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Fog Lights on without Park Lights

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Old Sep 28, 2015 | 10:48 AM
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Default Fog Lights on without Park Lights

Has anyone tried to change wiring or switching so the fog lights will come on without the headlights or park lights being turned on? Also being able to leave the fog lights on with high beams. My F150 is a 2012.
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Old Sep 28, 2015 | 10:58 AM
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my 08 does this from the factory... did not know they changed it... fogs can be modded to stay on with high beams...bambi mod
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Old Sep 28, 2015 | 11:07 AM
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Originally Posted by stan5686
Has anyone tried to change wiring or switching so the fog lights will come on without the headlights or park lights being turned on? Also being able to leave the fog lights on with high beams. My F150 is a 2012.
Fog lights are for ... wait for it...... Fog (a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth's surface that obscures or restricts visibility) Misuse of Fog light can cause drivers in the opposite direction to be temporarily blinded, especially on rolling hill roads, and that's a bad thing. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way.

I can see the use of having them on without the headlights and so did Ford, however, to be courteous and visible to the people behind you, Ford does require that the parking lights be on to use them. You can override it by tapping into the Fog relay and connecting it to a stand alone switch.

Having the Fog lights on with the brights, that's just weird. The whole reason why the Fog lights exist is to prevent reflection back into the driver's face. Brights do the complete opposite. With the brights overpowering everything else, you will not even see the Fogs. Again, you can use the same switch mentioned above to perform that function.

Be aware that Federal, State and Local ordinances require certain criteria to use the fog light and misuse (such as having them on when there is no fog) will result in a ticket. Especially if you catch the Trooper, Deputy or Officer on a bad night. And the ticket is a hefty one to boot, usually $500 to $800 depending on your state.
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Old Sep 28, 2015 | 10:01 PM
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To me I think the fogs onwhile the brights are on would be good. The brights are aimed for far down road visibility and don't illuminate well up close. The fogs could fill that gap up close.
Plus I wouldn't have my brights on with an oncoming car heading my way so no blinding.
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Old Sep 28, 2015 | 10:25 PM
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I'm all you would need to do it wire in a relay and switch. And tap just the positive wire on one fog light. The wires are on both lights are connected so just tapping one wire provides power to both.
I wired my fogs to my parking light just so the fogs come on when I unlock my truck for approach lighting. Good luck
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Old Sep 28, 2015 | 11:07 PM
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Originally Posted by techrep
my 08 does this from the factory... did not know they changed it... fogs can be modded to stay on with high beams...bambi mod
I had the Bambi Mod on my 07, unfortunately, I was pulled over and the nice officer informed me that it was not nice to do that and they this was my one and only warning. I removed it, not worth a $700 ticket (in Ohio)

As the 09-14 trucks, lights are controlled by the BCM, so I am not sure how to do it. I would guess since both the High Beam to Fog wires are negative (-) it could be as simple as jumping them using a diode, so that the High Beam signal bleeds to the Fogs, but not vise versa, but then again, the BCM might be programmed to ignore the fog signal.

You can always do what rymax101 did. It will require a little more grunt work, but it will work. And if you want to, you can tie it into a switch in the cab, and turn them on at will.
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Old Sep 29, 2015 | 06:52 AM
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I'm gonna try to get more information on how the circuit for the fog lights is actually ran and set up. I saw a diagram of it on here somewhere I'm pretty sure. I actually wouldn't mind if the fog lights were on any time the truck is running like some GM vehicles did at one time.
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Old Sep 29, 2015 | 10:02 AM
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Originally Posted by soaringfalcon
Fog lights are for ... wait for it...... Fog (a thick cloud of tiny water droplets suspended in the atmosphere at or near the earth's surface that obscures or restricts visibility) Misuse of Fog light can cause drivers in the opposite direction to be temporarily blinded, especially on rolling hill roads, and that's a bad thing. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way.

I can see the use of having them on without the headlights and so did Ford, however, to be courteous and visible to the people behind you, Ford does require that the parking lights be on to use them. You can override it by tapping into the Fog relay and connecting it to a stand alone switch.

Having the Fog lights on with the brights, that's just weird. The whole reason why the Fog lights exist is to prevent reflection back into the driver's face. Brights do the complete opposite. With the brights overpowering everything else, you will not even see the Fogs. Again, you can use the same switch mentioned above to perform that function.

Be aware that Federal, State and Local ordinances require certain criteria to use the fog light and misuse (such as having them on when there is no fog) will result in a ticket. Especially if you catch the Trooper, Deputy or Officer on a bad night. And the ticket is a hefty one to boot, usually $500 to $800 depending on your state.
Ok.

Last edited by stan5686; Sep 29, 2015 at 10:06 AM.
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Old Oct 9, 2015 | 05:53 PM
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Why do you want to change them? Is there a particular reason?
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Old Oct 10, 2015 | 11:31 AM
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I've had several vehicles in the past with running lights that were on anytime the motor was running. Or like some GMs used to be, maybe still are, there would be frt. lights on when the park brake was released. I have watched other vehicles on the road and those with some type of lighting in the frt. were more visible.
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