Fitting Fog Lights to a 180sx

[Chiron]

Just fitted a rear fog light to my girlfriends imported 180sx. After trawling through the wiring diagrams in the manual and pulling the dash out I discovered that there is a connector for the fog light switch behind the dash panel. It was taped up to the loom (presumably from the factory) and hidden out of the way. Once clear I checked the pinouts and they were the same as the UK spec Fog light switch BUT the connector is a different size. So I cut off the old connector and soldered on one to fit the UK spec fog light switch. ( I had this 'in-stock' but you could get one off a scrap car ).
Next step was to rummage in the boot to find the Fog Light connector. it turns out it was on the loom just above the reversing light. I made up another connector for this and fitted a 21W lamp to the other end. The lamp sits just inside the RH inner tail light.
...and thats it, no need for aftermarket fog light switches or fog lights hanging off your rear bumper. It looks original and works a treat.
I've got some pics but don't know how to put them up here so PM me if you want them or if you know how to do it. I've also converted the speedo using a UK spec MPH unit removed from a UK instrument cluster ( and corrected the mileage so it now reads in Miles not Kilometers).

Just got to do the MOT and register it now!

cheers!

[Daniel H]

That's pleased me . It's a job I keep meaning to do on mine, but keep putting off. If mine is the same it will save alot of hassle

[Rude Dog]

Can you post some pics up of the lamp mounting in the lights please

[Daniel H]

Right. I've tried doing this today, and think I must be going wrong somewhere.

I've got a UK switch and wiring block. I connected the wiring in the boot to one of the reversing bulbs (painted red). I then I put spade connectors on the wires on the switch to fit into the jap spec connector block, and connected the wires in the same orientation as the block, but it didn't work. The wires are different colours, so I'm not sure if they are right.

On the jap connector block there are 3 pairs of wires:
a red wire with blue trace + a green wire with red trace that is live with the lights turned off
another red wire with blue trace + black that is live with the lights turned on
and an orange wire + orange with black trace that isn't live with the lights on or off

Which wires should I connect from the UK switch to the jap connector for it to work

Failing that, which wires should I use from the UK switch to wire it up seperatley from the loom, for the switch to light up with the lights, and the "on" indicator to work.

Any help is greatly appreciated

[Chiron]

At the switch connector you should have:

pin 6 Red/Blue = night illumination feed
pins 5 & 3 black = ground (joined together in harness)
pins 1 & 4 Orange/Blue = 12v switched feed to fog lights and status indicator
pin 2 Blue/Black = 12v feed from relay

if not then you've got the wrong connector. There were a few 6-pin un-used connectors hanging around behind the dash. The wire colours should match.

What happens is that when the headlights are switched on, the Rear Fog lamp relay is energised and provides 12v feed along the blue/black wire to pin2 on the switch. When the switch is pressed it connects pin 2 to pin 1 (orange/blue) which powers the rear lamps and is also sent to pin 4 to put the status/warning indicator on.

Have a look at the wiring diagrams for the fog lights in the S13 workshop manual ( .pdf) page EL50. To test the wiring disconnect the switch and add a wire link between pins 1 and 2 of the small connector block the wires are coloured blue/black and orange/blue. You should then get power to the lamp - check it with a Meter or known good test lamp.

Also remeber to check the obvious things: fog lamp won't work without headlights being on, has the bulb blown, is there a fog light relay fitted in the fusebox under the air filter? ( see page EL81 for location)

[Daniel H]

The wire colours match the part of the UK harness I got, but the connector I pulled down from under the dash had different colours. I just assumed that the jap ones had different colours, as the actual connector was near identical, apart from being about 2mm wider.

I'll have a look for another 6 pin connector under there incase there is another. I checked the bulb and that was ok, and had the lights turned on, but I don't know if the relay is there. I suppose being an import model the relay might not be there if it wasn't needed in japan.

Thanks for the help, I'll post up my findings when I get a chance to look in the daylight

[turbo tom]

i would recommend a led red bulb instead of a painted one as the painted ones are very weak red, usually pink. (if your converting a reverse light that is)

[Daniel H]

I would use a LED bulb, but the kouki lights use some weird bulb, and I couldn't find an LED equivalent.

[Chiron]

I remember that the 180sx connector was a fair bit smaller than the UK spec connector but the wire colours should match up to the ones in my earlier post.
It sounds like its the wrong connector, what year is your car? Also does it have the fog light relay fitted?
Keep posting your findings!

[Daniel H]

I had a look again today, and under the dash I found 3 unused connectors .
I think 1 may be for the dash light dimmer (the smallest connector), as mine hasn't got it fitted. There is a large one that has got a connector nearly the same as the uk foglight, as I described above, then there is another. This other one has got the same wire colours as the uk loom, and when I plugged in the uk switch (matching the wire colours via a bit of hacked off loom and small spade connectors), It worked .

I can confirm Chiron is correct , you don't need to do any extra wiring to fit a fog light to a 180sx

BTW, mine is a 1994 model

[Daniel H]

And i didn't need to add in a relay to fusebox either

[Easy007]

Now that is good to know as mine doesn't seem to have a Fog light, even though it does have an mot

Anychance of some pics to accompany this very useful piece of information.

[skyshack]

The other fog lamp connector that doesn't fit UK switch is for front fogs.

UK cars have front fog connectors too. Find empty blue socket in relay box next to air cleaner, stick a blue relay in it. Connect switch to green/red and orange/black, connect night time switch lamp to red/blue and black, connect warning lamp to orange/black and black. Cut taped up connector free from loom where the earth connector is in corner next to battery. Plug (2 male spades will do) extension loom to fogs into this connector.

[Easy007]

Right so i've had a rummage under my dash and found these (on the right) amongst all the jumble of pink wire



there's a black connector of which i have no idea what it does..... yet.

Then there's the connector we're interested in.



As can be seen, and described above, it's almost exactly the same, same colour but a different size, it's smaller. Also all the wire colours and tracers match exactly from JDM to UKDM.

If you can get hold of a UKDM fog switch with a short length of harness and attach some spade connectors that fit in the JDM plug then your good to go

You'll find in the boot behind the rear panelling, just above the O/S (drivers) reverse light bulb holder, a small, black, two wire plug.



If you look you'll notice the two wires share the same colours and tracers as the wire at the switch. How and where you decide to attach them to is up to you.

[Easy007]

So after realising that you just can't get small enough spade connectors to fit in the JDM plug i had to chop it off and solder the two looms together



and then re-wrap them with tape for oem neatness



Then, moving on to the rear, i wanted as discreet a fitment as possible but i didn't really want to loose one of the reverse lights so i decided to wire them into the inside rear lights as per this thread about fitting kouki lights. This uses the inside brake lights as the fogs when the switch is activated but keeps them as brake lights when the switch is off. The diodes are used to stop power being transmitted back down the wires to stop, say, the fog light indicator bulb lighting up when the brake pedal is pressed. I popped down to Maplins and, not knowing what the hell to ask for, pi had a quick chat with the assistant and walked out with three 3amp (i think) diodes.

But how to make it all hidden........

So starting with the the standard clusters



Take the bulb holder out and get everything ready



The wire for the brake circuit is the green/yellow trace, which should be the middle wire in the plug, this needs to be cut and a diode placed in between the two halves with the marker towards the the bulb holder (this will stop the power going back down the brake circuit when the fog is turned on), also the short length of wire needs to be attached to the bulb holder side of the diode (this is for the fog circuit). A fair bit of solder is recommended to make a good, strong connection and afterwards slide a length of heatshrink over, probably best to slide this on first .

When it's all done it should look something like this



and placed back in the holders



run the short length of wire out the back, by the plug, and crimp a male bullet connector on the end.

Next cut the orange/blue trace wire off the plug you found earlier and crimp a female bullet connector onto the end, take another short length of wire and crimp a male bullet to it and solder the last diode to the other end with the indicator away from this. Now cut two more lengths of wire long enough to get from the the original black plug to each rear cluster and solder these to the indicator side of the diode and cover with heatshrink (this will stop the brake pedal lighting the fog light switch bulb when the pedal is pressed).



I'd now suggest connecting this up and taping to the loom, cutting to length at the cluster and crimping the final female bullet on

It should look something like this when complete



Turn lights on and test......... it should work just fine well mine did anyway.

Hope this helps.

[skyshack]

How old is your 180SX?
How long has it been in UK?

You need to sort that leaky lamp and rusty trim bracket out.

[John Bennett]

I'll just add that the later 180sxs (kouki) don't appear to have either of the spare connectors (I guess it's because they were never sold outside the JDM ), so it's a case of manually wiring everything in from scratch (I was working on mine today tidying things up).

[Easy007]

How old is your 180SX?
How long has it been in UK?

You need to sort that leaky lamp and rusty trim bracket out.

Thats a good point, Mine is a '93 model and has been here since 2006.

I do need to sort that bracket, your right, i only found it when i pulled the panel off. Strangely the back is never wet so i can only assume it's been like that for a while.

[samoht]

So if I have a '94 180SX import, sounds like I just need a UK switch and a red bulb, right ?

As my car is still in Japan, so I can't examine the existing rear bulb, does anyone know what fitment / part number red bulb I need ?

Thanks for the help

[Easy007]

If i were you i'd wait til it got into the country and have a look to see what's there. If it's anything like mine was then i'd do it exactly like i did (not that i'm blowing my own trumpet (if i could ......)) as, honestly, it dead easy, cheap and possibly the neatest way of doing it.

Swapping the reverse light to a fog is, imo, half-hearted. Besides the red bulb will show slightly and ruin the tail-lights.

A UK switch is definately the way forward but will need soldering in like i did above, they can be got on here for cheap money.

HTH