Brian1037

So not even a ****ing week ago I got my fog lights working. Now today I'm in the parking lot and in the reflection of a car I see that my fogs aren't working when they're supposed to (parking lights on w/ fog light switch on, or night time lights on w/ fog light switch on). I checked the connection in the fuse box under the steering wheel and it was still plugged in fine, AND the lights in the fog light switch worked fine even when the fogs themselves aren't. I can't take the bumper off now to check the relay and fuse and the back of the lights themselves. I'll have to do it tomorrow.

Here is where the lights were plugged in. The green arrow points to a plug, well using an alligator clip the lights were plugged into the plug TO THE LEFT of arrow and only the pin all the way on the right of that plug, as per recommendation of Honda-Tech (because the thread I made here didn't even get a reply).



I need to know if the pin a plugged it into could have caused some kind of electrical spike and blown the fuse in the fog light wiring. is there somewhere else I should've plugged it into?

Brian1037

I took off the bumper today, the fuse is fine but will check the relay in a couple mins but I'm assuming is good if the fuse is too. However I noticed that water got into the actual plugs that plug into the fog lights. I knew I should have taped them up... could this be my problem? They're outside drying in the sun before I plug them back in and try again.

How can I check if the water short circuited something? Also if the switch still works that means part of the system is working and it didn't mess up the fuse panel under the steering column. Thank god.

There was quite a bit of water, I'd say a teaspoon combined in both lights. Also the bulbs are fine (from what I can tell. They aren't black and don't look blown... they stilll look brand new).

Brian1037

for those too lazy to read.

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Brian1037

Alright. Well thanks for all your help firstly (kidding.. almost.. but I still love you guys). Found the problem. After millions of years on youtube learning how to use a multimeter, and millions of years trying to understand stuff out, I finally got it. The relay is dead! Now I'm sure this is the first place someone knowledgeable about this stuff would've checked, but I'm a noob with electrical so it's the absolute last place I looked, but I did find it all by myself

The relay was all taped up to protect it from water so I only noticed the corrosion after ripping literally 7 layers of tape off. Last picture is my ingenious way of bypassing the relay Although I'm sure it's what everyone does.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah go with a quality relay like bosch/tyco from partsexpress.com those generic ones are junk.

Brian1037

Well I got a relay from a parts store... it even feels like better quality lol. If it ever breaks I'll order one online gb

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I just opened this thread, and after reading the first 2 posts, I was gonna suggest you check the relay.. lol.. A bit late, but good on you for finding the problem

if you want to protect from corrosion better, I suggest getting some di-electric grease and, after plugging the relay into it's respective socket, put a layer on any gap that could expose the connections to the elements.

Brian1037

Alright so, update.

Everything went bad lol. The new relay was 5 pin compared to the 4 pin, and I invited my cousin over because two heads are better than one even if both are completely retarded.

We looked up what the numbers on the relay meant (30, 85, 86 etc) and tried our best to hook them up to where the old relay was (there were no numbers written on the old relay anywhere) but after 30 minutes all we could get was the fogs on all the time, even with the car completely off and key out, which meant the relay wasn't 'closing its circuit' if that's how it works (regardless if the switch was on or off).

Then, we resorted to jamming random wires in random holes to get it working at all and we blew the fuse in the fog light system. So now I need a new fuse and major relay help. Waaaaah I wish I could just take it to a shop and have them explain it to me

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I'll help you understand relays a bit. After a while of searching way back when, I made sense of it to myself.

In a 4 pin relay, the 85 and 86 pins are for your 12 volt power supply. power goes in one side, grounded on the other. When current goes through that circuit, it energizes an electromagnet, pulling a switch shut. That's where your 87 and 30 pins come in. When that circuit is energized, pulling that switch shut, it completes the circuit, allowing current flow between the 87 and 30 pins.

In a 5 pin relay, you're given an 87a pin. Now, when your 85-86 circuit is de-energized, the 87a and 30 pins are connected, while the circuit between 87 and 30 is open. When the magnet circuit is energized, the switch connecting 30 and 87a is opened to allow that switch to connect the 30 and 87 pins.

here's a picture I found to help illustrate that.


to visualize a 4 pin relay, just ignore the 87a line.

unless you already figured all that out, then I got nothing.. lol

edit: to help your cause, the 85 and 86 should be connected to your power source, for when you want your lights to be on. If you want them when your parking lights are on, then wire them to a circuit when your parking lights are on. If you want to control it with a switch at the same time, just install a switch on either side of the 85 or 86 before you connect it to either power or ground.

the 30 should be a fused connection coming from the battery (or any other +12VDC line), and the 87 pin should go to your fog lights. Then, ground your fog lights somewhere on the chassis.

Brian1037

Yeah I pretty much had all that figured out but your post did help me understand the 87a pin better. I think my mistake was assuming the "5th weird pin" (87a) was the ground and so the first thing I did was ground it. Then... well 30 mins later, bye bye fuse.

It really shouldn't have been so difficult... the wires on the new relay are labeled, so all I had to do was follow the other wires on the old relay and match them up correctly. I thought I did but the fogs were constantly on and draining the battery no matter what.

Now that I've got a 500x better understanding of circuits than when I made this thread, tomorrow or Friday I'll go out there and try again. I'll get like 5 fuses just in case lol. I printed your post btw, so I can have it beside me while wiring. Thanks.

Oh yeah and I'll also be cutting off the old relay connector (pic #1 a few posts up) because maybe the corrosion has something to do with it not working. I'll cut it off and splice the wires myself and shrinktube them. And I'll be relocating the fuse and relay to the engine bay so I don't have to take off my bumper every god damn time I do this. Today I was so angry that I managed to literally tear the bumper right behind the clips under the head lights. Now it wobbles a little bit ffs.

Ugh, things will get better. At least I don't drive a Mazda

Kennykid2002

iTrader: (1)

Lol, i dont understand circuitry for the life of me, I just connect **** together and hope it works ;P

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Here's a simple wiring diagram that illustrates the circuitry I explained in my last post. Hopefully you can make sense of it. I did label pretty much everything.




If you use a 5 pin relay, and the pigtail harness that plugs into the bottom of said 5 pin relay, I'd just tape off the loose 87a connection so you know not to use it.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i have a 5 pin relay, and i just did not use the middle (a) pin.

Brian1037

That's perfect riceboy!! Thank you so much I'm going to try it out probably later tonight because my dad felt like taking my car for a spin lol.

Awesome

Brian1037

Alright well thing's didn't go so well. Firstly for the good news... relocated the fuse and relay into the engine bay so that I don't have to take the bumper off every time I work on this. If I would've done this in the first place, this whole mess probably wouldn't even have happened because water wouldn't have gotten in.

Now the bad news. First thing I did was try to track down exactly what wire does what. As simple as it sounds, it actually took me a good 20 minutes to find out which wire is connected to the battery... the stupid things go in rubber tubing and seemingly come out different colors and enter places that make no sense. For example, the switch seemed totally out of place.



But it couldn't be right because with the old relay things were working perfectly so I know the system works. So I kept on double checking and second guessing myself on what wire does what (there's 2 red wires, and a yellow one that vanishes into a switch and either comes out a different color or just ends there I guess), so nothing added up and I spent nearly an hour working out what does what. In the end I did what I thought was right and it didn't work, and by that time it was getting dark so I finished the relocation and closed things up. I'll have to get back into it, but probably not until next week. I want a fresh mind when I try again.