What are those little lights on the bottom?

D

Dansnare

New member
I feel really dumb asking this, but my new 04 V8 Limited has these small round lights below the headlights that look kinda like halogen bulbs, but nothing I do turns them on.

I've pushed, pulled and turned everything possible, and I've looked through the manual. I've turned on my headlights, high beams, low beams, fog lights, DRLs. These aren't any of them.

What the heck are they?

Thanks.

Dan
 
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**edit**i cannot read:arrow: is this bulb within the headlight housing? or down by the DRL/blinkers?
 
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he said he turned on his foglights though...all i know is I am confused...take some pics of these so called "lights"
 
They're down by the directional signals. In fact, they're immediately to the inside of the directional signals.

Look up at the TR4.ORG logo up on top of this page. It's clearly visible in the picture. Look at the left turn signal. It's just to the left of that in the picture.

Dan
 
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The thing just left of the turn signal is the foglight, which you said you knew about already. Are you sure you are turning on the foglights correctly? The foglights are not turned on by the lightswitch itself, there is a seperate slide switch that you turn to activate the foglights. It is on the same stick, but to the right of where you turn on and off your headlights.
 
Those are fog lights. They only come on when the headlights are on and the switch for the fog lights are on.
 
AHA! That's what got me. I tried to turn on the foglights with the headlights off and got the DRLs instead.

Ok, so next dumb question. Why would I want my foglights on if my headlights are already on?

Thanks.

Dan
 
Dansnare said:
AHA! That's what got me. I tried to turn on the foglights with the headlights off and got the DRLs instead.

Ok, so next dumb question. Why would I want my foglights on if my headlights are already on?

Thanks.

Dan
Click to expand...

in thick fog your headlights will not work very well because it's angled higher than the fog lights. in this case you want the lower fog lights to light up what little distance you can see directly in front of your truck below the fog. the reflector of the fog lights are designed to spread out the light wider over a shorter distance.
 
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I leave my foglights on all the time. In addition to fog, they also help light up the dark roads a little better when you can't right with high beams.
 
is there anyway to drive with your foglights on without your headlights on? I noticed some trucks are able to do this..
 
irwinSR5 said:
is there anyway to drive with your foglights on without your headlights on? I noticed some trucks are able to do this..
Click to expand...

You can't do that on a Toyota. I know on BMW you can put the parking lights on and then turn on the fog lights. I think you would have to wire the fogs differently but don't ask me how!! :p
 
irwinSR5 said:
is there anyway to drive with your foglights on without your headlights on? I noticed some trucks are able to do this..
Click to expand...

Do you feel like doing a very simple wiring modification?

If so, you can make your foglights come on any way you choose-- I personally like them set up so that they have power whenever the parking light circuit is on. In other words, I can control the foglights with the foglight switch without my headlights on, as long as my parking lights are on.

Some people prefer to wire their foglights so that they can be switched on or off regardless of the parking light/headlight circuit.

It's easy to do... you just have to decide how you want them to work and then find the correct power source to tap off of...
 
have to check with your state laws

The reason the headlights are required to run the fogs is that the fogs do not illuminate far enough down the road for safety. Too many people were turning on the fogs without turning on the headlights and getting into accidents (or causing them). This was a safety feature introduced a few years back to prevent people from doing something they shouldn't be. Most of the new vehicles have a headlight sensor, which brings the headlights on automatically when the outside light falls below a certain level. To these vehicles, this is transparent, so you would not see the need to turn on your headlights to enable the fogs.

I was driving home last night through "pea soup" fog, and I was very happy to have both sets on.
 
Re: have to check with your state laws

boston_kevin said:
The reason the headlights are required to run the fogs is that the fogs do not illuminate far enough down the road for safety. Too many people were turning on the fogs without turning on the headlights and getting into accidents (or causing them). This was a safety feature introduced a few years back to prevent people from doing something they shouldn't be. Most of the new vehicles have a headlight sensor, which brings the headlights on automatically when the outside light falls below a certain level. To these vehicles, this is transparent, so you would not see the need to turn on your headlights to enable the fogs.

I was driving home last night through "pea soup" fog, and I was very happy to have both sets on.
Click to expand...

Even so, there are still plenty of vehicles that allow you to turn on the foglights without the headlights. A few that come immediatetly to mind-- Most BMWs (including my M3), most late-model Mustangs, the new Dodge Durango (not sure about the old body style) etc...

I don't ever try to use my fogs as headlights, I just like to use them with my parking lights when it is just beginning to get dark (before the headlights are even needed) or sometimes just use them during the day, even when it's sunny.
 
Fog comes in lots of different forms and I can see the benefit in having independent control of all the lights, if the drivers can be trusted not to do really dumb things.

Here's an odd one: Years ago I was driving north from Denver on I-25 in the middle of the night. For some reason there was a layer of fog on the ground, maybe 5-10 ft. thick. There was good illumination from a full moon and very light traffic. I experimented with high and low beams and some aux. driving lights I had. In the end, the best visibility by far (and it was pretty good) was just using the moonlight, with parking lights on to let the few other vehicles know I was there. Using any other lights just lit up the fog and obscured the view of the road. Fog lights might or might not have been helpful, but I didn't have them and the road was clear and dry.

So maybe that would be a good situation to use the fog lights only, but that's not possible on a std. 4Runner.
 
I just returned last week from a 3000 mi. trip over Christmas and ran into a lot of fog.
I tried the fog lights and all seemed to do is light up a small area in front and to the side of the T4R.

The next project is to try some more powerful bulbs in the fog lights to see if they can be made to function.
I am going to have to check out the actual light pattern. I thought that they would work almost a good as
the Hellas I had on my Jeep GC, but that is just not true.

Cliff s
 
Another benefit to wiring the fog lights up independently: They will stay on even if you have your hi-beams on. I've been in situations where I could use all the light possible, which is not too bad with the hi-beams and foglights together.
 
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