HELP! 4" PIAA Crystal ION's Troubleshoot...

[downpour11]

I bought the 510 series 4" PIAA Crystal Ion fog lights 6 months ago. I use them often and randomly popped a fuse. Now every time I put a fuse in and turn them on, the fuse pops. I've checked all my wiring, all the wires, tested the relay, I am p i s s e d and have no clue what it could be. HELP!! I put a message in to PIAA just now but has anyone ran into this problem? Or can think of anything else I can check or what it could be? I am STUMPED.

 

[TNRunner99]

Hum, My guess would have been the relay. As long as you have a good connection to the battery and a good ground I'm not sure why they are doing that. May can move your ground just to check. I haven't had a problem with my PIAAs. Blew a bulb after not much use but they seem to be working good now. Sorry man, I know that sucks

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

I have had some PIAA issues, but with the 580's. The relay sometimes doesn't click over, can't turn on the lights. Very annoying.

Popping fuses though? I'd consider a possible shortage within the lights themselves, possibly melted wires from heat? If you have some extra fuses, I'd try unplugging one light at a time and trying the switch. At least then you will know if the problem lies within the lights or the wiring harness.

 

[downpour11]

Perfect, thanks james I will try that. PIAA emailed me back and they're thoughts are it's either a bad harness or blown bulbs...but I'm doubting the bulb(s) are blown.

 

[downpour11]

So, magically everything works now.?!?!? WTF?! I had disconnected and reconnected both lamps yesterday and it was still popping fuses. But now that I did one at a time, then both, it randomly works? I'm still baffled but so happy they work now. Now I can see again!

Thank you James for the thoughts. If it starts happening again I'm just gonna order a new harness.

 

[downpour11]

Hum, My guess would have been the relay. As long as you have a good connection to the battery and a good ground I'm not sure why they are doing that. May can move your ground just to check. I haven't had a problem with my PIAAs. Blew a bulb after not much use but they seem to be working good now. Sorry man, I know that sucks

Yeah my initial thought was the relay too and then tested it and it was working fine. Who knows man, it was weird. After checking all connections and wiring for the tenth time I start second guessing myself and thinking am I missing something?!?! This is too easy to not be able to pinpoint the fault! LOL Thanks for your response though!! I was pretty frustrated last night hahaha

 

[Johnny4runner]

Are you using the PIAA harness or the stock fog light lines? I have the 510s and in one of my lights the housing was shorted to ground, which is not a big deal if you have the lights hooked up as they are intended to be (positive to the white line and negative to black). But I had mine connected to the stock 4Runner fog light harness and had the lines backwards. So the light would work but the moment it touched the body of my 4Runner it would short and blow the fuse. I flipped the lines on that light and now it works fine. I think what confused me was that Toyota likes to use a white line with a black stripe as ground in some harnesses. And polarity should not matter in a halogen light, right? It does here.

If you hook up the lights using the PIAA relay harness you should not have this problem, but it's nice using the stock fog light switch.

 

[downpour11]

I know what you're talking about ^^^ but no, my runner didn't have OEM fogs so I didn't have that wiring in the first place. I'm using the PIAA harness. That's why I was so confused as to what was happening LOL

I do wish I had that though! I don't like the switch that comes with the PIAA kits I'm gonna eventually switch it out.