gatrhumpy

OK, so my wife's 2003 Civic foglights stopped working. Normal solution is to check the fuses where the foglights are attached right? No dice, all, and I mean every single fuse, is working correctly. Next potential solution is to check the wire connections right? No dice. All of the wires are connected correctly, or at least there was no evidence of any wire becoming disconnected.

I even checked the in-line foglight fuse, and it's still working. I don't know why the foglights stopped working like that. Anyone have any tips?

Next thing I'm going to check tomorrow is the grounds, but the two grounds for the fog lights themselves seem to be solid (and are ground on each wheel well in the engine bay).

I even went so far as to take each foglight out and test it on my Accord (both have H11 bulbs in the foglight locations), and the Civic foglights work on my Accord, so I know it's NOT the foglights.

I also know the relay works because I it clicks on every time I turn on the lights, and also when I press the switch to turn on and off the foglights, but the foglights themselves do not work.

What could be the most likely culprit?

NORMAN2001

I had the exact same problem try messing with the wires in the relay mine weren't connecting properly and it gave me hell for months so just recently I took the positive wire that runs from the foglights and just tapped into the right headlight wire and now they just turn on with my headlights. If your like me I always want them on so thats no problem for me. If you like having them off i wouldn't advise this.

gatrhumpy

Norman, thank you so much for replying. I took out the relay, and will do a remove and replace to see if that works. I plan on getting another relay and installing it to see if that solves the problem?

When you hooked up the positive wire to the headlights, did you bypass the relay? If so, where did you hook up the wire to the headlight? Underneath the dash? What color was the wire for the headlight?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

on my oem fogs, it was the ground wires. there was corrosion underneath so i scraped off the paint and rust, reattached, and painted over everything. works great now.

pjb3

I would not connect the fog lights directly to the headlight circuit. Fog lights pull almost as many amps as the headlights, that's why they use a relay. Pulling the extra current through the head light switch may burn the contacts in the switch. If the fog lights worked before, then you have wired the fogs correctly already, you probably just need to replace the relay.

gatrhumpy

I will have to check the grounds. For some unGodly reason I never thought of corrosion. Where were your grounds attached that they had corrosion? Both foglights are grounded (I mean the actual lights themselves) on the under-hood wheel well. The in cabin something is grounded to a metal bar above the little coin tray, inside the dash, to the driver's left knee.

gatrhumpy

When the relay was connected (I temporarily disconnected it because I took it to Discount Auto Parts to get a replacement, but the replacement was different looking, so I did not get it), it seemed to be working fine. Whenever I pressed the switch or turned on the lights, I heard a click on the relay. Does that it still could be bad? Would a relay stop working if it was bad?

There are four wires going into the relay: two red wires (one of which is a ground), a blue wire, and a yellow wire. The switch was an eBay switch and eBay foglights. The yellow wire goes from the relay to the switch, along with (i think) one of the red wires and possibly the blue wire. The blue wire is connected to the +12V of both foglights.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if its ebay foglights, they prolly use a cheap relay that could easily fail. next time try something good like tyco or bosch. i was having grounding issues on the fenders so i ended up extending the ground wires and hooking them both to the radiator support point.

gatrhumpy

Gearbox, thanks for your help. I might have to check out Autozone for a different relay. I thought the relay that I had worked fine. Is it possible that the relay could still click when I press the switch for the lights to come on but not makes the lights themselves come on?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yes its possible. alot of times corrosion can erode the contacts inside but you still hear the switch click open.

pjb3

There are multiple ways a relay can fail. It should be fairly easy to test. If you have a multimeter simply check voltage at the wire from the battery going into the relay and also at the wire from the relay to the fog lights. If the wire from the battery shows power, turn the dash switch on and see if the relay terminal for the fog light wire has power. You could also simply touch the wire from the battery to the wire to the fog lights and they should light up.
If you replace the relay it may not be identical to the one you have. There should be either three or four terminals on it. There should be a fused wire from the battery going to the relay and the wire to the fog lights. There will be a second wire with power connecting to the relay and this will be from the switch and turn the relay on and off. There may or may not be a fourth terminal for a ground or the relay may ground through the mounting screw. If the dash switch is lighted, there will be a ground wire from the switch as well but it is only for the switch light. A replacement relay should have a diagram showing the proper connections.

gatrhumpy

Thanks for the input man. I checked Autozone for the 12V 30M relay that I need, and it was $46, which was $11 more than the actual foglight kit. So now I have three options:

1.) Get the $46 relay, but this would be the second most pricey option.
2.) Get another $35 foglight kit, which would be cheapest, but then I would have extra wires, extra foglights, etc.
3.) Just buck up and get the OEM Honda foglight kit. For $190 shipped, it's not a bad price.

pjb3

You might check a few other places for relays. Autozone, Radio Shack and Amazon all showed relays for less than $10, even if you pay shipping I doubt it would be more than $15.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

$46 no way. you just need a regular 12v 30/40 amp automotive relay. i paid $8 for my uber expensive bosch relay and i thought that was robbery. even the auto store has generic ones like dorman and blazer for around $5 in the electrical section.

gatrhumpy

I **** you not. I walked out laughing. I'm not even 100% sure the relay is bad, but I'm trying a remove and replace type of thing first. If that is the case (of the relay being $46), then I will get an entirely new fog light kit for $35 shipped off of eBay.

I put together a wiring diagram so far, not yet taking into account the multiple wires underneath the dash. So far, from the fog lights to the middle of the driver's side fender, there is one wire. There is another plug that I believe another set of instructions said to disregard that is has a plug to it that is in the driver's side fender. What is this plug for? For me, it has a yellow wire connected to it.

The one wire from the foglights come into the cabin and connect to the 12V 30A relay. There are other wires connected to the relay, but I'm not sure what they are for off the top of my head.

gatrhumpy

The relay that I have, I have no idea if it is actually bad. Does anyone know how I can test it. It kind of looks like this (sort of):

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web..._1247954542___

The relay says: "RELAY 12V 30A MB-141967" on it. You can see the cost of it.

gatrhumpy

So, I have a question. What would prevent me from hooking up the positive 12V wire from the foglights (fused) of course, bypassing the relay and the switch, and hooking it up directly to the lo-beam lights? If I wanted to do this, which wire from the lo-beams would I hook up the positive 12V wire?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

you need a relay harness, so the fogs get power directly from the battery. tapping the lo beams will overload the oem harness because it can barely handle just the headlights. the fog light harness is needlessly overcomplicated. you can start over and make your own for prolly $15 worth of supplies. i did the same thing for my hid lo beams, but the wiring is the same. just pretend the ballasts in my pic are the fog light bulbs. you need a $5 relay (12v 30/40amp) and holder, fuse and holder, and some wires and connectors. you can prolly even reuse some parts of the old harness before throwing it out.

gatrhumpy

gearbox, I will check this out when I get home (I'm at work for another 8 minutes and can't see photobucket). I have a 30A fuse and fuse holder. Does the picture above explain where each wire goes and how it gets connected? If this works flawlessly, I will donate to the site!

gatrhumpy

Gearbox,
I figured out what the problem was. There is a metal wire connector in the fusebox holder that holds a wire and connects it to the fuse. The metal connector was not connected to the wire. So I inserted a very small flathead screwdriver, took out the metal clip, soldered it to the wire, inserted the wire back into the fuse holder, turned on the lights, and VIOLA! It worked! Thanks for all your help man. I really appreciate it!