Is there a way to make my fog lights go on with High Beams?

[TEO314]

Instead of just low beams or is it not possoble?

Thanks (stock nissan Fog lights by the way)

[phlydude]

you would need to reprogram the computer to make it work that way. Currently, there is no method out there of changing around the ECM without having a Consult machine. Even then I don't know if you could do it...

[HudsonValleyTitan]

Originally Posted by TEO314

Instead of just low beams or is it not possoble?

Thanks (stock nissan Fog lights by the way)

It's sensless IMHO but, it can be done. Go over and check out the TUNFS site. That's the Nissan Frontier site and it's been done on Frontys quite easily. It's simply a wiring change...nothing to do with the computer.

[grunge311]

You could just wire the fog lights into the high beams. Pretty redneck but it would work, you may have to up the fuse. If you wanted you could also use a relay (or not depending on how ghetto you want to do this and wire a separate switch to turn the fogs on when ever you want.

I can think of several ways to do this but the question is why? High beams suck in fog and fog lights don't do anything but light up 3 feet in front of your truck if its clear out.

By the way if you ever drive by me like that I will rip every light out of your truck.

[HudsonValleyTitan]

I think the reason it was done on the Frontiers was more for using the fogs with the parking lights, not the high beams. It's for looks I guess.

[92TripleBlack]

Easy. Just need a relay and some wire.
Run a wire from + battery to the relay. (use a fuse by the battery here)
Run a wire from high beam + to the relay.
Run a ground to the relay.
Run a wire from the + of the fogs to the relay.
Plug the + from the Battery to the top wire on the relay. The spade of the relay is perpendicular to the other ones.
Plug the + to the fogs to the bottom spade.
Plug the + from the high beams to the left or right and the ground to the other spade, left or right.
When you turn on your high beams, the relay will trigger but put no additional load on the wires so you won't blow a fuse or melt a wire. The relay will then take the + source from the battery to the lights.

Simple and cheap to do. Should take about an hour with crimps, meter, etc. Use crimps, not tape and use a meter to find the correct wires before cutting. If you want to get fancy, you can hook the relay up to a switch between the high beam light + wire and the relay. This will allow you with a flick of the switch to make it work stock or work with the highbeams. Might be nice to do as it is illegal to run fogs/driving lights with highbeams.

[Titank]

NO.... for the life of god, do not go wiring your fog lights into your high-beam. Not that it won't work... but you'll probably blow your fuse. Then you will upgrade the fuse to hold the load... in turn over-heat the hot wire supporting the high-beam. And next thing you know... you have a fire under dash, smoke in the cabin, and you pulling over hella fast thinking something is going to blow.

I know from personal (much young days) experience


~Titank

[pciley]

Originally Posted by 92TripleBlack

Easy. Just need a relay and some wire.
Run a wire from + battery to the relay. (use a fuse by the battery here)
Run a wire from high beam + to the relay.
Run a ground to the relay.
Run a wire from both + to the fogs to the relay.
Plug the + to the top wire on the relay. The spade of the relay is perpendicular to the other ones.
Run the + to the low beams on the bottom spade.
Hook the + from the high beams to the left or right and the ground to the other spade, left or right.
When you turn on your high beams, the relay will trigger but put no additional load on the wires so you won't blow a fuse or melt a wire. The relay will then take the + source from the battery to the lights.

Simple and cheap to do. Should take about an hour with crimps, meter, etc. Use crimps, not tape and use a meter to find the correct wires before cutting. If you want to get fancy, you can hook the relay up to a switch between the high beam light + wire and the relay. This will allow you with a flick of the switch to make it work stock or work with the highbeams. Might be nice to do as it is illegal to run fogs/driving lights with highbeams.

It's actually ALOT easier than that. Most of us XE owners can tell you what you are trying to do is a cinch. Just wire the fogs directly to the battery with an inline fuse. Break the ground wire in the cab with a switch. You can clean up the wiring with 1/4" black split loom and some black zip ties. Looks close to factory when you are done.

No need for a relay, but you can wire one in for an auto-off feature so you don't have to worry about draining the batt. if you are senile like me.

The best switch we have found is out of a Pathfinder shown in picture below. Nissan part #999f1-6e000 (Thanks BigRedTitan).

Here's a link to a step-by-step rewiring of the fog lights:
Fog lights

[HudsonValleyTitan]

Again, just go to the TUNFS (http://pub175.ezboard.com/btunfs) board and do a search. Now I can't swear Titans are the same but....there's a way you can make a few connection changes in the steering column (at the light stalk) and have the fogs come on whenever the parking lights are on.

[carteach0]

Originally Posted by TEO314

Instead of just low beams or is it not possoble?

Thanks (stock nissan Fog lights by the way)

Not legally in this state (PA). Don't know about other states.

There are good reasons they are wired that way from the factory.

[TEO314]

thanks guys for the replies.

[92TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by Titank

NO.... for the life of god, do not go wiring your fog lights into your high-beam. Not that it won't work... but you'll probably blow your fuse. Then you will upgrade the fuse to hold the load... in turn over-heat the hot wire supporting the high-beam. And next thing you know... you have a fire under dash, smoke in the cabin, and you pulling over hella fast thinking something is going to blow.

I know from personal (much young days) experience


~Titank

This is why you use a relay with its own independent source from the battery. No fires or blown fuses.I used to install car electronics professionally. This is the correct and safest way to do this. The other ways detailed are dangerous shortcuts. This takes all of 15 minutes anyway.

[92TripleBlack]

Originally Posted by pciley

It's actually ALOT easier than that. Most of us XE owners can tell you what you are trying to do is a cinch. Just wire the fogs directly to the battery with an inline fuse. Break the ground wire in the cab with a switch. You can clean up the wiring with 1/4" black split loom and some black zip ties. Looks close to factory when you are done.

No need for a relay, but you can wire one in for an auto-off feature so you don't have to worry about draining the batt. if you are senile like me.

The best switch we have found is out of a Pathfinder shown in picture below. Nissan part #999f1-6e000 (Thanks BigRedTitan).

Here's a link to a step-by-step rewiring of the fog lights:
Fog lights

The way I described keeps the dash intact. Also. you are straining the system this way. Could have a burned up switch or wire or fuse, especially if you use aftermarket lights. This can happen down the road and doesn't have to happen when you first turn it on.

Relay is $5, wire is cheap, and it should take 15-30 mnutes to wire properly. Why chance it?

[pciley]

I don't wish to Hi-Jack this thread and start a 'battle of whits' about mobile electronics/installation.I also don't want to insult your install experience, as I only installed at a "Best Buy," not a custom stereo shop or anything, and the only certification I had was the standard MECP that most car audio/install techs have.

92TripleBlack, you have noted a very useful function of a relay and that is to power something directly from the battery when whatever the relay is 'monitoring' is powered (ie. fogs turn on with parking lamps, or with low beams, or with the radio for that matter..)

But you don't NEED a relay for a simple lighting circuit. All you need is the proper positive, a ground, a switch, and a fuse (the fuse is probably something many people skip, which might be acceptable to some here as its just a cheap pair of bulbs to blow, but I like to be a bit overly thorough-- a side effect of being anal-retentive and a perfectionist).

With an inline fuse, you are sure to NOT overload anything. By breaking the ground in the cab at your factory OEM switch, you are avoiding running a hot wire through the firewall, avoiding any future chance of wire abrasion when your "grommet" or hole plug wears through and cuts the wire's insulation.

The dash stays 100% "in-tact." you don't modify ANY dash component. The plastic knockout gets removed and you can save it to put back in later.

The switch I posted was an EXACT fit that snaps into the factory receptacle.

How are you straining the "system" and what system is that? The car's electricals are ALREADY intended to power the driving lamps adequately. Its wired directly to the battery, as if you were doing a hard wire, or an amp. install. You don't ever want to "piggyback" anything and draw power from another circuit, let alone when you are drawing enough current to power two lamps with combined current draw of 75 watts.

The reason I would install a relay would be for the auto-off feature, or if you JUST wanted the fogs to turn on with something else (ie. low beams or parking lights, etc.).

But in your install experience I'm sure you had to teach "the new guy" how to wire a relay. Have you ever tried walking someone through the installation of a relay WITHOUT being able to show them (i.e. on-line)? You and I can probably wire relays in our sleep, but trying to explain to someone what type of relay they need, and which wire goes on which post of the relay, etc. Might cause more problems than it helps.

Not to mention, you want to avoid tapping into the factory wiring whenever possible. It might be just fine in alot of cases, but its NOT very warranty friendly and definitely not acceptable on a first model year vehicle which are historically prone to electrical poltergeist to begin with. Some guys in the shop used to tap into factory harnesses whenever they had the chance and had to eat a couple factory parts on customers' cars when some small variation in current spiked an ECU or threw off some control module. SIMPLY soldering a wire into a factory harness has thrown off an entire car's electronics due to the increase/decrease in resistance on some small, VERY sensitive circuit. This happened most often with BMWs and Benz's because of their computers' complexities, but you never can be too safe with all the cars that use the CAN systems as our trucks do. I was never involved in those situations so I hope you don't ask me to recall specifics

For the average Titan owner doing a simple fog light re-wire, an in-line fuse is great. For the more techno-savvy guy, a relay has its benefits.

The way I described to Independently wire the foglights is by no means a "dangerous shortcut." If you do it right and hide everything, route the wires safely, it could take WELL over an hour.

Hacking into the steering column and jumping wires seems like the shortcut to me.

I prefer, when doing custom wiring, to do it completely independent of all factory 'circuits' whenever possible. This is why I chose to wire the foglights on their own independent circuit.

I'm sure you have seen your fair share of customers' cars come in where someone had tried to tap into the dome light wiring for their radar detector, or tap their cigarette lighter for their MP3 player 'hard-wire.' They wondered what happened after overloading the circuit and popping fuses.

I had one idiot jump the fuse in the fusebox with a cut/bent piece of wire coat hanger. He thought the fuses blowing was just some minor issue.

He ended up frying the ENTIRE dash harness and doing alot of damage to plastics and components. Someone in the back seat had to go to the hospital for smoke inhilation from the burning wire insulation. All the wires were 'welded' together and arcing. The car was toed in trying to blame us for a HU install we did WAYYY before the incident. The cause ended up being those little Wiper Nozzles with the LEDs in them. The guy wired them himself and thought he knew what was goin on...

I am a perfectionist and am very 'anal' about my truck. I will go out of my way and take alot more time than I need to and do things the right way. I don't cut corners. I would NEVER post instructions to help people on this site if there was any chance that it would damage something.

That being said, so as not to hijack this thread as I might have just done, if you want to offer me some tips on relays you are more than welcome to PM me. MANY users on this site have had ALOT more install experience than me with all sorts of fancy certs on their resume.

Honestly, I started out as a computer technician. By a strange twist I ended up in the bays. Mobile elec. is not my passion and I am by NO MEANS the guru here. If you want to see some wizardry get a load of some of the custom stuff goin on in the Audio/Visual forum... inspiring!

Hope my previously posted advice has helped others.

Luck! -Paul

[92TripleBlack]

I'd still be careful. I had a camaro that I bought used with aftermarket fogs. They were wired using the switch to feed power without a relay or fuse. It caught on fire in my dash. Found out later it was wired incorrectly. Now maybe I'm over cautious but better safe than sorry.