DIY: FRONT Fog Light RE-WIRE [S2 Vr/Compilation]
 

Now for those that don't want to read 444 posts (at this moment). I'm going to sum all of that muss in a pretty package. Including my own pictures, I will be using other people's pictures to help explain this in greater detail. I've tried to make this as simple, straight forward, complete in one post. Enjoy. Original Thread

I performed this modification as my first step for doing a Fog Light projector retrofitment. Doing this modification fixed the problem with having HID bulbs, constantly turning on/off with the High beams.


Omicron's Method: (I did my Fog light re-wiring using Omicron's method. This way met all the prerequites I needed and I can confirm it works)
1. Useable at all times the car is running: No lights, Low Beams, High Beams.
2. Turns off when the car is not running: Will not run the battery dry if I forget to turn off the fog lights.
3. I can turn off the fog lights with my normal "Fog Light" switch.

Other Methods and variations to this modification include:
(Link) - Magnesium's Original Method. Fog lights will remain on when the car is not running. No warning sound that the lights are on. This method probably is best mated with Unser's, as his method incorporated a physical LED and switch.
(Link) - MazdaManiac's Daytime Running lights: Attached to the brake lights, these will come on whenever the "Parking" lights are turned on.
(Link) - bobclevenger's ignition circuit. The car does not need to have the accessory lights working.
(Link) - Unser's switch variation:

For Candian Cars (Credit: StealthTL): (I do not know if this works for S2 cars, but i'm sure someone might want to know.)
"NOTE FOR CANADIAN CARS.....
To bypass the DRL module (behind the glovebox) you need to disconnect the 'fog in'(light green&black) and 'fog out'(yellow&red) at the big DRL connector, and join them together ( best way is to use a tiny screwdriver to poke the terminals back out of the block - no cutting required.). They are side by side at the lower left of the connector.
Also, the 'brown' wire on US cars is 'brown&white' striped for DRL models, but it IS the same wire as in the Omicron instructions."

Websites:
http://koczarski.com/RX8/Mods/FogLight/ReWire.htm

Fuse box picture: Accessory Is the red "Acc". Brown Fog for the fog light fuse.
Attachment 248960

Schematic of the Fog lights without DRL (Daytime Running Lights)
Attachment 248961
__________________________________________________ ______________
Omicron's Method: (Short)
0. Disconnect the "-" battery terminal. Open the fuse box. take off the top connector the power cords at the top of the fuse box.
1. Find the Brown wire that's connected to the Fog Light fuse. Cut it.
2. Find the THIN Red and White wire. Splice the Brown wire (Leading to the fuse) to the THIN Red and White wire.


__________________________________________________ ______________
Omicron's Method: (Detailed)
0. Disconnect the Negative battery terminal. The black connector.

0a. Located the fuse box. This will be located at the driver's side, next to the air filter. This is what the fuse box looks like without a box cap. Attachment 248962

0b. Disconnect the power terminals and the connector, located at the top of the fuse box. Push these between the air filter, so you won't need to worry about them later. They don't easily fall down so you won't need to worry about that.
Attachment 248963

0c. Locate the four tabs holding the fuse box down. MazdaManiac's Picture
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...w/6c7d2872.jpg

1. Lift the fuse box. It'll want to fall back down, so proping it up with something helps a lot. I didn't prop it up, and fighting with it is not a very fun chore. This is what you'll see when you first lift it:
Attachment 248964


Intimidating, daunting a little? Using Focus-O-Vision, Let's focus on the wires you actually need to worry about. Notice the brown wire, and notice the two white/red stripped wires. Focusing on the two white wires you'll notice they differ in size. My rule of thumb "Ignore the fatty. Go with the skinny"
Attachment 248965

2. Do not cut the white wires! Using a splice connector, splice your home-made wire with the thin white wire. I added a female connector.

3. Cut the brown wire. And add connectors.
- The Fuse-side brown wire needs to be tapped with a Male connector.
- The NON Fuse-side brown wires needs to be tapped with a female connector.
Notice that if shit hits the fan, you can go back to stock and no one will be the wise :naughty:

With Step 2 and 3 Done:
Attachment 248966
Focus-O-Vision:
Attachment 248967

4. Connect the Male connector to the spliced new wire's female side. Wrap in electical tape. Wrap the unused female brown wire with electrical tape. Stuff the connectors back in the place.

5. Push the fuse box down.
6. Connect the main connector and power wires.
7. Connect the negative battery terminal.
8. Reset the DSC with the steering wheel.
9. Enjoy.

After pictures:
Attachment 248968
Attachment 248969

Someone give this man a medal. This is an awesome post!

Very clean Sir. You have HIDs in your fogs, yes? If so who's did you end up getting?

I use Hoen endurance fog lights for 9006 bulbs. No HID projector yet. That was just the after picture of what the diy did.

Impressive, I might use the same instead of a HID kit. Less shit to wire up. Besides, you don't want overly bright fogs anyways unless you want to blind people.

Yeah, fog lights were made for low-speed traveling. I believe it's under 35 mph. but hell, I love my lumens.

Like!
 

Where's the "Like" button!

What happened?
 

I followed the instructions and it worked however my console didn't work after that. Like my clock, AC, radio, all that stuff had no power going to it and at first I thought I blew a fuse but I just put the wires back to the original configuration and it worked. Did anyone else have this issue?

The way I wired it was the brown wire from the fuse to the skinny red striped wire coming from the light, then the skinny red striped wire coming from the fuse to the brown wire coming from the light. I'm assuming they're coming from the light, I don't actually know where the wires are coming from lol.

Ok nvm I found out what I did wrong. I wasn't suppose to cut the striped wire only tap into it oops lol. I'll try it tonight and see if I can get it right this time.

The only thing I see mentioned in the DIY is to connect the fuse side brown to the wire that you tapped onto the skinny white/red wire. sounds like you had that part down then you made another connection that wasn't mentioned here...

I'm not even doing this, but just had to chime in and compliment you on the clearest, best written directions I've ever seen on this forum. I've always thought it's unfair to ask people to spend hours (or days) wading through endless pages of posts just to figure out how to do something that could be explained in 5 minutes. Cheers to you, sir. And on behalf of everyone who's wasted a day and a half trying to find only what they need to know to do a simple mod, thank you.

Did you ever figure out what this was? The same thing happened to me (I cut it:Kill1: because I didn't read closely). And I couldn't start the car either. All my ACC stuff was out...

great write-up. thanks! i just did this following each step to a "T" and it worked perfectly.

Hey, i know this is a diy written for S2's but ive checked the S1 diy and with a quick look they look really similar, can i follow this on my S1? your instructions are as clear as day compared to the others ive seen.

Yeah, it will work for the Series One. As stated, this is the condensed version of the original Fog Light Rewire thread.

Thanks so much just wondering what do you mean reset the dsc?

Turn key on, dont start engine. Turn the wheel all the way to lock right then all the way to lock left. Done.

A quick Google search on Fog light rewire yielded this awesome writeup!

I don't get how some people say they searched for hours and found nothing. Lol.

First search, 10 seconds later, BAM! This dope thread.

I did this mod yesterday - the DIY was very well written! Thanks for posting!!

I've been looking for this mod. Thanks for the DIY.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but i am new to this forum. I tried this tonight only to find the fog lights work the exact same (lights must be on to use fogs). I have an 09 rx8 and the only mods are megen lowering springs, bho ignition mod and goodridge ssbl. Anyone have a clue why it didn't work for me? I also posted in the series 1 thread as it is the exact same?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...502890_HDR.jpg


Edit: After many trials, and checking every relay and fuse, i switched methods and still no different than stock. They now only work when ignition/accessory (dependent upon wire location) and headlights on where as before they worked in any position as long as headlights were on.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...449161_HDR.jpg

On canadian cars the brown wire is white with a brown stripe

Removed the 15amp drl fuse so no more lights up there when parking brake is disengaged

Canadian??
 

Thank you for the reply. My car isn't Canadian though. I don't have daytime running lights and I traced the wires to the right relays. I'm not sure what's wrong unless something is different on series 2'

Electrical issue
 

Anyone have experience with the electrical cutting out while the engine is running? The tripometer resets to zero, all radio presets go away, GPS stops working. Turn off the engine and next morning it's like nothing ever happened.

Did not work?
 

Just tried this on my 2010. It did not change anything? any ideas?? I purchased the car in Pittsburgh, so I don't think it is Canadian? any suggestion. I taped the brown wire and left as is until someone responds?
I did this on my 2005 when I had it and it worked????

auto-headlights ???
 

I have auto-on headlights...would this be why it did not work? Please help!!

auto headlights
 

That is it and we are trying to figure it out as we speak. Will post updates.

Thanks!
 

I will keep checking back.

auto headlights
 

I have the auto lights also on my 09 grand touring and it did not work everything just worked as before.

I used a wire nut..works perfectly
 

1. Cut brown wire and smaller diameter white and red stripe wire.
2. Strip 1/2" insulation from
A. Both ends of white and red stripe wire
B. End of brown wire coming from relay
3. Join the the the three wires from 2 above with wire nut.
4. Tape off the remaining free end of the brown wire.

Jedell,is your RX a Series II?

This is amazing, especially after the 6k LEDs from vled got put in!! took me about 10 min from start to finish.

Excellent write-up. I will put this on my winter to do list. Thank you.

2009 R3- high beams
 

Hey there,
I have a 2009 R3 Canadian with DRL's. I was wondering if the high beam will still work after following this re-wire? Great write up BTW!

I'm going crazy atm. Just tried to do this rewire and ended up messing up my car's wiring.

I followed the instructions and cut the brown wire and spliced the fuse/relay side of it to the thinner Red/White wire. Once i did this i hopped into my car and turned on my car like normal and tested to see if my foglights would turn on without my headlights. The results of this were no use of foglights at all.

At this point i thought i spliced the wrong side of the brown wire to the red/white so i attempted splicing the other side of the brown wire to it. After this all ACC functions were lost. The radio, car starting, the LED no longer turns on.
I even tried reversing the rewiring at all and the ACC stuff still does not work. ATM it is brown to brown and red/white to red/white as normal. The foglights now work again like normal but no ACC power at all. ACC AMP(8) looks fine.

Can someone please help me figure out what is wrong? At this point i just need my car to work lol. Thanks in advance!

Thank god i just got it fixed and rewired to work like the DIY was supposed to. Pretty much what happened was i think the splicing connector didnt make good contact so the initial rewiring didnt give the fog lights power. Rewiring it to the other end of the brown wire blew the fuse to IGN KEY (22). Took me alot of forum searching to find that the Ignition was connected to the ACC power. Thought i'd come back and leave the solution to my problem here just in case anyone else runs into symptoms like mine.

Thanks for the thorough DIY. As expected it was an user error. Rewired foglights work fantastic.

Apologies for resurrecting a very old thread but I thought this was the best place to ask the question. (I have done a search of the site (using Google for the best results) but I cannot find the answer to my question).

I'm wondering if anyone has come up with a verified method to allow the fogs to be on at anytime, specifically for a Canadian SII that has both DRL and the Automatic lights ? I have both a 2007 (with DRL) and a 2009 (DRL and Auto lights). I have successfully completed the modification of my 2007 to allow the fog lights to be on at anytime, and I would like the same feature for my 2009. The bulbs on both cars have been changed to LEDs and the 2007 looks great with the fogs on all the time (I used the modification method where they automatically turn off with the car).

Thank you for any responses.

Does anyone know if the (Canadian) DRL rewire is the same for s2 as s1? the module is definitely different...

Seems like no one has been able to make it work on Canadian S2 car as we have DRL function and some have Auto lights, once my car is out of storage i was going to give this a shot and detail it if i can figure out.