Problems with fog light wiring!
05-21-2013, 11:07 PM
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Problems with fog light wiring!
I ordered an universal fog light harness from eBay pretty complete brought all I need. But I ran into some problems.
Okay here's how I wired it.
Switch:
-positive -> spliced into 12v cig lighter power
-negative -> spliced into 12v cig lighter ground
Then it runs a white wire that goes to the relay in the engine bay.
From the relay I grounded to the chassis, positive straight to the battery terminal positive.
And from there I have 2 wires (white/black) for each fog light, positive and ground. The ground ends up in the chassis, positive comes from the battery.
Now... My switch lights up, and you can also hear clicking in the relay. In my opinion the switch part is not the problem.
So I turned on my switch and tried hooking 1 fog light to test if it would turn on, but instead the relay starts vibrating and making noise, light doesn't light up. Then just to test I got a LED strip (since they require little power) and hooked to the fog light positive/negative and it lights up and the relay doesn't make any noise.
In my opinion the relay is working to give power to the fog lamps but it doesn't have enough power to light them up. Not sure what the problem is.
I checked many fog light diagrams and some have the switch hooked straight to the battery terminal but my diagram says to just hook it to any 12v source. And the switch works perfectly as I said. Why aren't the lamps lighting up?
Please help!
Okay here's how I wired it.
Switch:
-positive -> spliced into 12v cig lighter power
-negative -> spliced into 12v cig lighter ground
Then it runs a white wire that goes to the relay in the engine bay.
From the relay I grounded to the chassis, positive straight to the battery terminal positive.
And from there I have 2 wires (white/black) for each fog light, positive and ground. The ground ends up in the chassis, positive comes from the battery.
Now... My switch lights up, and you can also hear clicking in the relay. In my opinion the switch part is not the problem.
So I turned on my switch and tried hooking 1 fog light to test if it would turn on, but instead the relay starts vibrating and making noise, light doesn't light up. Then just to test I got a LED strip (since they require little power) and hooked to the fog light positive/negative and it lights up and the relay doesn't make any noise.
In my opinion the relay is working to give power to the fog lamps but it doesn't have enough power to light them up. Not sure what the problem is.
I checked many fog light diagrams and some have the switch hooked straight to the battery terminal but my diagram says to just hook it to any 12v source. And the switch works perfectly as I said. Why aren't the lamps lighting up?
Please help!
05-21-2013, 11:21 PM
#2
Wiring straight to the battery is always better than tapping into an exsisting source especially in your situation. You don't want to put extra strain on your exsisting wiring if you don't have to. Your problem seems like a bad ground though. I'd wire relay/switch straight to battery and check your grounds at the lights.
05-21-2013, 11:27 PM
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Wiring straight to the battery is always better than tapping into an exsisting source especially in your situation. You don't want to put extra strain on your exsisting wiring if you don't have to. Your problem seems like a bad ground though. I'd wire relay/switch straight to battery and check your grounds at the lights.
Btw this is what I'm using as a ground point, there's a sticker in it that says it's "GND (-)"
Right under that bolt, I unscrewed it and put the wire right under it then tightened it.
The lights have 2 wires running together, positive, and negative. And the negative runs all the way to the relay, and from the relay I grounded it. The lights have a common ground, they're not individually grounded. Even though I did try to ground the light I was testing individually and the relay made noise but didn't light up either.
Edit: Link to the kit I bought + diagram;
http://www.ebay.com/itm/UNIVERSAL-WIRING-HARNESS-WIRE-SWITCH-KIT-HID-OFF-ROAD-LIGHTS-4X4-TRUCK-FOG-LAMPS-/400488786566?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item5d3efdea86&vxp=mtr
Last edited by dieGone; 05-21-2013 at 11:36 PM.
05-22-2013, 12:12 AM
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Okay just re-wired everything switch to battery terminal, and grounded in 2 diff bolts.
It works like a charm now, no relay noise, light turns on and off. Only thing I noticed after I had the light on for about 1-2 minutes I saw smoke coming out of it. Pretty scary. Do you have an idea of what could have caused that? Or maybe it's normal?
Edit: Just looked it up, apparently if you touch them or they have any type of "oil" in them it can cause them to wear out faster and die lol, the bulb was moved around a lot so maybe that's the reason. I'll just get a new one if it dies.
It works like a charm now, no relay noise, light turns on and off. Only thing I noticed after I had the light on for about 1-2 minutes I saw smoke coming out of it. Pretty scary. Do you have an idea of what could have caused that? Or maybe it's normal?
Edit: Just looked it up, apparently if you touch them or they have any type of "oil" in them it can cause them to wear out faster and die lol, the bulb was moved around a lot so maybe that's the reason. I'll just get a new one if it dies.
05-22-2013, 12:49 AM
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Thanks a lot for your help man!
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