New Member.. Fog Light question!

[tundra54]

First off I must say what a great site with alot of useful information.. I'm new here so bear with me.. I Tried a search and came up with some info but not a whole lot.. Here goes.....

My beloved 297k mile 2001 Tundra was in a fender bender today.. Old man at the gas station backed right into me.. This had to happen two weeks after I had my front and rear bumpers repainted...My front bumper obviously needs replaced... I have a question about possibly installing foglights since the bumper is already off the car..

When the bumper came off, I noticed that I had two plugs behind the fog light plastic panels.. I'm assuming that these are for the fog lights??? I looked online and checked on ebay and see that you can buy the oem foglights for $63 a piece.. Is all I do is plug these fog lights in and get a switch from my dealer and they will work? I have the little black button delete next to my steering wheel.. I removed that and there is a plug in the back of it.. I'm assuming this is for the fog light switch??

If what I saw was correct, all I would need is 2 fog lights and a switch? Can anybody verify this? Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks people!!

[stevekx]

Don't know where the fog light switch was for 2001, in 2003 it is part of the headlight switch stalk. However you can easily test it, first you find the wiring connection where the fog light would be and connect a test light to it. Then "short out" the switch connection in the dash and your test light by the front should go on. I think this needs to be done with the key on.

[bstaley]

Originally Posted by stevekx

I think this needs to be done with the key on.

You'll probably need to have the headlights on as well.

[stevekx]

Oh yes they need to be on with low beam, althoug I was able to rewire my 2003 so they are on all the time. Its like having a DLR.

[MMitsock]

If I remember correctly my '00 Tundra's fog light switch was on the dash to the lower left of the steering column.

[DougNewsom]

You will have to buy a relay to that Toyota sells for about 60 bucks or at least I did for my 05

[Tundra Truck Driver]

would that relay be available online as well? where could i find it?

[DougNewsom]

Call your local dealer... they looked up which one I needed with my VIN number

[Tonerman44]

In my opinion (for what its worth), forget the wires, cut off the connectors so you have enough left to splice to. Get the OEM lights, put in your own relay then put a toggle switch someplace near the bottom of the dash. Hook your switch to a switched hot in the fuse panel and run it to the relay. Run the power for the lights through the relay directly to the battery. They will charge you an arm and a leg for the turn signal stalk and you will have to put in a ton of work to make it look OEM.

[andy peck]

Stay stock they look neat and clean. Sounds to me that all you need is a switch to replace the dummy one and a bumper that will accomodate fog lights. If you look in classifieds for parts you will probably find a complete bumper w/lights. I did, and purchased and very happy. Good luck.

[peteyc20]

Do not try and run foglights without a relay.

Modern fog lights can pull a healthy 100+ watts each. On a 12VDC circuit this translates to 20 amps of current total.

Switches just aren't built to handle that much current for long and they WILL overheat and eventually burn up unless you only run your fog lights for short periods.

It doesn't really require a "OEM" relay or anything expensive. Fog light wiring kits at your local parts house would be just fine. Just be sure and use a relay. You'd really feel bad if your dash melted because you wanted to save a couple bucks.

Also you should check your wiring and find the actual circuit in the factory wiring harness that's already waiting for you rather than try and tap in to an existing wire. I'm sure there's a blue/white (whatever) wire running from the fuseblock that dead ends where the switch should be. That wire (whatever color) and circuit are a good heavy gauge wire capable of handling the load of fog lights. Adding those big fogs to a circuit that's already going to something else will just overload it and blow fuses. If you replace with a bigger fuse you'll likely cook the wires.

Don't let it scare you, it's really not that hard, just don't try and take too many shortcuts. Doing it right the first time takes a whole lot less time and money than having to go back and fix a sloppy job later.

[miltonmettee]

If yours is like my '00, there are two blanks on the dash. the one on the far left is for the fog lights, and the OEM part has a symble on it. The other blank is for the start overide if you have stick shift tranny. dale m.