'97-'00 Fog light rewire
01-27-09, 02:40 PM
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'97-'00 Fog light rewire
I am putting this is the SC section because its SC specific and will benefit SC owners only.
Before the SEARCH police arrive: I HAVE SEARCHED ALREADY and not found what i am looking for.
With that being said i am looking for a fog light rewire that will allow FACTORY(not conversions) '97+ fogs to come on with the parking lights instead of the headlights only, and stay on with high beams using the STOCK switch.
If anyone on here knows how to do this or has a link to one please post it up!
If not i may have to figure it out on my own like i did on my GS.
Before the SEARCH police arrive: I HAVE SEARCHED ALREADY and not found what i am looking for.
With that being said i am looking for a fog light rewire that will allow FACTORY(not conversions) '97+ fogs to come on with the parking lights instead of the headlights only, and stay on with high beams using the STOCK switch.
If anyone on here knows how to do this or has a link to one please post it up!
If not i may have to figure it out on my own like i did on my GS.
01-29-09, 07:48 AM
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Not the way you want it but a good option is to have it wireless remote. you can hide the remote anywhere or put it in your key chain. I like it how I can turn it on and off from a good distance. Useful too for driving away punks that come too close/lean/sit on the hood. Again, not how you want it but it works plus you don't have to mount a switch anywhere on the dash.
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01-30-09, 05:37 PM
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Well here you go.... Send all thanks to me..... J/K .... Glad I could help! Let me know if it is what you are looking for. I also included the better bulb upgrade as well.. A simple fix.
Halogen Upgrade: The stock headlights on any given SC are comparably pretty dim. The cheapest effective upgrade is to replace the stock bulbs with higher output bulbs. The best halogen bulbs out there are Sylvania Silverstars. The SC lowbeam uses the 9006/HB4 socket, which is 55 watts. The Lexus 9006 OEM bulbs operate at a mere 51 watts. The simple upgrade is to buy a pair of plug-and-play 55 w 9006/HB4 Sylvania Silverstars. You will see a significant increase in whitness and brightness in the light.
The next upgrade is to complete a 9005 "hack". This entails using a pair of 65 w 9005/HB3 Sylvania Silverstar bulbs. This is a different, but similar bulb socket---which is used in the SC's high beam assembly---but which works safely in the low beam assembly as well. They are priced the same as the 55 w 9006 bulbs, so it is technically a better value to just buy the 9005 version. The main difference between the 9006 and 9005 is 10 watts more power and the 9005 does not have a painted glare cap on the tip of the bulb, which works to reduce output. The two differences together create a visibly brighter output. The only compatibility issue between the two is a pair of fiberglass tabs located inside the bulb's socket. In order to plug a 9005 bulb into a 9006 socket, you must clip, sand, or cut the incompatible tabs. It is very self-explanitory once you see them in person. The mod itself takes no more than two minutes. The halogen Silverstar upgrade works well with the high beam lights as well, only without the option of hacking for a more powerful bulb. Sylvania Silverstars can be found off the shelf at most auto parts stores for around $25/ea.
When handling any halogen light bulb, be sure that you minimize bare-hand contact with the quartz glass. Skin oils left on the bulb can cause premature failure or explosion. It is not recommended that you use any bluish no-named ultra-high wattage ricer bulbs that are commonly false-advertised as "xenon" and "h.i.d". They have a high failure rate and the possibility of heat damage to wiring or explosion inside headlamp.
Converting cornering lights into fog lights
This modification is specifically for the 1992-1994 SC coupes, which came with cornering lamps instead of foglamps. Foglamps were introduced on 1995 production cars. Since it is an installation procedure for a basic automotive relay, you can use the same instruction applied to other electrical circuits on the car (DRLs, extra foglights, etc).
Please do note that the 92-94 cornering lamp assembly is different from the 95-96 and 97-00 fog lamp assemblies. Though the 92-94 looks a lot like the 95-96, you can not interchange them between bumpers because of subtle shape and dimensional differences. The 92-94 lamps run on 15w bulbs whereas the 95+ run on 55w H3 bulbs so the illumination on the road is not the same. The 95+ fog lights are brighter, but the beam pattern is a bit wider on the 92-94 conversion.
First you'll need to buy a few items: a 4 or 5-pin 30-amp automotive relay, an inline fuse holder, a 30-amp fuse, about 20-ft 12-awg wire, a box of t-taps (5 is all you'll need if you don't mess up), roll of electrical tape, and good solid connectors: either use solder or buy male-female disconnects. All of this stuff is available at Radio Shack and should cost you no more than $10-15.
Now you need to get to know the relay. A relay is essentially a mechanical switching device that is activated by a low voltage input to activate a high voltage switch. In this application, your low current trigger will be tapped off the parking lights. Your high current output will be the power supplied to the auxiliary lights by the battery via the relay. The relay itself should be a 1-inch black plastic cube with 5 spades on one face, and some sort of mounting tab on another. The 5 spades are labelled something like 30, 85, 86, 87, 87a (at least these are Bosch's labelling).
- 30 is your input voltage for the switched device.
- 87a is an open circuit (no power).
- 87 is a closed circuit that supplies the high current to your auxiliary lights.
- 85 and 86 can be interchangeable, but they are the low voltage leads from your parking lights.
You can choose either headlights, city/parking lights, or sidemarker lights as your signal trigger. I used the city lights because they were easiest to access, the relay can be switched with an input signal as low as 150mV, and in case anything went wrong, no big deal.
Hopefully everyone here already knows that every DC electrical device requires two connections: a postive (live) and negative (ground). The darker/colored wire is always live (yes black is a color) and the lighter/white is always the ground wire. (in AC it's slightly different). I believe on our cars, the live is an off-red and the ground is white.
STEP 1
Basically, your first connection is going to be two t-taps off the both cornering lights' positive wires. Now connect the two t-taps you just made with two runs of 12-awg wire, and lead both wires back to the battery pan. Twist the two wires together into one single wire and connect them to the 87 spade.
The 87a spade will have no connection because it is the open switch.
STEP 2
Lexus uses a switched ground system which presents a problem because your cornering lights aren't always grounded. So to resolve this issue, go back to the cornering lights and t-tap both of the negative (ground) wires. Run two lengths of 12-awg wire from these t-taps---the same way you just did with the positive wire---to the negative post on the car battery. Your circuit is now properly grounded.
STEP 3
Next send a wire from the battery's negative post to the 85 spade.
STEP 4
Now make another t-tap off of the positive wire from your chosen signal trigger (in my case the city light), usually the closest one is the best. Once you've established this t-tap, run another piece of 12-awg wire from the t-tap to 86 spade.
STEP 5
Last is to establish the big power! You will connect the battery's 12v positive post to the 30 spade. BUT before you do that, use that inline fuse holder you bought. It will be a black, plastic, well... "fuse holder", with a looped wire running from one end to the other. Cut the loop into two bare ends. Connect one end to the 12v positive battery post, and connect the other end to the 30 spade on the relay. You may need to splice or crimp extra wire to make the run to the 30 space. It is critical that the fuse holder is very close to the battery. Like less than 12-inches of wire between them both. Make sure you weren't eager and stuck a fuse in that fuse-holder yet, because that would create a live circuit.
STEP 6
Right now the relay system is completely wired up, but there is no fuse in the holder. Therefore no current is running through it so it is still safe. At this point, you'll want to check all connections from and to the relay and once you've determined all is secured and well, insulate it! You want to make the relay water and weatherproof. I did so by wrapping the entire thing in 6 layers of electrical tape. Feel free to use more if you want. Then tuck or mount the relay somewhere safe (IE somwhere away from water exposure and engine heat). I put mine next to the battery pan which remains relatively dry and cool.
STEP 7
Now you can insert the 30-amp fuse you bought and test out the relay circuit. Turn the light wand in your car to activate the parking lights. Your cornering lights should turn on as well.
Halogen Upgrade: The stock headlights on any given SC are comparably pretty dim. The cheapest effective upgrade is to replace the stock bulbs with higher output bulbs. The best halogen bulbs out there are Sylvania Silverstars. The SC lowbeam uses the 9006/HB4 socket, which is 55 watts. The Lexus 9006 OEM bulbs operate at a mere 51 watts. The simple upgrade is to buy a pair of plug-and-play 55 w 9006/HB4 Sylvania Silverstars. You will see a significant increase in whitness and brightness in the light.
The next upgrade is to complete a 9005 "hack". This entails using a pair of 65 w 9005/HB3 Sylvania Silverstar bulbs. This is a different, but similar bulb socket---which is used in the SC's high beam assembly---but which works safely in the low beam assembly as well. They are priced the same as the 55 w 9006 bulbs, so it is technically a better value to just buy the 9005 version. The main difference between the 9006 and 9005 is 10 watts more power and the 9005 does not have a painted glare cap on the tip of the bulb, which works to reduce output. The two differences together create a visibly brighter output. The only compatibility issue between the two is a pair of fiberglass tabs located inside the bulb's socket. In order to plug a 9005 bulb into a 9006 socket, you must clip, sand, or cut the incompatible tabs. It is very self-explanitory once you see them in person. The mod itself takes no more than two minutes. The halogen Silverstar upgrade works well with the high beam lights as well, only without the option of hacking for a more powerful bulb. Sylvania Silverstars can be found off the shelf at most auto parts stores for around $25/ea.
When handling any halogen light bulb, be sure that you minimize bare-hand contact with the quartz glass. Skin oils left on the bulb can cause premature failure or explosion. It is not recommended that you use any bluish no-named ultra-high wattage ricer bulbs that are commonly false-advertised as "xenon" and "h.i.d". They have a high failure rate and the possibility of heat damage to wiring or explosion inside headlamp.
Converting cornering lights into fog lights
This modification is specifically for the 1992-1994 SC coupes, which came with cornering lamps instead of foglamps. Foglamps were introduced on 1995 production cars. Since it is an installation procedure for a basic automotive relay, you can use the same instruction applied to other electrical circuits on the car (DRLs, extra foglights, etc).
Please do note that the 92-94 cornering lamp assembly is different from the 95-96 and 97-00 fog lamp assemblies. Though the 92-94 looks a lot like the 95-96, you can not interchange them between bumpers because of subtle shape and dimensional differences. The 92-94 lamps run on 15w bulbs whereas the 95+ run on 55w H3 bulbs so the illumination on the road is not the same. The 95+ fog lights are brighter, but the beam pattern is a bit wider on the 92-94 conversion.
First you'll need to buy a few items: a 4 or 5-pin 30-amp automotive relay, an inline fuse holder, a 30-amp fuse, about 20-ft 12-awg wire, a box of t-taps (5 is all you'll need if you don't mess up), roll of electrical tape, and good solid connectors: either use solder or buy male-female disconnects. All of this stuff is available at Radio Shack and should cost you no more than $10-15.
Now you need to get to know the relay. A relay is essentially a mechanical switching device that is activated by a low voltage input to activate a high voltage switch. In this application, your low current trigger will be tapped off the parking lights. Your high current output will be the power supplied to the auxiliary lights by the battery via the relay. The relay itself should be a 1-inch black plastic cube with 5 spades on one face, and some sort of mounting tab on another. The 5 spades are labelled something like 30, 85, 86, 87, 87a (at least these are Bosch's labelling).
- 30 is your input voltage for the switched device.
- 87a is an open circuit (no power).
- 87 is a closed circuit that supplies the high current to your auxiliary lights.
- 85 and 86 can be interchangeable, but they are the low voltage leads from your parking lights.
You can choose either headlights, city/parking lights, or sidemarker lights as your signal trigger. I used the city lights because they were easiest to access, the relay can be switched with an input signal as low as 150mV, and in case anything went wrong, no big deal.
Hopefully everyone here already knows that every DC electrical device requires two connections: a postive (live) and negative (ground). The darker/colored wire is always live (yes black is a color) and the lighter/white is always the ground wire. (in AC it's slightly different). I believe on our cars, the live is an off-red and the ground is white.
STEP 1
Basically, your first connection is going to be two t-taps off the both cornering lights' positive wires. Now connect the two t-taps you just made with two runs of 12-awg wire, and lead both wires back to the battery pan. Twist the two wires together into one single wire and connect them to the 87 spade.
The 87a spade will have no connection because it is the open switch.
STEP 2
Lexus uses a switched ground system which presents a problem because your cornering lights aren't always grounded. So to resolve this issue, go back to the cornering lights and t-tap both of the negative (ground) wires. Run two lengths of 12-awg wire from these t-taps---the same way you just did with the positive wire---to the negative post on the car battery. Your circuit is now properly grounded.
STEP 3
Next send a wire from the battery's negative post to the 85 spade.
STEP 4
Now make another t-tap off of the positive wire from your chosen signal trigger (in my case the city light), usually the closest one is the best. Once you've established this t-tap, run another piece of 12-awg wire from the t-tap to 86 spade.
STEP 5
Last is to establish the big power! You will connect the battery's 12v positive post to the 30 spade. BUT before you do that, use that inline fuse holder you bought. It will be a black, plastic, well... "fuse holder", with a looped wire running from one end to the other. Cut the loop into two bare ends. Connect one end to the 12v positive battery post, and connect the other end to the 30 spade on the relay. You may need to splice or crimp extra wire to make the run to the 30 space. It is critical that the fuse holder is very close to the battery. Like less than 12-inches of wire between them both. Make sure you weren't eager and stuck a fuse in that fuse-holder yet, because that would create a live circuit.
STEP 6
Right now the relay system is completely wired up, but there is no fuse in the holder. Therefore no current is running through it so it is still safe. At this point, you'll want to check all connections from and to the relay and once you've determined all is secured and well, insulate it! You want to make the relay water and weatherproof. I did so by wrapping the entire thing in 6 layers of electrical tape. Feel free to use more if you want. Then tuck or mount the relay somewhere safe (IE somwhere away from water exposure and engine heat). I put mine next to the battery pan which remains relatively dry and cool.
STEP 7
Now you can insert the 30-amp fuse you bought and test out the relay circuit. Turn the light wand in your car to activate the parking lights. Your cornering lights should turn on as well.
01-30-09, 07:29 PM
#13
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Please read the thread title and original post, then read what you posted and remove it since it has nothing to do with it.
We already know about the 92-94 turning lamp/fake fog light conversion
....09's
Last edited by IOWNALEXUS; 01-30-09 at 07:37 PM.
01-30-09, 07:57 PM
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1JZ Single SC400
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Only trying to help. Why dont you help in trying to resolve the issue instead of criticizing people in the post? Did you ever think that maybe somoene who reads this original post might have a 1992-1995 model? Just a thought.
01-30-09, 08:24 PM
#15
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LOOK AT THE THREAD TITLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am the one who started this thread, and i made it for 97-00 owners, The only one i criticized was you because you came blazing in here like captain obvious with a HUGE USELESS post and didn't read or comprehend the thread. 92-94 SC's don't have real fog lights or a factory switch and there is already a write up(that you reposted) on converting the cornering lamps into wanna be fogs, i own a 97 therefore i wanted info about 97+ FOG lights.
If it comes down to it i will resolve the issue and get under the dash with my DVOM and find the relay and rewire it like i did on my 1st gen GS but i was trying to see if anyone else had done it before so i could save time tracking down relays and wiring harnesses.
Now please learn how to read a thread/post and only reply when you have some sort of knowledge on the subject at hand, Thanks
