How to wire multiple fog lights to factory switch

RubiconMike

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2018
Messages
346
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
I had posted this in another thread, but thought I'd add it here as an additional "how to".

I moved my factory fog lights to brackets up by the windshield, and put 9" pencil beam driving lights on the bumper in the stock location. The driving lights give me long distance lights on the road, and the factory lights have a wide dispersion for night time trail running.

I wanted to use the stock fog light switch on the multi-function stalk, and be able to choose which lights to turn on (driving, fog, or both). I wired them per the diagram below. To make things easy, I used the power wire at one of the factory fog lights to feed power from the original turn signal switch to the two relays. I added two auxiliary switches inside to control the individual lights.

As you can see from the diagram, each set of lights gets power directly from the battery through a fuse and a relay using appropriately sized wire. To trigger the relays, the factory fog light switch supplies positive 12V, and the accessory switches supply the negative ground. If I only want the driving lights, I flip the accessory switch for them. Then I can use the factory switch to turn them on and off. If I want the fog lights, I flip that switch. If I want both, I flip both accessory switches. No matter what I choose, the factory fog light switch then is used to turn them on and off. This design can be used for any number of lights, you just need to add more relays and accessory switches. The accessory switches can be mounted anywhere you have room, they don't really need to be close to hand. Once you select which lights you want, you just use the factory switch to turn them on and off.
FogLightWiring.gif
IMG_0405.JPG
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zorba and Chris
So if you have to pull power through the factory fog light switch, do the lights only work when the low beam headlights are on?
 
I had posted this in another thread, but thought I'd add it here as an additional "how to".

I moved my factory fog lights to brackets up by the windshield, and put 9" pencil beam driving lights on the bumper in the stock location. The driving lights give me long distance lights on the road, and the factory lights have a wide dispersion for night time trail running.

I wanted to use the stock fog light switch on the multi-function stalk, and be able to choose which lights to turn on (driving, fog, or both). I wired them per the diagram below. To make things easy, I used the power wire at one of the factory fog lights to feed power from the original turn signal switch to the two relays. I added two auxiliary switches inside to control the individual lights.

As you can see from the diagram, each set of lights gets power directly from the battery through a fuse and a relay using appropriately sized wire. To trigger the relays, the factory fog light switch supplies positive 12V, and the accessory switches supply the negative ground. If I only want the driving lights, I flip the accessory switch for them. Then I can use the factory switch to turn them on and off. If I want the fog lights, I flip that switch. If I want both, I flip both accessory switches. No matter what I choose, the factory fog light switch then is used to turn them on and off. This design can be used for any number of lights, you just need to add more relays and accessory switches. The accessory switches can be mounted anywhere you have room, they don't really need to be close to hand. Once you select which lights you want, you just use the factory switch to turn them on and off. View attachment 65950View attachment 65951
Hi Mike, Usually fogs should be ~ 12-18" from ground or close to ground. Do you like the high level mount location, do they cut below fog, don't reflect in your eyes?
 
Hi Mike, Usually fogs should be ~ 12-18" from ground or close to ground. Do you like the high level mount location, do they cut below fog, don't reflect in your eyes?
I'm not really using them as fog lights, they have a wide beam pattern so I'm using them as trail lights. The high mounting position and wide bean spread really light up the trail in the woods at night, but would suck in heavy fog. The pencil beams actually do a better job, the narrow beam doesn't cause a lot of light splatter in the fog and really cut through it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kenneth G Zinis
Ok I just tried this and my lights are not turning off with the aux switch, the factory fog switch turns them on/off, not sure what I did wrong.

I used the vision x light cannon harness which has two relays, only one relay has wires going to the switch in the dash, we'll call that relay 1, the #30(white) and #85(black) go to the switch along with the #86(blue), but the blue wire in #86 is jumped between the second relay to the first then goes to the switch.

I cut the blue wire after the relays and before the switch and spliced it into the white/yellow fog light wire under the PDC.

I'm thinking I should've used the #30 white wire instead of the blue?

All four of my lights turn on and off with the fog switch which was the goal, just the aux switch which use to control the light cannons now does nothing. I really don't even care that it does nothing, can I just eliminate it entirely?
 
How do you properly make a Y splice for this project?
I stripped the shielding in the middle of the fog switch wire then took the wire from my relay wrapped it around the fog switch then soldered it and wrapped it in some quality electrical tape.

This was the best method I could find, I suppose better would be to use some actual heat shrink but that would require cutting the fog switch wire in half or sliding it down from the end of the wire, which now that I think about it I could've easily done that.

Idk what I'm doing though. I wanted to avoid using those T splice things.