alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Hey!!!!! This is even simpler and easier to fit than my idea. I knew I should have paid more attention in school to this sort of thing. But then, it was all about valves in those days...........

[Edited by alcazar - 9/8/2002 9:04:47 AM]

Brun

I find at night on the B roads i flick my fog lights on just for that tiny bit extra light. I was wondering if it is safe/possible to wire the fogs to the main beam while retaining the ability to use them as fog lights without main beam. I would assume this would mean the fogs would effectively have two 12v imputs. If this was the case and i had my fogs on, and i put the main beam on i guess something will go pop?

Paul_M

Use a relay. That way you can use the main beam to switch the fogs on but the fogs circuit will still be isolated from the main beam circuit.

Brun

Are relays easy to buy. Would it just be a case of any old relay? How easy do ya think it would be to apply the above plan?

clint .

is it possible to just disconnect fog switch wire to relay and connect main beam switch wire in place of it? so you can use the same switch on dash, i did buy a relay kit from halfords superstores.

clint

Brun

i'll have to see if i can get me head round it this weekend

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

This is similar to a system I had on a rally Escort some years ago. I had a 2-way switch in the circuit, labelled "set" and "drive".
"Set" put the lights on all the time (for setting up each pair without the others, so you could see which way they point!), and would be the "foglight "position.
"Drive" had them wired in via the main beams through a relay.
I could draw it for you (the circuit diagram, that is), but it's fairly hard to describe, although dead easy to do.
You could mount the 2-way switch in one of the unused switch holes on the dash, use a very small switch, or even one that nearly matches the OE ones, available through RS components.
If you want further details, e-mail me on L60136@hotmail.com.
I don't mind 27 p for a stamp if you need it in a letter.
Cheers, Alcazar

tonymy01

This is what I built for my MY01 (Aus shipped). I can use the switch to switch on as normal (once the parkers are on..) or the high beam triggers the lights. This keeps me out of trouble here, as Police are cracking down on people running with fog/driving lights on (obviously when they dip when the high beams dip, everything is legal!).



It uses a BC337 transistor, a resistor and a diode, and wires in at the back of the fog lamp switch (apart from the wire coming from the high beam switch, which comes from the steering console).
This circuit just converts the +12v from the high beam switch to a ground for the fog relay, so if you hate electronics, but can handle relays, then it can be done by adding a relay with a bit of thought too (or just put a relay in the engine bay and parallel wire to the fogs or something.. too much of a pain really!)

I think playing around with the back of the fog & high beam relay may even be an easier way to do this (perhaps one or two wire solution), but I couldn't get to it (damn fuse box wouldn't unclip and come forward easily), the solution I built was very simple anyway!.

R's
Tony

clint .

Doing it tommorrow, One relay kit from halford £12
all connections inside car, blue wire connect to main beam adding switch (don't have to have switch it's a bit rubbish looking), red wire connect to one side of fog switch, yellow wire just connect to other side of fog switch, black wire just goes to nearest ground.

clint .

It was a bit harder than i thought there are two sets of relays working the fogs, one relay works when lights are off then both relays work together when lights are on, as i didn't know which wire was doing what i had to ditch the fogs and rewire fogs for driving light, does anyone know the colour code to fogs especially to the fog switch ( six wires ) and what they are doing.

thanks.

tonymy01

Didn't you see my post above?
The important wires are +12V (light power to light up the switch lamp/LED when ON)=purple
Fog relay = Black with Yellow stripe
Gnd = Black.
Basically, the switch connects the black/yellow with the black (grounds the fog relay, where as a guess, the other side of the relay is fed by 12V from the lighting circuitry) which switches the fog lights on of course (when the parker lighting circuitry is on).

The others are to do with the light dimming circuit, and switch illumination.

This is for the MY01/MY02 Aus shipped vehicle, I am assuming the British delivery is the same?
R's
Tony

clint .

Sorry i should of said i've got a 93 WRX, the problem is there are six wires, it seems that there are two lives and two switch lives one ground and one illumination? all working separatly and don't know were they go! sorry tony wires are different colours aswell.

tonymy01

Oh, sorry about that, just assumed!
Ok, if you don't have a multimeter, hopefully you have a test lamp?
There may appear to be 2 lives, but when you switch the switch on, you will notice one of them dissapears. This is actually the wire that heads off to the fog relay, all that the switch is doing is grounding one side of the (parker lighting circuit) power fed relay. When the switch is open circuit, the wire will read 12V. This is the wire that I hooked the main part of the earthing circuit I made above to, the other connection being earth, and a diode going to power to stop the Back-EMF of the relay from killing the transistor (it will die in 2 or 3 switches with the small size of the transistor without the diode!), and of course the high beam trigger being the final connection.

Back to the other connections on the switch:
The other live is to light up the internal LED/LAMP when the switch is turned on, this will always have power (when the lighting is on parkers).
The ground is there to both ground the fog relay, and to ground the internal power ON LED, perhaps there are 2 grounds for this?
The other two wires can be confusing, do you have a dash light dimmer control in the 93? Because one wire will go to lighting power, and one will go to a varying voltage (down to ground level) to dim the lights.
Hopefully this is pretty much how it is in the 93, sorry I can't give you any colours!
R's
Tony

Postman Pat

Why don't you get a proper set of driving lights? For about 70 quid you can get std cibie oscar+'s and fit them in the fog light hole and have half decent lights. Having the fogs on lights up about 10 yards in front of the bumper. Waste of effort and time if you ask me (which of course you didn't)

tonymy01

Well, for the new shape, (and probably the old shape) it isn't a waste of time for me!
Here in Aus, you can have all sorts of animals jump out from the sides of the road at night (obviously not around town...). The fogs, esp when aimed slightly higher, fill that black hole up in front of the vehicle where the high beams fail to illuminate, as well as nicely light up the sides of the road.
If any of the spy shots of the MY03 are true (esp. the yellow one) with the Liberty/Legacy lighting, Subaru will have finally have fixed this one deficiency the Impreza has, by suplementing the H4 high beam with another lense/globe (like 70-80% of other vehicles!).
My old N14 Nissan Pulsar SSS ('94) which I believe you guys may have called Sunny (a version that didn't come out here was the GTI-R which had the same front end) came with better lighting, it had fogs AND driving lights in a similar spot under the bumper there, and I never had a prob with driving with the normal wattage high beam with 4x60w globes lighting the way!

I have certainly have considered replacing the WRX fogs with decent driving lights, but a $2 solution to improve the lighting while waiting for a decent driving light solution (at a decent price!!) is fine by me!
R's
Tony

Postman Pat

Fair enuff. We don't have much bother over here with anything other than hedgehogs. I have a classic shape (99 Turbo) and have always thought the lights bordered on the criminally poor side of illumination. Hence I went and got a cheap fix of std driving lights for £75 Sterling versus the next cheapest of circa £200 Sterling. The cheapies are the same as the expensive ones except for the brackets (as far as I know). I'm happy anyway c u

Pat

Chelspeed

TonyMY01 - Where do you pick up the main beam 12V from?

I went looking on the back of the instrument panel with my meter for the wire that went to 12V with main beam to put the lickle blue light on. But it doesn't work like that, MY01, it seems all are 12V and something goes to ground to put the light on.

tonymy01

It comes from the steering column, one of the wires in that bundle definitely goes to +12V when the high beam is turned on.
On Saturday morning, I will pull off the steering column shroud and check out what the colour of the wire is.
Cheers

harvey

iTrader: (48)

You run the risk of a pull as it is illegal to use fog lights other than in appropriate conditions. It is also against construction and use regs to have fogs to operate on main beam.
Fogs do not give any useful illumination except used in foggy conditions and although you may think cool it is best to be considerate and fit propper driving lights which come on with main beam,have a separate on/ off facility and will flash with main beam if you wish. Full PIAA kit is £235 but there are alternatives from Hella, Cibe and of course secondhand advertised on here.

tonymy01

I really doubt it is illegal, considering that they switch off when you switch the high beams off (which is what this thread is all about).
It is the other problem that we are stopping here, which is where people have them on all the time, including with the low beams.
Like I said a few posts up, they definitely improve the vision with the high beams on, as the stock high beams are very lacking close up to the vehicle and lacking off to the sides of the vehicle, which are two areas that the fogs work best. You can argue that they are just a wide beam driving light (as quite often fogs have yellow lenses/globes), and it definitely is not illegal to run driving lights with the high beams on (because with Australian law, high beams must be dipped when oncoming traffic is coming, which also switches off the "Tony" modified driving lights, keeping the vehicle legal).
I suppose UK law might be completely backwards on this issue, but I doubt it really!
Regards
Tony

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Back in the days of the rally Escorts, we used to fit a second relay to our cars, which effectively meant that switching to main beam put the dips on as well. This meant we didn't have the prob with not being able to see close up to the car. Nicked the idea from the awesome Cibie "Bi-Oscars", who remembers those???
Lots of folk said it would burn the reflectors, but I never had any probs, even with 130/90 watt bulbs that I used in those days!
Alcazar

tonymy01

Funny you should mention that, I was thinking it would be nice to run both filaments, and wondered why this isn't normally done??
My old '71 Datsun 1600 (yanks called it 510, don't know what you English called it, if you even got it over there) had better lights than the Subie (it had dual 5 1/4" round headlights, mind you, the centre lights were 100W sealed beams with a relay when I bought the car.... :-)
R's
Tony
p.s. I forgot to look up the colour of that wire, it shouldn't be hard to find out with a test lamp or multimeter or something anyway.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

I suppose you'd have to be a bit careful with both filaments on, if you had plastic lenses. Can't see a prob with glass though, not unless you started using uprated bulbs too. The modern wiring would prob overheat at the back of the bulb.
I suppose you might shorten bulb life a bit, too, but that's only a problem if you're using Vision Plus type bulbs that cost the earth. Otherwise, cheap supermarket bulbs do the job.