I thought I'd better start a new thread on this rather than continue here...

Foglights on a 76 with backdated bumpers

I'm down to the wiring. It "appears" that everything is in place although my 76 never had factory fog lights. The wiring to the fog lights is in place and terminates in factory connectors behind the front panel. The three wires to the fog light switch are ready to hook up behind the dash. It looks like the fog light relay is there (last round relay on the fuse panel?) and I have power at the #10 fuse (red with black tracer) that I think powers the fog lights.

I installed the factory fog light switch and no go (no power to the fog light connectors behind the front panel.

What am I missing? Hopefully something simple like, key needs to be on, headlights need to be on? Or is there some of the wiring still missing?

Thanks.

Headlights need to be on.

Get it figured out, then install a J West relay, $25 well spent.

headlights

Thanks, guys.

Hopefully it will be that simple (and it will be a first with this car )

I'll report back tomorrow.

Here's a thought. I wired my fog lights through an independent relay and then to the fog light switch, separate from the headlight switch. Now I can use my fog lights whenever I want, as DRL's for example, without having to pop up and run my headlights. Love it that way!

So that was it. The headlights and ignition need to be on. With that, I have power to the fog light harness behind the front panel.

It somewhat amazes me that Porsche installed the complete fog light wiring harness, and the relay on cars that were not delivered with fog lights (at least these late cars). All that is needed electrically is to plug the three wires into a fog light switch and install it in the dash.



Thanks for your help!

Yep, and of course, you do need to locate the hole that's covered with the basketweave. But it's all there, ready to go.

Nice job Dick, glad you got it figgered out. There's different ways of doing it but the JWest relay allows you to use your fogs to signal other drivers without turning on your headlights. I consider it a safety feature, worth the $.

Thanks for your help (again) Porschef!

I did the same, I was driving in fog last year and found that the fog lights weren't much use. I was wanting to turn the headlights off and drive with just the fog lights but no go, now I can.

Be careful doing that, especially if your fog lights have been replaced with driving lights (like me). The low angle bounces the light of the road into on-coming traffic, and I had cars flashing thier lights at me as if I had my high-beams on until I fugured it out.

I basically treat my "fog" lights like high-beams now (and boy howdy to they work well that way!)

Zach

This reminds me of the Volvo 850's, they had seat heating elements and wiring all in place. If you had a car without the factory seat heaters all you had to do was buy the switch, pop out the blank, install the switch and then you'd have heated seats.

Cheaper for a company to keep track of one wiring harness part number I assume, plus fewer differences on the production line and easily retrofittable at dealerships when new.