i've installed my foglights a while ago, the ones that go in the lower grille from mijer and such that people were doing for a while, but for some reason now the light went out, the one on the switch, and the ground cable is getting extremely hot right at the switch. any idea what happened? what would cause a ground cable to suddenly get hot?

i can post pics if needed

thanks!

G-

 

I would guess the relay is your problem. You do have a relay in the circuit, don't you?

Usually when a ground line becomes hot, that is due to excessive resistance. And most of the time, on a ground wire, that resistance is cause by a loose connection.

If there is no relay in your fog circuit, you're most probably running full amperage through the switch. That causes them to heat up which is not good for switches. They breakdown then screw up.

If anyone has ever had a Ford product, they were always good at being cheap and running full power through the switch without a relay. Especially on the heater blower fan speed switch.

 

relay switch... nope. don't think so. i have a fuse at some point frmo the power to the fogs i believe, but nothing from the switch to the battery. so did i burn the switch light or what? how do i repair the situation?

 

You need to rewire that ASAP with a relay, or at least a fuse.

 

yea that! you could have a car fire.

 

a relay for the switch? isn't it ok with the fuse being after the switch? and it's been disconnected. for quite some time. i think it's an open circuit so i'm trying to figure it out

 

a relay is different from a fuse

 

what is it, and how do i put it in? sounds essential

 

gooooooooogle is yer friend. the relay helps boost the power lo to high. or they isolate electrical noise in your radio. relays do cool stuff if you use them right. you can even reverse polarity if needed with them. how about that?!

 

Your fuse should be as close to the power source as possible, meaning BEFORE the switch. And make sure that the proper gauge wire is used , your fogs are what 55 watt? I would suggest some where in the neighborhood of 12 or 14 gauge wire for all conections , power and ground. And scrape all paint off down to bare metal on the ground connection.

 

Can he use the relay that is used for the official scion pop-in fogs?

If yes. then it can be purchased with ease.

I got a used one for 10 dollars.

 

good question! where do i put this relay? i'll scrape down the paint for the ground, and i got a new switch; it lights up now, but is still SMOKIN' hot. i used 14 i think. came with its own wiring.

here's how i have it set up, most of this is how it told me to do;
cable connects from battery to switch
switch has a ground, and another cable leads to the first fog, which has a fuse halfway through it.
there is a splitter just before the end of the cable, which lets me run two power cables.
the first cable goes to the first fog light, which is spliced into the ground for the stock fogs
the other fog is set up the same way as previously mentioned, using power from the split cord.

so a relay before the switch will work? what type? kind? does it matter?

 

Ok lets see here....

Battery to fuse, fuse to switch, switch to fog lights , which each should have a separate ground , do not expect them to run with the same ground that powers that little light in the switch, this is probably where your over powering the wire.

If you use a relay then it would be....

battery to fuse, fuse to positive post on switch of relay
positive to fuse to relay
ground from relay to body ground
ground from body to lights
positive wire from switch side of relay to lights.

confused yet? Think you need to separate the ground on the switch for the light and ground to the fogs onto 2 different wires/locations

Wish you were local and I could come over to do it for you.

TOMAS !!!!!! WHERE ARE YOUR TALENTS WHEN WE NEED THEM ? He did a drawing of the circut you need here some time ago.

 

the switch ground is grounded to the car body. i think at least. it is connected to a screw underneath the dash that goes through a medal bracket into a tanish box. the fogs are grounded into their respective factory fogs. i figured those grounds, the white cables with black bands, would HAVE be correct, or else how would they work!

what relay do i need?

 

i got a 30/40v relay. was told that is the typical and should work.

http://www.classictruckshop.com/club...h/foglites.htm

set it up kind of like that.

and switched it so the fuse is before the swtich

- fuse power cord to relay positive
- power cord to lights across from that
- power cord from relay to power on switch
- ground cable from relay to car body
- switch is grounded

what's going wrong? not turning on now

 

Just spotted this thread.

What everyone has been saying is right, and that drawing is correct, too.

Not really too much I can add here. Sounds like everyone has this well covered.

Carry on!

 

wait! but it still not working!
1 question,
i don't have a wire going to the fuse box, where do i take that switch?

 

Pick that power to power the relay (only) through the switch from a power source that is on only with the ignition on... That's so if you forget to turn the fogs off, they will go off with the ignition instead of running down your battery.

 

ok, to eliminate confusion, or maybe add to it, i took a picture of the mess i now have beneath my pedal.



does this help AT ALL?

 

To be sure what you are connecting to on the switch, it would help to know what the marking on it are.

Lemme ask a question: does the light on the switch light now? (I'll assume "no"...)

That one connection left needs to go to a source of power. That source of power will go through the switch when turned on, through the lead that goes to connection "30" on the relay, and cause the contacts in the relay to close, providing power to the fogs.

If you want to be able to turn the fogs on anytime, connect that empty connection on the switch to "battery" that is always on. If you want the fogs to only be able to come on when the ignotion is on, connect it to "battery" that only comes on with the ignition.

(For "on anytime" a quick source of that "battery" would be the connection on the relay that gets battery...)

Make sure that the "power from battery" is a heavy enough wire - I can't tel from pic - because ALL the power for the fogs will come through that wire...

Lemme draw a quick, ugly pic of how I might have done it...

(BTW, your actual wiring looks good.) :D