2010 LS fog lights

[18wheels]

Just bought a 2010 LS.looks like the previous owner installed a set of fog/drl lights in it.they installed the harness that taps into the side marker light but they dont work.it doesn't have a relay on the harness like I've read on some post.my question is can I make this harness work or do I have to buy the right one?I do want them on all the time but don't want to put a switch inside the car if possible. Thanks

[Hamilton2400]

Turn on your parking lights and they should come on. Try that and see if it works.

[18wheels]

Originally Posted by Hamilton2400

Turn on your parking lights and they should come on. Try that and see if it works.

I've did that when I first got the car...

[Hamilton2400]

Originally Posted by 18wheels

I've did that when I first got the car...

Then you have a lose connection in the wiring or in the t-taps.

[18wheels]

Finally had a chance to look at my lights.

wire loom comes off fog light goes up and you can see 2 wires that go to side marker light.Directly above fog light housing is a bunch of wires that that go to what looks like a junction. (Purple clip) that bunch of wires are going into the same loom from fog light.from what I've read,install lights. Run wires from drivers side to passenger.tap into marker light.

[18wheels]

After getting some sleep, I see I forgot to ask my question. It Looks like fog light were wired into factory harness. Do I have to buy a harness to make these lights work? What I'm wanting to do is have fog lights come on when I start the car but turn off the other lights. (Wife loves that look)
Can I run wires to do that?put a toggle switch in line so I can turn them off when ignition is on but car isn't running. Thanks.

[BUZZCAMARO]

2WA

Originally Posted by 18wheels

Just bought a 2010 LS.looks like the previous owner installed a set of fog/drl lights in it.they installed the harness that taps into the side marker light but they dont work.it doesn't have a relay on the harness like I've read on some post.my question is can I make this harness work or do I have to buy the right one?I do want them on all the time but don't want to put a switch inside the car if possible. Thanks

I just installed a set in my LS about 1 week ago and I was about to do a write up about the experience to assist others as it was not as easy as it was presented by the ads on ebay or the youtube vid links provided.

I still intend to do this post with pics and tips about what I learned and so forth, but I will first try to help you out.

I don't know if yours has the wiring harness the same as mine, but it probably works the same way evan if it is not. My kit came with a "splicer", which is supposed to connect the blue wire to one of the side markers wires.

Perhaps like mine, the "splicer" is not doing it's job, which is one of the many problems I had, and I ended up cutting and soldering the blue wire to the proper wire. TO find out which wire, I removed the light bulb socket and stuck it in the socket. I'm pretty good at soldering, so did not bother to go to radio shack to look at better splicing kits, I just soldered it and said done.

Later I got a bottle of liquid electric tape which I'll cover up any bare wire with very soon as soon as this cold ass Michigan weather will let up on us. This is sold at Lowe's, and it's kept where the other stuff like wire strippers and electrical tape are.

The fogs work, and they come on when either the parking lights and or the headlights are on.

The side marker wire I tapped into was I believe grey with a white stripe, the other was brown, lighting wasn't the best but it was defintaltey the lighter color wire.

Don't pull the side marker light out of the socket to test it, because you won't be able to get it back in, which is where I left off. I just need to get that bulb back in there and it is incredibly diffiucult to perhaps impossible to do so. I just don't want to try to fix this until it warms up because I had no luck doing it and I spent about an hour. In total, about 12 hours were spent, and as I said, I still need to dress the wires and also tuck the harness and fasten with the plastic ties, aim them, re-install the wheel weld screws.

Since the other wire hook-ups are very easy, I doubt if thats the problem and why you should check to see if the one going to the side maker is hooked up correct.

My wire harness costed $116 (ouch),, yeah, and the instructions were not especially for this car which they claimed they would be. There are only 3 wires to hook up besides the plug-in to the bulbs, but they never said which wire and where to tap into on the side marker.

I don't know where yours is tapped into the side marker, mine was done inside of the fender from inside the wheel weld, by pulling back the black plastic liner. Maybe yours is tapped into the wire which leads to the side marker and located near the fuse box or on the side. Where ever yours is that is what I'd check first. Besides that, I'd make sure your negative is contacting bare metal and not paint. Remove the black wire's screw, and if it is not contacting bare metal, that could also be the problem..

Here is some pics to help: The RED positive hooked up to the fuse boxes terminal (easy)



BLACK wire hooked up under the screw which showed bare metal (other screw near weather stripping had paint under it)..



Besides the red and black wire, there was a BLUE wire which I hooked up to the grey and white striped
(not the brown one) which lead directly to the front/pass. side marker (turn signal).. this is located inside
the wheel weld.


As I stated earlier, the wiring harness kit came with a "splicer" which did not work when I tried it on either wire.
This is why I decided to pull out the light bulb from the side marker so I could check it and be sure before I cut
either wire leading to it. The splicer did not work and I made sure it was fully all the way into the wire, I don't know
why I even tried to use it, but I am not saying all splicers should be avoided, just that this one seems to be low quality.

Your pics are showing the wiring harness going into the fogs if I'm not mistaken, and I don't see a separate "blue" wiree
so your harness may not be the same as mine. I hope the pics helped, and if not than I hope somebody with similar wiring can and will help you.

I could go into more detail with tips for others wanting to add fogs to an LS, but that would be best kept for a new post.

Here is the "SIDE MARKER" I'm refering to which I can't finagle the bulb/socket back into the thing to save my life, and it was easy to
remove, but seems I'll have to take off the entire front end to get it back in.





Those are H3 "smoked" lamps and as you see are wired for "on with parking lamps and on when headlights are on" as shown on
this page of the in-adequate instructions.

As you see on the instructions which came with the harness, it said to hook up the blue wire to terminal #85 and 86, which don't evan exist on an LS.
Maybe it was possible to hook up the blue wire to the side marker in a different location instead of where I did it, but those harness' are complicated
so I wanted to make sure I was tapping into the side marker.

[18wheels]

Thank you so much....

[BUZZCAMARO]

Originally Posted by 18wheels

Thank you so much....

But we are wondering if you've gotten them working and on when you want them?

On mine, I did go over the bare wire with the liquid electrical tape stuff I got at Lowe's, worked dandy. I also was able to get the side marker back in it's socket by simply un-plugging the wire harness from it (not the fog's harness, the side marker's) and after I got it back into it's groove which locks in place by turning it sideways than level. After the bulb/socket was in it's hole, I than plugged the side marker's harness back in.

I skipped over many details which I think would save many much time depending on how mechanically inclined they are. I will get around to posting a new thread about it, but meanwhile if anybody else is stuck on a problem ask because I am ready to explain it. But here are a few more quickie tips:

The first step to installing fogs is to remove the factory dummy bezels, which is held in place by FIVE clips which have to be pushed in or they remain hooked in place. I found it very difficult to do this, but by the time I got to the 2nd bezel, I decided it would rush things up by hours if I first drilled a hole in the front of the bezel, I used a hole drill which is shown in this pic:



You could use other size hole drills, mine was 2.25". Or use one that is the exact size hole you need for fogs which is 3", just make sure you got it centered exactly, and than don't use the pilot drill (removeable), and don't let it skip across as that would scratch it up badly. These bezels can be used for the fogs if you desire and as many did, this would save you approximately $50 (what I paid for genuine factory GM fog bezels). That $ could fill up your tank and it's not very hard to ream out the center so they are virtually the same as those you'd buy aftermarket.

Also in that pic, I wanted to show that package of nylon nuts because I had to go buy them at Autozone in order to install the one which is used for the adjustment screw. Seems those that came with the foglights were not nylon but plastic and both of them snapped in half when I installed them. The pic shows the nut which snapped in half, it's the black one on the left of the clear nylon replacement. They were designed very poorly made of brittle hard plastic. After I used wire cutters to trim off some of the excess outer edge of the new nylon washers, they went in perfectly.

When your working under the wheel weld, point the tire the opisite direction of the one your working on, so it's wheel to the right while doing the fog on the driver side, this gives you more room. The plastic wheel weld is held in place by #15 torx screws, remove 3 on each side and than just push the wheel weld out of the way.

Also I found that the black plastic ties which came with the harness were very tiny and not one of them was useable, I used much larger ties to fasten up the hanging wires. This kind of issue is one of the things which can really get under your skin if you have to make another trip to the hardware store.

[18wheels]

Ending up going to the parts store and buying a fog light wiring kit for $14.00.came with everything needed(relay wires and a switch which hides nicely under th dash)bought wire loom and a couple other things...$20.00 total. It can be wired through ign, or marker light but got a new tool and hooked it to a switch.