fog lights turn off with high beam

One of the things I've noticed is if you have fogs and highs on in snow, the fogs create a bright spot in front of the truck. Your eyes focus on that, and don't see so well into the distance lit up by the highs. Turning off the fogs eliminates a bright spot letting your eyes focus further ahead so I can see turning them off in that situation. So far flying/blowing/falling snow is the only real situation I've encountered where that helps.

Personally, I prefer to rely on experience and experimenting using each set of lights in each situation to find optimum visibility rather than letting some engineers lock me into what they think is best. I can understand why they did it, but there are times I want something else. Like you said, offroading is a different thing. However, buying an "off road" badged vehicle I expect to be able to make choices that work better off road. And since it's just 1 wire, 1 quick splice, and 1 female spade connector it was very simple to do.

 

I can agree with you.....My fogs arrived today and I'll be wiring them independantly to run at anytime I want them to. It'll be nice to have that option. I have the factory fogs also - so I'll to be careful not to use both sets of fogs at the same time. If the weather IS bad - I won't hesitate to use both sets of fogs. I've never been pulled over for anything like this before - but I can't imagine a cop will pull you over in bad weather and using extra lighting to make it easier to see. But, nothing surprises me here in PA!

 

Janster, Unless you know who is inspecting your truck, it will not pass inspection unless the fogs turn off when the high beams are activated, and it's not enough to just disconnect them as all lights on the vehicle must be operational.

I installed some Hella XL's on my 4Runner and just installed 2 different trigger wires and switched it to the highbeam for inspection.

Marc M

 

I've had PIAA 520's for years and everytime I get inspections - I put light covers on them. I've never been 'questioned' about it. Another TECH I've talked to mentioned you can totally disconnect the power from the lights.
This year..I'll disconnect & put light covers on. I should be good!

 

There's nothing wrong with your post at all. I'm just looking to leave the foglight button in the "on" position and forget about it yet only have the foglights actually "on" only when I turn the headlights (low or high beam) on. Just a personal preference that's all.

 

Oh. ok. Thanks for clarifying. I wasn't sure what you were trying to do!

 

I have no way to know if what you said is true, as we have no such inspections in AL. (Save the jokes, please.)

However, if it is true, this seems really stupid to me. Obviously the headlights/tail lights/turn signals should be in working order, but failing inspection because the fog lamps aren't working??? They're not necessary on any vehicle. Surely nobody will fail for non-functional fog lights.

Again, this could be true, but that wouldn't change the fact that it's stupid.

 

I dunno.... I wouldn't put it past NY to have a dumb law like that....

I mean, hell, SC wouldn't let my ex take her road test on a rainy day because they didn't have inspections there either (and thus, no requirement for working wipers....). I thought that was retarded too.

 

It's true in PA.... atleast partially.
Fogs w/ low beams
Driving w/ high beams
Must be 20" apart center-to-center and gawd knows what other laws there are.

With my other vehicles, I've always put light covers on. I have my PIAA's on my jeep currently and they're actually legally wired and are more than 20" apart. I disconnected the power to them anyway (just in case) and didn't have light covers on them. I passed inspection (this past June) with them totally disconnected. They never questioned me about it.

I think the factory OEM equipped lighting must be functional.

 

Probably mostly for looks. I did read the post and the post was talking about FOG lights and why they won't go on with high beams. BTW, there isn't a car manufacturer in the world that wires high beams with fog lights. Post didn't mention aux lights, driving lights, accessory lights, light bars. etc, etc,. FOG lights have crappy wide beams, are down low and do squat. They are designed to shoot a beam low so their light isn't reflected back to the drivers eyes in fog conditions. That is the answer as to why your fog lights don't go on with your high beams. I run with a pair of 110 watt (real watts) in each of my PIAA 910s, and also a pair of PIAA 1100X hyper lights...The FOG lights on the taco suk and to have them on with high beams is not effective at all. If you are in the woods worried about twelve feet in front of you, slow down, put on your low beams and your fog lights and carry on....carefully! I agree that often you can't have too much lighting but fog lights? I don't think so...

 

Well, if the stock fogs are already there, paid for, wired, switched, and work why not put them to use? Rigging them to come on anytime with stuff most of us probably have laying around the garage if you do any sort of automotive work is easier/cheaper than adding other lights. Either by buying a $150+ light bar to go in front of the bumper and lights for it, or even cheapo Wal-Mart lights and screwing them to the bumper. I mean, even my aux reverse lights being the cheapest I could find (since they'll probably break off at some point) were $15.

Personally, I like high beams on trails. They light further ahead so I can plot my route further in advance to reduce back tracking, and don't give much of a dark spot closer to the truck. Fogs just help fill in closer to the truck so I can see better when I'm crawling up on an obstacle. My wife also has a hard time seeing at night so more light for her is better. And, again, it was a free mod.

I'm planning on a winch bumper with "real" lights at some point. Planning ahead, I'm thinking I can re-use the factory switch and wires by taking the at the lights, and using that to trigger a relay for the bigger lights. It'll save me running new wires through the firewall and getting another switch mounted somewhere. Without this mod I wouldn't be able to use those lights with highs while offroading regardless of if they were fogs, pencil beams or floods.

 

Hey tacomaman, just want to have some more info about the mod , I just want to know if I need to cut the green wire, so if i cut it will be no more on the white plug right? And just about the fog relay, where do I need to put the female blade connectore and how? there are 4 male connectore onto that relay and how can i replace the relay if there will be a cable, sorry if I don't very understand, I just hope I can make the mod completely, thanks in advance

 

Help me guys please!I really want to done that, and many thanks

 

Splice into the green wire, and look at the pics in the thread in my sig for the fog relay. It's the tab facing the driver side quarter panel.

 

Thanks pierced tiger and tacomaman, i got it, very nice, I have used another method to connect the cables because I don't have the quick wire, but it is also good, thanks guys

 

Wow I have been looking into doing this!

Thanks for the link!!

 

I will be doing this mod. Mainly because I drive home late at night with lots of deer around. The fog lights fill in the dark area left by the brights being on. Especially off to both sides where deer can approach quickly. Best of both worlds to me. See deer far away or close, wherever they come from. Not long and I'll be looking for them with a weapon in my hand. Thanks all for the great info and all the good opinions.