I have a 98 GXE which didn't come pre-wired for fogs. I purchased fogs on ebay, and wired them up myself. However, the every switch i purchase from autozone heats up and stops working and i can't figure it out why (Sometimes I smell something burning and it turns out to be the wire where it connects to the switch). I'm up to my fourth switch, they work for 3 months at a time. Right now, I have i think 10 gauge wire coming from the battery, with a 20 amp in-line fuse. From there, the wire goes to a relay and then to a 30-amp switch which is good up to 360 watts. From the the switch, this wire goes straight to power the fogs. I think I have the fogs grounded to chassis. So all the electrical guru's, do I need a switch with higher amperage for it to work?

 

Is the switch you keep burning out one to remote the relay? If so, you did something wrong, a relay should take all the current, and I'd think that a 30 amp would be enough.

You should have a path from the battery or some positive source to the relay and then to each foglight. Then the other side of the fogs should be grounded.

Then you also should have the part of the relay that does the switching, one end to ground, the other end thru the firewall to the switch you installed, and from there to a souce of positive current.

If you have all that it should work. Google "relay" and see if theres more out there for it. Its a simple concept. They put them on horns and lights to shorten the wire path due to high current and let a low current wire switch it remotely.

 

Heres some more help

The v1 and v2 here are what entergises the relay. When you have current across them you have the switch 'on'.

One of the V1/V2 should go to ground (it shouldnt matter what one) and the other to the switch you have on the dash, and then to a positive source

The "B" and "C" here are what does the switching to the fogs that you need. One (C is the best choice, but either B or C) goes to positive, a high current source using heavy wires, and the other goes to each fog on one side, big size wires again. Once the other side of the fogs is grounded, you are all set.

Heres a link I found if thats not clear

http://www.1728.com/project3.htm

 

Therefore, you are saying i may have my switch connected incorrectly to the relay. Since I'm getting current directly from the battery, i have to wire my switch in between the relay and the fogs?

Right now, I have the relay grounded to chassis, one terminal directly from the battery, one from cigarette lighter as switch source, and last terminal goes to the fogs. Where do I wire my switch for the fogs?

Thanx for your help.

 

this is how i basically wired the relay:



Where it says "to accessories" this is the wire I currently have an in-line switch and then to the fogs.

 

No, thats not right, the switch should go to the wire you have over to the top right of the pic there. See the pins 1 and 2 there DO the switching of the relay and the pins 5 and 3 are WHAT is switched.

Take the switch off the the wire that goes to 5, put it on the wire that goes to 1, then to a source of positive 12v like the cig lighter. Take that wire that came from 5 and put it on the fogs, ground the other lead of the fogs, that should do it.

What you did there was put a low current switch on the high current side and wired the relay to be on all the time, not good! If the cig lighter is only hot when the cars on, then you'll have fogs only when the cars on, probably what you want, so it wont let you drain the battery if you forget to turn them off.

here, this should help

 

WOW!!! thanx a lot!!

 

sounds like a short

 

Thanks NEWBIE, but we got it covered.

 

Hey, one more thing, once you get that switch in there in the right place.

You want the fogs to be bright as you can, right? Make the wire from "5" to the fogs as short as you can and mount the relay between them and the battery. Also be sure all the connections are tight and clean. Then take a thin wire, (I use telephone wire a lot when I used to do it) and run that from pin 1 to the switch up in the car. OK? (no need for this wire to be thick or short) That way the fogs will be plenty bright and not lose any power to dim them at all. OK?

Let me know how it turns out.