I just installed some foglights on my 98 impreza L. I tapped them right into the low beam wires for the headlights. Now i am worried that i am gonna pull too much current through the wires and melt them they are 55w lights is this ok or should i disconnect them and try another way? If another way any ideas i dont want a switch i want them to work as if they were stock lights.

thanks

 

You have a couple of options.

You can leave them as they are and rely on the fuse to blow if you are pulling too much current, because in theory the fuse should be sized to protect the wires. However in my experience the size of the headlight wire (in Canada anyway) is too small to supply even the stock headlights by themselves.

You're other option (I think the better one) is to install a relay. If you ground one side of the coil, and connect the other side to the low beam wires for the headlights (connect it right where you have the fogs now), then the relay will operate when you turn the low beams on and off. Then run a wire from the pos side of the battery to one side of the contact in the relay, and from the other side of the contact to one wire on the fog lights. Then you ground the other wire on the fog lights.

Now the power for the fogs is coming straight from the battery, and the only extra current that you are drawing from the low beam wires is enough to operate the relay, which is very little (just a few watts)

If you have any questions, just respond to this thread, and I'll help you out.

Steve

 

hey thanks for the info. I emailed peaty a few days ago and he told me to do the same but i changed it up a bit instead of tapping into my headlights i tapped into my parking lights i used a 30 amp relay from radio shack it works perfect i also have a 15 amp inline fuse going into the relay so i should be pretty safe with that i would think

 

That should work just fine. If I recall #18 wire (which is probably what the fogs come with) is good for 18 amps. Unless it is bundled with other wires in which case it is only good for 14 amps. However two 55 watt bulbs should only draw just over 9 amps. So unless something goes wrong, your wires should be ok.

One thing I shold note, try to have your fuse as close to the battery as possible. Any wire that is between the battery and fuse is not protected.

Steve

 

yea i got the fuse covered i don audio installs and i keep them 6 inches from the battery thats one thing im very careful with ive seen what happens when something goes wrong adn they didnt fuse it right. But thanks again for the info all the questions i had have been answered

 

Good, I'm glad I could help