How are the fog lights supposed to work on a Carrera 3.2...

[Andras Nagy]

Hi mmmmmmmmmmmm,

And your experience just proves my point; that in the 22 years since the birth of our cars (well, at least that of my car which was "born" Septermber 1982 and we took delivery in October), I've kept the wiring unmolested, except for this one change to allow me some night vision (who needs those green goggles?).

I wouldn't be surprised if almost everyone's car has had some "modifications" to the wiring at the fuse block.

[steve911]

mmm--

my suggestion is to get at your steering wheel stalk and look at the switch connections as you go flip from low beams to high beams and back again. You'll need to remove the steering column cover, I think.

IIRC, there are 3 horizontal contacts in the switch and they all need to be lined up correctly in order for it to function correctly. You might find that after you go from low to high one of the contacts is not lined up, preventing the fog lamp circuit from being re-established. I'd also recommend light rubbing the contacts with emery paper to clean all the connections.

nothing to lose except the time to check the switch. Whether you replace the switch or not (and I hope you can get away without it)I'd also highly recommend installing the sucro relay kit. it will take the load off the switch.

just my .02

Now for us electrical klutzes, can someone post a picture of which wire needs to get moved? I'd like to be able to keep my foglights on irrespective of whether the headlights are on low or high. Like Sebring has them - highs for down the road and fogs for whats along the sides...

[Wil Ferch]

I don't think the condition / contacts of the steering wheel switch has anything to do with anything...in this regard.

To recap..my USA spec car was delivered so that the fogs can only come on when the low beams are "on....and if the fogs are "on, they will go off when the high beams are "on". Fogs won't come on unless the lows are on first, too.

Moving one wire allows me to put my fogs on anytime I have the parking lights on...but the fogs never come off unless I switch them off. That means ( with the parking lights "on)...I can have the fogs on with low beams, with hi beams...and by themselves only.

Short answer....fogs can be put "on" as long as parking lights are on.I think the Rest-of-World (ROW) cars were wired like this from the factory.

Wil

[steve911]

Wil--
Reason I suggested looking at the contacts in the steering wheel switch is his situation that the fogs don't come back on after switching the high beams off. I thought the system was designed so that low beams/fogs are back on when the highs are switched off.

I like your idea of moving the one wire, now I just have to figure out which one it is. By pulling the headlight switch all the way out, both parking and headlights are 'lit'? Pulling the switch out one stop lights just the parking lights right?

[Wil Ferch]

Steve:
On your last point...right...pull out to the "First click"..and the parking lights come on.

At this point...you can turn on the fog lights with the separate fog light switch....

Aha....I see your point on the steering wheel switch. Good to go over the whole wiring schematic, though....

Wil

[steve911]

Asked the question on the PCA site and received the following reply:

Subject: Rewiring fog lights to be independent of headlights

Question:
If you want to make the foglights independent of the headlight switch, which wire must be moved on the fuse panel?"

Answer:
Move the grey wire from the bottom of fuse 7 on the forward fuse block (designated license plate lights), to the lower side of fuse 5 or 6 on the middle fuse block. These are hot with the key on. Check to see that you have the correct wire, as the other grey wire runs the license lights. Do not use the wires on fuse 8, which is designated fog lights. You will have to lengthen the wire to reach the new location. The fuses are numbered from the driver's end of the car. The first block has 1-3, the middle 1-10, and the last 1-8.

Chris Powell - PCA WebSite - 2/24/2005