3rd gen tacoma anytime fog mod!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sign me up!

 

A couple days ago my battery died, I knew it was coming soon so I wasn’t too surprised. I tried to turn everything off to start the truck with a jump from my wife’s RAV4, and noticed the fog lights wouldn’t turn off now.

I had tested everything after doing this and the fogs worked great. It seems the MOSFET chip malfunctioned. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the dead battery, but after doing some research it may have had to do with all the heat shrink I put on the chip to protect it in the engine bay, it insulated it to where it couldn’t shed its own heat, and overheated.

I redid this today and it seems to be working great again. I put a little heat sink on the chip and installed in a water resistant box hopefully this will last much longer this time.



I would be happy to refund anyone who bought one of these chips from me if they don’t work or fail though hopefully this was an isolated incident.
I don’t believe the fog light mod had anything to do with why my battery died, so I wouldn’t worry about your battery because of this mod.

I’ll report back if this setup ends up failing too, but I’m not expecting it.

If anyone is interested, I bought these heat sinks:

$6 Easycargo 10 Packs TO-220 Heatsink + Insulator/Mounting Kits for LM317 LM317t L7805 L7812 L78XX Voltage Regulator, IRFZ44N 3205 520N 630 1404 MOSFET Transistor (20mmx15mmx11mm)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078ZXZ1GN?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

And this box:

$10 uxcell 3.9"x2.67"x2"(100mmx68mmx50mm) ABS Junction Box Universal Electric Project Enclosure w Mounting Fixed Hole

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071W3GL3C?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

And this cable gland:

$8 YXQ PG9 Waterproof Cable Gland Joints w Gasket For 4-8mm Cable Adjustable Lock Nut Connector Black 6-Pack

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072BVRHWN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_JkfdCbP0VF2G1

 

No worries!

Hopefully you are good to go.

 

That is very interesting! Must have been a bad mosfet. Ihave mine in liquid electrical tape and it has been 100% fine! Sorry I have been away and haven't been able to update this thread, been really busy with college

 

Has anyone tried to bypass the ECU? Looks like the fog switch is pin 9 from C11 combo switch and if it was disconnected from the ECU and connected to pin 2 on the fog relay it should activate the relay? Someone smarter than me chime in.

 

I theory it could work. And I could be completely wrong but I would think that it would cause the ecu to freak out lol

 

Seems like a huge PITHA to me. My old 2005 was simple, easy peasy, one wire mod. Not the case with my 2016. This dog won't hunt, so I will just get him lay. Not worth the trouble. I did install some high output H11 LED bulbs in my fogs, and holy crap they are bright. Would love for them to run with my brights on, but I can live without the headaches from this mod.

 

Since I’ve redone this and put the mosfet on a heat sink and inside a watertight box I haven’t had any issues, still working great.

A little more work to put this together, but can be made plug and basically play so you don’t need to modify any factory wiring boards using one wire tap. Once it’s done right though you shouldn’t have any headaches or have to mess with it again.

 

Thanks but I can live with it just the way it is.

 

Newbie here with a dumb question - what's the mosfet chip & resistors for? Is it because you guys are running aftermarket foglight bulbs? Would I need the mosfet & resistors if I used the stock bulbs?

 

It's being used as a switch, you will need it regardless of what lights you have.

This is great. I just ordered all the stuff for this mod, plus one of these Dimmers, https://www.skenelights.com/online-store/IQ-275-Intelligent-Dimmer-p80215575 so that I can dim my BD Squadrons to ~30% and I'm not melting anyone's eyes out of their sockets. Hell of a lot cheaper than buying a switchpro just to be able to dim them. I love the Squadrons but I rarely use them because they're so damn bright.

Thanks Victory!

 

yes you do need it. The mosfet is being used as a switch. The switch is off when it has power from the tapped blue wire and is on when it has no power. and the resistor just simply acts as a regulator because mosfets tend to be very sensitive, so you need the resistor to keep it from constantly switching on and off randomly.

 

Great idea with the dimmer. Can’t stand seeing all these Off Road LEDS blinding the road now a days. Great to see someone being responsible about it!

But also thank @cdubray not me. He’s the one who figured this all out.

 

Your are correct sir. Thanks @cdubray!

 

Of course! @Reegsy. And I really like the dimmer idea!

 

I will be gathering these supplies and doing this very soon. @Victory, do you still have some of the resistors so I don't have to buy 100 lol?

 

I’ve got plenty left. Sent you a PM.

 

I got it done with the dimmer. Came out great, toggle switch for different brightness levels. Programmed fogs low 40%, medium 70% (which I might change a bit higher), and they come on 100% with the high beams. No relays necessary with the Skene dimmer, but did need to use another mosfet when connecting to the higbeam switch. I'll post some pictures tomorrow maybe.

 

Hello, I just found this post and thought to chime in. I did a anytime fog mod on mine about a year ago with no problems so far.

I went a different route, I simply wired it to control the fog relay itself. Grounding the beige wire will turn on the fog lights, even with the truck off. If you want the fogs to turn off when the truck turns off, simply add a relay that energizes when ignition is on.

My setup is that the new relay's control side is energized when the high beams are on. That way the fog lights act normal until the high beams are on, at that point it will bypass the factory fog light switch and always be on.

 

I plan on using the dimmer also. Since I plan on using this will the wiring diagram be changed a little? I plan on keeping the dimmer yellow wire disconnected which will keep them at 20% with high beams off. Can you possibly make up a diagram or instructions on how you wired everything up using the dimmer?