Why did'nt Nissan do the fog mod at the factory ??

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May 21, 2001 | 07:26 PM
  #1  
I was about to do the fog light mod but i was just curious why did'nt they do this fog thingy at the the factory...? do you think it is too much strain on the alternator...i may jsut be overreacting but just trying to be an a**ho** ...thanks



Another question is what grade of wire do you Use For the Three feet of wire needed ?? ?? Im still thinking if i should do this or not
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May 22, 2001 | 06:40 AM
  #2  
I think it's a matter of DOT regulations.
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May 22, 2001 | 07:23 AM
  #3  
Quote:
Originally posted by sinewave
I think it's a matter of DOT regulations.
I am not 100% farmiliar with the DOT regulations, but I think you are allowed to have fog lights that will turn on without the headlights on.

However, you can't have your foglights on when the highbeams are on, which is why I think Nissan wired them the way that they did.

On a related note...I always thought the fog lights turned off on most cars when you turned the high beams on because you could only have 4 forward lights on at once. On a lot of American cars, there are seperate bulbs for the highs and lows, and they are both on when the high beams are on. So, that is why I thought the fogs turned off.

Now, on our cars the low beams turn off when the high beams go on, so wouldn't it be okay for the fog lights to stay on?
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May 22, 2001 | 07:29 AM
  #4  
Whassup wit dot?
Pretty stupid if you ask me.
Defeats the whole point of having fog lights.
I can't imagine what the DOT was thinking
[if, in fact, it is a DOT reg.].
But if it isn't, the wtf was Nissan thinking?

I plan on doing the foglight rewire myself.
Got some clear front corners to put in too
and will do this all at once.
Directions I've seen show you have to remove 1 [or both?]
corners anyway.

As for the wire size, I will match the gage of the existing wires going to the fogs.

[If you don't know, wire "size" is spoken of as the "gage".
The lower the number, the fatter the wire
so a 10 gage wire is bigger than 22]

You should have one of the org members who
really knows electronics to confirm this,
but I belive that it's better to err on the larger gage
- meaning if you're not sure if it's 14 or 16 gage
go with the 14 - it will be able to handle the load better.
But I repeat - ask an expert about this.
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May 22, 2001 | 08:41 AM
  #5  
...
When you cut that one 12v wire that comes from the fog light fuse thingy what type gage should i use to splice into that and run to the corner clear light thats in the directions ??



Where does that one 12v run to ?? will i need to take that one peice out ??
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May 22, 2001 | 09:03 AM
  #6  
Re: ...
The fog "light fuse thingy" is called a relay...
You aren't running power for the fogs you are just giving the relay a different "turn-on" wire.
You could get away with using a smaller gauge wire (14-18)but you need to make sure that it's well insulated because it runs right next to the radiator resevoir.
Hope this helps....
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May 22, 2001 | 09:14 AM
  #7  
Not sure what you mean by the "light fuse thingy"?
the blocks under the black cover are relays.
The little blue piece is just a wire tap
- it connects wirtes without the need for soldering.
Don't know that it matters though.
In picture 14 in Bryan Breaux's directions
you can see he has added a white wire to the green one...
I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the white wire
is a larger gage the green one - maybe 14?
I think it would be ok to match the gage of the green wire.
I can't tell from his pictures what the gage of the OEM
foglight wire is that the other end of the white wire
connects to.
If the OEM foglight wire is a larger gage than the green wire in/on the
relay, than I would match the gage of the foglight wire.

One other thing:
in the third picture in Bryan Breaux's directions
he shows you two screws to remove to get the
coolant reservoir out of the way...
You don't have to do that
[at least not on my 97 anyway]
the plastic "bottle" is formed with a kind of "flange" that fits into
a slot in that piece of metal Bryan says to remove.
All you have to do is lift the bottle straight up and it will come off.
It might take a little force or a jerk, but it's pretty simple.
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May 22, 2001 | 11:22 AM
  #8  
Just a thought. When you are in fog you are not supposed to have your high beams on. The fog lights are made for fog. If you want better lighting on the road you should get driving lights. When you have your driving lights on I heard you're also supposed to have your high beams on.
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May 22, 2001 | 12:41 PM
  #9  
Wire sizes
Quote:
Originally posted by fast97maxse
I plan on doing the foglight rewire myself.
Got some clear front corners to put in too
and will do this all at once.
Directions I've seen show you have to remove 1 [or both?]
corners anyway.
Yup. One corner. It helps to get at the wires you need to splice to.
Quote:
As for the wire size, I will match the gage of the existing wires going to the fogs.

[If you don't know, wire "size" is spoken of as the "gage".
The lower the number, the fatter the wire
so a 10 gage wire is bigger than 22]

You should have one of the org members who
really knows electronics to confirm this,
Yup! You got it. Its a good idea to always put the same gauge wire, esp in this case when its making about a 3 foot trip. Not a big deal in this case tho. The wire only drives the relay, not the fogs, so there's not a big current draw on it.

Use this link to do the mod:

http://web2.airmail.net/scutchen/max...ht.htm#lowfog4

I did, and it is excellent IMHO.

Jack
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