The previously installed fog lites of course need to have a switch and power sent to them. It turns out, that at least in late model TJs, most of the fog lite wiring and infrastructure is already in place, whether or not the Jeep received fog lites at the factory. As previously noted, the connectors for the actual lites themselves were already present, just waiting to have them plugged in. A relay was already accounted for in the underhood "PDU" fuse/relay box, I just needed to buy the relay and plug it in. The only difficulty lies in the actual in-cab switch. Late year Jeep TJs that shipped with fog lites incorporated that function in the "MFS" a stalk on the left side of the steering column. If the Jeep shipped without fog lites, the wiring harness plugged into the MFS, but the MFS itself doesn't have the functionality to actually turn the lites on! Zorba's Jeep
Fog lite Switch.
Took apart the steering column and removed the "MFS", Multi Function Switch.
Temporary Jumper made from solder...
... to enable some testing.
The MFS isn't particularly well regarded in the Jeep community anyway, it costs over $150 to buy a new one, and the fog lite circuit through the MFS is particularly trouble prone as the full load of the fog lites runs through the switch instead of a relay (The above mentioned relay is the "High beam interrupt", turning off the fog lites on high (headlite) beam, NOT a relay to power the fogs themselves). So I decided to simply tap into the wiring harness near where it plugs into the MFS, and bring off the two leads needed for my own switch. I bought a 20 amp rated switch, which will be switching approximately 10 amps, so I don't need to use a relay. Pin 13 from the MFS is the +12 volts, switching it to pin 14 sends the power down to the lights.
The pair of added wires from the MFS.
Needed to remove the shift escutcheon. Wire in the foreground is for the CB radio speaker, previously installed.
Had to do some cleanup, and note lower shift boot is torn. Not sure if I care...
As promised from my research, all Jeeps shipped with this light socket, intended to illuminate
an automatic transmission shift indicator. Perfect to power the backlight for our new switch!
This relay needed to be purchased and plugged into the underhood "PDC" box.
Hole "Dremeled" in the rear face of the shift escutcheon.
Switch installed, backside view.
Front side, looks great!
Light socket unlimbered from the harness - it works with the dash dimmer!
Extended to the switch location along with the rest of the wiring.
I also tied up the CB radio speaker wire along with everything else while I was there.
All re-assembled. Looks like it belongs there!
Hard to tell from this angle, but here the parking brake lever is down. No problems.
A bit hard to tell with this one too - but the dash lites are on, so the "Fog Lights" legend illuminates...
Switch turned on, illuminating the fog lite symbol.
Taken a bit later when it was darker, the actual symbol glows blue.
Very upper left of the instrument panel: Green fog lite symbol also works.
First time that bulb has ever lit even though it was there for 14 years!
View of headlites and foglites at nite. Green glow is a camera lens artifact.Everything worked as advertised once installed, except for the fog lites themselves. As I suspected, the front wire harness connectors were badly corroded - they were exposed to the elements for 14 years and weren't conducting. It was a bit of a thrash because one of my volt meter leads was flakey, then died unbeknownst to me - once I figured that out and cut the offending lead in half and hurled it into the trashcan, a new set of test leads gave results that made sense! I had to use a tiny file to clean up the oxidation on the connector pins, but that fixed the problem - for now at least. Its possible I may need to eventually replace the Jeep end of those connectors (the lite ends are brand new!) as I filed down to bare copper and it may or may not corrode and cause problems in the future. Time will tell, for now I aligned the fog lites and called it good.
My dance teacher gave me the Hamsa for the Mercedes (left). I was going to purchase one
for the Jeep, but then I remembered a nice Turkish man who gave me this "Evil Eye" (right)!
Bad idea. Took the Jeep on a rough dirt road and the eye smacked into the windshield so hard
that it was either going to shatter or break the windshield! I briefly toyed with the idea
of swapping with the Mercedes - no dirt roads, the Hamsa has much less mass, and the
windshield is much further away, but then I decided to simply "choke up" on the eye.Read on for the next part!
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