Fog light power cable dilemma... please help??

[mandy_jane]

Hi guys,

I'm new and a little confused, hoping someone out there may be able to help...

I have a new platinum lancer, this years model- its based on the standard with a few extras- and have fitted some eBay fog lights that all went well, have hooked it upto a switch inside the car, they work when attached to the battery but theres a problem, because its hooked upto the battery directly there is constant power going to the switch and the light is always on, we have taken it off power to not drain the battery but am not sure how or where in the fuse box it should be wired as it definatley cant run directly to the battery unless i wana wake up to a flat battery everyday

If anyone has any ideas please let me know...

Thanks in advance,

Mandy

[mandy_jane]

That's ok

It does actually have a relay but I think your right we are trying to wire it straight to the battery I'll have a look and see if I can find that wire for the lights and hook it up from there, thanks heaps

I'll post a reply once I've tried it

Thanks again, Mandy.

[DORA_ANNE]

Hi Amanda , Welcome To ClubCJ

[mandy_jane]

Hi, I'm very new to the lancer i got it new it's my first and only has 300ks lol. It's booked all next week for mods, poor car I haven't even given it time to run in, I'll let you know how I go with the lights.

Ta;)

[Fitter]

I can send you a pre wired loom that's all plug in. No need to stress or anything

[mandy_jane]

ok, i give up cant for the life of me figure out how to fix the power problem:( booked into the auto electrician tomorrow to finish off!! Thanks for all of your help:)

[Fitter]

If he charges u more then $50 u have been ripped off

[mandy_jane]

[Fitter]

But u have already done a lot of the work. Fog light wiring is half an hour at the most, so $50 is basically $100/hr and hence a rip off lol

I do 7-8 sets of fog lights or spotlights a week, sometimes it's as bad as 4 a day

[mandy_jane]

Just thought I'd post an update, in pure desperation I took the car to autobarn and had the auto electrician hook the power cable up for me, he ran the power to the headlights like suggested;) and changed the fuse from a 10 to 15 amp ( the 10 amp fuse kept blowing) wasn't too bad price wise $60 fixed the problem and saved me a lot of headaches and running around.

[tomyban]

I also bought the Lancer Platinium this year and also bought a set of fog lights from the eBay (most likely the same set as you have, for $129). I had the same dilema as you, I also contemplated to wire these lights to the low beam lights. It appears that in your case the Autobarn electrician has connected the whole fog lights to one low beam light wire (that is why he had to change the 10A fuse that kept blowing up). I do not feel confortable with this as the wire feeding the low beam light is quite thin and is designed to feed one lamp only, not three. Under load of three lamps the wire may overheat and may melt (your 5/10 years warranty may go in smoke). To overcome this problem I have done the following minor modification to the wire hardness that comes with the fog lights: - I removed the black electrician tape that is wrapped over the cables at the relay. This exposed all the wires that come with the fog lights. There are two red wires connected to the same terminal of the relay, I cut the thin red wire right at the relay (this is the wire that leads to the switch in the cabin). The wire that I cut I extended to connect to the low beam light red wire (right next to the globe plug). I connected the thick red wire that remained connected to the relay (has the fuse attached to it) to the positive terminal of the battery and the black wire to the car metal body. The wiring is now in accordance with the diagram you received earlier (above in this topic). The result is that the low beam light feeds only the coil side of the relay through the switch (only a small current), while the fog light lamps (large current) are fed directly from the battery through the fuse and the relay. Naturally you do not have to change the 10A fuse of the low beam light (only a very small current is added) and the fog lights can only be switched on when the headlights are on.
On another issue - Lancer Platinium does not come with car alarm so I installed a dummy alarm - a red flushing LED that comes on only when the car is switched off. I drilled a suitable small hole in the dummy push button that is next to the hand brake and installed the LED there. I bought the LED on eBay from UK for $12 (inclusive of the air mail). Wiring was very simple (two thin wires) and it is easy to lift the small panel that houses the three push buttons to remove the dummy button and access the wires to connect to.