[Indulgn]

Heres the deal guys. I have a 99 TJ that I assume came with factory "fog lights,driving lights". The mounting bracket was beginning to wear so I decided to get new lights. I bought some new lights hoping it would be an easy install. Mounting is no problem, my problem is electrical. I have trouble screwing in a lightbulb. The attached pics show a "pigtail" already wired etc to the "foglamp" toggle switch in the jeep. The pigtail that was on the "foglamp" side has only two wires,,blue & black. As you can see, I assumed (not always a good idea I know) that blue was "hot" and would go to "red" and the "black" were grounds so I spliced those together. I spliced them together temporarily to try and see if it worked. Plugged the pigtail back in, started the jeep and........nothing. I didnt think two lousy wires would mess me up and was hoping to use the existing pigtail so I didnt have to re-wire a new set of lights. Any ideas??

Bill:

 

[sparky]

Fog lights switch on, headlights low beam?

 

[Water Dog]

Fog lights switch on, headlights low beam?

X2...Did you turn on your headlights?

 

[Marcwakefield22]

Did you check the connections with the butt connectors where you spliced it? You could have not made good contact or crimped it properly. Also check the fuse for the light. If it sparked or anything during connection it could have blown the fuse. Something could be wrong with the pig tail as well. You might have to cut that off both the light and the wire and just use butt connectors to connect the two wires.

 

[Indulgn]

Thanks Sparky
I told you I wasn't good with electical. Switch on, low beams on...works great and saved me a bunch of time. Time for a beer.

 

[sparky]

You're welcome. Glad it wasn't anything more.

 

[Indulgn]

Sooooo Sparky. I guess Im not so smart afterall. Everything seemed to work great in July when I put everything together. Starting to get darker earlier etc. I turned on the lights a week or so ago.....nothing. Long story short, There is a fusebox under the hood, passenger side by the air filter. There is a small yellow 20amp fuse in there. It was burned out. Today I replaced that fuse, tried again, lowbeams, etc that new fuse burnt out too. WTH? Im pretty good at step by step but hate like hell tearing things apart when I have no Idea what Im looking for. Thanks

 

[Water Dog]

If it is fuse #25 (20 amp), that is power for the fog lamps only and has nothing to do with the headlamps, so the problem is a short somewhere in the fog light end of things. I would check where you hooked them up first. Most likely a chaffed wire or maybe one came apart and is grounding out.

The circuit goes from that fuse to one of the fog light relays inside next to the fuse box, then to the fog lights.

 

[sparky]

I agree with Dennis. Fuse poping right away is a dead short.
Start bu checking the splices and the wires under the fender first. They are exposed. Make sure where the wires go through metal, there are gromments in place.

 

[Indulgn]

Weird. Checked all my connections,wiring etc. Everything looks good, no bare wires. I unbolted the lights from the fender and took them to my workbench to untape etc. I put the lights back on the bumper w/o bolting them back together and the lights work fine (after I replaced the fuse of course). Is there a problem with the the metal bracket (from the fog lights) being bolted to the metal fender?.

 

[Water Dog]

Could you have one of the hots and grounds reversed?

 

[Indulgn]

I dont think so because as long as they are unbolted from the fender they work fine. Its when I start bolting them back on that it will blow the fuse and.....nothing. Theres a metal bracket that bolts to the fender. The lights attach to the bracket with a bolt and washer/nut. As soon as I put the bolt/washer/nut and tighten down they go dead....weird. If I can figure out how to attach a picture again I would

 

[Indulgn]

Bracket

Bracket Pic

 

[jp2611]

Your wiring is backaswards...the lights you are using to replace the factory have ground"built in" when mounted. but since you have IMO reversed the polarity as soon as you "mount" the lights blows the fuse....only other possibility IMO is a "bare"wire inside fixture/ housing touching the metal "case" of the light and grounding to the jeep

OBTW I hate electrical

 

[Indulgn]

Dont get me started on electrical. I dont even know what IMO is. So...whats my fix?. And why do they work as soon as I take the bolts out and they are just sittin in the bracket. Ive got black (jeep) to black (lights) and blue (jeep) to red (lights)...

 

[Indulgn]

IMO - In my opinion--got it

 

[ChasUGC]

You have two fog lights, correct?

If you bolt down either one, does it blow the fuse?
If one does blow the fuse and the other one doesn't, then you probably have a problem with the wiring on the one that does blow the fuse. If you didn't have this problem initially then it sounds like something has rubbed the power wire clean and it is grounding when you bolt the foglights down.

Troubleshooting electrical can be a PITA.

 

[Indulgn]

It will blow a fuse no matter which light is unbolted. I tried each seperately. The only way they work is if they are both unbolted, just sitting in the bracket. I dont thing they are wired backwards because the connector (see previous pictures at the beginning of post) only goes on one way. Unless it should be black/red , blue/black ???. Then again I have trouble screwing in a friggin light bulb...thanks guys

 

[ChasUGC]

So, let me understand what I am seeing here. For 4 months, it worked properly, and there were no problems?

If so, I think you have developed a bare connection somewhere.
Have you tried tracing the power wires and making sure they aren't contacting moving objects? Are you sure that all connections to metal contain grommets?

Does it matter if the switch is off?

Some switches are ground switches and some are power switches.
I'm just throwing out ideas at this point.

It's hard to troubleshoot electrical over the internet.

 

[Water Dog]

Do you own a multimeter?