I've searched and figured out which wires splice into which to make this work. My question is can I simply connect the aftermarket wiring to the stock wiring? Or do I need to do something else to ensure that nothing melts or simply stops working?

I've literally been to every junkyard in my local area and I just found the 95-99 switch out of a Z24 Vert so I really don't want to mess the switch up. Right now, my driving lights are wired up to a Pilot rocker switch. The lights are Hella 1300's with 55w Luminics Ultra White bulbs, if that makes any difference.

just add a relay. run a small gauge wire from power to your switch and from the witch output run that to a relay for the lights

exactly. when in doubt, use a relay.



car audio noob since 1984.

Yes they are right. Those switches can not handle the current for running your fogs, it is only a switch to turn on a relay.






^CLICK ME TO SEE HOW I BUILT EVERYTHING^ How To in Interior Forum

Nice. I will be doing this.

yeah i found this out the hard way... doesnt smell very nice.



1997 Cavalier Z24 - 15.647 @ 88.02 MPH

yep me too, burnt the @!#$ out of my finger and the path on the circuit board cut a lead off a resistor and solder it over the burnt path and its good to go but the light still does not work

use really small wired. first time i didn't use relay the the switch melted, then i used a relay and it still melted the switch again. wires were too big.

Magik1109 wrote:use really small wired. first time i didn't use relay the the switch melted, then i used a relay and it still melted the switch again. wires were too big.

Did the smaller wire help the second time around?

What gauge of wire is needed for this? I plan to to do the same with my 04 cav.


Just a 55watt set of Pro Burners for me, but at $10 for the pair I wasn't complaining

Eternal wrote:

Magik1109 wrote:use really small wired. first time i didn't use relay the the switch melted, then i used a relay and it still melted the switch again. wires were too big.

Did the smaller wire help the second time around?

wait a minute here... wires were too big?? I'm not sure what you know about electricity but one thing i know for a fact is that the wires can never be too big. I'm not trying to be an ass but wire size wouldn't have fried the switch if you had the relay and everything hooked up properly.

Bigger wire can handle more amperage with out heating and melting but amperage isn't regulated by wire size. Amperage is regulated by voltage and resistance.

The problem with running high wattage fogs through your stock switch is that the switch isn't designed to take the higher amperage. The high amps makes the switch heat up and melt (the yummy smell). You need the relay to control (switch on and off) the high amperage load (lights) with a lower amperage switch (stock switch). The relay allows the switch to do its job but keeps it from being exposed to the high amperage of the lights. I'm way too tired to find them now but if you search around a bit you'll find some nice diagrams of how to wire the relay.

As far as wire size for wiring them, the fogs will draw about 10amps together

55W*2= 110W

110W/12V = 9.17A

so for the foglight wires you would need at least a 16ga bu i'd go with a 14ga myself. The wires from the switch to the relay doesn't need to be very big but i'd go with a 16ga.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Tuesday, July 15, 2008 9:59 PM

yea you should be fine with 16ga