Fog Lights Stopped Working After Installing LED Headlights

[eshtog]

I installed LED headlights from Audette Collection, which by the way are a huge improvement over my factory H5's.

After installing the new LED headlights, my fog lights no longer turn on. When I pull the knob in my dash to turn on the fog lights for some reason it triggers the high beams on the headlights and the blue light turn on in the gauge.

It's a strange problem and I am wondering what I can do to get my fog lights working again. Is it possible to have the fog lights bypass the headlights as it appears they are somehow connected?

[DRACO A5OG]

Yes, recheck your wiring.

[eshtog]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

Yes, recheck your wiring.

The only thing I did was swap out the headlights. I didn't change any of the wiring. They are plug and play with an h5 to h4 adapter. I did forget to mention that I do still have the Jwest relay kit installed from when I was using the H5 headlights.

[donporfi]

Did you change some wiring ?
The foglights are connected to the headlights system. They only work when the low beams are used and turn off when the high beams are used. You must have reversed a connection.
If your led headlights are plug and play I do not know what happened.

Sorry, posted at the same time you posted.

[darrin]

could the adaptor be misdirecting something? Can you re-install the h5s temporarily (plug them back in) and see if the problem goes away?

[eshtog]

Originally Posted by darrin

could the adaptor be misdirecting something? Can you re-install the h5s temporarily (plug them back in) and see if the problem goes away?

Just popped the H5's back in and fog lights work as they should. I found directions on how to rewire the fog lights to work independently of the headlights, but that was for an 86 and I believe on my 89 the wiring is different.

[eshtog]

Anyone else have any ideas or suggestions?

[darrin]

You should take a look at the directions for "uncoupling" the foglights from the headlights and see if it applies to your car, as it may well solve your problem. I did this to my '86 years ago and all you're doing is moving the wire that energizes the fog light circuit from the fuse that protects the headlight circuit to the fuse that protects the running light circuit.

This does raise a question -- were you previously able to run your foglights without turning on your headlights? (and are you running into this problem when trying to ONLY turn on your foglights without the headlights on)?

Spoke (who makes LED brake lights) ran into a strange issue where replacing incandescent brake lights with LED brake lights caused folks to have inoperable cruise controls. Turned out that the resistance created by the incandescent brake light was used by the cruise control circuit and LED brake lights' lower resistance was causing the problem. Could be a similar issue here with the LEDs substituted into the headlight circuit -- separating the foglight circuit from the headlight circuit by moving the foglight "trigger" wire to the parking light circuit could well change this?

[eshtog]

I have already tried jumping the gray wire from the bottom of the second fuse from the front to a few different "always on" on fuses with no change.

My fog lights functioned as they were supposed to before installing the LED headlights. I could turn them on if either my parking lights were on or headlights.

I actually have LED's almost everywhere on my car and applied Spoke's fix to have working cruise control

I am starting to think I should try removing the headlight relay to see if that fixes my issue. I'm still baffled with why the fog lights no longer work and why pulling the fog light knob out activates the high beams? Actually, now that I think about it, aren't the fog lights supposed to turn off when the high beams are activated? Maybe this explains why the fog lights aren't working? The car thinks the high beams are on therefore not allowing the fog lights to turn on?

Originally Posted by darrin

You should take a look at the directions for "uncoupling" the foglights from the headlights and see if it applies to your car, as it may well solve your problem. I did this to my '86 years ago and all you're doing is moving the wire that energizes the fog light circuit from the fuse that protects the headlight circuit to the fuse that protects the running light circuit.

This does raise a question -- were you previously able to run your foglights without turning on your headlights? (and are you running into this problem when trying to ONLY turn on your foglights without the headlights on)?

Spoke (who makes LED brake lights) ran into a strange issue where replacing incandescent brake lights with LED brake lights caused folks to have inoperable cruise controls. Turned out that the resistance created by the incandescent brake light was used by the cruise control circuit and LED brake lights' lower resistance was causing the problem. Could be a similar issue here with the LEDs substituted into the headlight circuit -- separating the foglight circuit from the headlight circuit by moving the foglight "trigger" wire to the parking light circuit could well change this?

[Pstallo]

I definitely think believe it is a wiring issue because I have Audette LED headlights and my foglights work fine.

[eshtog]

Originally Posted by Pstallo

I definitely think believe it is a wiring issue because I have Audette LED headlights and my foglights work fine.

Do you have a headlight relay installed? The fog lights function perfectly with the stock H5's.

[Pstallo]

I DO have a headlight relay installed

[Techno Duck]

I had this same problem, with a different type of LED headlight... see my post here on how to fix.

H4 led headlight bulbs

[RSBob]

The fogs are supposed to only turn on when the headlight low beams are on. A relay is used when you turn on the fogs. Since your LED headlights are drawing less current, the relay is not being properly triggered to make the fogs operable. Normally When you turn on your high beams the fog light relay is de energized and they go off. Evidently due to differences in current draw with LEDs, the relay is confused and feeding back to the high beams. You may want to research resistors which will fool the relay into acting normally.

There are far better electrical brains than mine that can help you with how to fool the relay.

[DRACO A5OG]

Originally Posted by eshtog

The only thing I did was swap out the headlights. I didn't change any of the wiring. They are plug and play with an h5 to h4 adapter. I did forget to mention that I do still have the Jwest relay kit installed from when I was using the H5 headlights.

Please forgive me I did not mean to be so short in my reply.

I also installed the LED for my H4s. I had to be very careful to insure the wiring was on the correct side/post to insure fogs will work.

Post a pic of you bucket with the wiring. PO may have inadvertently mixed them around like mine.

Check with DVM to make certain as well.

[eshtog]

Originally Posted by Techno Duck

I had this same problem, with a different type of LED headlight... see my post here on how to fix.

H4 led headlight bulbs

Thank you so much for the info! I grounded the white with brown stripes wire that was coming one of the low beam fuses and now my fog lights work! My car is an 89, so looks like my factory wiring is a bit different then even 88 as the white with brown stripe wire was connected to the main beam fuse vs high beam on yours.

[DRACO A5OG]

hey congrats, post a pic

[eshtog]

Originally Posted by DRACO A5OG

hey congrats, post a pic

In the picture below I circled which fuse the white/brown stripe was going to. It was the 8th fuse from the front. I simply grounded the white/brown stripe wire that was going to this fuse. The fog lights work as they should now, but is it possible to have the fog lights turn on independently of the marker lights or low beams?

[RSBob]

Originally Posted by eshtog

In the picture below I circled which fuse the white/brown stripe was going to. It was the 8th fuse from the front. I simply grounded the white/brown stripe wire that was going to this fuse. The fog lights work as they should now, but is it possible to have the fog lights turn on independently of the marker lights or low beams?

Fog lights without headlights?

[mrdstr]

Had the same issue on my 87, and grounding the white/brown wire was the fix.