Magnesium

I could if I had all the schematics. I used the same source that it uses from the factory, but bypassed the headlight circuit.

note- The headlight circuit and fog circuit are not switched via ignition key. If you go out to your car and turn on the lights, they come on without a key inserted.

I will need to get a manual in order to figure out about the buzzer circuit. Too many pages and circuits to have someone fax over to me.

rtryrkt

Magnesium.
thanks for all your hard work. Hopefully there is a way to figure out how to wire this so they only come on when the ignition is on. Otherwise, it looks like a sure fire problem with a dead battery at the wrong time. Hang in there...

rtryrkt

Magnesium

If someone could send me the parking light circuit, that would be the best way to tie it in.

Most likely someone won't want the fog lights on without the tail lights anyway.

I think it is section F-1 of the schematics.

How's that sound?

canzoomer

I take it "someone" would be me?

I left my manual at the shop, but i can do this for you Monday..

Magnesium

I am not going to need it. I traced it down tonight with my meter and unplugging relays.

The parking lights work on the Tail light circuit and relay. I will confirm tomorrow the color code and exact location to tie into.

This scenario will allow the fog lights to be turned on with the parking/tail lights instead of the headlights. Pretty simple actually. This way it will give you the alarm buzzer if you leave your lights on with the key off. Wish I had though of that before....

rtryrkt

My original thought was that the fog lights would be on ALL the time the engine is on, being used as daytime driving lights. If we were to wire it this way, then we would have the option of just turning on the tail/parking lights if we wanted (say in a real fog), or with the headlights on. Wouldn't this be easier to find a power source?

thanks, as always. rtryrkt...

canzoomer

While I won't argue your desire for driving lights, I have to point out that it is somewhat flawed:

1) driving lights need to be mounted higher to be useful.

2) Driving lights are normally used when the high beams are on, to add more brightness to the illuminated area.
With the HID and Halogen dual light configuration on the RX-8 there is little reason to add brightness to what is already a VERY good lighting solution.

If you want a driving lights thread I suggest you should start one.

However the proper place to put those is higher on the nose, say at the front license plate location.
These would also require a separate switch, and a separate relay to power them.

The topic of this thread is fog lights.

Fog lights need to be on when the other lights are off (except the park lights).

They are mounted low so that the angle of reflection between them and your eyes is greater than regular headlights, reducing the effect of light bouncing from fog to your eyes. The same applies to reflections from falling snow.

The fog lights have been made useless by Mazda having to follow misguided North American regulations requiring that the headlights be on before fog lights can activate. This effectively treats fog lights as if they were driving lights, which they are not.

Magnesium has found a way to easily rewire the fog lights with a bare minimum of modifications to the cars wiring.

I agree that it should also work that if you shut off the car it will turn off the fog lights.

As Magnesium just posted that he has figured out how to do that too, I look forward to his next post so I can go out and "adjust" my fogs!

Thanks once again to Magnesium for his efforts on this!

zojas

great work, magnesium!

I like having my fog lights on when my headlights aren't in two situations: when I autocross (it just looks cool) and when I pull into my driveway at night, my headlights shine right in my neighbor's window, but the foglights wouldn't.

Magnesium

Here is the fuse block with the Tail Relay noted. Locate this relay using the drawing on the cover.

Magnesium

Here is the fuse block section released from the housing. The Fog relay is located here. Note the brown wire coming from the relay. This is the wire you will need to cut to disable it from the headlights.

Magnesium

Here are the disconnects that I used. You can use any style that you like. These are blade style with good insulation. They are also hard to pull apart. I did the disconnect so that I can hook it back up the original way. You can put a connector on the other end of the cut brown wire and when you feel like it, unplug this and plug it back up. No more cutting!

Attach a 4-5" wire to extend the brown wire over to the Tail relay.

Magnesium

Here is a bad picture of where to put the other end of the extension. You will want to use a non-insulated blade connector to push in next to the wire terminal. The wire that the extension needs to be connected to is the larger green/white wire which attaches to the underside of the Tail relay.

Hope this helps.

mikeb

wow great instructions

Magnesium

The headlights look on, but it is the reflection from the flash.

wleonard

just did it.... 8mins total. Awesome instructions - works like a charm.

many thanks for the great mod.

rtryrkt

Magnesium. Thanks for the pics and instructions. I'd still like to find a power source that turns on ONLY the fog lights whenever the ignition is on. Any suggestions?

Magnesium

The only circuits I know of that comes on only with the key would be the radio and ignition circuits.

rtryrkt

Thanks. One other that I know of would is the wipers. To wire in to either the radio or the wiper circuit, can you tell me what to do. I suspect you have better things to do, so if it's a bother, please disregard.

rtryrkt

Magnesium

I don't have all the wiring schematics. I only had the headlight and fog circuit drawings.

I would be careful with your connections. If you get hold of the wrong circuit that is fused low, you could take out the fuse when you need it most.

rtryrkt

Thanks. If I plug in to the wiper circuit as you did the tail lights, will that be safe? Or is it even possible? I don't pretend to understand auto electrics!!!

syntrix

Good stuff!

The green/white is a fairly heavy gauge wire.

Couldn't you tap into maybe the ignition fuse wiring, or something else where you can use a simple wiretap?

I haven't tested the relay yet but the brown to the fog relay is the trigger wire, right?

Magnesium

Yes, the brown is the "trigger" power to the relay. When connected to power it energizes the coil and closes the contacts to route power to the bulbs. When the fog switch is on of course...

syntrix

Hmmmm, just as I thought.


Oh lookie, what's that DSC relay? The first thing I do when I start my car is hold the dsc button down for a few seconds. Wonder if that's a quick fix, or if there will be issues with limp mode if that relay is just simply GONE

Omicron

Quick question/clarification from you please Magnesium...

You are essentially jumpering the fog light relay trigger (brown) wire to another power source, correct? If so, this means the brown wire that originally led to the fog wire relay is just capped off, correct? In other words, the end of the brown wire leading away from the fuse box is capped, right?

Thanks...

Omicron

Well, I did it today, with a twist of my own... cut that little brown wire, capped off the end leading away from the fuse box, then used a wire tap to hook the fuse-box end of the brown wire into the "ACC" relay. Took me about 15 minutes.

Now my fog lights will come on with the turn stalk switch whenever the ignition is in the run position. So I can use them independantly of the headlights, and even use them as daytime running lights if I want to, without fear of running down the battery when the car is off. Nice!!!

Many THANKS Magnesium for figuring this out and posting such excellent directions! It's people like you - and directions like these - that REALLY make this board stand out!