Wide Grin

I want to substitute driving lights for the OEM fogs on my ’03 WRX wagon. My objectives:
1. Operate/Enable them with the OEM fog light switch.
2. They must operate ONLY when the light switch is set on High Beams and Ignition is ON, but not with High Beam Flash (so I’m not shocking the driving light bulbs -- or oncoming drivers – unnecessarily).
3. The fog light switch illumination must be ON any time the fog light switch is ON.

IOW, I just want the driving lights to work like the fogs do, but of course with High beams rather than Lows.

I’ve studied all the fog/driving/switch threads in the lights & electrical forum, and all those approaches have drawbacks (e.g., using an extra relay for some reason, leaving the driving lights on with parking lights, etc.) Surely some simple wiring mod will achieve my objectives, but I haven’t figured it out yet despite having the WRX wiring diagram CD and having designed and implemented very extensive wiring mods on U.S. cars from the ‘60s-‘80s. These furriners, and modern cars in general, do things differently than Deetroit did 20 years ago.

I could just brute force it with Hella’s installation kit, but I’m shooting for elegance, simplicity, and ease of restoration instead. That should be attainable, since the car comes with switch, wiring, and relay for the OEM 55W fog bulbs. You’d think I could just tap the RG wire from Fog Light Switch Terminal 1 to some different spot besides its OEM connection to High Beam Relay Terminal 4, swap lights, and be done with it.

Or is the OEM wiring marginal enough that I’ll get more watts on the road with heftier DIY wiring, making the brute force approach brighter?

Ideas? My 55W Hella driving lights and their WRX mounting bracket are waiting in the garage.

TIA

 

tacomaboy138

anybody? i am curious about this too?!

dannydsmv

Disclaimer: This is what I did to my car, and is not meant to be a "how to". If you attempt this on your own vehicle I take no responsibility for any damage to your vehicle.

I replaced the factory fogs in my ’03 WRX wagon with Hella FF1000 Driving Lights; using the Hella custom FF1000 mounting brackets (Hella p/n 96628) for the WRX. I bought everything at www.rallylights.com. Will is a great guy to deal with, gave me great advice on the best solution for my wants/needs, and their prices are unbeatable in all things lighting. I’ve also bought bulbs for my motorcycle, and driving lights for my truck from them and have had nothing but great service.

Light Installation:
1. First thing I did was round up some broken ’02-03 WRX fog lights so that I could scavenge the wiring harness’s from them (factory plug is the same on both sides). I cut the plugs off the donor lights and soldered them to the FF1000’s. Now I can plug them directly into the factory harness. And I can put the factory fogs back in, if needed, in 10 minutes or less.
2. As far as mounting… my only complaint with the setup is that I can’t adjust the aim of the lights without removing the light/bracket assembly. I snugged the light to the bracket, installed the light/bracket to the bumper with the 3 mounting bolts, aimed them, removed them, cranked down the light/bracket bolt then reinstalled. I also had to bend the cup shape bracket that the light bolts to in order to get the proper range of adjustment (no big deal). Alternatively, I could drill some access holes for a 6mm allen wrench in the bottom of the bumper (out of sight).


Wiring my driving lights "legally" and to fit the following parameters:
1. They ONLY operate when the factory "fog" switch is "on".
2. When the switch is "on" they:
a. Only come on with the high beams.
b. Work with flash to pass.
3. The switch light is illuminated when the switch is in the "on" position.

Essentially, what I was trying to accomplish is have the “fog” relay activated when the stalk is flicked into the high position rather than the low position. In other words, I needed to change the relay from a low beam fog relay to a high beam driving relay. So, what I have do AT THE RELAY is “replace” the low beam trigger wire with the high beam trigger wire.


Wiring Steps:
1. I used the following for reference:.
a. http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/sh...=&threadid=1022
b. http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/att...tachmentid=775
2. Removed the lower trim panel off of the steering column. Directly below the light/turn signal (left) stalk is a plug with various wires. The red/green stripe is the low beam wire; the yellow/green wire is for the high beams. The y/g wire actually leaves the stalk and threads behind the center console over to the headlight relay located behind the passenger kick panel.
3. I cut the red/green wire at the “fog” RELAY. The end going into the relay is the end I had to work with, so I left myself a good 2” of wire. The white tape is actually just white electrical tape, I unraveled it to give me more room.
4. The end going up into the dash (and eventually to the stalk) needed to be capped off (it’s a hot wire when the lows are on). I put a banana plug on it (again, I can change from driving lights to fogs in 15 minutes) and wrapped it with electrical tape so it doesn’t short.
5. Then I threaded a wire from the r/g wire at the relay up to the y/g wire at the stalk. I’m pretty anal and wanted to follow the factory wiring harness so I needed a good 2 feet of 16g or 18g. This wire ONLY triggers the relay, so it didn’t need to be very heavy.
6. I connected one end of the “new” wire to the r/g end at the relay. Using a 3-way connector, I spliced the other end into the y/g wire. I did NOT cut the y/g wire!

That’s it! Wow, what a difference! It’s like daylight when I have the high beams and driving lights going. And, when there’s oncoming traffic they go off when I dim the highs – quick and easy!