Fogs On A Budget $143; wth Pictures
- Thread starter ESFlash
- Start date
dvandentop
Veteran Member
why not jsut post links to each auction you bid on so we can go buy
or just pm them to me
or just pm them to me
I went with eurosportgarage; which was pointless, they claimed the grilles were German made, when they arrived the Made in China was dremelled through on the R grille but he/she missed on the L where you can still make out China. Same way with the lights; which makes me wonder if the switch is Chinese too. I over paid; just find the lowest bidder its all the same stuff.
leicaman
Top Post Dawg
What kills me about VW in general, that they don't just have fog lights as an option. Cripes, I don't wanna buy some uber-expensive package to have a safety feature that truly is one. I don't need a cupholder that probably even burps you after you have your big gulp. I don't need or want that kind of stuff. In some ways I really like it when you can ala-cart your options. I know the makers hate doing this and rely on some ding bat that makes up all these expensive and mostly useless packages.
frugality
Top Post Dawg
Foglights are mostly useless because it's rarely foggy.
As Henry Ford is often quoted as saying, "you can have any color you want, as long as it's black." Fewer combinations make for a lower price. ESPECIALLY when the plant is in a foreign country. Sending over every kind of configuration and having dealers have to swap for just the car you want is inefficient and costly. Check out the MINI and you'll see the effect that customization has on the bottom line.
As Henry Ford is often quoted as saying, "you can have any color you want, as long as it's black." Fewer combinations make for a lower price. ESPECIALLY when the plant is in a foreign country. Sending over every kind of configuration and having dealers have to swap for just the car you want is inefficient and costly. Check out the MINI and you'll see the effect that customization has on the bottom line.
@ Flash:3. The 25 Amp fuse is in a hinged housing that contains a plastic mount so it can be attached to a straight clip.
4. The 40 amp relay shows what I guess to be an epoxy sealant around the pins, and fits securely in its connector. Being its connectorized means you can change it out to a Bosch or any other brand you desire as the 30, 87, 86, 85 pinout is standard on these relays. Also, the relay like the fuse, can be mounted onto a straight clip.
Did you make your own straight mounting clips for the fuse and the relay or did you buy them? If you bought them, would you me pointing me in the right direction?
Also, what size screws did you use to install the fog light housings in the bumper?
oxford_guy
Veteran Member
That depends on where you live. I've dealt with some very thick fog a few times.
@rambalu80 ---- good question -- I'll do my best to answer.
Did you make your own straight mounting clips for the fuse and the relay or did you buy them? If you bought them, would you me pointing me in the right direction?
==== jb weld and ordinary paper clips is what I'll eventually use -- right now, I tie wrapped the fuse and relay which should be fine for the time being.
Also, what size screws did you use to install the fog light housings in the bumper?
===== I used used regular screws and nuts with washers and lock washers on the "nut" side -- they were prbly 12's or 14's -- nothing special just what I had around. Sheet metal screws going into those little sheet metal clips that often come with door mount speaker kits should also work pretty well -- I just wanted something a bit more secure as that plastic VW bumper housing is a bit lame.
Did you make your own straight mounting clips for the fuse and the relay or did you buy them? If you bought them, would you me pointing me in the right direction?
==== jb weld and ordinary paper clips is what I'll eventually use -- right now, I tie wrapped the fuse and relay which should be fine for the time being.
Also, what size screws did you use to install the fog light housings in the bumper?
===== I used used regular screws and nuts with washers and lock washers on the "nut" side -- they were prbly 12's or 14's -- nothing special just what I had around. Sheet metal screws going into those little sheet metal clips that often come with door mount speaker kits should also work pretty well -- I just wanted something a bit more secure as that plastic VW bumper housing is a bit lame.
Flash, thanks for the info!
Mainely Diesel
Active member
Where do I connect the trigger wire that is run from the new Euro headlight switch? My foglight "harness" is exactly the same as the one pictured on this thread. The ECS directions refer to additional leads that get connected to posts on the high beams (to turn the fogs off when high beams come on, I assume) but from what can tell, this harness does not have them 'cause there is just the one activation lead from the relay. Anyone who has done this exact install who can detail every connection and how their setup functions in relation to switch position and low/high beams would be extremely helpful.
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Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk
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Bugdoc
Veteran Member
Get much fog in Austin?
Bugdoc
Veteran Member
Yeah, I remember Stevie Ray Vaughn rip-some rockin going on down there!
Did I miss any vagcom work needed here?
Did I miss any vagcom work needed here?
Bugdoc
Veteran Member
Jeez, I'm jealous. I did see Jimmy V and the Fabulous T-birds at a bowling alley/lounge in a south chicago suburb a lonnng time ago. Sat about 10' away from the band. Great show! They were the days....
Ummm, back to the project, did you need to vagcom?
Ummm, back to the project, did you need to vagcom?
740GLE
Top Post Dawg
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2009
- Location
- NH
- TDI
- 2017 Alltrack SE; Totaled 2015 Passat SEL, BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat SE w/ Nav,
btw the euro switch i bought off Ebay from hongkong, came in last week, it was the wrong one. Looks like it's for a mk4/mk6 jetta sedan, big connector. The seller said they drop shipped the correct switch, we'll see what shows up three weeks from now.
I got mine done over the weekend. Already had the euro switch installed (picked up at vaglink for about 40 bucks), the rest of the items were about $90.00 total. Took me about 3 - 4 hours w/o any help and everything fit well and work as they should.
emerscape
Veteran Member
what 12v source did you tap in to?
I would direct you to the fuse box that sits next to the battery. Remove the fuse box cover and you will see a power distribution strip. If memory serves me, I used an empty threaded lug located on the driver side of the strip; I had a nut that was identical to the thread size of that lug. IMPORTANT: when you connect to your source (whatever you ultimately select), make sure the wire your are connecting, the one going to the relay primary power is fused and that the fuse is located close to your 12 volt source.
+1.
All the nuts I had were a size too large and so, I tapped into an existing outlet on the strip. Just picked up a bunch of nuts at work and I've gotta swap mine to an empty slot.
Mainely Diesel
Active member
Finished - with pics
So I have it all wrapped up at this point and the final results are fantastic. My goal with the project was to get everything installed with no cutting and splicing on the foglight aftermarket harness and factory wiring. It has been my preference to not cut anything since a driving light install went poorly on an '84 GTI Rabbit I owned...
Anyway, this was achieved using some additional 9006 ceramic extension connectors ($20 for 4) and a 9006 connector with pigtail leads ($10). All of my wiring and connectors were sourced from eBay. I chose domestic sellers for all the wiring for speed and accountability if anything had been wrong with them. I had absolutely NO problems with any of the parts listed below and everything works perfectly. I also installed some of the amber Lamin-X cover material ($20) for protection and glare reduction in snow storms (I live in Maine and drive a lot). All told here's the cost breakdown:
Foglights and grills -- $80 (China)
Euro switch -- $33 (China)
Wiring harness -- $8 (domestic)
Lamin-X covers -- $20 (domestic)
9006 ceramic ext -- $20 (domestic)
9006 pigtail ext -- $10 (domestic)
TOTAL -- -- $151 complete
This is the passenger side fog shown from behind with the additional ceramic connectors hooked up, the driver's side has the same additional double connector setup. I could have spliced additional wire into the harness but I like the additional connectors better for fit, finish and ease of removal when taking off the bumper. They are durable and weather-tight.
Connector-ized trigger/ground leads. The black/white wires are from the relay on the harness, the red/black in the loom on the left are the pigtail 9006 connector I bought to hook it up. The pigtails had male spade connectors on the lead ends so it was a simple matter to install female spade connectors on the end of the trigger wire from the interior switch and on the ground lead pictured previously to connect everything with no splicing. Again: durable and weather-tight and easy to disconnect if needed.
Fabricated mounting post point for harness relay and fuse, top view with airbox corner in upper left of photo and electric box in lower right. I drilled a small hole in the airbox and used a short bolt with a fender washer inside and a spacer and small nut outside. The thin black plastic is a piece of LCD TV wire loom strapping that was cut to the correct length to mount the fuse on one end and the relay on the other, it just happened to be the correct width to fit into the slots on the back of each. The tiny yellow zip tie keeps the relay from sliding off the strapping by slotting through it on the end. ** update: I replaced the relay in the photo with a comparable relay that has a metal mounting tab attached rather than the plastic slot built into the case, it works much better **
Different angle showing the stand-off post and strapping assembly I fabbed. The ragged looking slot on the right end of the strapping is what the tiny yellow zip tie slots through after the relay is mounted.
Ground point I used, shown with bumper removed, this is directly under the driver's side headlight assembly. It had nothing connected and was easier to reach than the primary factory ground point you see next to it on the right with some factory brown ground wires connected.
Low angle, just above the ground from approximately 8 ft away
As mentioned in a previous post, I also used the empty power post that is furthest outboard on the front of the fuse box under the cover. I didn't take a photo because it is obvious which is the empty one.
Thanks to ESFlash for the original post and some helpful wiring tips along the way and to my daughter who held up the bumper before re-installation while I connected everything.
** update: after driving with these for the past week, both before sunrise and after dusk, and doing a little bit of aiming to lift and flatten out the direction versus pointing down 20' in front of the car as they were aimed out of the box, they really enhance back-road visibility dramatically. Driving home from work tonight on a twisty, dark, back county road I can earnestly say that they improve overall visibility greatly, especially into corners and over blind rises in the road. I like the fact that they stay on with the high-beams because they really flood the area in front of the car with lots of light. I didn't realize how much illumination was missing from the stock headlights until seeing these in action with my own eyes. Highly recommended install on US cars! **
So I have it all wrapped up at this point and the final results are fantastic. My goal with the project was to get everything installed with no cutting and splicing on the foglight aftermarket harness and factory wiring. It has been my preference to not cut anything since a driving light install went poorly on an '84 GTI Rabbit I owned...
Anyway, this was achieved using some additional 9006 ceramic extension connectors ($20 for 4) and a 9006 connector with pigtail leads ($10). All of my wiring and connectors were sourced from eBay. I chose domestic sellers for all the wiring for speed and accountability if anything had been wrong with them. I had absolutely NO problems with any of the parts listed below and everything works perfectly. I also installed some of the amber Lamin-X cover material ($20) for protection and glare reduction in snow storms (I live in Maine and drive a lot). All told here's the cost breakdown:
Foglights and grills -- $80 (China)
Euro switch -- $33 (China)
Wiring harness -- $8 (domestic)
Lamin-X covers -- $20 (domestic)
9006 ceramic ext -- $20 (domestic)
9006 pigtail ext -- $10 (domestic)
TOTAL -- -- $151 complete
This is the passenger side fog shown from behind with the additional ceramic connectors hooked up, the driver's side has the same additional double connector setup. I could have spliced additional wire into the harness but I like the additional connectors better for fit, finish and ease of removal when taking off the bumper. They are durable and weather-tight.
Connector-ized trigger/ground leads. The black/white wires are from the relay on the harness, the red/black in the loom on the left are the pigtail 9006 connector I bought to hook it up. The pigtails had male spade connectors on the lead ends so it was a simple matter to install female spade connectors on the end of the trigger wire from the interior switch and on the ground lead pictured previously to connect everything with no splicing. Again: durable and weather-tight and easy to disconnect if needed.
Fabricated mounting post point for harness relay and fuse, top view with airbox corner in upper left of photo and electric box in lower right. I drilled a small hole in the airbox and used a short bolt with a fender washer inside and a spacer and small nut outside. The thin black plastic is a piece of LCD TV wire loom strapping that was cut to the correct length to mount the fuse on one end and the relay on the other, it just happened to be the correct width to fit into the slots on the back of each. The tiny yellow zip tie keeps the relay from sliding off the strapping by slotting through it on the end. ** update: I replaced the relay in the photo with a comparable relay that has a metal mounting tab attached rather than the plastic slot built into the case, it works much better **
Different angle showing the stand-off post and strapping assembly I fabbed. The ragged looking slot on the right end of the strapping is what the tiny yellow zip tie slots through after the relay is mounted.
Ground point I used, shown with bumper removed, this is directly under the driver's side headlight assembly. It had nothing connected and was easier to reach than the primary factory ground point you see next to it on the right with some factory brown ground wires connected.
Low angle, just above the ground from approximately 8 ft away
As mentioned in a previous post, I also used the empty power post that is furthest outboard on the front of the fuse box under the cover. I didn't take a photo because it is obvious which is the empty one.
Thanks to ESFlash for the original post and some helpful wiring tips along the way and to my daughter who held up the bumper before re-installation while I connected everything.
** update: after driving with these for the past week, both before sunrise and after dusk, and doing a little bit of aiming to lift and flatten out the direction versus pointing down 20' in front of the car as they were aimed out of the box, they really enhance back-road visibility dramatically. Driving home from work tonight on a twisty, dark, back county road I can earnestly say that they improve overall visibility greatly, especially into corners and over blind rises in the road. I like the fact that they stay on with the high-beams because they really flood the area in front of the car with lots of light. I didn't realize how much illumination was missing from the stock headlights until seeing these in action with my own eyes. Highly recommended install on US cars! **
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Mainely Diesel
Active member
Thanks... I agree!
Fordcougar
Veteran Member
ESFlash, I noticed that above the grill inserts there is a gap, and this is completely unrelated, but I had my bumper replaced(including grills) and now I have this Gap
above my non-fog light grill inserts. Do you have another better picture of before the
fogs? I think the body shop used non OEM pieces and they don't fit as well as original.
above my non-fog light grill inserts. Do you have another better picture of before the
fogs? I think the body shop used non OEM pieces and they don't fit as well as original.
Tweak3D
Veteran Member
Wall pics please =)
@Fordcougar
I'm not exactly clear on the gap you are talking about. Everything fit snug in terms of the parts I used and worked with -- perhaps the body shop misaligned something -- zigged when they should have zagged.
I'm not exactly clear on the gap you are talking about. Everything fit snug in terms of the parts I used and worked with -- perhaps the body shop misaligned something -- zigged when they should have zagged.