Help...I have a 1999 FRC..She came with no fog lights..I bought the OEM, switch from the Dealer, along with the Fog Lights. Put it all on..No wiring to the lights...??? My Question is can I take a leg off the fog light relay, and run it to the lights? Thanks....John.

 

Yes... You have to wire it from the eng fuse box to the fog lights.. Use the chassis as the ground.

Easy enough. I did it to my 02 ZO6

Bill

 

Thanks Bill..I just wasent sure...Will give it a try tonight...

 

I agree with Bill. Here is the wiring schematic. Let us know if you have any questions. Any of the purple wires should do it. They (3) are all fed from fuse #6. Just use the same wire size.

 

 

Toque, you have had no concerns with the current draw taking 2 lights off of one pin/wire from the fuse box? The factory design sizing was for about 5amps max in each wire. I would think this more appropriate if it were going to a new under hood relay(s) with the actual lights being powered by a different circuit running thru the relay. That is how most of the aftermarket fog/driving lights are done.

 

This is how the factory wiring is. Its one wire. Look at the schematic above. I have never had an issue with mine since I installed it 5 ish years ago.

Toque

 

I did mine with ONE WIRE way back in 2004 also. ZERO issues. I intend on upgrading to HID soon.


Bill

 

Bill

I did have to go to a 20 A fuse from the 10A.
The 10A was popping. I heard its common when going HID in the fogs.

Toque

 

According to the schematic there is one wire from the fuse box to each light, not one. Each one is from internal to the fuse box. The 3rd wire is from fuse #6 goes to the dash switch (low amps). It is not fuse capacity I was thinking about but wire size capacity. Not trying to get into a "P' contest because I respect you guys. If I am some how wrong let me know how but it is not good to put more amps into a circuit than it was designed for. What you say may work but it is not how I would design a circuit with proper margin. Peace, Mr. Sam

 

Sam:

Questions are good.... Ask away.

I'm not sure why they designed it like this, but it appears they did.

If you look at the schematic below, you will see that its 1x wire that leads to the 2x fog lamps.
Then the 1x wire splits off to both fog lamps.

 

The schematic does show it as 3 wires coming from 3 different connector pins on the fuse block plugs. What's on the fuse block side of the connector, bus bar or wire?

My guess would the one you tied into was the one going back into the vehicle for the indicator light in the switch. The others going to the front shouldn't exist or else you could use them.

 

If you have seen inside of the fuse box it is like a bus bar (solid copper wires in this case) we use in power plants. This solid wire is sized to provide for the current in all 3 of the output wires. Tying into only one wire from this bus bar for the lights is not the same as the intended design.

 

Here is a picture of the fuse box interior. As you can see there are solid copper wires that feed power between the relays, fuses, and different connector pins. They are sized like fuse 6 circuit to supply proper voltage/current to 3 different pins (outputs). Each wire connected to the fuse box was only sized for it's original intended current draw. Pulling more amps in a particular wire can overheat the wire while still not blowing the fuse (like powering 2 lights from one wire). If your wire fails you could create a short and possible fire which no one wants.



If anyone is interested in a good way to install fog/driving lights into a ZO6 or increase the wattage in your C5 here is a way to do it.

For ZO6's install a fog light switch in the dash (ZO6's should all have the wire from Fuse 6 to the connector)

Run a properly sized wire(s) from the battery to the fog lights. This wire(s) will need the following:

Install a relay(s) in the wire. This can be powered from the purple fuse 6 wire discussed in this thread so the lights operate like from the factory.

Install a fuse(s) in this wire(s) to the battery sized for your light wattage.

Note, the lights and the relay(s) will need to be grounded.

I will be glad to help anyone with proper sizing of the above. (Obviously if you want a factory type installation, you can make wires with connector pins and insert them into connector C3 (pinouts C1 and E4) and route them to the lights. Still need to ground the lights.

 

I think I understand where your coming from.

Use the power that normally goes to the fog lights as the "trigger" of a relay.
Use larger gauge power wire going thru the relay to power both the fog lamps.
Ground the relay with the same gauge wire as the power wire.
Run a new ground from each fog light (larger gauge wire).

By doing this your removing the current draw from the normal fog light circuit in the car.
Installing larger gauge power wire to run from the battery.... thru the relay.... and on to the fog lamps.... this part of the circuit will see all the current.

This seems like a safer setup to me. (As long as you get a relay capable of running 15A-20A)

Good idea !

Toque



Here is the OEM GM for lamp wiring harness that I got from a scrapped out C5.

 

That harness picture appears to show the power wire from each light that goes back to the fuse block.

Got a good picture of the connector that goes into the fuse block plug? You might be able to just get the connectors and use the 3 terminals in the fuse block as the factory did. That harness pictured would plug right into the connector under the fuse block.

At the end of the day, a single connector can probably support the current of the stock fog lights but try running higher currents at your own risk. The multiple connectors could have been done to give a way to connect multiple wires instead of as a way to support more current.