I want to have the fog lights on with the parking lights and headlights (not the ignition on option).

I read this post and the one from Maniac to accomplish this.....this one says connect to a green/white wire of the Tail relay, and Maniac's post says connect to a Black/Red wire of the tail relay. Whats the difference????

BTW I know this is a revisit of an old post....I assume the wires are the same in my 2005.

 

I just did the mod tonight following Maniac's instructions, except I used a tap-in connector. Works perfectly!


These do the same thing in theory, one is connected to the tail relay, the other (Maniacs) to the tail fuse. I tried the green/white first, and while it worked, I didn't like the fact that the connector was just wedged in there. I didn't have a tap-in connector for the larger green/white wire, so I pulled it out and connected it to the red/black.

You guys that figured out these different variations of this mod have heard it all before, but you rock! Thanks a lot!

 

Thanks for the info. It was an even simpler mod than I thought it would be, especially with the excellent pictures.

As others have noted, the foglights do not have an impressive output by themselves. I think that they are most useful as daytime running lights. I would like to make them function more as fog lights (greater light output). Has anyone tried replacing the H11 bulbs with H9s? This site, Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply, suggests that it is possible, and that there would be a significant gain in light output if the foglight fixture itself can handle the increased light from the H9 without causing excessive glare.

 

Looks like it would work. The H9 is inexpensive and I may have to give this mod a try.

 

I tried to find some H9s today. No luck. No one in town stocks them. I am going to order them.

 

I have been thinking of h9's as well. I was looking at the fog lights today and was wondering....how the heck do you get to the bulbs?

 

It's pretty easy - you can do it from below, unscrew the plastic undertray, and you can reach in to remove the bulb, turning the socket counterclockwise a 1/4 turn.

 

I just replaced my bulbs today, I just removed the 3 screw/bolts from the diffuser (the plastic undertray tamas is referring to). I them opened the diffuser enough to get my hand in there and removed/replaced the bulbs.

 

I did this mod yesterday (finally) with some bulbs I bought from Autolumination.com. I just want to thank the pioneers who figured this out. Magnesium and Omicron- you guys rock! I decided to do the Omicron variation, because I wanted the functionality of turning them on whenever the key was in the on position. Now I'm rockin it with white/blue front marker led's and bright yellow fogs! (By the way, if any of you guys need to get lights, check out autolumination. I got all four bulbs I needed for under $20, including shipping. I can't speak to the longevity of the bulbs... but they are very nice looking.)

 

I repaced the original forlight H11s with H9s. They are much brighter (they are the same bulbs that are used for the highbeams).

The H9s fit into the fog light housings. However, there is one hitch to the installation, the H9 and H11 bulbs have different contact alignment tab configurations and the foglight wiring connector will not fit onto the H9 bulb. I will not dwell on how long it took me to realize this . The most elegant mod would be to replace the H11 wiring connectors with ones that fit H9s. But I was impatient, so I just modified the bulbs.

The H11 bulbs have a single plactic alignment tab between the contacts. The H9 bulbs have two of these tabs. They are between the contacts also but one on each side. I just removed the alignment tab from the H9 bulb that is not on the H11 bulb. The wiring connector then went right on.

The easest way to remove the tab would be to use a dremel tool, but I did not have one. I used a drill bit and "routed" it out. I secured the bulb base in a vise while I did this. I bent the contacts doing this, but they were easy to straighten.

I am comfortable driving up to 40-45 mph on a dark country road with only the foglights on (had to try them). Maybe they will work as real fogs now - they have to be better than they were.

 

What is the wattage of a H9 bulb? I replaced my stock 55w H11s with 80w bulbs. The bulbs started to bulge out from the heat. I put the stock bulbs back in. Inside the fog housing their is another housing that seems to block direct light from the bulb. This will contain heat, I wonder if its possible to remove this internal housing.

 

H9 - 65 W

H11 - 55 W

The following is from the Daniel Stern web site:

"the H9 has different base keys than its H11 low-beam counterpart. Somebody goofed on the spec, though, for the difference between H11 and H9 base keys are insufficient; it's too easy to install an H9 bulb where an H11 belongs. The difference in light output between these two designs is enormous (1350 lumens from the H11, 2100 from the H9), so putting an H9 in place of an H11 will obviously cause the lamp to produce a lot more light. Some lamps are designed such that the optics will handle the extra light well, without creating excessive glare for other road users."

Was it the outer lens that deformed with the 80W?

 

Hey, sorry about that font, I didn't realize it had changed.

 

I don't think it wsa the outer lens the deformed the 80w bulb, but the internal housing. Its a gray housing that the bulb slips into, it looks like it can be removed. I also read a thread here that someone's outer lens cracked due to using a higher wattage bulb 100w. Keep us updated on the H9s let us know if you have any problems.

 

feel like I'm resurrecting this thread from the grave, but I HAD to send a shout out...

Sounds like a nice mod...kudos to the founders

I've did this same mod to my 97 Cobra and Probe, and I know first hand the hours and time it takes to locate the wires and know that understanding which wires go to which relays can be aggravating.

From the pics, the fuse box location is TOO convient too! Not to onset a pity-party, but in BOTH my Cobra and Probe, you had to pull switches out of the (Probe) center console, and (Cobra) center column. You think you have short wiring to work with here? HA...I can tell you first hand that we should be so lucky to have THIS much wire play as the 8 does. Mazda got one part right for sure...

Much thanx goes out to the pioneers of the mod, including Magnesium, Omicron and Bobclevenger. You guys saved hours of time for anyone whos up on this mod

 

I can't find this module... behind the globe box? Which one?

 

That part is there to make sure that you get a well-defined output pattern. If light were allowed to come directly from the front of the bulb, it would produce a lot of "spill" light in all directions, which is not something you want in a fog light -- you want most of the light being formed by the reflector, into a desirable pattern. Most bulbs will have the top of the bulb masked already, but that little piece of metal is cheap insurance.

 

Much love to Omnicron, Magnesium, and Bobclevanger! The directions for the fog light mod we perfect, only took 10 minutes and now I can run the fogs when and how I want.

Very cool.

-Rate

 

Be sure to switch the fog switch off if you take the car in for service. I had the gas tank recall done last week and forgot to switch off my "always on when switch is on" fogs off. When I picked up the car I noticed that someone had turned off the fog switch - I guess they wondered why they were always on when the key was on. I am lucky they were not concerned enough to try to "fix" the problem.

I will remember to switch them off next time :D

Dennis

 

This was by far the easiest DIY I have ever done with great results. Appreciate the leg work magnesium.

 

My Sincere Thanks and appreciation to all who contributued to make this such a popular, and what I consider significant modification.
2Maxxx

 

Has anyone figured out the variation of this mod that will keep the fog lights on ALL the time - bypassing the foglight switch all together?

This would be an excellent solution for those who want to turn the foglights into "true" DRLs - for insurance discounts or to make US spec cars compliant in Canada.

Anyone know the wiring modification to bypass the switch all together? It would be most appreciated!

-nAV

 

To turn the lights on whenever the ignition is on is fairly simple.

The fog relay gets it's power from the headlight relay, so no headlights = no fogs.
The switch just grounds the relay coil.

So you would need to disconnect the W/B wire on the fog relay, and get switched power to the relay from the W/R terminal of the "acc" relay (close to the fog relay).

Then you would disconnect the LG/B wire on the relay, and wire it to a ground, this bypasses the switch.

S

 

Right on StealthTL! Thanks !

It worked great. I rewired my fog lights as outlined by Omicron.. Then I grounded the light-green/black wire from the fog light relay to a ground (I used the bolt in front of the fuse box - I needed to add extra wire on to the LG/B wire to extend it that far) and it works!

My fogs are now always on whenever the ignition key is in the 'On' position, regardless of where the fog light switch is. (And that makes the car compliant with Canadian DRL laws - excellent!).

 

There are 274 posts in this thread, talking about everything from wiring the fog lights as daytime running lights, to changing bulbs, to wiring side marker lights as "repeaters", etc, etc, etc.

All I want is to have my fog lights work independently of the headlights, so I can actually use them as fog lights in an actual fog.

I don't have time to read each of the 274 posts—can anyone refer me to exactly what I need to do?

Thanks so much!