Aftermarket Foglights

OK here goes. Some things can vary from my methods but this will give you a general indication of how its done

Tools needed:

drill
various drill bits
various screws (self-tapping metal screws preferably)
soldering iron or various connectors and a good pair of crimpers
multimeter or test light (not necessary but nice to have)
wire loom (optional)
zip ties/zap straps (I say they are necessary but some may say optional)


You will also need the following supplies:

aftermarket foglights

the foglight kit should include a switch and a relay and wire but if it doesn't then you will need the following supplies:

a SPST switch (single pole single throw) (it will have two pins on the back....or if it is a lighted switch it will have three)



a relay
(standard 4 or 5 pin relay) sometimes called a ford relay or bosch or just standard.
It will have 4 or 5 pins and look something like this...with or without the harness (the harness just really helps):

Hint: if you go to an auto parts store and ask for a standard 12 volt 5 pin relay they will give you one of these.

some wire.....again if the kit doesn't include wire you will need some. 12 gauge is probably as small as you want to go, you could get away with 14 gauge if the lights are smaller and cheaper I guess. A few different colors and at least 10' lengths for most of them is recommended.

A fuse holder.

Now on to the fun stuff.


First find a suitable location for the relay.

I chose directly behind the drivers side strut tower as there is lots of room. Pay no attention to the second relay it is for something else



Next choose a suitable location for the lights themselves....this is crucial; as you want it to look good and streamlined. I had square lights before behind the grille but I chose round ones this time and they seem to flow nicely right here underneath the bumper:



First I broke the bolt off. They were just in the way anyways.


Next I pre-drilled the holes and used 1" self-tappers and big washers to hold the bracket in. I mounted the bracket right over top of the existing metal plate there...it just worked

And in case you were wondering....my drill bit hit 4 or 5 different depths of metal in the inch I went in so there is lots of meat to mount anything you want right there. And it is very solid




Now you can run the ground wire directly from here to ground somewhere...hell even the mounting bolt would be a nice ground. But I happened to have some bonded wire so I ran power and ground together(bonded wire is pretty much speaker wire....except the stuff I have is red and black ala
....across the inside of the bumper (for the right one) and through a hole by the headlights into the engine bay. And I used loom cuz it was shop-supplied and right beside me at the time (and I like the way it looks)



From there I ran my (now one) set of bonded wire around the strut tower and to the relay. The red wire (which is connected to the positive of my foglights) I connected to pin 87.

I ran the ground for the foglights to ground ( I actually spliced it together with the ground for the relay and grounded them both to the same place)

Next pin 86 from the relay goes to ground

Next I ran wire from the positive post of the battery, through a fuseholder (15 amps is enough) along the same route and into pin 30

Now pin 85 on your relay is the trigger. This wire will turn your foglights on if it is hot.

Now you have a choice
A. lights only work when the marker lights/headlights are on
B. hot all the time (very easy to leave them on )
C. hot with the key (ignition)
D. or only when your highbeams are on

For A, connect this wire to the hot lead of your marker lights (the green at the marker light, or it can be picked up in the driver's kickpanel, dark green)
for B, connect it to a hot wire...any hot wire
for C connect it to an ignition fed wire
and for D, connect it to the hot lead of your highbeams (one of the two green ones at the back of your headlights, I can't remember which one...use a test light to find out)

This wire is also the one that will have the switch inline...and it is a good idea to fuse it as well as it will be running through the firewall at some point.

So what I have done is tapped off the hot wire on my side marker lights....ran through a fuse, through the firewall and into the cab(you can also pick this wire up in the drivers kickpanel, it is dark green). Then I ran the wire to the location of my switch...and from there back to the relay

Note: the third black wire in my diagram is just a ground as I have a lighted switch...it is not necessary



Now we have all the wires run to the relay like so
again...ignore the second relay and all the extra wires...they are for my next writeup





a bit of soldering, a bit of heat shrink, maybe some loom and tie straps and we should be good to go

Here is the diagram for the relay....it should be really easy to follow








And I have to admit I like the way these look




Finished product

 

that 20 amp line will be just fine to tie off of.

 

you can buy connectors that just crimp on to an existing wire without having to cut or solder or crimp. They look like this

Just use one of those and tie it somewhere after that fuse. I normally wouldn't recommend using those as they are crap but if you would rather not do any cutting or soldering then just use one and tape it up real good with electrical tape after and it should be fine...that will save you disconnecting your lead for the alarm and having something reset on you

 

I would recommend getting yourself a soldering iron. That way it is done right.

You don't need anything special you can easily get a cheap iron for well under 20 bucks. Then just bare the insulation from the wire that is already there and strip back the insulation from your new wire and wrap it around and solder then tape it up with electrical tape.


You could use crimp on butt connectors as well but that would involve cutting the wire and resetting your alarm. And over time vibrations and moisture can cause problems with butt connectors...especially in the engine bay.

You'll have to forgive me for being so hardcore against crimp on connectors but I firmly stand by my belief that they are excellent for a quick fix, but for permanent solutions solder is the only way to go. In my business I've had to troubleshoot wiring and electrical issues time and time again.....easily 95% of the time any connection that wasn't soldered had been the cause of the problem. Just throwin it out there

 

good luck mang. get some pics up when you are done

 

well seeing as your car battery is 12 volts then yes you could power them off a separate 12v battery...they will kill a battery quite fast though so if you run them from a different source you will need to have a way to charge the other source