osubuckeye98

Does anyone here know how to rewire the factory foglights so they can be engaged with only the parking lights on? Right now they can only be turned on when the headlights are on, just like in my old 2000 Accord.

Thanks,
SB

tony4311

I'm wondering the same thing, sort of. I don't want them on with just the parking lights but I'd like them to stay on when I turn on the brights.

osubuckeye98

Yeah it's almost like wiring them on an independent circuit from the parking/headlights. Any electrical engineers out there?

vwong

There is a way to do it, but because I don't have the OEM fog lights, I don't know how. I've done this to my wife's Civic, my 3rd and 5th gen Preludes, and my Integra. Basically, you need to locate the wire that gets the power when the switch is on. Then re-route that wire to one of the empty slots in the fuse box. Each slot will get power at different situations. One is that you get power all the time; another is that you get power when the ignition is on; and another is that you get power when the parking lights are on. There are maybe one or two more empty slots, but I don't remember when they get the power. Anyway, depending on when you want your foglights to be on, you can connect that one wire to these slots. For me, I would connect the wire to the slot that gets power when the parking lights are on. And you may need to have a test light to find out which slot is which.

BTW, I have studied the wiring diagram of the OEM foglights from the installation instructions (from Hondacuraworld.com), but without the actual piece in front of me, I don't know which wire is the wire.

osubuckeye98

Great info! If the wiring diagram is still on hondaacuraworld.com i'll see what i can make of it. I think H and A accessories also has the installation manual online.

mininsx

I know the TSX and RSX are similar and have similar fog-light's, so here is the fix for the RSX, maybe someone with some time can use this as some kind of guide to find out the fix to the TSX?

http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread...&threadid=4297

Not sure how helpfull that will be, but thought I'd try...

osubuckeye98

Thanks for the link! I will look into it and if I am successufl post my results. I know the TSX has all the wiring in the engine bay and the only change in the passenger compartment is the installation of a new stalk (plug and play). Here is the link to an online copy of the installation manual:

http://www.handaaccessories.com/tsx/08V31.pdf

vwong

I studied the instructions again, I'm wondering if you can re-route the connector in Step 40 to the fuse box? If you're installing the foglights yourself, try it and see if it would work.

coujac

i had the fog lights installed and i hate that they only come on with the headlights ... hopefully someone will come up with a fix soon.

SAZABI

anyone able to come up with a modification yet?

mininsx

Yeah, come on, someone with nothing better to do surly has time to figure it out, I would, but I dont have a TSX to play with.., yet...

NJtsx

Yes it is easy to do. You can do two deifferent things. Just wire into the wiring of the parking light harnass and not the headlamp harnass. match color to color. The only isuue thier is the hrnasses are not labled and you have really study the guts of your car to figure it out. the other obvious way is to have a solo switch that you can manualy turn on and off. But be careful not to leave the switch on when you tirn the car off. But for the people that have the fogs in already wired through the headlight harnass....thats a bit more of a challenge.

SAZABI

hi NJtsx, can you explain sth more detail? Sorry for me being a n00b.

The way that TSX factory fog light is connected to the circuit is to connect the fog harness to fuse box, then replace the switch on the steering. So, does it mean that the circuit is already pre-wired inside the car?

ok, the problem is, if I wire the fog light to the parking harnass, does it mean that now my new switch in on a different circuit then? arrhh... not sure if you know what I mean...

osubuckeye98

sorry guys i know i said i'd look into it...but it's too cold outside right now and i don't have a garage to work in. I know, i'm such a whimp. As soon as the days warm up past freezing i'll be poking under the hood.

NJtsx

If you wire the fogs through the parking lights harnass....they will go on all the time you turn on the parking lights and head lamps.

I believe you can just tie inot the power wires from the fuse box harnass directly to the parking light wiring...kinda hard to explain.

i dont know how to explain without holding the wires and showing

forestsoft

Going into the fuse box...I figure one is when the head lights are on, it sends the signal to the relay...and then the relay says "hey I have power now!" So if the user turns on the switch in the car I can power the fog lights on.


The other wire from the relay is a wire that goes to the fuse box, and that is most likely connected to the high beam power. When the high beams are on... it sends a signal to the relay and the relays says....hey I have power to the other terminal...that is my signal to cut power to the fog lights now.

So what we\I need to figure out is which one it going to the head light power, change that to an ignition on power on terminal or parking light power, and viola...power to the relay...therefore power to the switch, and then power to the fog lights when turn on ionside the car.

Drop the other one from the high beams all together.
But which one??? Should be easy enough with a test light to find this out.

I am going to install my fogs this weekend (weather permitting)with a test light and a omn meter...I will figure it out for sure and post the mod when I complete it.

I was able to do it on my eclipse, by running a jumper wire in the fuse box from the relay connection to the parking light power.
I did'nt care if the fogs did not work when the high beams on…plenty of light anyways, and not to much of a draw on the alternator too.

Look for future post on this tweak...

Axygos

Ok... I just came upon this thread during a search to rewire my foglights... I had done somthing similar for my old Ford Probe... just had it sense the parking lights instead of the low-beams and voila... Anyways... this thread seems dead... I have a couple thoughts if anyone is willing to help...

First, study the wiring diagram below:


Looking at this you see that when the BLU/ORN and BLU/BLK wires complete a powered circuit from the fuse box, then the electromagnet in the relay closes the switch allowing the the foglights to come on... Since the BLU/ORN wire has to be the power (since the fog-lights ground later on in the circuit) then the BLU/BLK wire has to be grounded when the low beams are on... Now for the actual fix... A quick way would be to just ground the BLU/BLK wire to the body and call it a day (what do you guys think about that??? possible?) The more elegant way would be to refer to step 20 in the installation file sited above and find out which lead in the "Vehicle 14-pin connector" is for interior dimmers or parking lights ground... Then just move the BLU/BLK wire to the appropriate pin...

If anyone has a wiring diagram of the fuse box (in the engine compartment) it would be most helpful.

I'm willing to just try with a cicuit tester but I don't have the tools here to open the fuse box under cover...

VeniceBeachTSX

I think you're incorrect. Blue/Orange is power. It is wired to a space on the power bus that only gets power when the low beams are on. (This critical fact isn't obvious from the wiring diagram.) Blue/Black is ground. It goes through the vehicles wiring harness to the switch which grounds it when it is closed.

The challenge is to find a place to connect the Blue/Orange wire that:

a) has sufficient power (110w = ~10amps)
b) is linked to the parking lights, not the headlamps.

I've been meaning to look for this for a while. Maybe next week.

mg7726

i'll paypal $10 to who can figure this out

Axygos

You're right... I thought about my error when walking out for lunch... you just beat me to the post...



The fog-light switch in the control stalk provides the ground when closed.

Here's another thought... there's an empty fuse slot in the fuse box... could we just wire the BLU/ORN to that and thow in a 10AMP fuse. This way the foglights can come on independant of ANY lights... ??

supraken

iTrader: (1)

What about connecting the BLU/ORN wire (the one connected to the switch in the relay) to a source with sufficient power WHENEVER the car is turned ON, and then the other BLU/ORN (the one connected to the 'trigger'/electromagnet) to the side market power source? that is, instead of coming from one single source of power, have a separte source for power and a separate source for the trigger...

This will probably also require a new relay with a 12V trigger (for the side markers' power source) since the relay in the circuit diagram above seem to use a much higher voltage to trigger the electromagnet. If the relay in above diagram is triggered by the power source for the headlights, what should that voltage be?

VeniceBeachTSX

That's the kind of thing I'm thinking of. Depends what that fuse slot is hooked up to. If it's powered all the time, that's not great. If it's on with vehicle power (and off with vehicle power) then it's nearly perfect. Foglights can then be used as DRL, completely independent of any other lights.

Axygos

I'll go to the car with my digital camera and ciruit tester... will post pictures... and test out if it's constant or ACC...

MemRheins

Great man...been tryin to figure this one out myself for a lil while now, cant wait to see results

Axygos

Here are the pics of the empty slot in the engine compartment fuse box.

Note that the tester lamp is on (constant power)... when applied to the most lateral lead... I guess if we hooked up the BLU/ORN wire to the medial lead of this empty slot and put in a 10 amp fuse we could operate the fogs anytime... even without the car on... (this could be a potential disadvantage since if left on, the fogs may drain the battery)

Now if I only had a socket wrench to get to the other side of the fuse box, then I would give it a try...

DAMN lack of tools!!!

MemRheins

how dificult would this be for someone w/ modest wiring experence, on a car w/ the foglights allready inplace, im no where near the car so i cant take a look myself at how the blue/org wire is hooked up and see what exactly u guys are talking about...

Axygos

I have foglights already hooked up from the dealer when I bought the car... I think this should be relatively easy... just undo the bolts, lift the fuse box and move the BLU/ORN wire from the vehicle 20-pin connector and "somehow" connect it to empty fuse slot...

I guess I'm gonna have to go out an get a wrench to try it...

sauceman

Moving to FAQ. Great info. Thanks to all who have provided it.

VeniceBeachTSX

I'm going to do some experimentation to see if I can find someplace to hook it up to the switched power bus, so there's no danger of leaving the lights on. It's always easy to add an in-line 10amp fuse.

Look for details next week when I'm back home.

hanggaw

Hi, have you tried it already? I also have dealer installed fog lights and would like to try the solution you mentioned. quick question, what would happen if i replace the fog light bulb with an 85 watt bulb intead of the specified rating of 55 watts? anybody tried this?

MemRheins

nope, dont think so hang, I was meening to replace the bulbs w/ Hyperwhite ones, but as I found out installing my CAI, it is a pain in the ass to get to the foglights, so too late now unless u have alot of patience.... that one screw thats holding them in took forever to take out... as to the Independent Foglight from the rest of the lighting that there talking about... guess we just have to wait and see if anyone pulls it off...Id do it but I wont have my car again untill I get home from school

NightHawk CL9

well......in a week i'll be starting my winter break from college, and i'll be bored all day, so i think that this might be the project to do over break. i still gotta talk to some people and see if they can help, if they can i'll start looking into it a lot closer.

now, what kinda person would be able to answer this question? an electrition or who?

next, from what i read i still don't understand who it should work (theoreticlly). if someone can explain it again that would be awsome. also, when you leave the car's lights on, the car will shut them off after 10 sec. is there a way to incorporate that if we go to a fuse that is always on??

VeniceBeachTSX

Just got in under the hood and into the fusebox and relay area with a multimeter, and things are not as good as I first thought.

The wiring to the foglights is always hot. That's not the problem.

It seems that the control of when the foglight can and can't come on is in the switch stalk itself, nowhere else. Simply put, it seems that the foglight switch is placed in serial with the regular headlight switch, and also linked to a high-beam related cutoff. Bottom line is that if you use the OEM switch, your foglights will NOT be able to come on except as allowed by the manufacturer. I am not about to try to disassemble the switch stalk to change this.

It seems that the only way around things would be to use an alternate switch. I may look into this as a possibility.

NightHawk CL9

that's not good news

VeniceBeachTSX

To some degree this might make things easier.

There is one and only one wire that comes across through the firewall to the switch. All you need to do is pick off that one wire from the bunch, route it to an alternate switch and from there to a ground, and you can have it on whenever there's juice to the main headlight bus.

There may be other catches to this, but I'm going to try to non-invasively identify that one wire and see what happens if I ground it. Then I'll have the answer.

NightHawk CL9

PLEASE keep us updated, i'm gonna try to get together next weekend and fool around with the fogs....

rbf351

i've done this before on my civic, it's very simple to do

since my brother owns a TSX i could figure it out if he wants me to ever do it for his car

if i had a diagram of the switch harness i can do this in a matter of minutes

NightHawk CL9

i tried to fool around with it over break, but couldn't come up with anything but i did a diy yellow fogs......

TSX 'R' US

After looking through the diagrams... Looks like the only way to get this to work is to rewire the fog light switch.
Otherwise you'll have to bypass the switch on the stalk and use another switch for the fog lights.

If anyone has an extra stalk with the fog light switch on it..and have no use for it anymore, PM me.

goddsmack

How about the accord fog light switch and somehow routing it with that? It's just a suggestion and I'm not going to tackle it myself, especially since I suck at electrics.

http://www.handaaccessories.com/acco...drfoglight.pdf