Help Wiring CH4x4 Fog Light switch to Existing Foglight Wires (2013 Tacoma)

Hey Guys.

So I FINALLY took apart my entire truck to wire up the voltmeter and ammeter that I purchased awhile back (with the help of this forum). That thread about how to take everything apart was just insanely amazing. I took tons of pics and am going to do a write up later.

I purchased a bunch of custom button/switches from CH4x4 and for the life of me I CAN NOT get the fog light wiring correct.

I swear that I have gotten every single permutation except the right one, which you would think would mean there's just one left, but it's not working and I'm hoping that someone can help me wire this thing.

So coming out of the truck - the original wiring for the fog light switch is 4 wires. They are:

* Blue
* Green/White
* Black/White
* Green

The CH4x4 Switch has the following 4 wires with descriptions. They are:

* Green - Connect from your source with an inline fuse
* Red 1 - Connect to your relay or accessories
* Red 2 - Normally connected to dash light circuit to be ON when dash lights are ON
* Black - Ground

I've managed to get the word "Fog Light" to light up. I've managed to get the actual fog light icon to light up. I've managed to get the fog lights to turn on, but nothing is illuminated on the switch itself. I just cannot seem to find the proper permutation of wiring.

Does anyone have any idea?

My frustration has grown beyond what I think I can continue experimenting with

Thanks so much in advance!

 

The CH4x4 switches just went into my rig today. The layout on the back of the card is a little confusing, at least to me, but here's what you need to have.

From the harness plugged into the switch...the green wire goes to 12 volt power, the red wire next to it goes to your relay for the lights, the next red one goes to a switched 12 volt supply like the tail light fuse if you use a tap, then the black is ground.

If done this way the light will come on at the top of the switch when turned on. If the 2nd red wire is attached to a tail light tap, when the lights are on the bottom of the switch will illuminate.

EDIT: I just re-read your post and I'm not sure what to tell you. Short of chasing each wire, I've got nothing. Perhaps Google a wiring diagram?

 

So thanks for that. I guess the confusing part to me is that the wiring harness that came with the truck has 4 wires coming out of it. The CH4x4 switch that I bought has 4 wires coming out of IT. So naturally I assume[d] that there is a 1-to-1 mapping that goes together, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So it sounds like in order for me to illuminate the new CH4x4, I'm going to have to tap into something (like the tail) instead of connecting it to the other two wires?

Does that sound right, or does it sound like I SHOULD be using all 4 of the wires that went into the original switch? I guess the obvious followup question would be, what the hell do/did those other two wires do??

 

If it has/had foglights, the wiring should work since you're not asking it to do anything it didn't do previously. I'm not a Tacoma genius by any stretch. I added new lights to a new bumper and re-used the factory fog wiring and the existing switch. I wired up three additional units, some front facing Baja Designs XL 80s and a BD work light and dust light out back. I used the CH4x4 switches and a Painless Trail Rocker wiring harness. It all works fine using the new switches.

I'm not sure what to tell you on identifying the wires you have but you should have them all. You need a relay trip wire, a 12 volt power wire to go to the switch itself, a ground and a 12 volt to turn on the second light in the switch when your parking/headlight switch is turned on. Ain't much more to it.

 

Yea, I really appreciate the vote of confidence and honestly, that's exactly 100% what I assumed should happen too and yet for some reason, it just doesn't seem to work. I have NO f'in idea why. I even wired back up the old switch just so that I could remove wires one at a time to figure out which one did what. It seems that the old switch may not have actually illuminated so it's possible that one of the wires is just broken? I really don't know. But yea, it definitely should just be an easy connecting 4 new wires to 4 old wires and voila, but no dice.

So by process of elimination (with the old switch connected), I figured out the two wires that actually turned the fog light on and off. So I've connected those two and now the switch DOES turn the fog lights on and off (which arguably is the most important part). So now I'm just trying to figure out what I can tap the other red/yellow wire into so that the thing lights up when I have my headlights turned on and then presumably the icon itself will light up when it's depressed (or put in the "on" toggle position).

I'm trying to find a thread on this site right now that walks a person through tapping into the tail light (since that seems to be the go-to for that sort of thing). Unfortunately I'm a total idiot n00b when it comes to this stuff so I'm just having to read hundreds of pages to figure it out. I'm getting there! But like I said, if you or anyone knows how to tap into a light that will allow the switch to properly light up (ideally taking advantage of the dimmer capabilities too - but I'd settle for it just working in general), I would be SO very appreciative of knowing how to do that as I've probably spent a good 7 hours on it so far (and I know, that's long time for still not having figured it out!! But I'm trying to do it right, ya know!)

 

Man, I am just ready to murder myself for this. I just do NOT understand the electrical system of this truck to save my life. Every single thread I read in here is SO g/d technical. There are electrical wiring diagrams showing all sorts of lead points and things like that. I just want to find a way to tap this wire into the dimmer so that it works when I turn the lights on. I ASSUME that if I connect that part correct then when I actually push the button, the additional light inside of it will also work. I've touched current to the wires on the switch and so I've seen that it has a light to illuminate both when the switch is on and when it's off. When my headlights are turned on, but the switch is off, the text "Fog Lights" should illiminate. When my headlights are turned on and the switch is on, the big icon (of a fog light) should light up instead.

So I've seen that it CAN work, but I have absolutely zero idea how to tap this switch into something. I just see a giant bundle of wires around my in-car fuse box and so I've no way to know which ones I need to splice in order to make this thing work with the dimmer.

I read somewhere on the forums that you can tap into the dimmer itself, but again, there was just a big wiring diagram posted instead of someone just saying "use the green wire for your positive connection and the purple wire for the ground" or something like that. And sadly, I just can't follow the wiring diagrams themselves.

So if anyone happens to read this and has any ideas, I'm pulling my hair out over here

 

I wanted to type up just a little more in case anybody could lend a hand to this one. So here is the basic wiring diagram that I've sketched up to illustrate what I currently have wired:



So the black is grounded to the chassis. The Red 2 is hooked into a power source. It's not the correct power source in that it isn't one that just comes on when the lights are on, but it does illustrate the fact that the words on the switch light up as they should. It reads "Fog Lights" with the nice blue back color. Then the green wire is connected to the old blue wire on that runs into the truck.

The weird thing is that I can touch the Red 1 wire to any of the remaining wires from the old harness and the image will get backlit too when the device is off. This really shouldn't happen this way as it shouldn't be turned on until the button is pressed on. But when I touch that Red 1 wire to any of those remaining wires it will backlight and then if I actually turn the switch on, the fog lights will come on, but the backlit image will turn off.

So I just can't figure out how the old switch worked since I would have assumed that I could have just hooked up the 4 wires from the new switch with the 4 wires of the old switch, but that doesn't seem to work.

Here is what it looks like when both of the lights are on:



This is what the old harness looks liked after I had clipped it (assuming that I would just be able to wire the 4 new wires to the 4 old ones):



And finally, here is what it looks like when just the text is illuminated. As you can see, it will illuminate when there are just two wires connected. In this case the green wire and the red 2 wire (the red 2 which is just plugged into a power source).




Any additional thoughts would be of such great help.

 

Awesome. Thanks so much. I will give this a go first thing in the morning. I hope it works! I couldn't find any diagrams that specifically connected the pieces properly, but totally looking forward to trying it out!

 

Post #8 is correct.

On the truck side, GREEN and GREEN/WHITE are the interior light circuit and you’ll find those wires in multiple locations in the dash/console.

On the switch, the ground wire is for the illumination of the switch, has nothing to do with the fog light circuit.

 

Sub'd for outcome. I've been trying to figure this out myself, with the same switch. When my headlights are on, my switch lights up both top and bottom with fogs off. When I turn fogs on, the top LED goes dim and just the bottom stays lit...so opposite of how it should work.

 

So I finally had a chance to try this one and while it DOES allow the fog lights to turn on and off, the problem is that it doesn't illuminate the switch in any capacity at all. It neither lights up the "fog lights" text when it's off, nor does it light up the icon of the fog lights when it's turned on. This is a similar problem that I've had and I just cannot for the life of me understand why this is the case.

 

So this is super helpful to know. Is there any other logical reason why I would get no illumination from having wired it exactly like that? Is it possible that the green/green-white combo are just dead on my truck or something like that? But I get nothing at all when I hook it up that way, but to be fair, the fog lights DO work. But I feel like I had another combination where at least the text would light up and then everything would go off when I would turn the fog lights on.

 

So took me awhile to figure this out on my own rig. It was so frustrating... Good news, I figured it out. The new switch needs a relay to make it function properly. I ended up buying a secondary fuse panel and once i connected it with the side that uses the relays, it worked. You can figure out how to do this without buying an external fuse panel, just make sure you use a relay. Hopefully that was helpful...

 

Sorry to ask, but could you break that down a little bit more for me. I’m really pretty green with all of this stuff and am not sure exactly what that would entail. Could you maybe tell me what needs to run where? Sorry to be so ignorant of it

 

Yeah I'll try but as you can tell so am I.... The factory switch did not need a relay because it did'n need of have two lights to turn on and off depending it was in use or you have your DRL on or headlight. The addition of a relay into the equation allows the switch to do what it needs to. There should be some diagrams showing this, just search for ones like this now. I ended up rewiring mine using a new harness and factory connectors from Amazon. They are now hot all the time, kinda like the anytime fog mod. Two mods with one very long learning lesson. Dont think I have which wire went to the relay, but after trying a few different combo, and replacing fuses, you'll get it. Just have to find a way to mount the relay. People here have various methods for this if you dont want to buy a bussman fuse box.

 

Something like this...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw3XW80LqOVqia0WEtFh5ejf&ust=1569350932505172

 

Following along with this, I was 95% sure that just hooking up the wires and making it work, was an impossibility. I didn't want to post a negative answer, on the slim chance that someone had figured out a solution. The problem is that the switches are wired differently internally. The OEM switch is set up to switch the ground leg of the fog light relay. The aftermarket switches are configured to supply power to the switch and send it to the relay. The difference is in how the lights are configured.

 

Yeah it was just easier using a new harness, like the ones that come with the off road lights, and just use it with my busmann. I just decided to bypass the whole factory system.

 

did you figure it out? If not, try flipping what you have connected to the Green & Green White...the switch internal illumination is LED and it only works one way.