The ultimate foglight upgrade H11 (not LED or HID)

Plenty of vehicles use the 35w bulb for fogs. The H11 used in the later 2nd Gens is also used as the primary headlight bulb in the 3rd Gens.

Check your fuse ratings to see what the fog circuit can handle. For plug and play at stock wattage I would look at the H10 Osram Nightbreakers. There are some more modest increased wattage bulbs available in H10 that would be better to run without a harness upgrade than the 65w Optilux. I think Philips makes a 45w H10, and there are some other manufactures that make 55w H10s. The 65w Optilux H10 I linked earlier was the highest from a reputable manufacture I found.

 

Where did you get your switch?

 

Honestly Brav I don't remember. But it was nowhere special. I just googled the part numbers and checked a few of them for prices and picked the cheapest one. They were all right around the same price. So after a couple searches i just picked one. The OP used toyotapart.com

I may have gotten from them. Usually i save the receipt but of course since you asked i can't find it. Very sorry about that.

I also try and pick a place close to me. I hate ordering from west-coast and waiting 5 to 7 days. I think the place i used was in PA

but google each number and you'll have the same bunch of choices i did.

P.S. still one of the best thing i have done so far. I absolutely love it. and the install was actually fun and easy

 

Well, my needs changed again. Found (through bitter field experience) that I need a bumper that allows easier access to the winch while in use. The good news is that this is one of the few that allows re-use of OEM (upgraded) fogs.

 

Well it looks good. Im planning to upgrade my headlights and fogs. Read the thread that @crashnburn80 posted up. Going the route he recommended. I haven't taken anything apart on my taco yet so call me a novice. How did u switch the rocker?

 

haha thats who i follow also. Anything crash does I do. he does all the good stuff.


I was a little afraid of it at first but turned out simple. The ONLY hard part is getting the pins out of the old switch. And it can't be taught either. You just have to play and play with it until you get it. I use one of those mini eye glass repair screw drivers. I have used big paperclips in the past(un bent of course) but they didn't work for me this time. But the little screw driver did after fiddling with it for about 20 minutes.

you have to stick the mini screw driver in where the wires go into the switch. then your feeling for a little clip that is holding them in. you either have to pry up the clip or pry down the clip. You have to try both ways and go easy so you don't break it. And this is done while also pulling on the wire. so it does take a little patience and a little skill to get them out. But if you play with it long enough you will get them out.

so you pull out all the wires in original switch. Then you put them into the new switch along with the 2 new wires(they plug in real easy. it's just hard to get them out). then you jump the 2 new wires to 2 of the old and it's done. probably the easiest wiring i ever have done.

i used his schematic to the tee



let me know when you get close if you need help. but it's not bad if you ask me. But you do need to know the basics i guess

 

@wedgemoose Thanks! Not sure when I'll have the time to do this but will revert to this thread for reference when the time comes. Very helpful and useful info. Again thank you for your input.

 

Sorry Crash, I have to borrow your thread for a little bit(I know you don't mind). And hoping you can help with your expertise.

It turns out the switch install does NOT work properly. it only works correctly when you have "headlights" on. Parking light and every other position is screwed up!!!! Cant believe I didn't notice till now. Norton alerted me to this problem. Because he has a brain in his head unlike the moron typing right now


was parked in the road and put my parking lights on. Noticed something was wrong. My fogs and park light were both on and the light on my new switch was dull green(like a short type dull green). So I hit the fog light switch to see what happens and they BOTH shut off(remember i have the headlight switch in park position). And you can NOT hit the FL(short for fog light)and have either come on again. So in "park light" position both fogs and parking light illuminate. Hit the FL switch and both shut off(to not come on again untill you twist headlight switch to full headlight position). Weird!!!! and this has to be able to work!!! No???? i would think so.

Can one of you electrical geniuses take a look at the schematic for me and see if you can think of anything? it must have to do with the two new added wires. Norton fouind a temp fix. it's still not right but it's better.
Below is Noton's temp fix:

The good news is I have a partial solution. Everything is off when the key is in the OFF position and it all works correctly if the key is in the ON position. Remaining anomalous behavior amounts to a dim indicator and fogs on when in the key is in the ACC position. This is partially solved by turning the fogs on/off, after which the indicator stays dimly lit but the fogs are off.

I got to this state by disconnecting Pin 5 from Pin 1, and connecting it to a switched +12V source. (I grabbed the switched line from my stereo install.)


The original schematic is two post up(sorry to make you guys work but getting kind of long like I am always guilty of).

Crash, any ideas? or EDDO do you remember where the original thread came from? thanks guys
@crashnburn80
@EDDO
@Norton


P.S. it does more weird things also when not in full headlight position. But this is the main malfunction that i wrote about. Could it be the DRL'S screwing it up. Or the relay from the stand alone FL harness???? those are the only two things i can think of. Would hate to have to put my regular switch back in

 

I hated the fact that I could never tell if my fog lights were on or off unless I looked to see if the switch was physically depressed.

I swapped out the original switch with an FJ switch since it has a status LED. Part Numbers I bought from toyotapart.com:
1 x PT297-35070-AS AUXILIARY SWITCH FJ
1 x 90980-10933 HOUSING, CONNECTOR, FEMALE
2 x 82998-12340 TERMINAL, REPAIR W/ WIRE

The "Terminal, Repair w/ Wire" were the extra two wires needed since the FJ switch has 6 positions and the Tacoma only has 4. These are the two super thick green wires in the images below.

The FJ switch came with a green LED for the status indicator and an amber LED for the illumination. I swapped the amber LED with the green LED from my OEM Tacoma Fog light switch so that everything matches. They just twist out / back in super easily.

Installation was super simple. I pulled apart the lower dash, released the 4 x wires from the Tacoma connector (using a little jewelers screwdriver to push up the tabs holding in the wires), plugged the wires into the FJ connector, added two extra wires and jumped them over. These 2 extra wires are used to power the status LED. I followed the following wiring scheme when connecting the FJ connector:

Pin 1: Green
Pin 2: White / Green
Pin 3: Blue
Pin 4: Black / White
Pin 5: Jumpered to Pin 1 Green
Pin 6: Jumpered to Pin 3 Blue



here is larger than above for easier reading

 

@wedgemoose
What you posted above from @Norton is the only schematic for this that I have seen. I installed one of these switches as an additional aux light switch in @tyfoon11 truck (without the benefit of the housing or harness!) and recall having to re-do part of it due to getting the pin numbering exactly backwards. As I was soldering directly to the terminals, I figured that out on the bench before it was in the truck. Silly, but could explain the weirdness you describe.

 

we both have it exactly as in diagram


what does the blue wire do i wonder. i found a schematic for pin 6 to go to ground??? is the blue (in pin 3) a ground does anyone know? but their also grounding 2 & 4.

i'm not smart enough to figure this out

 

pin 3 is grounded by the switch to turn the fog lights on, if I'm reading that schematic correctly. this turns on the relay, whihc provides power to the fog lights via the fuse. the fuse also provides power to the relay coil.

 

whats that mean Left coast? do you know a way i should be wiring to work right?

 

here's the factory fog light schematic for a 2006 Tacoma (pretty much same as 2005-2013).
http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old...6toyewd/06toypdf/ewd/2006/tacoma/h/em01d8.pdf

with that, the headlights have to be on, and in low beam in order to actuate the fog lamp relay when the fog lamp switch is turned on. pins 1-2 of the fog lamp switch are the light on the switch (shown on a seperate page). no idea what pins 5 and 6 are for.

 

I would get a volt meter, and test the circuits to see if the behave the way the schematics say they should behave, and track down the root cause of any anomalous behavior. Its just simple electrics, I learned the basics of this stuff in an electronic shop class in the 1960s when I was in middle school.

 

Not smart enough for that. Norton is playing with a meter. but i'm more a parts changer. Hence the post for help from pros. But I say it has to work also. Unless something is happening inside we don't know about (some sort of grounding when the button is pushed).

Norton has a fix that is almost perfect. By running pin 5 to another switched wire(instead of splicing into pin 1) it works perfect except in ACC position. Which i can live with. But the hunt still goes on till 100%


thanks for the help

 

ok, I think I can see whats going on...

pin 1 is the interior and dashboard lighting circuit, thats on a dimmer, so its not 12V unless those lights are turned up all the way high, its somewhere in the middle between 0 and 12V

pin 3 is the fog lamp relay control. this is a ground if the fog lamps are turned on, but is 12V with some resistance via the fog lamp relay coil. if your dash board lights are on, this could easily trigger the fog lamp relay, depending on the dash light brightness.



This shows the fog lamp indicator lamp on pins 5 and 6 jumpered to pins 3 and 1. thats a poor idea because of the dimmer circuit. instead, I would wire pin 6 to ground (pin 4 or whatever), and run a wire from pin 5 to the relay pin 87, or the hot side of the actual fog lamps, which ever is more accessible.

 

Awesome leftcoast!! That's what I'm looking for. Forgot all about the dimmer circuit. Trying first thing in morning.

Thanks a million(even if it doesn't work). I'll let you know either way

 

@LeftCoastNerd You are the best sir!!! You did it!!! Works perfect. I owe you a ton sir. And very appreciative. No more dim fog light indicator. And works properly in all positions.

Only problem now is where to grab the proper relay wire from? I have a wire jammed into the foglight relay slot. with the relay pushed against the said wire. This was my testing to see that it worked perfect. But now I have to find a wire to tap into. I'm attaching a pic of which relay terminal I am using to make the foglight switch work the way it should. Going to try and find a proper wire now.

 

i'd get under the relay panel and find the wire and tap it, I think. I dunno.