Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum. I've had my Dodge Dakota for a couple of years now, and love it more and more over time. I don't love the gas mileage, but that's another issue.

I have a pair of Bosch fog lamps that I've had for years just sitting in a box. All the instructions are there, and I want to mount them on the Manik grill guard. My question is how do I safely wire them into my Dakota? Any one have any suggestions. I'm afraid of blowing something. The truck is a 2002, but the last time I wired anything in any vehicle of mine was about 20 years ago. Things were a lot less complicated then!

Any info can only be helpful!

Thanks,
Jimbo

 

hi and welcome to DF.......does your turck have the option of pulling the headlight switch out?

not disconnecting anythign but just turn ur lights on and pull the ****???

 

loudpedal i think that is the only switch offered on that year

so my question is did your truck come w/ fog lights in the bumper????


if you answered yes to my question than you could probably jsut tap into those wires up behind the bumper

the other consideration is when do you want the lights to go on??

 

I would just hook it up to a remote switch and mount it on the dash some where

 

Yes it does have fog lamps in the bumper. I wanted to add the Bosch lamps. I was worried about adding too many amps to a circuit and wrecking an alternator or melting some wires. I was thinking there may be a tap somewhere in the fuse box someone knew about for accessories that I could hook into. If I tap into the bumper lights, the Bosch lights would only go on when I have the bumper lights on. At that point, I was worried about that wire meltdown.

 

I too want to know what is available to tap into on the fuse box. I am installing aux lights with a switch in the cab. I want to find an ignition on power source that can handle a set of 100w floods.

 

The best way to do this is to tap into the positive wire at one of the OE fog lamps. Use the positive voltage that should be present only when the fog lamps are on to trigger a relay that will provide power from the battery positive post to the new fog lamps. Just get a regular 30 amp Bosch relay from the parts store. Wire the relay like this:

Terminal 85 to a good solid ground
Terminal 86 to the positive wire on the OE fog lamp
Terminal 87 to the battery positive post
Terminal 30 goes out to the positive wires on both your new fog lamps
No connection on terminal 87a but it should be insulated to avoid shorts. You can just slide an insulated female spade terminal on it to insulate it.

This will allow you to connect the lights independently of the OE fog lamp circuit but the new fog lamps will still turn on with the headlight switch, same as the OE fog lamps. But you won't run the risk of burning anything up on the light circuit. Be sure to put a fuse equal to that of the Bosch fog lamps in line on the battery positive connection, no less than 6 inches from the battery connection. If the lights draw a lot of power make sure to use an appropriate wire gauge for the power wire from the battery, the output to the new fog lamps and for the grounds to the new lights. The wire that taps into the OE lamp positive wire and the wire for the ground on terminal 85 on the relay need not be that large. All they do is energize the coil of the relay.

If you want to be able to turn the new fog lamps off so you just run the OE foglamps, you could put a toggle switch inline on the relay input wire that is connected to the OE fog lamp positive wire and mount it somewhere in the cab. You might want to consider adding the toggle switch because 1. You might not always need all those lights on at the same time and 2. There may be laws where you live concerning how many lights you can have on at the same time on the front of the truck unless you are driving off-road.

Jimmy

 

This is exactly what I needed. Let me ask, if I connect terminal 86 to the low beam positive side of the headlights, I can use the Bosch and the OE fog lamps independently and all go off if I switch to highbeam headlights keeping it legal, right?

 

Yes you could do it that way too. I would pick up the positive headlight wire at the headlight though to keep from causing any trouble with the Central Timer Module. If you did it with using the OE fog lamp as the positive input to the relay the Bosch and the OE fog lamps will all go out anyway. Unless you have changed the OE fog lamp wiring like some DAkota owners have done, the factory wires the truck to turn off the fog lamps when the high beams are selected. This keeps everything 50-state legal.

Jimmy

 

Good info thank you o1silver