I hate that that my factory installed fog-lights don't receive power unless the headlights are on too. To me that defeats the purpose of fog lights because with the headlights on, you're getting blinded by light reflecting off the fog back to your eyes canceling out the benefit of the fog lights illuminating
underneath the fog. I'm sure it's so that retards don't go driving around in normal conditions with just their fog lamps on, but as far as I can tell, I'm not that dumb.
With some trial and error of removing fuses and general googling I can tell that when the headlights are turned on, there's an electrical line split off of that circuit that passes on power to the fog lights.
The switch for the fog lights always works regardless. But power isn't passed to the fog lights unless the headlights are on. I need to find a way to power the fogs independently of the headlights and not over-power the fogs when the headlights are turned on as well.
In a simple diagram
(without true polarity shown or return lines back to the battery completing the circuits):
Power Source
|
|
<Head light Switch> <Fog Light Switch>
| \
| \
| \
[Headlight Fuse] \
| \
|-------------------[Fog Light Fuse]----------Fog Lights
|
|
HeadLights
|
My idea so far is this:
-Get some "fuse taps" from Radio Shack which allow you to attach a wire to a terminal of a fuse so that you can either 'steal' power from the circuit or inject more power depending on how it's wired.
-Replace the fog light fuse with a dead/broken fuse so they're guaranteed not to receive power from the headlights any more
-Connect a tap wire on to the load side of the fog light fuse -- the side going to the lights.
-Connect a tap wire onto another device of the same amperage which I don't use/have on my car like rear wiper or heated seats. Connect the tap to the feed side of this non-broken fuse so that it's on the side receiving power from the power source for the heated seats.
-When powered up the tap on the fog light fuse should be dead regardless if the head lights are on or not and the tap on the heated seats should be hot.
-Wire the two taps together with a fuse between them so that the fog lights are still protected.
-Foglights should now be independently wired off of something unused but still with power (or possibly something used - I'm not sure).
Close up of fuse taps:
Entire assembly with a fuse in the middle. For example left side being the dead foglight fuse and the right being an active fuse.
When done the wiring would look like:
Power Source----------[Heated Seat Fuse]---------->To non-existent seat heaters
| | (tap on feed side)
| |
<Head light Switch> \ <Fog Light Switch>
| [New Fuse] \
| | \
| | \
[Headlight Fuse] \ \
| (tap on load) \ \
|-------------------[Fog Light Fuse]--------------Fog Lights
|
|
HeadLights
|
SO... I haven't done any past wiring work like this in a car. Only basics like hooking up stereos or speakers and disabling annoying door/seatbelt sensors, etc.
Does it seem like this idea would work? What am I missing?
Thanks.
-t
order your copy of Access All Areas today!
