Headlight upgrade=no fogs?

So, I just swapped in some IFP H4 headlights, and standard bulbs.

Problem #1 Passenger headlight had been rewired, BACKWARDS... high=low and low=high...............hmmm. I've only had this truck a couple weeks and new there was something wrong with the headlights! Someone had splice in another connector, reversing the the high and low circuit :twak: .
So I rewired the plug, now Low=Low, High=High
Problem #2 now the fogs will work with the running lights, but NOT with the headlights :huh: ...........hmmmmm Flipping the fog switch does nothing with the headlights on. Clicking down to just running lights and then the fog switch works? Pull the light all the way on, and the fogs go out?
Not sure how to go about fixing this one....any suggestions??
Thanks!

ChuckstrPT said:

So, I just swapped in some IFP H4 headlights, and standard bulbs.

Problem #1 Passenger headlight had been rewired, BACKWARDS... high=low and low=high...............hmmm. I've only had this truck a couple weeks and new there was something wrong with the headlights! Someone had splice in another connector, reversing the the high and low circuit :twak: .
So I rewired the plug, now Low=Low, High=High
Problem #2 now the fogs will work with the running lights, but NOT with the headlights :huh: ...........hmmmmm Flipping the fog switch does nothing with the headlights on. Clicking down to just running lights and then the fog switch works? Pull the light all the way on, and the fogs go out?
Not sure how to go about fixing this one....any suggestions??
Thanks!

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Do your fogs work with the high beams on? Stupid question, but if it is spliced into the wrong wire, they will only work with the highs.

no fogs with high beams either. And there is no way the rewired light is getting the same volts as the original headlight. So I'm planning on a relay relay rewire to solve that problem, but not sure if that will bring back my fogs!

Are these factory fogs with factory wiring OR the mopar add on wiring kit OR just an add on like a hella kit ?? If it looks factory pop the center bezel and pop the switch panel, if there is a loose 6 or 8 pin plug thats is not used behind the fog light switch then it has the Mopar add in fog light kit in which case the interupt/splice is somewhere to the right of the steering colum between the column and the center area. If the fogs work at all then it's something involving supplying switching power to the fog relay.

You need to find the relay for the fogs (I hope they have a relay), then figure out which wire is the "trigger" wire and trace that back to find where in the headlight circuit it's tapped from. It should be tapped off one of the low beam wires so the fogs go on with the low beams and off when you hit high beams.

If you have a relay with both 87 and 87A terminals, you can wire the relay differently so the fogs will operate even with parking lights, but going to high beam will interrupt the fogs. Not all relays offer both "normally open" and "normally closed" in the same relay, so I won't get into specifics 'cause you may not have the choice.

Update....interesting....

RichP said:

Are these factory fogs with factory wiring OR the mopar add on wiring kit OR just an add on like a hella kit ?? If it looks factory pop the center bezel and pop the switch panel, if there is a loose 6 or 8 pin plug thats is not used behind the fog light switch then it has the Mopar add in fog light kit in which case the interupt/splice is somewhere to the right of the steering colum between the column and the center area. If the fogs work at all then it's something involving supplying switching power to the fog relay.

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Ok, So I take apart the center dash (clean up more caramel colored liquid mess- apparently someone who owned the truck before me liked Coke!) and happent to try the lights...... Now fogs WORK with headlights....or running lights...BUT if I flash brights, fogs DON"T come back on?? What's up with that?
It appears to be factory fogs, the plug into what appears to be original harness with 4 wire plug?? There are no extra plugs there at all. It's got from left to Right- Cigar lighter, rear defogger, rear wiper, fog, and Aux 12 volt .
Any ideas?

It is normal for the fogs not to work with the high beams. If you have ever driven in fog, you would be blinded with high beams and fog lights.

old_man said:

It is normal for the fogs not to work with the high beams. If you have ever driven in fog, you would be blinded with high beams and fog lights.

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I'm with you on that. You missed the part about "they don't come BACK ON" after coming back to low beams.
So, they are on with low beams, I flash High beam, and back to low beam, and the fogs stay off until I push in one notch to just running lights, and then they flip back on. When I return to headlights (from just running lights) they are now staying on. Prior to pulling apart the center dash, they wouldn't come on with the low beams. Fogs only worked with running lights, and would go out with headlights on.
So, now THEY WORK with headlights.
AND, won't come back on after flashing high beams?
Is this normal? or has some one screwed with my wiring? :dunno:
Thanks,

Looking at my 98FSM I would replace the realays in the PDC, thats the black box in the engine compartment on the passenger side with the snap on cover or at a minumum I would pull them and clean the contact blades and sockets then use some dielectric grease and put them back in again, you might get lucky.
I have the mopar add on kit in mine that switches a Hella fused relay, those lights have been in there since 98, this past winter in dec the day before I was to get my XJ inspected they stopped working. I checked the bulbs since they had been in there a while and when that did not fix it I checked the wiring, got 12v OK but no lights. Pulled the relay and took the housing off, found the high current contacts kinda nasty so I used a special file called a burnishing tool and cleaned them up, been working fine ever since.

I ran into a similar problem a while back when I installed an after market wire harness upgrade to handle some 80/100 w Ecodes. The problem I had was when I would switch from low beams to high beams, then back to low beams; both low and high beams would stay on. This lead to bulb burn out because of the extreme heat by both being on. This takes into consideration that you installed an after marker (or built your own) wire harness kit, and kept the stock factory fog light wiring. Perhaps the previous owner of your rig ran into a similar problem, but took a different route to fix the issue.

Here's a post of mine I saved from a while back on what I did to fix my situation. Perhaps it'll help shed some light on yours...

Ivan

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Handlebars and I have been trying to tackle the same situation. He has the Painless Wiring setup, I have the Kolak Special wiring harness from a JU group buy. We've determined that they are basically the same kit. The common denominator between all of us is factory fog lights and late model ('97 and up) XJ's. What Handlebars discovered (and I confirmed with a VOM) was that with both wiring harnesses, the follow symptoms occur:

Low Beams on - works fine.
Hi Beams on - works fine.
Return to low beams after firing off Hi beams - BOTH Hi and lows are on!

Handlebars notice that if you remove fuses #3 & #4 from the distribution panel (which controls the now unused driver's side plug) at the passenger side kick plate, the hi and low beams work like they should. That is:

Low Beams on - works fine.
Hi Beams on - works fine.
Return to low beams after firing off Hi beams - Lows fine, hi's off.

Handlebars figured that the unused drivers side stock light plug was creating some sort of feedback from the fog lamp relays, which prevented the new wiring harness relays to kick open. Only kicker now is that the fog lights won't work because they operate on the same #3 & #4 circuits the drivers side plug...arghhh! Ok, so I had another theory. How about plugging the wiring harness into the driver's side plug, removing now fuses # 5 & #16 to disable the unused passenger side light plug; and maintain funtion of the fog lamps. I built a temporary jumper cable to reach the other plug to test this theory. Good theory, but it didn't work. Still wound up with this situation:

Low Beams on - works fine.
Hi Beams on - works fine.
Return to low beams after firing off Hi beams - BOTH Hi and lows are on!

Through all this, I did notice that if after you activate the hi beams and return to low beams, if you shut off the light and turn them back on; only the lows will be on. This worked using either plug.

So your options thus far as follows:

1. Leave the fuses in, and just don't use the hi beams. Seems the lows are way plenty bright anyways; and you still maintain the use of your fog lights. If you want to use your hi's, when you downshift the lights to low; shut the lights off momemtarily to "reboot" and regain use of lows only (a pain).

2. Remove the fuses #3 & #4, lose use of your fog lamp switch and fog lights, but maintain full function of your hi and low beams without both staying on while switching back and forth. With this option, you'd have to run a whole different circuit for your fog lights to continue to use them.

There is a fix for all this though which Joe Furlong came up with (thanks Joe!). Thanks also to Handlebars for figuring out the fuse #3 & #4 issue. After removing fuse #3 and #4 that controls the unused headlight plug (after installing a wiring harness), you can remove the fog lamp relay located in the distribution panel. You will notice that there are 5 spade type connectors on the relay. If you build a small jumper to by pass the relay, and plug the jumper where plugs 3 & 5 (as labled on the bottom of the relay) would plug into in the panel, you will regain the use of your factory fog lights and the switch! Only minor inconvenience is that the switch will always be hot, so you gotta be sure you shut your fogs off each time you're done with them. Nice thing is that the fogs are now always available, and they will not be affected if you hit the high beams. Be careful regarding on road legal issues with this, but this is a nice feature off road use. If you ever have to do a tech inspection, just remove the jumper and claim the fogs don't work.

Ivan said:

So your options thus far as follows:

1. Leave the fuses in, and just don't use the hi beams. Seems the lows are way plenty bright anyways; and you still maintain the use of your fog lights. If you want to use your hi's, when you downshift the lights to low; shut the lights off momemtarily to "reboot" and regain use of lows only (a pain).

2. Remove the fuses #3 & #4, lose use of your fog lamp switch and fog lights, but maintain full function of your hi and low beams without both staying on while switching back and forth. With this option, you'd have to run a whole different circuit for your fog lights to continue to use them.

There is a fix for all this though which Joe Furlong came up with (thanks Joe!). Thanks also to Handlebars for figuring out the fuse #3 & #4 issue. After removing fuse #3 and #4 that controls the unused headlight plug (after installing a wiring harness), you can remove the fog lamp relay located in the distribution panel. You will notice that there are 5 spade type connectors on the relay. If you build a small jumper to by pass the relay, and plug the jumper where plugs 3 & 5 (as labled on the bottom of the relay) would plug into in the panel, you will regain the use of your factory fog lights and the switch! Only minor inconvenience is that the switch will always be hot, so you gotta be sure you shut your fogs off each time you're done with them. Nice thing is that the fogs are now always available, and they will not be affected if you hit the high beams. Be careful regarding on road legal issues with this, but this is a nice feature off road use. If you ever have to do a tech inspection, just remove the jumper and claim the fogs don't work.

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Yo, this place continues to impress me! arty: You guys keep up the good work. I knew there was someone out there with too much time on his hands to tinker around with this. And you didn't disappoint. There is NO WAY I would have ever come up with the conclusions you guys got to! :worship:
Much appreciated! My dues are worth every penny! Long live