Light Force 170 Install Question?

I have read how others have installed after market fog lights using the factory switch and I have the diagrams but I need some additional help.

Below is the link to the Light Force wiring harness....notice the black/red and brown wires that go to the switch. The brown wire goes from the switch to high beam wire (orange not red...which I have to fix later) on the headlight. I (think I) understand that this is supposed to interrupt the lights from being on when the high beams are selected.

http://www.lightforce.net.au/files/pdfs/Wiring_Harness.pdf

Step 9 below calls the terminals on the switch "left and right", unfortunately that is were I am lost.

---9. Strip 5mm off the ends of the insulation of the brown wire and black with red stripe wire, then crimp a red terminal to each
end, connect to left and right terminals on the switch.---

When using the factory switch the terminals are:

1. Orange - Fused panel lamps dimmer switch (Check)
2. Light Blue - Flog lamp switch out (Black/red...maybe???)
3. Violet - Fog lamp relay (can this be ANY 12v source???)
4. Black - Ground (to the vehicle or battery???)

I could just use the crappy switch that came with the kit and be done but...that is just to easy. Thanks for the help and sorry there are no pictures.

Will

wil4thril said:

4. Black - Ground (to the vehicle or battery???)

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I don't have anything to add as I am not familiar with that kit, but don't ever ground anything directly to the battery. ground wires should always run to the chassis or other suitable large metal substructure, and should be as short a wire as possible.

When I wired up my first set of fog lights as you are doing I used the power wire from one of the fog light wires where they connect at the bumper, I splices into the (+) feed and used that to control the relay on the new fog lights so that when I hit the high beams the power was automatically cut by the jeeps normal circuit.

As for the switch wiring, I noticed at one of my trips to the junk yard that the wire colors for most of the switches vary from year to year which can cause confusion with a rather generic set of directions so what I did was get my multi-meter out and test the switch to find out exactly what's what. If you don't have a multi-meter I would highly recommend picking one up, you'll get great use out of it on the jeep and just about any other electrical project you find yourself in.

This was the simplest way I could figure out how to wire the lights to function as stock fogs would because I didn't want to give any reason to be stopped by law enforcement. This wiring set-up worked great for me for a number of years until I changed my lighting, I'm sure other people will chime in with different ways so good luck.

Kelvin

GrimmJeeper said:

I don't have anything to add as I am not familiar with that kit, but don't ever ground anything directly to the battery. ground wires should always run to the chassis or other suitable large metal substructure, and should be as short a wire as possible.

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Why is this?

bigalpha said:

Why is this?

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Thats what I am thinking. I had my Hellas grounded to the battery on the first XJ I had and never had a problem. When you install HID kits you want to ground back to the battery IIRC.

not sure why, I was just always told to never run a ground directly to the battery when I was doing car stereo installations as a job... but it's not like I went to electrical trade school or anything :dunno:

as a rule though ground wires should always be as short as they can be, the longer the run of wire is the more likely it is that you will lose some energy and have a weak ground.

GrimmJeeper said:

as a rule though ground wires should always be as short as they can be, the longer the run of wire is the more likely it is that you will lose some energy and have a weak ground.

Click to expand...

That is very true but usually when its a high amount of current. Like an amp ground, you only want that to be 18" or less.

You don't want to run these lights with regular low beams on the road. You will be blinding people. They are bright. I recommend only running them with the high beams.

Thanks for the inputs but I'm still fuzzy on an actual answer especially the factory switch terminals 2 and 3 in relation to the brown and black/red wires on the harness.

This layout jives with the FSM as well but the volt meter is a sure way.

1. Orange - Fused panel lamps dimmer switch (Check)
2. Light Blue - Flog lamp switch out (Black/red...maybe???)
3. Violet - Fog lamp relay (can this be ANY 12v source???)
4. Black - Ground (to the vehicle or battery???)


Will

Talyn said:

You don't want to run these lights with regular low beams on the road. You will be blinding people. They are bright. I recommend only running them with the high beams.

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I agree, I was referring to standard 55w fog lights that I installed on my XJ to replace the OEMs in my post but after reading your post I did a search on these lights and you definitely don't want to run these lights in traffic.

I wouldn't even bother to wire them to your OEM fog light switch, use an aftermarket switch like the contura rocker or similar and wire in a set of street friendly fogs to your dash switch.

just my .02

wil4thril said:

Thanks for the inputs but I'm still fuzzy on an actual answer especially the factory switch terminals 2 and 3 in relation to the brown and black/red wires on the harness.

This layout jives with the FSM as well but the volt meter is a sure way.

1. Orange - Fused panel lamps dimmer switch (Check)
2. Light Blue - Flog lamp switch out (Black/red...maybe???)
3. Violet - Fog lamp relay (can this be ANY 12v source???)
4. Black - Ground (to the vehicle or battery???)


Will

Click to expand...

Running the lights thought the factory fog light switch combined with their wiring harness will guarantee your lights never to turn on. What I gather is that their wiring harness only turns the lights on with the high beams. However you want to run the lights through the factory fog light switch. The problem there is that the fog lights turn off with the high beams.

From what I see of their wiring diagram, their switch basically activates the lights (but doesn't turn them on). The brown wire going to the main beams (high beams I suppose) will turn the lights on with the high beams. Which is the way you should run them, maybe combing that operation with adding a second switch for a manual turn on, which is pretty much the way I have mine wired.

I'm not really sure what you are asking, but I suggest you leave the factory fog light out of the equation. If you don't like the switch they supplied source one you like. Or cut the factor fog light out of the factory harness and rewire it for your system.

In my case I didn't bother using their wiring harness and made my own. At the time I used two switches and two relays. I don't know why I used two relays at the time, but I could have accomplished the same thing with one relay. Any how. My system is wired in such a way that the high beam operation is separate from the independent operation. I have one switch which flips one relay to turn the lights on full time. I have another switch witch flips the other relay to only activate with the high beams.

pierceME311 said:

I agree, I was referring to standard 55w fog lights that I installed on my XJ to replace the OEMs in my post but after reading your post I did a search on these lights and you definitely don't want to run these lights in traffic.

Click to expand...

Yeah. I didn't know how bright they were until I used the on the highway. Even the truckers were bitching. That was the last time i used them with opposing traffic. I only turn them on with the high beams now. But my low beams are plenty bright to begin with.

Talyn said:

I'm not really sure what you are asking, but I suggest you leave the factory fog light out of the equation. If you don't like the switch they supplied source one you like. Or cut the factor fog light out of the factory harness and rewire it for your system.

Click to expand...

After many hours of going through what the OP is going through I came across FitchVAs' overhead switch console I decided to go that route and combine all my aditional electrical eccesries into one nice center piece. I hit up waytekwire.com and radioshack and came out with something that was not only extremely functional but tough, good looking and has plenty of room for expantion down the road. If you haven't already, find FitchVA (username) and visit his website for all the details, I promise it's time well spent and a great contribution from a great member. He also has a headlight wire harness upgrade if you haven't done that already.

The question was how to install after market "lights" and use the factory "fog light" switch.

I really just wanted to use my 170's lights as off road lights not fog lights. I lived in Iceland and England and never really felt a strong need for fog lights in either place (low beams are fine and if anyone had fog lights on they made it harder for me). I just wanted to keep my cabin clean and use the factory switch on the dash.

I gather that using the factory light is out of the question and I'll try to source a different style switch. Thanks for the inputs.

Will

Ohhhh... ok. The easiest way is to connect the black/red wire to the existing fog light wires out front.

If you are dead set into coming in the cabin directly to the switch you want to splice the black/red wire into the light blue wire on the switch.

However that still means that your Lightforces will turn off with your high beams. If you want them to stay on with your high beams you would have to splice the violet wire on the PDC at L13p(under the fog light relay) into the Violet wire at L43 under fuse 4 for the high beams (yes, there are 2 violet wire on the PDC). That should work, but YMMV because I was going off the factory wiring diagrams... odd thing is is that the factory fog light relay is before the factory switch.

And just disregard or remove the brown wire on the Lightforce harness.