Rear fog for MOT.

[HOODY]

Thought id check my mot cert today, as I know its due soon.... the due date is tomorrow....eeeeeek!!!!

Just been to halfords to get a bolt on rear fog light, fixed it to the rear, fixed the ground in place, threaded the red wire through to the front drivers side, now where to get the live feed from...?

I have a fog light switch for the front fog lights.. but on the switch there seems to be around 5 wires coming off it.. was hoping it would be simple.

Still not sure how to take the left hand switch panel off either, ive taken off the bottom trim, so i can see the switch , and found 1 screw that ive taken off from the bottom of the vent/switch panel but it still wont come out.

Thought this would be sooo simple.. just inside now warming my hands up on a fresh cuppa tea as its proper cold...lol

[HOODY]

any ideas where to get a live feed from without messing too much with the cars electrics, and how to take out the drivers side air vent please.


thanx in advance

hoody

[Turbo_Steve]

The quick and dirty solution for the time being is to take a live feed off the back of the cigar lighter. It's easy to get to and delivers enough current.

Sorry to say this after the event, but you can actually rewire one of the brake lights to be a rear fog, and save drilling the rear bumper.

[Atik]

Yep, I'd go with Steve's suggestion. Do the dirty one and find the +12v on the cigar lighter and run that to the switch.

There are write-ups on how to do these foglight changes including the rear brake light conversion and the twin fog light button from the UK spec cars.

[WizardKing]

I think it would be a lot easier to take your feed from the front foglight feed.
Only need a 6" piece of wire, too !
That's where mine has been tapped, I'll check the wire colour for you . . .

[WizardKing]

Here's mine. The wires look a bit thin but mine worked fine before and after converting to the 'brakes as fogs' type.

32111

Green with white stripe = Live when front fogs are ON

[HOODY]

with a bit of guess work using a voltmeter, Ive tapped into the green wire coming off the fog lamp switch (theres 2 black, 1 blue, 1pink, and green) ,ive made the green tappin in wire go to a seperate switch (with a light in it)ive put in one of the blanking plates next to the tcl switch. .. 3 spade connectors on back of new switch..1 wire from green wire found off the fog light switch, 1 wire ive put to ground, and the other to rear fog light.

operation..

Luckly this way..

This new switch is active when the lights are on.. meaning turn the headlights on and then this switch can turn on and off the rear fog. when on a little led lights up on the switch too.

(I did try just tapping in without switch to the green , but when turning the front fogs on and off the rear stayed on, hence using an extra switch now.

phew. just hope this is right, been outside for ages now and im starting to freeze over.

The rear fog light ive dingle dangled from the offside rear bumper mount. Not sure on how high or low this light has to be , well ill find out tommorrow with mot.

I would like to try the other option of cluster mod , this is just a rush jobby.

cant believe mot is tommorrow....... just hope i can get booked in. next time ill bung it in the calender.

Thanx for your help above, been running in and out checking forum..lol

[elnevio]

Here's the article on using the rear lights as fog lights: http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21874

[WizardKing]

That's the guide I used, it's spot on. My relay is just behind the access hatch on the tailgate. A lot of fiddling was needed in order to feed a wire that way, though.

Hoody,
glad you've sorted it.
I'm not sure about 'dingle dangling' the thing off your bumper, though /haz !

[HOODY]

thanx guys!!:)

[Turbo_Steve]

Erm......I would definitely DEFINITELY use a relay if coming off that feed.

[WizardKing]

What for ? It's either feeding a relay in the boot (as mine is now) or feeding a 21 Watt bulb (as mine used to do, presumably from initial importation.)

Although it works out at 1.75 Amperes @ 12 volts, in use it will be merely 1.4583 Amps @ 14.4 volts.

The wire tapped from, albeit not especially thick, ordinarily carries just a few hundred milliamps. If it wasn't capable of 1.5 Amps of current, we'd have heard of a load of blown fuses or even, heavens forbid, fires starting in imported VR4's.

[WizardKing]

Just checked it again ;

The green/white wire has a conductor diameter in excess of 1.5mm, which is rated at 5 or 6 Amps of power transmission, that's conservatively too.

[Turbo_Steve]

And do we know if there is a relay between it and the front fogs (potentially at 55w each)?

I wouldn't run anything from the factory wiring without a relay: If nothing else switching too much current through the switch will shorten it's life. Mine isn't 1.5mm, either!

[WizardKing]

If you listen very,very carefully, can't you hear yours click ? lol, or look in the box under bonnet.

[Turbo_Steve]

LOL!

Mind you, I don't know if you've noticed, if you press ANYTHING on the VR4, something clicks? :D :D :D

Seriously, though, yes, I've noticed 3 seperate relays tick when you push the foglight button, however at least one of those is livening the main lighting circuit, another appears to have something to do with the dash illumination. Possibly. (It didn't click when the dash fuse went - though that can mean anything).

I totally agree that if you're putting a relay in the tailgate then you don't need one behind the dash. But I'm very wary of switching anything with the dash switches, especially when some of them appear to be full of "gubbins" (i.e. electronics).

A relay is, what, £7 if you pay top whack. Gotta be a better investment than actually using the fog for an hour or so to find everything getting rather warm!

[elnevio]

Gotta be a better investment than actually using the fog for an hour or so to find everything getting rather warm!
At least you'd be visible through the fog. Although you might actually be the cause of it! :flamed:

[WizardKing]

Elnevio;
I like it, top comment !


Turbo_Steve;
I totally agree with what you say, that's half the reason I got rid of my 'fog-cube.'
Dunno' about using the fog for an hour, though. Twenty-two and one fifth of a second is usually sufficient for the annual MOT !

[Turbo_Steve]

LOL LOL!

I was just surmising that there may actually be...and I know this is weird...but there may ACTUALLY one day in THIS country..be...some FOG!

(Actually, I've been known to use mine in EXTREMELY heavy rain too, and turn it off when a cars headlights start to appear)

[HOODY]

This fog light will be coming off as quick as it went on. It looks awful. dingley danglys..eek

[Atik]

Get onto the integrated light cluster fog light and then you wont have to do the same thing again and again!

I quite like my bumper cutout light /pan

[HOODY]

Get onto the integrated light cluster fog light and then you wont have to do the same thing again and again!

I quite like my bumper cutout light /pan
Yeah I will def look into it, gona wait for one of those sunday tinkering days when the sun starts coming out.