rtryrkt

Which wire did you tap in to in the ACC? Thanks for this variation. This is exactly what I was hoping for when I first posted this question. Doing it your way give all the options of how the fog lights are on. You're brilliant!
rtryrkt

Omicron

Brilliant? WOW, that's a nice thing to say... nice enough, in fact, that you motivated me to not only go check but also to take a pic of my mod and try to figure out how to post it here. :D

I used a "red" wiretap to tap into the thin white with red stripe wire leading away from the "ACC" relay, which is in the 5th position in the same row as the fog relay, or 2 positions to the right of the fog relay if you look at the fuse box from the right. I picked this wire by removing the relay, then testing with a DMM to find a wire that was "hot" with the ignition key on only.

Hope this helps!

rtryrkt

Omicron:
As I said, brilliant. Just did the job and it's easy. For clarification, I tapped in to the small white w/ red stripe wire, not the bigger one. I also disconnected the battery to be sure... When reconnecting, the DSC light flashes. The procedure for fixing this is on page 5-22 of the manual, so no one should freak out (like I almost did).

Thanks to you and Magnesium for this great mod.

rtryrkt

Omicron

Happy to be able to contribute to the knowledge base around here.

Irish_in_a_RX8

iTrader: (1)

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, I am not the most knowledgable when it comes to simple electronics, where can I purchase these "connectors" - pretend I am a 2 year old :-)

eccles

Try your FLAPS.

(Friendly Local Auto Parts Store )

bobclevenger

Yes, what rtryrkt said! I did it this way too. Works and is easy to do. My avatar now shows the results of this mod.

Mitch Strickler

I did the mod successfully (or, to be honest, my mechanically talented brother did). The directions and pictures were excellent. Thanks.

BoomerBurt

I want to run the fogs as DRL's and be able to have them on with the running lights but without the low-beams (so they actually function in fog) as well. Has anyone come up with a rewiring method that does not involve a separate switch. All I can think of is to disconnect the leads at the lights and reconnect them to a separate switch which would have to be added at the dash. If anyone has another suggestion I am interested. If not, I will proceed with the separate switch.

rtryrkt

I think I understand what you want and this mod is exactly it. You have all the options. You can have the fog lights on with headlights, with parking lights, or only by itself. Do the mod described by Omicron. The pictures are excellent and directions very complete with the additions of other posts after it.

Good luck
rtryrkt

Omicron

Burt, the separate switch is actually the one on the turn signal stalk. If you wire it my way, you can just leave it on all the time and the fogs will come on with the ignition, and go off when you turn off the car - just like daytime running lights. Or you can just turn them on when you want them for fog, as long as the car is running. They're not connected to the headlights at all this way, just the ignition.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

I think some may want to wire their fog lamps to be on with the running lights and not just the ignition so that you can leave the fog lamp switch on and they will only come on when you turn on the lighting circuit, but not only with the headlights.
This is how you wire them to be tied to the running lights and unaffected be the presence of the headlamps:

First, open the hood and fuse panel, then unclip and raise the buse block out of the tray:





Locate the two wires needed to complete the modification - the BROWN fog lamp relay wire and the BLACK and RED tail light fuse wire:





Cut the BROWN wire about 2 inches from where it loins the harness and strip a small section of the BLACK and RED wire in the middle of its accesible length:



Place a small piece of shrink tubing over both parts of the BROWN wire - one to cover the splice that you will create and the other to cover the unused section as it enters the harness:



Attach the BROWN wire to the stripped section of the BLACK and RED wire, solder the connection and cover the junction with the shrink tubing. Shrink the two sections of tubing with the heat from the solder gun:





Here are the two relevant wiring diagrams:




Now your fog lamps will come on when they are switched on and the lighting selector is set to either the first or second positions.

Enjoy!

Just a note:

I just switched my forum name from "Maniac" to "MazdaManiac". Please address all correspondance accordingly. Thanks!

brothervoodoo

You guys have done some real good work here. I went ahead and did the Mod today, only took a handful of minutes after reading all the good info on this thread. I decided to go with "Omicron's" variation as it opened all possibilities of using the fog lights independently from other lights, offering full control to keep the fogs on or off by using the turn stock and no possibility of draining the battery since it's tapped into the Accessory relay.

Hat's off to Magnesium for doing a lot of the early investigative work. Thanks all. As Tony the Tiger used to say it’s GREEEATTT!!!

brothervoodoo

Here's the results:

SiCkRx-8

Wow this is an amazing thread. You guys are great. I nominate this to be a sticky!!!

BoomerBurt

OUTSTANDING! I did the "Omicron" procedure - I just cut the brown Fog wire (capped off the power-supply end) and branched the brown line to the Fog relay to the smaller white/red wire from the ACC relay. I now have full control of the front fog lights. So far, I leave the Fog switch "on" so that they come on as DRL's whenever I am driving (they are mounted a bit low, but better than nothing). It is so simple, once you identify the relays and wires (a test-bulb is also useful to confirm which wires are hot under which conditions). Thanks for the very useful insights!

syntrix

Sweet! I just did it in about 6 minutes.

3 of which were looking for a wiretap

SiCkRx-8

Ok i went to do this mod with the ACC wire(the bigger of the two). I used a wire connector to splice into the wire with the fog light wire. So i figured i had everything fine, so when i went to turn the lights on i didnt get the fog lights to come on, so i was a little suspicious. I did disconnect the battery, but it was reconnected. So I went to re-examine what I did. I could not find any mishap, so i disconnected the wire splice to find a gash in the acc wire from the splice. All this time my car would not start and i got this security indicator light blinking on my dash. It looks like a car with a key cut out in the middle. So I went to start the key and the car would not start. So i redid everything, connected all the wires and cut the acc wire completely (which i prob. shouldn't have done) and reconnected it back to its original wire, still the car wouldnt start and that icon kept flashing. Im freaking out here, what did i do wrong?

brothervoodoo

You first took a wrong turn, you were supposed to splice into the the "smaller" of the two wires (small white w/ red stripe NOT the big white/red wire) of the accessory relay. As for what's wrong, I dunno. When you say your "security light" flashes do you mean the lights indicated on page 5-22 of your user manual. There's a procedure in there to reset after disconnecting the battery. If you undertake these procedures you have to carefully read the entire post, because there are a few variations and changes, if you read only part you could get led astray. Good luck, sorry it didn't work out the 1st time.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like you might have run a power source directly to ground.
Start looking for popped fuses and I'll take a look at the wiring diagram tonight to see where you might have gone wrong.

brothervoodoo

Good call Maniac, blown fuse is very probable.

SiCkRx-8

No i mean the light on page 5-43, but a blown fuse is a possibility, do you think I blew the ACC relay fuse? I went to autozone and they dont even carry that relay fuse yet, is there anyway another fuse might have blown. I cant look at the car now but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edit: Ok I found it, the IG fuse was the one that was blown, its a 15 amp fuse, so i replaces that and it started. Fogs look great when there's no head lights on, Thanks guys :D

bobclevenger

As a devout tinkerer, I couldn't let this go without one more variation. I decided I wanted the fog lights to be able to be on when the ignition is on, but not necessarily when the ignition switch is in the "accessory" position --- so I did it.
The attached photo shows the necessary wires to identify:
Wire #1 is the wire that carries the power TO the fog light relay.
Wire #2 is the stock connection.
Wire #3 brings power from the accessory circuit.
Wire #4 brings power from the ignition circuit.

I put a male tab connector on wire #1, a female tab connector on wire #2, and female tap-in tab connectors on wires #3 and #4.
You can use anything that works, of course. The ones I used are available at Radio Shack.

bobclevenger

This photo shows the fog lights connected to work as they originally did.

bobclevenger

This photo shows the fog lights connected to work when the key is turned to (or past) the '"accessory" position.