Aftermarket Foglights

[jtettenb]

I have a 4.0, 96 explorer. I recently recieved a pair of used, aftermarket fog lights to replace my old stock fogs. They came with a rather crude workup of the electrical that shows the three prong switch that came with them recieving three wires. ground, power, and acc with a picture of (lights?) I assumed acc ment accessory. I hooked up ground and power without trouble but when I hooked accessory to the fuse box for the cigar lighter the fuse quickly blew. I assumed that 15 amps would have been enough but I guess I was wrong. I am not particularly good at automotive wiring. Is there a better way to splice this into an accessory than shoving it in with the fuse? Does it acctually mean accessory? What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Bill Kemp]

Do the lights work without wiring the acc. spot on the switch?
Are you useing a relay for the lights?

 

[Abom]

Yes "acc" means accessory. The accessory lead should be the one that is switched, either to a switch or to a factory switch (like if you wanted the fogs to go on when the headlights are switched on).

So in your case, ground is ground, +12V is battery, and the "acc" is the lead for on/off. Normally the "acc" is a +12V switched lead, meaning if it gets +12V, it switches on, if it loses +12V (like the car is turned off), the lights turn off. It is possible that it's a negative ground switch, in which case, if the "acc" is grounded it completes the circuit and turns the lights on.

Try putting the "acc" lead to ground, see if they turn on then. If not, then it's definately a +12V.

Also, before you do anything else, I recommend fusing your +12V constant lead at the battery, in case something is shorted or screwed up, it will save you from frying your lights / wiring / anything else.