Aftermarket Fog Lights in OEM Sockets

Finally finished these yesterday. I have to say that I am very pleased. With a little work, these $80 aftermarket fog lights are a bargain compared to the $350 factory fog lights. I will do a full write up sometime, so there will be more to come. So here is the final product... Let me know what you guys think.

 

I need to install a pair on my truck. Can you give me more info and a quick write up please?

thanks

 

Looks great! I can't wait to see your write-up.

 

I'm excidedly waiting as well. I am getting pretty sick at looking at those gray drinking cups in my bumper where the lights should be.

 

I agree!!!!! I feel like my truck is awesome EXCEPT for those holes!

 

Sorry guys, I'm finishing my sub box today before it rains again, and tomorrow I have to take the girl out for our 4 year anniversary. I'll do the write up on Saturday. In the mean time, Here is the list of the items I used.

Fog Light kit from Blinglights on ebay........$80.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2005...007QQitemZ170117498454QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
30amp 12v Auto Relay from Radioshack.......$6.49 http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...kw=auto+relay&kw=auto+relay&parentPage=search
Extra Wire at least 14 gauge.
Electrical Kit: Wire Strippers, Crimpers, Soldering Iron, Wire Splices, connectors, etc...

The bolts that come with the kit are really small, I went to Home Depot and bought some longer ones. The thread measurements are: 6mm with fine thread, 10mm hex head, and I went with 20mm in length. The kit didnt have any washers so I got some big fender washers while I was there. They come in handy.

Now the kit wires together so that it is completely separate from the Tacoma's electrical system. If you want control your lights separately with only a switch then you don't need the relay. I wired mine with my parking lights and a switch. So in order for my fog lights to be on, 2 things need to happen: parking lights on, and switch on. This way, my fog lights shut off with all the other lights when I open my door, thus I don't risk leaving my fog lights on and risk getting a dead battery. Ive attached a wiring diagram so you can get a feel for what I did.

 

Here are some pictures of the kit. The fog lights come with a neon ring that lights up blue. That is why there is a 2 way switch. The little black box with the connector at the end on the bottom right of the first picture is the transformer. I personally thought it looked tacky so I didnt wire it up. I didnt feel like soldering the extra wires together when I added the extra length.

 

Where did you install the switch? Factory switch location or using the switch bracket bolted to the dash?

 

I'm not sure if it's the same switch for the 07 but I found these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOYO...008QQitemZ180124928671QQrdZ1#ebayphotohosting

 

What I did was pop out one of the factory switch cover things and used one of the factory switch location. I used a dremmel to cut a hole in the plastic cover for the switch that came with the kit. Looks pretty good. Just make sure you have a steady hand, yeah, i saw those factory switches on ebay. I might fork over and get one. It would look better and the switch can be illuminated.

 

Haven't forgetton about this thread. I'm gonna take some detailed pictures tomorrow. Evilbetty, I did order that factory fog light switch from ebay. The guy does ships it out priority mail so it got here really quick. The switch fits perfectly when you file down the little sides in the factory switch holes in the dash. It looks perfect.

 

Ok, guys here's the write up:

Step 1: Make sure you have all the proper supplies that I stated earlier. Electrical equipment, 30amp auto relay, fog light kit from blinglights on ebay, etc...

Step 2: Pop out the plastic boots out of the foglight housings. To remove the dummy inserts, I crawled under the front bumper, looked up, and found
that by simply pressing the plastic tab, the whole thing popped out. There is a tab on both sides, but I found that popping one was enough to free the insert. This picture was taken from below the front bumper. (Picture 1 and 2)

Step 3: Insert foglights in the OEM sockets. As you can see from picture 2, there are 2 wholes on either side of the sockets. Using the 20mm bolts that you can pick up at any hardware store and the large fender washers bolt the fog light into place. I found this step to be the most difficult. After this the whole setup is smooth sailing. (Picture 3 & 4) You will notice that the light it not that very stable. It still has the ability to roll up and down. I have found that if you bolt it down tight enough on either side it will not move while driving. Some time in the future I will device some sort of clamp that will go on the back of the fog light and will be connected to a thumb screw, just so that I can twist it left or right so that the fog light beam will be adjusted. I'll let you guys know what I figure out in the future.

 

Step 4: Disconnect the negative battery terminal and Tap into parking lights.

If you want to completely control you fog lights manually with only a switch then disregard this step. However if you want your fog lights to operate like factory fog lights then read on. I wanted my fog lights to turn on automatically if I had the switch on and I turned on my parking lights or headlights. This way the fog lights will also turn off if I turn the headlights or parking lights off. They will also turn off with the Tacoma's safety feature of when you open the door.

First thing you will have to do is locate the left parking light connector. (Picture 1). Unplug the connector. I verified with a voltmeter that the green wire is the positive (+) wire. This will be the wire that we will tap into. Using either a wire splice or soldering kit tap into the green wire. This tap will run all the way to the switch which will be located in the dash of your Tacoma for your convience. Make sure that you give your tap plenty of length. Next thing will be to run the wire to the cab. You will see on the drivers side a large group of wires running through a grommet into the cab. I just used this to run my wires. (picture 2)

 

Step 5: Connect the switch

You can either use the 3 stage switch that came with the kit. Honestly I knew I wouldn't use the blue neon light that is around the fog light so I ordered a factory fog light switch off of Ebay to give my dash a factory look. (Picture 1) You can use any switch of your choosing. Connect your parking light tap into the power in part of the switch. Then connect with another piece of wire to the out part of the switch. (picture 2) As you can see from the wiring diagram this wire will be running to the relay which will be located in the engine compartment so make sure you have plenty of length for your wire. Run the wire out from the switch back through the grommet from which you just ran the parking light tap wire. Now you should be ready to hook up the relay.

 

Step 6: Connect the 30amp relay.

Ok, This is where I really deviate from the blinglight fog light kit. I dont use the transformer that came with the kit. They use this for the blue neon lights that I've been talking about. To make it even more confusing, in their wiring kit they use 2 red wires. (refer to the wiring diagram in picture 1). The thinner red wire runs to the transformer. The thicker wire runs to the battery.This will be the one you want. This can be easily identified because it has an inline fuse. This will connect to pin 30 on the relay that you purchased at radioshack. Next you will need to connect the wire coming in from the switch. This will connect to pin 85. Doing this will tell the relay to turn on when it receives the 12V source from the parking lights. Next you will have to ground the relay. Connect ground to anywhere on the chassis of the tacoma or to the negative battery terminal then connect this to pin 86. I found that there are a set wires that bleed off the negative battery terminal then connect to the frame close by. I just grounded everything there. It is your choice. Just make sure that it is a legit ground before you connect you relay or you might find yourself scratching your head wondering why your lights wont turn on. Next thing will be to connect the white wire that runs out to your fog lights. This will connect to pin 87 on the the relay.

 

Step 7. Connect the wires the fog lamps.

There should be plenty of wire for the left fog lamp so that should be able to connect quite easily. Just match the colors of the plug. White with white, and red with red, etc...You will have to cut and add extra wire to reach the right fog light. You can use any type of wire. I used 14gauge speaker wire because it was sealed up and it looks a lot cleaner. You are going to have to cut though a set of thin wires as well to extend the length. These wires are for the neon lights once again, which I said I wasn't going to use. After you connect the right fog light make sure you use wire ties to tie up any wire hang around. There are plenty of holes around the grille to tie things up to make it look neat. (picture 1)
Do the same with any other wires that are hanging around the engine compartment. I made sure that I mounted the relay right side up so that moisture wouldn't form up. (picture 2)

 

Step 8: Connect ground and battery.

Last step should be to ground the fog lights and connect to the battery. The ground wire is the black wire that came with the kit. I just grounded this with the other relay ground(picture 1). Lastly, I connect to the positive terminal of the battery. (picture 2). Reconnect your negative battery terminal. I know that I forgot to mention this in the beginning. Whenever you mess around with the electrical system you should always disconnect the negative battery from the negative battery terminal to avoid shorting out anything or electrocuting yourself. Now, turn on your parking lights and flip on the switch. If everything goes as planned your new fog lights should be working. If not...well I'll try my best to help anyone out. They worked for me on the first try.

 

Fantastic write up! I'm inspired to put some bling into my ride! (LOL)



It's too bad those halo's don't come in a usable color like amber or even white. I have a red truck and I think even the red would look stupid.

 

Great write up Thanks

 

no problem