma. The foglights would work standalone provided the ignition was turned on. I was able to run them independently and they would also stay lit with the high beams. It was a simple mod that required no addition of relays. All that was needed was an 6" length of wire to use as a jumper from one of the relays into another fuse slot. Here's a pretty good Youtube video showing the process on the Tacoma. I would imagine if the fuse/relay panels on the Venza are similar that we could achieve the same results. Just a matter of finding the time to tinker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GENGMMiAOHk

That's a great video and I'm sure it would be a similar mod on a Venza.


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I had a 92 integra where the fogs worked the same way. To get them to work stand alone, I believe I ran the ground to the rear defrost ground. This allowed the to be used by themselves. If that sounds right. I will double check as that was like 7 years ago.

 

Anyone have a wiring diagram?

 

Got to do more digging but after seeing if this has been done on a Camry since our platform probably shares the most parts with theirs it sounds like the function may actually be wired and controlled by the ECU and may be a bigger task than I would have imagined. At least that is the case with the Camry and the fact that there seems to be no relay has me thinking Toyota has the same set up in the Venza. If we had an actual relay for the fogs I would have had this licked by now but I am going to keep looking until I know for sure there is not a simple solution.

 

Not the news I'm hoping for. LOL

 

Say it ain't so!

 

Yeah, I can hear the fog like relay click right behind the instrument dash. It would be a pita to take the dash apart to reach the relay.

 

Good News: Did some digging behind the steering wheel and found the Fog relay. It seems to be the same size relay as in the Tacoma tutorial. Maybe even the same part number.

Bad News: It's not as simple to wire as it is on the Tacoma. It seems the low beam dependency is before the signal gets to the relay. Maybe the wiring needs to be done underneath the stalk on the steering wheel column.

Good News: I was able to wire the fog light independently by removing the relay and wiring a power source directly to the connection. Now my fogs are on all the time when the key is in the ignition. I will be looking for a separate fog light switch if its a reasonable price but for now I've wired it directly.

Here's a view of entire panel, the fog light relay goes on the bottom left. (it's taken out in the picture)

Closeup of the relay and spot in the panel where it goes.

The Relay.

The top two vertical plugs process the signal that comes from light stalk. If I wire the one from the tacoma tutorial to a power source, the fog light doesn't come on. If I wire the other one to the power source, the fog light works independently when the low beams are off but the fogs go off when the low beams are on.

The top horizontal plug provides power and the bottom one goes to ground. If you put a loop wire in them both it completes the fog circuit and they turn on, even with no keys in the car. So I wired the bottom connection to another power source that is only on when the ignition is on.

Fogs on with no low beams. They even stay on when the high beams are activated.

Now I just need to figure out how to disable the DRLs.

 

Nice Job! I wonder if there is a way to run it off the switch on the stalk rather than always on. Know knowing there is a relay and it;s not part of the ECU is a relief. Thanks for the right up!
I hear ya on wanting to disable the DRLs. I wish they had the DRLs just be a front marker light like on my Tacoma.

 

Yeah I'm not too good with tracing the wires but figured this would lead the experts in the right direction. :thumbsup:

 

Was washing the car, thought I'd take a night time photo too, sorry about the quality, night time shots taken with iPhone

Good Night!

 

Great job.

How difficult is it to drop the panel under the steering wheel so you can get at the relay switch.


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Not that difficult. You need to first take off the kick panel on the left side, there's a 10mm bolt down there. On the right side of the panel (above the accelorator) there's a philips screw. After those two are out, rest is all clips. Just a matter of pulling the panel towards the driver seat.

 

"Now I just need to figure out how to disable the DRLs." they must have been listening / reading. The 2013 has a DRL OFF switch on the stalk
.
XR.....do U plan to put relay back in or does everything else work with it out ?

If I do the Foglite task..... I will take the accessory "hot" wire and run it to a new rocker switch for the dashboard panel right above this and then back to the spot on the relay base that the green wire connected to. This way U can turn them off when not wanted while driving and they will go off when car is turned off.

Or.....after studying the pics XR made, One could put the Acc. hot wire on the middle copper spade of the relay, and make short jumpers for the other 3 connections( to go between relay and base) and I believe U could use the switch on the stalk.

XR ......U got a volt meter or lite? I would say the circuit that feeds the middle spade is tied into the HIGH beam lites, thru some electronic gizmo, and when U go to HB the Fogs go off ( by cutting 12vdc to them) even though the Fog switch is still calling for the fogs to be on. But it could be that they break the switch circuit also dropping out the relay and 12vdc to the fogs. Need to see which port loses 12vdc when HB turned on.

Need to test....I wish I could get down to the area and test it myself but Age has been catching up with me alot lately. Hell if I got down there I couldn't see much.......Golden years my butt !


Thanks for info and time ........

 

The DRL off switch is only available in US as it's illegal to disable them in Canada.

Everything works without it. The relay was basically receiving a power signal from the headlight stalk and now it's receiving it from another constant source.

I purchased the volt meter yesterday after doing this wiring so didn't get a chance to test the middle copper connection but based on the way the lights worked, it seemed the high beam cut off and the low beam dependence was already done before the Relay. Either through the ECU or thru the relays for lowbeam/highbeams.

I'm looking into getting a fog light switch but not sure if I want to spend 80 bucks on one. When I get that figured out I'll go back in to do the wiring and do some further testing.

 

WeeeeeOooooooo......$80 for a switch ? I guess that's a Toyota switch with the little fog light icon. I ill have to go junkin.

Thanks again for info.

 

I have a chinese made toyota fog light switch(for use with my rear fog set up) for $10 bucks...
not the best quality but can live with.

 

Wiring Diagram

Hi everybody... it's my first post.. Newbie here :hi:
If you need the wiring diagram of the fog light,

http://roji.go.dyndns.org/toyota/FrontFogLightWiring1.JPG
http://roji.go.dyndns.org/toyota/FrontFogLightWiring2.JPG
http://roji.go.dyndns.org/toyota/FrontFogLightWiring3.JPG

Hope this will help someone

we are owner of
Venza 2009 4cyl awd
Yaris 2006

 

Thanks for posting up the link. Can anyone make sense of these diagrams and figure out how to wire the fogs independently?

 

One thing I noticed that was interesting is that the power for the fog relay is coming thru the tail relay, not from the headlights. This makes me think that XRSized was close. I am thinking if he removed the tail relay and put his jumper to the same spot there, then put the fog relay back in, the fogs may be able to be run all the time and turned on/off from the existing switch on the tree. Now this would mean that the tails would be on all of the time, but I don't have a problem with that.

Anyway, I gave the diagram to an electrical engineer at work, hopefully he can figure it out.

 

Not totally related to the topic, just gonna let you guy know that I can't turn off the DRL in my Canadian with the mini-vci. Maybe need recode with different country for the module.

PS. I am against without DRL, just gonna make it to the fog. Hope this info help other in Canadian.

 

Yeah I noticed that too about the tail lights but it didn't make sense to be because the tail lights are on when the stalk switch is turned to the clearance lights (between Auto and ON) but the fogs don't come on at that time.

 

Yeah, I have noticed that as well. The EE that I had review the wiring diagram said he really doesn't see a way to do this other than adding another switch. He also cautioned about randomly putting 12V to any relay connections because it could adversely affect the ECU (burn it up). Based on that, I don't think its worth trying to do what I had posted before.

Looks like the only way to do this is to jump it like you did and add a switch or run a new power line under the hood and add a switch. I think your way seems easier.

If you get an opportunity, could you post a picture of where the accessory power pin was that you pulled from to get the 12V to the relay. On your posted pictures, you can see the green wire you plugged in where the relay was, but not where the other end is plugged in.

 

Yup, it was on lease, returned it and am now financing a 2013 Camry SE

 

So on the Camry forum, someone asked the same question about running the fog lights independently and another member suggested an idea that I hadn't thought of when I had the Venza.

Our Fog lights and the low beams are both H11. What you can do is swap the harness connections by using either H11 extensions or HID kits as they have longer wires.

So basically connect the low beam bulbs to the fog lights harness and the fog bulbs to the low beam harness. Allowing you to run the fog lights without the low beams.

I will be re-installing my HID kit from the Venza on the Camry for low beams this spring and will run it off the fog light connection. And I've just placed an order for the H11 extenders off ebay to run the yellow fog lights from the low beam connections.

No cutting of wires in this process and when my fogs go on, the DRLs should turn off, which is how I want to run this. :rockon:

Only downside I see is that the low beam will now be dependent on the fog lights, which is not a concern to me.

 

...Our Fog lights and the low beams are both H11. What you can do is swap the harness connections by using either H11 extensions or HID kits as they have longer wires.

So basically connect the low beam bulbs to the fog lights harness and the fog bulbs to the low beam harness. Allowing you to run the fog lights without the low beams...

DUDE, THAT IS AWESOME! I only use low beams with the fogs, but would like to run fogs only sometimes, so I'm down! The only real downside I see, is that the parking lights will be on with the fogs. Optimally, I would like only fogs, but I think I can live with it. Although, I could break the wire off of the parking light bulb so only the blinker works!

Regardless, please give me a link to the cables you ordered so I can get a pair too!