Finally got around to doing the fog light mod.

The how to here will only enable you to do the following:

Foglights on by themselves

Foglights and parking lights on

Foglights and headlights

To get foglights and high beams you need to take apart the trim around the steering wheel and ground the switch ( i didnt feel light doing this nor do i really use my highbeams anyways )

Steps:

1. Locate relay box in engine bay - drivers side.

2. Remove Fr fog relay and air con relay.

3. You need 3 male spade connectors that fit in the 2 bigger slots and 1 smaller slot where the foglight relay goes.

4. I used 16GA wiring i reccomend you do too.

5. You need 4 female spade connectors to plug the foglight relay into, again 2 bigger ones and 2 smaller.

6. Cut 3 strips of 16GA wiring about 3-4in long, then one about 5in.

7. Strip ends of 3 shorter wires, attach female spades to one end, male spades to the other.

8. I didnt buy aftermarket relays, you just need to cut away a small square from the blue housing on the air con relay. ( seen in later pic )

9. Take the 1 longer wire strip both ends, attach 1 of the smaller female spades to one end. Other end used to solder onto the cutaway part of air con relay.

10. Hook up all female spades to foglight relay - 2 big to 2 big male spades, 2 small to 2 smaller ones.

11. If you are looking at the foglight relay in the relay box, the longer wire of the 4 will hook into the small male spade on the relay to the left of where the relay clip goes ( aka one closest to you ).

12. Solder other end of long wire to the cut away on air con relay.

13. Hook the rest of the male spades from shorter wires into the slots where the fog relay sits.

14. Put electrical tape over solder point, insert aircon relay and leave foglight relay flipped in an empty relay spot.

15. Fog light drl mod done! Test to make sure before closing everything up.

Pics in order:







Update: Better pic of relay box





Will post up better shot of relay box tommorow, these are crappy iphone pics.

Questions/Comments welcome.

Thanks for the write-up, this info was kind of buried and hard-to-find.

Instead of butchering the A/C relay cover, I tapped into the +12v wire from the ODBII data port and ran a wire through the firewall and used that as the relay power. The wire is only hot when ignition is "ON".

Did you change your setup? I dug through the drl mod pages and all, i actually used your 2 old pics as my instruction.

Yeah, I changed it. I ended up removing it temporarily for some reason (don't remember why), then reinstalled it but my A/C relay died shortly after for some reason. I put the stock fog light relay in the A/C relay spot and got an older looking blue Nissan relay from the junkyard and used power from the data port to avoid modifying any other relay. Since I already had the hole made in the blank clutch plate, it was very easy to do. I used a T-Tap to tap into the +12v wire of the data port and ran it out to the fuse box, and made small jumper cables similar to the ones you made. This way is cleaner and doesn't involve any soldering or modifying of the relay.

I will probably end up doing that way when i have more time to fool around with it. I just wanted this mod, and i did it in about 35-40min. I dont like hack jobs either. ( Even though this isnt too much of one, lol )

Towncivilian, Can you post some Pics of you setup, Its kinda hard to under stand from oral description.

In QX4 the relays are not like to one in Pathy. they only the Top Blue part can be pulled out and that too is sealed, I am not able to find a way to open this Blue part.

I dont think you can open it. I used a rotorary tool with a diamond point tip thing, and then cut away at it.

You can pry off the covers from the relays using a couple small precision flathead screwdrivers.

I'll try to get a couple pictures of my revised mod soon.

Sorry about the horrible pictures of the T-tap:

Ok, I don't know if I'm retarded, but I'm still a tad confused.
How much did all this cost including the soldering gun?
I'm weighing the cost of hacking up my car vs just going to an audio/lighting shop and having them do it.

Don't want to turn a 20$ DIY into a $2,000 repair job.

If you dont have any 16ga wire, order some online or go to walmart and get a spool. Go to harbor freight, get a whole box of electrical connectors for like $5 bucks. vs going to radio shack and getting 5 for 1.50. Soldering gun at radio shack, $10? Try harbor freight they probably have some too.

Take off your relay box cover on drivers side in engine bay, make the wires like in the pictures, solder 1 wire to part of the AC relay, wire it all up, and done.

I did this is in like 30-40 min taking my time, honestly the only way you can mess up is smashing your relays with a hammer, or burning yourself with the soldering iron

Edit: I also put a better pic of the relay box just now in the first post, check it out.

That pic should clarify for you if the guide i wrote above is mumbo jumbo. The spot where the fog relay would go with no spade connector in it, is still attached to the relay with a female spade, and the other end is now soldered to the side of the AC relay.

I didn't solder anything, but that's the better way to go. I hate the insulation on the quick disconnects found at most places, half the time I try to rip it off the damn quick disconnect splits in half or something. But after the insulation's off, I slide some heatshrink on the wire, crimp the quick disconnect on, solder it, wrap electrical tape around it, then shrink the heatshrink to prevent the tape from unrolling itself in the heat or whatever. It's time consuming, but very good for wiring that needs to be durable due to an inconvenient location (overhead console wiring, head unit harness, etc), and it also ensures better electrical contact. I wouldn't bother soldering for something as simple as this fog light mod unless you really have some time to kill.

The $10 soldering iron at Radio Shack sucks. It's not adjustable and has no on/off switch. Get the $20 one with the adjustable knob and off setting, and make sure to maintain it (clean it, tin it before soldering, etc - find a YouTube video) and it'll last quite a while.

Yea...audio shop it is.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, but I'd rather just get it done proper.
Now I just need a day off from work.

its sorta off topic, but my pathfinder has no fog lights. Which fog lights could I use to install (thinking of 3000k HID yellowish with my 6000k HID would go well). Any suggestions where could I buy these from and would my truck comes pre-installed with brackets in the bumper?

Sorry to resurrect an older thread, but am I correct in assuming that the ultimate goal is to change the fog light's power source from its current one, where they are tired into the low beams, to another one that would be active when the car is switched on (A/C or even DRLs) so that they could be operated without the need for the low beams being on, making them actually usable during fog and/or blinding snow?