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Date Posted: 20:00:29 07/01/02 Mon
Author: Chris Chow, DBMWN2ZS
Subject: rear foglight writeup article
In reply to: Chris Chow, DBMWN2ZS 's message, "My all new pics!!!" on 19:06:24 06/27/02 Thu

hello,

first off, all the usual disclaimers... HTH, YMMV, FWIW, DAYOR, etc etc.

i did this on my US Spec '89 325i. with the newer style tail lights. i don't know how it would apply to the older tail light style, since i haven't looked closely at it. but i suspect it would be pretty similar.

let's start in the trunk. when you take off the bulb housing cover, it had printed on the inside, in german 'MIT NSL' and 'OHNE NSL'. the 'OHNE NSL' had a line striked through it. they mean, respectively, 'with foglight' and 'no foglight' NSL is the german abbreviation for foglight, NebelScheinwerferLicht, or something to that effect. so, this shows that the bulb housing receptacle has a spot for the rear fogs, which are underneath the reverse bulbs. i just had to put bulbs in the bulb housings, no need to take it apart and wire the bulb housing up (although i did take mine apart to verify this. the wires are all there).

next, the little wiring harness for the rear tail lights has 5 wires going to it, but a spot for a sixth. the current 5 are (in no specific order): ground (brown), turnsignal, brake light, parking light, and reverse light. the sixth is for the rear fog. i carefully opened up the wiring harness connector, and put in a wire for the 6th spot.

now put everything back together so far, and you'll just have 2 leads from the tail lights. i connected them together, so the rear fogs run in parallel. all you have to do at this point, is connect the wires to a +12V source to light up the rear fogs. i ran the (now single) wire along the left edge of the trunk, up behind the carpet panels, to the spot back through the rear seat, into the cabin, and along the left edge of the inside of the bottom door trim. all the way up to the front, and inside the speaker kick panel. now you're where the action is, by the gauge cluster, etc.

i used a euro dual factory foglight switch, but you can use any basic switch you want. i drew +12V power from a wire that is only active with the ignition on. that happened to be the same place where i drew power from for the front foglights. so that they can run independent of the parking lights/headlights (but that is a different write-up). wire the switch in, and you're all set! rear foglights! and boy, are they bright!

a little extra added feature i put in was a spot on the gauge cluster lights up when the rear fogs go on, in the same way the front fogs do. the front fogs have the green light, and there are a few open and unused spaces on the left side of the cluster to do with as you wish. i picked the open blank orange spot just to the right of the front fogs. i had a burnt out gauge cluster bulb laying around, and i modified that for use. it is the little 'push-and-twist-90-degrees' bulb with the big black housing. i took it apart and took out the bulb. broke the leads, but left in the 'push-and-twist' functionality for securing the bulb in place. i put in a little 12v milliamp bulb from radio shack. i will find out the radio shack p/n tonite, i got 3 extra at home... i was lucky, it lights up with just the right intensity. i wired this bulb in parallel with the rear fogs, across the switch. so it goes on when the switch is closed, along with the rear fogs! :) just a little nifty extra to add a nice touch.

i was pretty proud of myself for getting this done. it looks great, and i know how to do it for next time! and any other things i might have to add. built in radar detector? aux fan switch? immobilization techniqes? alarm LED? etc etc. many possibilities.

-chris chow, DBMWN2ZS

guys, i will also try to find the articles i have on my computer at home. the clutch stop, blinking sidemarker lights, and ford rustang O2 sensor.

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