ChildrenOfBodom

I hate to post threads here without having a really good question, but this time I really am at a loss.

I have a 99 that did not come prewired. I installed some factory fogs just this last week. I wired them exactly as shown here, except I wired them to come on with the parking lights instead of low beams:




Everything works just fine. I used an OEM toyota switch and everything.

Fogs are grounded to where the bumper and bracket meet. The relay is under the kick panel and is grounded to an existing ground location, where 2 brown wires were already connected.

Now, I just noticed something. In a hard turn, over bumps, or even shaking the car, they flicker. They don't get dimmer, but brighter. It seems clear that they should be of the brighter light outputs. The lights are as sturdy as can be, they're definitely not moving around.

I parked the truck in front of a wall with the lights on and fiddled with every single connection I made, to no avail. I then try and jump up and down on the slider and they flicker some more.

I don't know what else to do. I will provide any information needed for any help to fixing this issue.

Also, since their install, I had a problem where the switch would literally engage the fuel gauge. I flipped the polarity on the bulbs and it seemed to fix the gauge's ability to be controlled via switch, but it's still very unusually high for my typical mileage.

Here's a Youtube video showing such:

[youtube]HM3EaowdrdI[/youtube]

I searched all over the place and Fireball posted a thread regarding his polarity issue, and that's all I could find regarding the subject.

Please, and thank you. Sorry if this seems annoying, I am just not sure the fellas over at T4R know what's up as much as you guys do.

justin_4runner

i would try and running a ground from battery to the lights and see if that does anything, might be bad grounds at the lights, u might want to check where u are getting the power from might be the wrong wire or location. did u get power from the dimmer switch area or somewhere else?

ChildrenOfBodom

I ran positive from the battery using 12g., to an inline fuse (30amp) and through to the relay, as shown in the diagram. I then changed to 16g wire coming out of the relay, ran the wire to the front of the truck to an insulated spade connector. I ran each 16g from the fogs to one insulated connector, so i could plug and unplug both fog positives from the one relay wire. is this where I've gone wrong?

I will try the battery method, I am just uncertain how the ground would be effected only when shaken, they're very tightly grounded.

Not sure if this means anything, but I tried to see if the dimmer had any control over the lights and there was nothing, so I'm glad there's no relation between those two.

Mauzer

Did you wire in your own relay or use the DRL box? Here is a link to the factory fog light wiring diagram:
http://www.ncttora.com/fsm/1996/SIL/...mci/021ffl.pdf

I'm guessing you didn't already have the fog light connections? (my Runner didn't come with fogs but I have all the connections, etc to just plug and play)

ChildrenOfBodom

I used my own relay.

My 4Runner did not come with factory fog light wiring or DRL's. Mine is a base model and it seems they just didn't prewire them. The existing port on the bottom of the fusebox for the fog relay is empty. I just wired in my own.

justin_4runner

it sounded like u grounded to the bumper area, and with the ground on the bumpers and then them connection to the rest of the truck the grounding could be rust in between and causing the grounds to be good or bad,that's why i said to run ground from ground on lights to batt and see if that changes it, i also ran one wire to one light then jumped it over to the next light so u should be fine there.

now for the switch power to relay is where i was asking where u got that from. so i see u took it off the headlight location, but when u hit high beam u wont have any fog lamps tho.. i would take the power from the parking lights so u can have fog lamps on high and low beam.

ChildrenOfBodom

I mentioned in the first post that I did take it from the parking lights.

I connected a wire and touched on different places for ground. Seems the connection was bad after all. Rerouted the grounds to the little ground just alongside the battery. All is well, even fixed the gas gauge.

Who knew how much a ground could do.

Thanks!