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I ran out of time over the weekend to play with the car. I could not find the phantom relay we are seeking. It's hiding like Sasquatch. What I did get to before I ran out of time was I figured out how to get the fuse box block up and out of the actual fuse box.
But I couldn't pull it up much because of course all the wiring beneath it was connected to the block. The best I could tell, was that there was nothing under that block of stuff but the wiring. And the extra space below it, was just space for all the wiring to sort of bunch up. Naturally a bit of slack in the wiring is required ... as it would be bad to have any stress on wire harnesses.
I held this block up and had my son take pictures. But the pictures weren't all that great. If you guys want to see this, I'll post them. Then I put the block back in place and closed down the hood because I had a friend come over and we replaced the intake gasket on his Corolla ... and drank beer. We ran a bit lean on the beer consumption as when the gasket job was finished, I felt no effect of the beer. Even though we were sober, somehow we managed to get the intake gasket replaced. I guess that was good that we kept the mixture lean, as he had to drive back home.
Later that evening I jumped in the LS and went down the road. I thought I saw the hood move up a little and immediately though, oh crap, I forgot to latch the hood down when I was finished playing with the fuse box ... and none of the covers are on. So I pulled over and checked. Luckily the hood was down, but I decided having the covers off the fuxe boxes and the engine wouldn't hurt anything since it was dry out and wasn't going to rain. So I drove on. No issues. But I forget just about everything when I'm not drinking.
On Sunday I had a headache all afternoon, it didn't subside until nearly sundown and then one my sons and I went for a run. No car playing on Sunday.
So anywho - I cannot find that relay. And without finding that relay, this issue is dead. So I'll tell you guys what I did on my truck, and what I will try to do on this car, if we can find the relay location. And you guys can laugh at me.
What the relay does is opens or closes a circuit based on the activation of the high beams and likely the parking lights. I mechanicaly manipulate the function of the relay (in a reversible way) so that it doesn't switch. I mechanically force the relay into whatever condition allows the fog lights to operate. So that when the parking lights or high beams are on, the relay is defeated, and the fog lights operate. Requires no wiring, and is completely reversible and undetectable by a dealer. But at least the parking lights must be on to operate the fogs. Works like a charm on my truck. Even though its reversible, you'll likely never want to reverse it.
hi!
This thread is old i know but hopefully i get a response. My question is regarding the diode on the ground switch. seeing that its ground, im guessing i dont need a high amperage diode. would a 1amp diode suffice? Not a noob to electrical but i rarely use diodes, capacitors, etc Also would someone be kind enough to point out the color code of the ground wire from the stock switch...
Hopefully someone can kindly let me know, trying to order all the relays and such. Many many thanks to the user that posted the diagram, totally made everything easier.
To summarize:
1. What amp rating diode is necessary for this ground fog light switch?
2. Does someone know the color code of the wire of the ground fog light switch?
OK,
Its finally time to update this thread since i there isn't too much love on this forum for support LOL. Let me help finalize the details for this.
First off, thank you to to Shibumi for posting this thread and explaining the wire set up and to aaauae for posting your diagram for the set up shibumi did, wouldn't even have attempted without that knowledge so mahalos.
Referring to the diagram that aaauae posted:
1. the diode needs to be set up the other way because its being utilized on a ground switch. ( i could be wrong but pretty sure I'm not)
2. I ran just one fuse to power both relays under the hood.
3. Pin 86 on the relay can be tapped into basically anything that has power when the car is on, doesnt matter if its the cig wire or whatnot.
I would post more pictures but i cant figure out this stupid i phone and i cloud stuff, its already pissing me off so yeah.
Each relay under the hood has some convenient mounting locations near each fog light after taking off the bumper.
passenger side
driver side
i ran the ground wire from the fog light switch through the firewall on the passenger side, the driver side has way too many items in the way.
Here is the picture of the foglight/headlight switch.
Ok, so on that harness, you want to tap into the light blue wire, this is the wire that the fog switch sends ground. you can actually take this harness off from the steering column very easily as seen below. From my research ,since its just a ground signal, i used a 1 amp diode.
tap into the baby blue wire
dioee for the negative fog light, make sure you wire this the right way. It looks backwards on this photo but its not because were running off a ground signal. sorry for crappy pic , i have a crappy life so yeah.
headlight switch harness, tap into the baby blue baby girl. Those arent pubes, i shave.
The power source for under the hood can be tapped from the fuse box, pictures will explain below. The one i tapped into gets power only when the car is on or accessory on, etc. This is the same spot i mounted the relay ground and mounted the relay as well. very convenient.
But i would like to add, with this fuse tap seen below, i cant fit the fuse cover back on it obviously. Minor to me but maybe not to others in that case find your own wire.
I cant stress to make sure you test your relay set up and all your wiring before running the ground switch under the steering column.
Just ground the wire that you run through the firewall to make sure your relays and wiring is properly set up under the hood and test them with a multimeter. Then make sure you double check all your pins on the relay under the hood so you dont F$(# stuff up.
Well this thread now should have all the info people need to do this mod, good luck, dont blame me for anything.
I'd show you pictures with it on but theres already many of those and plus i cant because of this. I hate to say theres not too many creativity on this LS460 forum, i know i know its because of the type of car it is and complexity. WOrking on LED projector fog lights which ill make a new thread. Afterwards will be opening the headlights next to change up the DRL LED board (might be down the road so dont hold me to that), fogs first.
retrofit time! waiting on parts after measuring damnit.