DIY-Independent Fogs with highs as well

[e30Matt]

Looking at the ETM for my car ('88 325), it appears that a wire between pin 87 on the low beam relay and pin 86 on the fog light relay will give the fog relay power at all times with the switch in either the parking light or on position. This is for late models anyway. Someone double check me on that.

[HiTheNameIsBJ]

lol^ see this whole thread just pissed me off as I've read every post and still nothing.

Your best bet is to run a fused line from the ignition wire to the foglight switch so when turned on triggers a relay that triggers a - to the fogs.

I'm working on this for my buddies '08 wrx. We are using the DRL signal wire (essentially just a 12v ign) to a 30amp No relay. This seems to be the easiest, least evasive way.

[Vtec?lol]

lol^ see this whole thread just pissed me off as I've read every post and still nothing.

Your best bet is to run a fused line from the ignition wire to the foglight switch so when turned on triggers a relay that triggers a - to the fogs.

[chunkymunky877]

well i tried to do this. But... i used the wrong kind of solder or something... and poof. smoke coming from the fuse box and the kick panel. i started it and drove that bad ass away... after putting snow on the flames... i think i did something wrong.
did anyone have this flammable problem?

[louniex]

Ok so I tried the ind fogs using the first method in the tread (jumping the relay)but when I'm testing it before sodering my lows go on and even with switch off and no key they stayed on. I put a wire directly into the prongs on the board and I tried tying the wire directly betwen the 30 and 87 with the same result. Low stay constant on! What am I missing or what am I doing wrong? Btw it's a 89 vert if that helps

[Spinning Tires]

well i've done this to my 90 my cousins 91 and my friends 87 so i dont know what to tell ya.
I'm gonna re do this right up when i get things sorted out. I'm more concerned with getting it running right now

[moatilliatta]

i have an early 88

where your gray wire is soldered in... I have a yellow wire looping around?

[Spinning Tires]

It goes to the back of the 85 terminal on the fog light relay. You better be able to figure it out from here cause I just broke the wire off while trying to get a better picture

[Spinning Tires]

alright i'll get you a better pic. all you had to do was ask

[Groove_D]

It might be a good write up but the pictures are terrible. Where do you break the circuit board and where do you solder the wire, i'm sure there are more people who don't understand this write up by looking at the pictures.

[Spinning Tires]

heres the updated pics. its an easy mod if you can figure out how to solder. the hard part was figuring out how to do it. this lets you put the foglights on whenever the parking lights are on which means they can be on with the high beam or with just the parking lights. they also stay on with the key off if you left your headlights on. the car was a 1990 i dunno if other years are the same

take out the one relay and take out the three screws


then break the connection on the circuit board with a screw driver or a utility knife. solder a wire to the spot right next to the break you just made. in my case i used a grey wire. this connection is located directly opposite the side where the relay was removed to get the screw out in step one



Last, connect it to the parking light wire which runs through the inside of the fuse box. you can use a test light for this or just see what color wire is going into your parking light.

[TheOtherStyle]

theory still applies though, just wire to accomodate.

[Spinning Tires]

BMW and Crown Vic's are probabbly the most opposite cars ever to compare. The foglight switch switches the relay ground not positive. Therefore running power to it will make the fog lights never turn on. The power side of the relay is built into the fuse box circuit board and goes directly to the low beam relay. Therefore there are no wires to cut and splice. Posted pics on the first page of this post but they were on AOL hometown which was shut down. I'll update them later.

[TheOtherStyle]

this thread was teh funny.

i dont know the exact wiring and such of an e30, as i dont have one yet (its coming...dont worry), but i've done the independant thing in other makes and models.

the way that i've done it is to make the fogs usable as early as the parking lights come on.

since the marker lights and fog lights both use relays (at least in the cars i've done this on) the following adds no electrical load to the system, so no worries about fuses popping and such.

find the parkin light relay. find the signal in pin on the relay block (not the relay itself). strip a little wire skin off, wrap and solder a new wire onto that, then retape. run that new wire to the power in tab of the fog light switch. voila, anytime you pull the headlight switch to the marker position, the fog lights become usable. and being as the marker lights stay on with the headlights, the fogs are on for P/L/H, and can be turned off if not desired.

i just did a custom headlight harness for a 1987 crown vic restoration, so it was a lot easier to integrate the independant fog lights.

[Motorsports]

^ try making a seperate switch for it.