Yes i know it's not very polite for other drivers, but I like being able to turn on the fog lights and use them with either the high or low beams. I do a lot of night driving on back roads and like having the side-of-the-road coverage that the fogs provide, with the downroad brightness of the high beams. WITHOUT putting a seperate switch in for the foglights (i'd like to have the controls in the stalk as they are now), is there a way to eliminate the power cut off that occurs when the high beams are switched on?

 

Does the TL have a fog light relay under the hood?

 

im pretty sure its illegal. at least in ny.

 

It IS illegal, at least I think. However, I have put foglights on most vehicles I've owned and only had an on-off switch with no high-beam cut off. It's not too obvious, especially since I'm curteous about turning the high-beams off for other drivers.

 

you can do this, but then you run into a problem. Your eyes will adjust to now 3X the light output and thus dim your vision in the dark. Stare at a bright light for 2 mins and then walk into a dark room, you won't see anything! stay in a lighted room for 2 mins and walk into a dark room and you'll see about 50% of the things in there, and a few minutes later nearly 80%.

 

unless youve upgraded your fogs to HIDs its kinda pointless. your brights will over power the fogs anyway.

 

Wear sunglasses!

 

My brights don't shine out to the sides nearly as well as my fogs (or are they driving lights?) do. Good example is driving through back country roads where you want lots of light out front as well as being able to see if a deer is about to shoot out from the side. Another time I wish this were possible is driving down crazy twisty lake roads where you need light every possible direction.

 

Nice observation Jackass! I agree completely. The high-beams only increase the amount of light straight ahead and don't change the output to the sides of the road. My buddy's 335i has seperate controls for the fogs and the hi/low beams. No problems with loss of vision when I drive that. Excellent night vision (the steering-sensitive headlamps help a lot too.)
Anyway, is there a solution to this? How can I/we eliminate the foglight cutoff when the hi-beams are on.

 

Bump. Where are all the car electricians??

 

Yea you can!!!!

 

notice independent fogs i can turn them on with lights off,parking lights,lows or highs all using the stock switch. search for independent fogs.

 

lol...

 

Yeah I did this on my 05 a long time ago. I don't remember exactly how.

Basically I jumped the relay with a ground wire and switch. That way when I remove it, its all back to stock without messing with the OE wiring.

 

The car's computer (MICU) monitors the light switch inputs and cuts power to the foglights when the brights are on. To make this work, you have to fool the MICU or bypass it. Base on the wiring diagram, you should be able to disconnect wire 5 from the switch terminal and run a new wire from that terminal through the firewall and have it tap into the blu/blk wire going to the relay. You may need to diode isolate the side of the wire leading to the control block to prevent current feed into the control block. (You may not have to go through the firewall, depends on where the control block is).

 

ding ding ding!! we have a genius!!

no diode needed just cut the existing negative signal from the micu into the relay, and i recommend isolating the blue/red that provides 12V to the actual relay( not the 12v that goes to the foglights themselves) to a circuit that has 12v when on or acc so you cant leave the fog lights on when the car is turned off. ( this is exactly what i have)

 

In my proposal, you will lose the fog indicator light on the dashboard. You should be able to splice the same wire to the indicator light, assuming the light can handle 7.5 amps.

Yeah, good idea about the blu/red. As is, it runs straight off battery power. Cut that wire and tap it to an ignition source.

 

correct, you do lose signal indicator in the dashboard but its worth it. remember to just splice the relay blue/red wire. if you take apart the relay harness you will see the wire goes down and comes right back up. leave the blue/red for the fogs alone.

 

I hope this thread helped more people than just me. Thanks for everyone's help.

 

The other reason the car is designed not to allow both of them to be on at the same time is that high-beams shouldn't be used in the fog. The theory is, then, that if you need to use your fog lights, you would have no reason to use the high-beams. Of course that doesn't address situations where you might want to use the fog lights for things other than fog. (I sometimes use them in the rain to help see the lane markings, as many roads in Virginia do not have reflectors to help with that.)

 

theres a few ways to do it.... ones with a relay another with a few diodes blocking certain things from happening so i dont how wise that one would be... another with turning them on,on their own circuit apart from the cars electrical harness, and the last way to make it run when your parking lights are on......i like the last way.

 

the last way is the way everyone wants it to work when the parking lights are on.... like on the bmws.... its also fairly simple to do.

 

Yeah you can... although I only have the fogs on at the moment, they work completely independent of any other headlight component such as DRL, low or High beam

 

If you bypass the MICU, the switch still controls the fogs, correct? If the indicator light doesn't work but the switch still does, who cares. Having fogs on at the same time as high beams would be sweet. For one of you guys that have already bypassed or "fooled" the MICU, can you post pictures for an easier DIY than just going off the wiring diagram. Us non-electrical engineers need more of an 'easy read' so we don't cut or splice into the ignition wires instead. Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

any replies for us type s drivers for independent fogs? ive been trying to figure this out for awhile now..