Fog Light Wiring Help

[smallfry]

Need some help with some wiring for a set of Light Force 170's lights. A while back I picked up a JDM Scion fog light switch (see below) and I'm trying to figure out how to wire the 2-wire switch for the LF lights to the 4-wire switch I picked up.



Lightforce Install: http://www.lightforceusa.com/files/pdfs/SAFETY-TIPS_WIRING-HARNESS.pdf

The last time I wired up a set of lights it was to the Toyota rocker style switch. So I'm a little confused on this one. I've read though a number of threads on a couple of Scion sites but I'm still confused.

 

[TheDurk]

Well, I need to know if you're running headlights with switched hots (DRL-4Runners) or switched grounds (non-DRL 4Runners) and your sig shows 2 rigs, one totalled and one sold. ??

Also, confirm you want them to come on with high beams only.

 

[cj80cruiser]

From the wiring diagram I saw from light force the lights will only be able to turn ON after your high beams are switched on.

Is that how you want it? Or are you wanting to be able to switch them on/off independently?

 

[cj80cruiser]

Well, I need to know if you're running headlights with switched hots (DRL-4Runners) or switched grounds (non-DRL 4Runners) and your sig shows 2 rigs, one totalled and one sold. ??

Also, confirm you want them to come on with high beams only.

I didn't know this. Always a wealth of information.

 

[smallfry]

The lights will be run indentpently.

 

[curtperry]

if you plan on using them on road then trust me you'll want them running off the high beams.

edit: Oops just noticed these are fog lights and not driving lights... didn't know lightforce 170's did fog beam pattern. - Disregard

 

[cj80cruiser]

So I guess you would ground one end of the brown wire and connect it to the 12V+ IN wire. (someone check my thinking)

Then connect your black/red wire to the 12V+ out wire that will run to your relay. This will create the magnetic field to switch power to your fog lights by pressing your switch button.

If you want that switch to light up then all that would need to happen you'll have to tap into something that turns on when you switch your headlights on. I assume that's the L+ and L- correct?

 

[TheDurk]

So I guess you would ground one end of the brown wire and connect it to the 12V+ IN wire. (someone check my thinking)

Then connect your black/red wire to the 12V+ out wire that will run to your relay. This will create the magnetic field to switch power to your fog lights by pressing your switch button.

If you want that switch to light up then all that would need to happen you'll have to tap into something that turns on when you switch your headlights on. I assume that's the L+ and L- correct?

No, then you would have ground at both ends of the coil. If you unplugged B from ground and connected it to C, then it would work that way for full-time use. The far (from the relay) end of the brown wire (that ends up at one side of the coil after going through the switch) has to go to a 12V+ source, so long as the black/yellow at the relay is going to ground--that's the other end of the coil, as I understand it. I would suggest either any key-on source in the dash, or you could use the parking lights. For full anytime use, including key-off, then choose any fused full-time 12V+, or put it to ground and do the plug B into C thing at the relay. It depends on how 'independent' you want the LF's. At the switch, black/red goes to 12V+(OUT) wire and 12V-(IN) goes to the brown wire, or vice versa.

The L+/L- wires depend on whether you want the light in the switch to light up at night so you can find it, or whether it serves as an indicator that the LF's are on. L- goes to ground in either case. L+ can loop to the black/red to be an indicator, or to the parking lights to have the switch light up with the car's other lights. Or you could tap the dash light circuit with the L+ and it would come on with those. Not sure if it would dim correctly.

To do this on a 2002 Runner, you would have to tap the green wire (TAIL fuse circuit for L+) and the White/Green wire for L- as they come out of the combination switch aka gauge module. The rheostat is on the ground side, so you have to get between that and the module with the L- tap to get it to dim. Other years should be similar, but I don't have the diagrams and I don't know what year this is going into.

http://tacoma.site40.net/4Runner_96-02_Repair&Wiring/techinfo.toyota.com/ileaf/ewdtmc2/ewdtmpdf/ewdsourc/2002/024runne/systemci/054cm.pdf

Here is the explanation of the guy that did the switch diagram that I relied upon:

Every now and then I get members who ask about the wiring for the JDM fog light switch. I can never seem to find the original thread/post where I had first put up the info so I'm just going to put a simple thread here to make it easy to find from now on.

The fog light switch on the JDM bB has 4 wires. Two wires are to transfer 12V+ from a 12V+ source to the fog light relay. The other two wires are for the bulb inside the switch (one ground and one 12V+).

This first pic shows the switch with a simple diagram in the background. The L- and L+ wires in the center are for the light in the switch. L- goes to a dash light ground source and the L+ goes to a 12V+ dash light source.

The outer wires transfer 12V+ from a fused 12V+ source, through the switch and out to the 12v+ input signal wire of the fog light relay. As these two outer wires are simply passing a 12V+ signal onto the relay, it does not matter which wire is the 12V+ input to the switch and which wire is the 12V+ output to the relay. Which is to say, the 'IN' and 'OUT' wires can be reversed.

http://www.clubxb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48596

It sounds like he is suggesting to tap the dash light circuit with L+/L-. But you can do it however you want. This post could have been a lot shorter if you had been more specific about what you DID want.

EDIT: For someone with a 3G 4Runner that does want their LF's to come on only with either the highs or lows, connect the far end of the brown wire to the high or low wire to the headlight, as desired. If you have DRL's, leave things as shown. If you do not have DRL's, then pull the B connector from ground and plug it into the C connector. I'm sticking this in for somebody else doing a search in the future that wants it that way.

 

[cj80cruiser]

No, then you would have ground at both ends of the coil. If you unplugged B from ground and connected it to C, then it would work that way for full-time use.

Your right. I missed that it was grounded. I saw the black/yellow wire close to the battery and thought it was getting connected there.

 

[smallfry]

Need some help, kind of stump on this.

First off I’m not using the Scion fog light switch, instead I’m using the Toyota rocker style switch like I used in my old 4runner.

So last night I complete the wiring and get the lights working and go out for a little drive to grab a drink. When I get back to my place I flip the switch to make sure none of the connectors had come lose. I go to flip the switch and I get jack so I figured I’d check the wiring. Sure enough I didn’t have two of the connectors crimp enough so they came lose. I go ahead and disconnect the wiring from the battery to reconnect the two wires that had come lose and go to reconnect the wiring back to the battery only to get sparks.

I’ve gone back though checked all the connectors, checked for any frayed/damaged wires and check the grounds and found no problems. So what’s going on here?

This is the switch that I’m using and one of the write-ups that I’m using along with the Lightforce wiring diagram: http://www.sonoransteel.com/includes/templates/SonoranSteel/TechArticles/ToyotaOEMFogLightSwitch.pdf
The brown wire in the light force harness I have tied in with the yellow wire at the battery and then ran to the middle prong with the black/red wire connected to the bottom prong with the ground being at the top and grounded to the firewall.

In my last 4runner I had it wired the same way and didn’t have this problem.

 

[TheDurk]

Need some help, kind of stump on this.

First off I’m not using the Scion fog light switch, instead I’m using the Toyota rocker style switch like I used in my old 4runner.

So last night I complete the wiring and get the lights working and go out for a little drive to grab a drink. When I get back to my place I flip the switch to make sure none of the connectors had come lose. I go to flip the switch and I get jack so I figured I’d check the wiring. Sure enough I didn’t have two of the connectors crimp enough so they came lose. I go ahead and disconnect the wiring from the battery to reconnect the two wires that had come lose and go to reconnect the wiring back to the battery only to get sparks.

I’ve gone back though checked all the connectors, checked for any frayed/damaged wires and check the grounds and found no problems. So what’s going on here?

This is the switch that I’m using and one of the write-ups that I’m using along with the Lightforce wiring diagram: http://www.sonoransteel.com/includes/templates/SonoranSteel/TechArticles/ToyotaOEMFogLightSwitch.pdf
The brown wire in the light force harness I have tied in with the yellow wire at the battery and then ran to the middle prong with the black/red wire connected to the bottom prong with the ground being at the top and grounded to the firewall.

In my last 4runner I had it wired the same way and didn’t have this problem.

Wiring sounds right. If I were there, I'd probe it to see if it really is but I can't do that over the internet.

I'm guessing you caused a short when the wires came loose and fried either the relay or the switch. Make sure you have a good fuse in. To see if it is the switch, unplug it, separate the wires, and connect the circuit. If no sparkfest, touch the brown to the black/red and see if the lights come on. If they do, switch is fried.

If it's not the switch, then reconnect the switch and pull the relay. If you still get the sparkfest, wiring is wrong somewhere. To test the relay itself (assuming no sparkfest), it's easier just to try a new one. If a standard Bosch, it's like $6 at NAPA and then you have a spare if that's not it.

Rather than looking for the sparkfest, it would be preferable to ohm out the yellow battery wire to ground before connecting it.

 

[cj80cruiser]

Need some help, kind of stump on this.

Sure enough I didn’t have two of the connectors crimp enough so they came lose. I go ahead and disconnect the wiring from the battery to reconnect the two wires that had come lose and go to reconnect the wiring back to the battery only to get sparks.

Connectors at the relay?

No chance you switched the ground and + when you reconnected?

 

[smallfry]

With the relay in you get sparks with it out no sparks.


Forgot to mention but the fuse for the wiring harness is fine.

 

[TheDurk]

With the relay in you get sparks with it out no sparks.


Forgot to mention but the fuse for the wiring harness is fine.

Try a new relay. Or take your VOM to it.

http://www.bcae1.com/images/swfs/relaytesting01.swf

As I said, I bet you fried it when the wires came loose. What you just posted has me more convinced, added to the fact the lights worked at first before the wires came loose. (Frying the switch was less likely, but needed to be ruled out.)

By the way, did you tie the brown wire to the yellow battery wire before the fuse or after it? Either way, this is a very bad idea without a separate smaller fuse on the brown wire. The brown wire is presumably much smaller than the yellow wire, so your switch/coil circuit is either unfused or under fused. Not good, as in could burn up the car not good. This gets even worse if your relay is hosed and your crimp connections are suspect.

The brown wire should be attached to a FUSED circuit fused at something appropriate to its size or it should have its own fuse.

Wire Gauge Recommended
Maximum Fuse Size
00 awg 400 amps
0 awg 325 amps
1 awg 250 amps
2 awg 200 amps
4 awg 125 amps
6 awg 80 amps
8 awg 50 amps
10 awg 30 amps
12 awg 20 amps
14 awg 15 amps
16 awg 7.5 amps
These are the recommended maximum fuse ratings for the corresponding wire size. Using a smaller fuse than what's recommended here will be perfectly safe.

I'm guessing the coil switch circuit is 14 awg but it might be 12. Yellow is probably 10 awg.

 

[smallfry]

It's not the relay or the switch tried a couple different ones and played around with the wiring. The only thing I'm guessing is that I have a bad ground.

I'm using the same ground location that my battery is using. Should I use a different ground?

 

[TheDurk]

It's not the relay or the switch tried a couple different ones and played around with the wiring. The only thing I'm guessing is that I have a bad ground.

I'm using the same ground location that my battery is using. Should I use a different ground?

My fogs are grounded to the fender where the small battery wire goes--perfect place to do it.

You need to stop guessing and analyze what is happening. Do you even have a clue whether the problem is on the coil/switch side or the power to foglight side? Five minutes max with a VOM to trace this out and find the problem. If you ground one side of the relay coil and put battery 12V+ to the other, do the lights come on (disconnect what is on those tabs, first)? Does the relay click?Coil terminals are 85 and 86.

Do the above, and we will know which half of the circuit holds the problem. Answer the 2 questions, and I'll help you narrow down the issue. Seriously, stop messing around. This isn't hard. It just needs a systematic approach. Do you have a VOM or test light? Please say yes.

Note the diagram above. See that both halves are fused? This is important. I would throw away the Lightforce diagram and use this one. Only difference is your switch and indicator are a single unit.

 

[smallfry]

Do you have a VOM or test light? Please say yes.

/QUOTE]

Yes.