Independent foglights article for all cars W/OUT ellipsoids

[Inspar8r]

Okay, after literally months of working on my electrical system, i was about to give up on this whole project. EVERY SINGLE IDEA i had was shut down somehow by the BMW engineers and sent me back to the drawing board time and time again.

Then my buddy Chris (C///M) came along, who happened to have some info about the foglight system (what i needed but couldn't find was the specific schematics of the fog light system) that the bentley doesn't cover.

Turns out, the wrench in my plans: the fog light relay itself. It has a resistor in it that throws everything off.

So, Chris and I got to work, and sure enough, after some crazy shop talk, alot of reading and searching, drilling, temporarily disabling my entire lighting system with no idea what happened (we didn't connect a wire back together), and a couple headaches, we finally saw the impossible become possible:

Independent foglights using nearly ALL OE wiring.

I had indepenedent foglights all along, but i had my own system wired separately from the fuse box. This method will retain the same fuses for the fog lights. Anyway, lets get to the real deal.

Without further Adieu:

http://www.mmsport.s5.com/Technical.html

Click the link, and then click the independent fog light article.

If someone owns a e30 from 1990 or above and wants to try it, let me know if it works, i think it should since BMW went back to sealed beams, but i would like to confirm

H4 conversion people and ellips from sealed beam converters, this article will work for you as well, even in conjunction with Ryan's article on keeping the low beams on with the high beams.

The fog lights WILL STAY ON if the high beams are used.

[OOMPH!]

damn....nice write up man. I was wondering how I would go about making my foglights independent, now I'll just follow your lead and let you know how it goes.

Thanks, George

[Digitalwave]

Next weekend I'll try this on my 1990.

[BeirBrennerE30]

you my friend have discovered the holy grail... ill get on this next time i see my car and let you know how it goes...

thanx again

[randomtask37]

good work sherlock!

now if i can manage to pull it off myself that will be the key.

:D good job

[Jordan]

Not that complicated of a rewiring job.. its painfully simply really....

Might I suggest taking the fuse panel off, and connecting those wires under it properly, instead of the very halfass method you have them attached now?

[rward325]

I am getting ready to do my selaed beam to U.S Ellipsoid swap and this will owork great at the same time. Hey does anyone have a link to the conversio nfrom sealed beams to ellipsoids? I have all of the connectors and everything I just accidently delted the link I had to the write up .

[Inspar8r]

Not that complicated of a rewiring job.. its painfully simply really....

Might I suggest taking the fuse panel off, and connecting those wires under it properly, instead of the very halfass method you have them attached now?

Negative, the bottom of the fuse panel has no room. Not to mention, the PC board is mounted to the bottom, and many of the connections to the slots are soldered and connected to the board. Only pin 86 is an accessible wire from the underside.

Granted i can go in the and reconfigure my entire Circuit board if i want, not many other people can, and almost no one on this board can. And if they could, who would want to?

This is the easiest method, and once the cover is on, no one will really notice. If i get real creative, i'll take and old relay, cut two of the pins and use it as a dummy relay to cover the wiring.

Guys, stick to my article, and save yourself the headaches, unless you REALLY KNOW what you are doing.

[C ///M]

here here!!!

i'm smart. :idea:

[Jordan]

Ive changed entire fuse boxes out before. Its not THAT tight in there :)

[Inspar8r]

Ive changed entire fuse boxes out before. Its not THAT tight in there :)

OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! TIGHT!!!!!!

Jordan, i hear you, but how many can do it, and how many want to? Know what i mean?

We don't want to scrae people away. Fact of the matter is, the people who want to do it that way, usually can. The people who can do it that way, prolly will. Like me, i did this for illustration.

[franz]

Yikes, did you try to connect 85 & 30 on the foglight relay? That was all I needed to do.

Mine does stay on when key is out though.

I also have done the ellipsoid conversion, so low beams stay on when highs go on, no problem.

I mention this because it's the first thing to try. Doesn't work for all cars for some reason, but it's a lot simpler and less hacking.

[Inspar8r]

Yikes, did you try to connect 85 & 30 on the foglight relay? That was all I needed to do.

Mine does stay on when key is out though.

I also have done the ellipsoid conversion, so low beams stay on when highs go on, no problem.

I mention this because it's the first thing to try. Doesn't work for all cars for some reason, but it's a lot simpler and less hacking.

I know it won't work on mine, since connecting 30 to 85 would mean your connecting battery power to 85, which goes directly to the low beam relay, so in this case we'd have low beams that never turn off.

[bimmerphile]

Ive changed entire fuse boxes out before. Its not THAT tight in there :)

OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! TIGHT!!!!!!

Jordan, i hear you, but how many can do it, and how many want to? Know what i mean?

We don't want to scrae people away. Fact of the matter is, the people who want to do it that way, usually can. The people who can do it that way, prolly will. Like me, i did this for illustration.

Come on Nick, I did it this way .

I might try this on Tara's car this weekend...maybe...assuming she wont mind if her dash catched fire.

-Kris

[Atreus]

bump? my 91 is not working. driving me nuts....