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just installed fog lights today. and wondering why is the light switch on all the time. any ideas???

thanks

 
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It's not on all the times. I think you might have botched something.

I believe it's on when your headlights are on, but if you dont have the headlights on and the fog switch light is on something is really wrong.

 
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I know with some foglights, the light switch is always on and light up more when you turn the fogs on, until you turn the car off obviously.

 
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bottom line, that one little light wont drain the battery right?

 
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I've installed these before and might be able to answer this.

Does your switch have 3 prongs on the back of it like so?



Or does it only have 2 prongs? One is for power, one's for ground and if you're using one with only these 2 prongs, then it's going to constantly be drawing power for the switch. If you use one with three prongs, the third one is for ACC and should be hooked to any SWITCHED wire in the car (something powered only when car is on) and that way it won't light up the switch unless there's power on the switched wire.

So if you have a three prong switch, it's hooked up wrong. If not, go to Home Depot with $3 and buy one.

 
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If you dont want it to be always on find the power wire and tap it into the lighter socket.

 
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a) Never (NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER) [never] run a power wire to your cigarette lighter. This is wired to power a cigarette lighter and not anything that requires any amount of real power.
b) Some cigarette lighters are constantly powered, I've heard of people trying to tap into it and when they turn their car off the electronic item stays on.

power - battery
ground - unpainted metal
switched - switched

 
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What about those inverters that you can plug into your light socket so you can power other stuff? If it can take that of course it could take a small LED or even HIDs. lol Its a 12V power supply but only as much as the wire can take. And when your car is off, no power goes to the lighter socket.

 
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My 04 cig lighter uses a 15 amp fuse. If you do want to use it for your fogs, you need to change it to a 30 amp (#18 inside fusebox).

Dr DX

 
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You shouldnt change the fuse without upgrading the wiring.

 
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yeah thats a great idea if you like setting your car on fire

 
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Take the fog light into one of the park light wires, because in all reality fog lights are not supposed to come on unless your head lights are on. Also make sure you still wire a switch because it is illegal to have fog lights tha don't turn off independent of the head lights. At least in NYS it is but better safe then sorry.

BUN

 
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Overloading wiring is not safe. DO NOT DO THIS unless you want to roast like a marshmallow in your car of flames.

 
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To keep people from dying, I'm going to explain how this is done so nobody else suggest something that ends in death.

Tying into cigarette lighter and replace with larger fuse.
Let me explain how fuses work. It's too expensive to run 1000 feet of 4 gauge wiring in the car for every electrical item so manufacturers only use the size wire they need. So for the cigarette lighter they'd use something like 18 gauge and they figure this out by doing the math between volts/amps/wattage. Your volts are usually about 12.5-14 so that's easy, then you work out how many amps your unit will draw and the amount of wattage will tell you how long and thick your wire can be. I don't remember the formula, I used it when hooking up my amps. And the manufacturers realize some idiot may try to splice into the wire and hook up something else to it so they put a fuse on the wire (fuse box) that will break the connection if too much power tries to go through the wire, thus saving your car and/or life. So if the wire can only hold say 17 amps, they put a 15 amp fuse on it. You change it to a 30 amp fuse, send 20 amps through the wire, fizzle, you burn, you die.

Tying into cigarette lighter and not replacing with larger fuse.
See above. If you don't keep blowing fuses, the wiring is still not enough to power most devices and is not safe.

Using a power inverter
The difference here is the unit itself amplifies the power/signal going to the device. So it's taking the small 12 volt signal from your wiring which can handle the 12 volt fine and then amplifying it to 120 volts (or more) and sending it to your electrical item. This is probably way off but my point is that the inverter itself is handling all the high power, that's why there are normally fuses built into the ones I've used.

How to do it properly
Run a 4 gauge wire to your battery and back to a distribution block. Anything you want to power, simply plug it into the distribution block and you're set. Just not too many things.

 
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i think people here have a habit of doing things to their car to start fires. thanks for explaining cause i think ive said it 20 times already nobody listens.

 
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Good expanation. If I start blowing fuses then I know my fogs is drawing too much power, then again my fog's wire has a 15 amp fuse between the switch and the lighter socket.