2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission fog/driving lights

[BobWeber]

I want to put fog/driving lights in my '96 3500 dually 2X4, mostly to look factory the way it should have came. Is there a kit from Mopar available, with the switch, wiring and light assemblies? If I buy the light assemblies separate, and the switch separate, is there anything else I need? Does the switch plug into the factory harness, or is there a different harness? Thanks, Bob

 

[Fireman Dave]

Bob,



I don't know about your '96, but on my '01 I added the lamps, wiring harness, switch, and relay. The wiring harness joined the two lamps and connected to an existing plug in the wiring harness (behind the bumper). The switch swapped out with the old switch, and the relay just plugged into the fuse box under the hood. It was a simple job. On some of the older (than mine) trucks, I think there may be an issue with the lights if the truck has an automatic transmission.



Dave

 

[B.G. Smith]

Fog lights

There is supposedly a clearance problem between the fog light and the trans cooler on the pre 98. 5 trucks. I don't know thid to be fact but that is what the dealer told me. bg

 

[CRSmith]

You could probably get a set of aftermarket PIAAs or other bling bling expensive lights for the price you'll pay for the factory stuff. I would find some that looked similar (same diameter) and just wire them in with a separate switch and make up a bracket to place them in the stock location.



It sounds like the harnesses might already have provisions for fog lights. It would be cool just to buy the stock headlight switch (with the rotary/pull out action), hook it to the stock harness, find the other end that would be for stocker lights, and hook your lights up. That might be worth investigating. If this is the case, I wouldn't go over 35W, which is what the stock lights are.

 

[BobWeber]

This is what I wanted to do... use factory parts for the factory look. I don't mind paying extra if it will look factory, but I don't want to compromise it. Bob

 

[jpcnhear]

if you search around PIAA makes an after market bracket that ataches to the frame behind the bumper. I have this set-up on my truck and it worked out great. I had the factory fog lights and they suck. The PIAA's come with a pretty clean wiring harness with switch that can be stuck to the bottom on the bezel around the guages.

 

[krs]

Bob,

I can't give you the details because it's all confusing to me but be careful about which factory parts you buy for this. For the '98. 5 model year dodge changed the way both the headlights and the foglights are wired. It's about negative switching or positive grounding of some circuits and it means that you can't just get any foglight kit from a dealer and have it work for sure in your '95. There are other members who have a much clearer understanding of this business and hopefully one of them will find this and give you a short course in what's needed and what to look out for.

Good luck.

 

[illflem]

On my '95 I bought the OEM switch from the dealer ($17) and a set of projector style foglites from the auto parts ($50). Hole sawed two 2'' holes in the air dam below the bumper and attached the lamps to the frame so just the lenses protruded. Looks and works great. The foglamps came with a relay. While installing I found all the factory wiring was there from the dash to the bumper. After looking at the wire size from the factory I decided not to use it, it seemed too small. No big deal to run just one larger gauge wire to the lights and pick up a ground from the frame.

 

[CRSmith]

KRS is right. The fog lights on my '01. 5 have a negative switch. That means there is 12v going to both sides of the light bulb when the light is off. When you turn the light on, one of the wires goes to ground to make the circuit have current. It's kind of like if you have 2 water pumps pumping against each other into the same pipe you don't have flow. When you turn off one of the pumps, you get flow. Substitute water for electrons and you have a circuit. I have the stock fog lights as well as aftermarket fog lights. The stockers and aftermarket come on at the same time. I used the power of the stock fogs to trigger a relay to give power to the aftermarket fogs. It took a while to bend my mind around how to wire it, but it makes sense in the end. I can explain further if you'd like.