BlueFrenzy

Hey guys

I've been reading up on doing the fog light rewire
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...7&page=1&pp=15

Shamblerock and I have been chatting and neither of us have attempted it yet.

My hang up is that I'm concerned about differences between US spec and Canadian spec 8's. Are there any? I know that Canzoomer posted early on when the DIY was being started and that a guy named AcuraEL tried it but was having troubles. Not sure if he was sucessful.

Anyhoo, let us know if you've been sucessful! Otherwise, I'm the guinea pig! Going to give it a shot this Easter.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

Maybe I'm missing your point, why would you want to do the re-wire?

US spec cars were trying to get the fogs on without the headlights having to be on.....we have the DRLs, so your re-wire would just be a choice of -
1/fogs and headlights
or
2/fogs and DRL's

I don't see the difference?

A more relevant mod might be to get the fogs with NO DRLs, but this mod won't do it......

S

BlueFrenzy

Well, my thinking was to have fogs on WITHOUT headlights. Today it was quite foggy and snowy in my area ... the Xenon's were bouncing off the fog and snow making it annoying to see. A month or so ago, the fog was so thick that I was only able to see ~10-15m ahead (Xenon's weren't helping) but lucky it was daytime.

The point of fog lights is to have a light that illuminates at an angle that doesn't reflect into the driver's eyes. With our current wiring, Xenon's come on with fogs, thus defeating the purpose of fogs. If I had the regular headlights I don't think that it would be that much of a problem but the Xenon's really give that "white wall" effect.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...9/eng99319.htm

I realize that with this mod the DRL will still be on (I hope) with the fogs, but the DRL are of lower intensity and won't interfere with visibility as much (DRLs are not designed for illumination). So that is the difference, hence my desire for the mod (for safety and visibility).

Shamblerock

RIIIGGGHHHHTTTTT!!!!!!

But not because it looks terribly cool at the same time!! :D (My main reason)

wcs

iTrader: (2)

No really blue has a point. I live on the Escarpment about 40 minutes north of Brampton straight up Hwy 10 and we get some ugly *** fog not to mention snow. I too would like to know how to do this re-wire correctly.
Good call blue

My question is why don't they let you do this from the factory? As long as your DRL are on what diff does it make if your fogs are on or off on a clear day?

PS -- and it looks real kewl too :D

khtm

Hey Blue, if you get it figured out and do it to your car, I'll give you some beeeeeeeers to do it to mine :D

AcuraEL

Just to let ppl know I was not successful in the foglight rewire. It is terrible design, just like the air condition setup of NOT allowing me to blow air to the windshield WITHOUT A/C on. Anyone have a fix for this?

Simply dumb designs. I don't need a car to tell me when I can or cannot use the foglight or when I can or cannot disable the A/C.

Rant done for now. :p

BlueFrenzy

I think that the Canadian bylaws regarding fogs are that they are required to be on only when headlights are on (defeating their purpose!). Not certain about the logic there.

you guys are jerks ... making me the Canadian guinea pig. :D I'll let you guys know this weekend.

wcs

iTrader: (2)

I'll bring you a case of beer next time I'm in Winnipeg :D

BlueFrenzy

^^ Winnipeg??? I'm not going to Winnipeg for beer! Just FedEx the beer over (along with your 8) ... I'll try the re-wire for you but can't guarantee that I won't put extra km's on your car. Ha ha.

Anyhoo, I spoke to Canzoomer (he's from Edmonton) and he's done the wiring and says it works fine (Omnicron's method). Let you guys know on the weekend!

wcs

iTrader: (2)

Sorry blue I thought you were from Winnipeg... I'm a dumbass I can't remember why I thought that you from Winnipeg??????

Well I guess that means two cases then.

scoop

I am almost certain that it is the law to have the fogs come on with the low beams only and extinguish when you switch to high beams. I installed a Bosch set once years ago and the installation instructions told you to wire them exactly like that. My Audi and Subaru factory ones are exactly the same also, this is not a Mazda mistake . . . The fogs on all of my cars have pathetic light output and you would never want to run them on their own. They just help illuminate the side of the road for a very short distance so that when creeping along in near zero visibility you don't drive off the edge. The xenons on the 8 have about the sharpest cutoff of any headlights I have ever seen. In terms of reflected light off of snow or fog you are probably already in better shape than 99% of the cars on the road. I personally wouldn't mess with the setup, you will lose far more visibility than you can ever gain. Besides that the fog lights on the 8 are more like a decoration anyways, they are probably a quarter of the size of the ones on my Subaru and I consider those ones to be of very marginal value also. I certainly wouldn't hack up my car over this one . . .

Not sure if I get this, there is a separate defrost button with a windshield icon on it (not the stuff you toggle through) and I don't think you need to run the A/C with it? In any case running the A/C while defrosting is actually a good idea and I have purposely done that in other cars. The A/C acts as a dehumidifier, this really speeds the defrosting/defogging operation, some car manuals even tell you to do that. You can still crank up the heat and the A/C at the same time so you won't freeze to death. There are cold temperature cutoff switches on most car A/C units so at very cold temperatures this trick won't work. It's also good to run the A/C now and then anyways to keep the seals well lubricated in the compressor so it doesn't start to leak. So even if the car does this (and I didn't notice) it's not a bad thing . . .

AcuraEL

Thanks scoop, I know the functionalities of the A/C system and the benefits of defrosting. All I was asking for is the choice to have the flow of fresh un-A/C'ed air to the windshield for times when fresh outside air is all that is needed to keep it free of fog. I like the slightly lower drag to the engine output. The system does not allow me to do that. I also know that running A/C once in a while is recommended, but I do not like it turned on all the time.

StealthTL

iTrader: (1)

For the a/c question, the only way I have found is to pull the fuse for the compressor clutch for the winter. (10amp, right at the front of the fuse box) Then the ECU thinks it is still 'fooling' you, and the controls work as they should. If you need it switchable you could run wires to a cab switch from that fuse. :D

S

BlueFrenzy

So I attempted the rewire this weekend and like AcuraTL couldn't get it to work. I was looking at the wiring diagrams and figured that we have the DRL system that makes the American version of the wiring not applicable. We have to come up with our own wiring.

I figure that we have to bypass the DRL and get our wiring to be similar to the American. Challenge is making sure the DRL still works! I'm chicken to start cutting more wires so I'll have to ponder about this some more until I'm 100% certain.