fog lights

I've got another random idea, since my stock fog lights got ripped off along with my valance while hill climbing, I wanted to put on some aftermarket fog lights i bought awhile ago, only instead of making a wirey mess hooking up relays and what not, would it be possible to use my old fog light wires, like just cut off the clip end thats plug in and wire them up to that, then i can use to oem fog light button and everything is nice and clean looking still

 

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yeah you should be able to do that quite easily.

 

As long as your stock wiring is in tact at the bumper, you should be good to go.

I'd recommend using some butt crimp connectors & heat shrink tubing to make a nice connection. Or if you're up to the task, solder the connections & heat shrink over that to seal out any moisture.

Oh, you'll want to make sure your new light bulbs stay in the same range as the stock bulbs of around 55w each. Anything over that may cause heat issues with the stock wires.

 

i would get terminals that come with heat shrink tubing on the end. it would also make it easy if you decide to replace the lights or change them.

 

Yea the wires are fine they're just tucked up cuz the old lights got ripped off but I still have the stock connections but I'm not sure of the wattage but they're navigator offroad lights from AutoZone

 

are they square, and have a black grille type thing on them?

 

Yes it is

 

same lights I got then haha.




pretty sure they are 55w bulbs. but not positive.

ive got 100w bulbs in mine, but theyre stupid yellow since they were cheap bulbs lol.
but they put out better light for sure with a higher wattage bulb.

 

Yes those would be the ones lol I had them on a blazer a few months ago, damn thing caught on fire in my front yard, so I saved those and now I wanna use them cuz I can't see much with the stock headlights and really not looking to spend much on them so if I can hook them up to the stock fog light wires that'd be great lol

 

yep you should be able to hook em up if you know a teeny bit about wiring.

ive got mine just on their own switch. and i've also got them behind the cab pointing backwards now lol.

they're ok lights. I wasnt super impressed by them but for the price, i wasnt complaining (paid $10 for the pair, and wiring)

 

Yea they were just a quick solution for my old blazer cuz those have terrible headlights, did a decent job of lighting up the path ahead, not the best but they were pretty cheap so it worked. But yea I'm just looking for a quick fix right now and don't really feel like cutting holes and mounting switches so the stock stuff would be nice to reuse until I decide to put a custom bumper with skid plate and plenty of lighting on it lol

 

Quick fixes can end up in trouble; 55W in my opinion is stretching the wire capacity for OEM wiring.

When you run lights with a higher wattage than OEM you do two things, put a strain on the wiring and on the lights.
By running new wires you allow the light to burn at full brightness, getting all of the light you can for the money you invested, and you reduce the possibility of causing a fire. Going from 35 to 55 watts may have minimal fire possibilities but Ford had a tendency to use minimum wire gauge just to cut cost, so any increase in wattage puts a strain on the wiring, the more wattage the higher the fire possibility.

So hook them up see how they work, shouldn’t be any less bright than the OEM Units but check the wire for heat after they have run for a while.

 

Are stock fogs not 55w?

 

35W !

Nothing says you can use the OEM Light wire to activate the new harness relay but it is ALWAYS best to rewire for new lights.

 

You sure? I'm pretty sure when I replaced my passenger side fog it was a 55w..... And it's no brighter than the drivers side.

 

How’s this going ?

Hey, could be wrong, won’t be the first time and not the last.
I believe the OEM Lights to be 35 watts each, and I also believe that the wiring is minimal at best.

Rewiring for power and a new relay should be used with 55 and higher wattage lights BUT you can reuse the existing fog light wire for relay activation; leaving all of the OEM wiring in place and connecting the fog light wire to pin 85 or 86 on the relay.

 

Ya u should hav no problem doin tht but i like McDonald59's idea

 

The heat shrink lug idea... .

 

Now that they're done and I realized I wired them up with thin wire, I'm gunna put blue bulbs in so it confused people, then rewire with thick wire so they're really bright and piss everyone off

 

If you decide to leave the OEM wiring, turn on the lights and check the wire for oh eat.
If the wire stays cool then forget about rewire.

Also, rewriting MAY not increase the brightness but then again it might.