factory fog lights?

my girlfriend bought a used 05 explorer sport trac last summer and i want to hook up the factory fog lights for her christmas gift (ive also got a pair of hella 500s and some embroidered sport trac floor mats in the works that she doesnt know about). i already ordered the OE fog lights from my body repair supplier, and i know i will have to cut out the blanks in the bumper, but what i was wondering was if all the sport tracs came with fog light plugs wired into the harness or if they used a differnet harness for those that were not originally equipped with fog lights. im hoping to go to the junk yard and find an ST with the wires from the lights to the harness still intact so i can pilage them. the last one i found last week had already been molested by someone careless because they broke all the mounting tabs and cut the pigtail that goes to the OE foglight switch and took the switch, destroying the radio bezel in the process. im hoping this stock/ upgrade mod will persuade her to let me do other things to her new baby. she likes my truck and likes to help work on it but i want her to like her truck too and feel the urge to make it better because we all know good trucks arent bought, their BUILT!

 

[Bill Kemp]

I dont think Ford would put the extra wires in a veh. if they didnt have to.

 

[ForOffRoadDrivin]

thanks for answering my question so fast Bill. i swear i had this same post on TRS for 3 weeks, and at the time all i wanted to know was where the fog light switch was mounted in explorers equipped with fog lights. i went on cardomain and started looking and eventually found out on my own. so that makes my plans easier, i just need to pick a spot for 2 switches, run my wires through the firewall to my relays and then hook up the lights. im still going to have to go to the J yard and get the parts of the harness that plug into the fog lights so i can use the original bulbs. im thinking 4 hour job tops after i pull the dash out and drill my holes and then decide on where im going to tuck my wires away at (ill probably parallel the main harness down the inside fenderwell and wrap it in wire loom). Then just mount the hellas to the bumper and drop my wires down to the fog lights, solder and shrink wrap them and voila! 2 pairs of bright ass lights to watch out for deer! thanks for helping and explorer newbie out! so far most things have been very close to my rangers (which ive owned 5 of over the past 6 years) and i can do things the same as i have in the past, but somethings like lifting the front end (these IFS systems are a new one to me) and building custom bumpers (so much plastic on these things but CougarX gave me some ideas) have got my mind working overtime. i keep getting ahead of myself, i need to get the lights done and gauge her reaction from there. in teh mean time i can keep my modding urges at bay by working on my project ranger

 

[Dan95-5.0]

how did the fog light install go? i want to do a clean factory install on mine and plan to use factory fogs, wiring, and switch.

 

[ForOffRoadDrivin]

i just gave her the fog lights yesterday (christmas) along with a new turnsignal lens (a bird flew into it 3 days after she bought it) and surprisingly she didnt hit me! she liked them and now i just need to get my ranger wrapped up or at least finish the brakes so i can push it out of the garage for a day and get hers in there and do an oil change and do the fuel filter and then put the lights on. i found out that the base of the fog light bulbs are the same as the base on a 9005, which is 20w brighter than the stock ones. my only thought was maybe the brighter bulbs would melt the fog light housing and i dont want that, even though i could probably send them back and get new ones for free and then lesson learned.

 

[Dan95-5.0]

keep me posted when you finish installing them.

 

[ForOffRoadDrivin]

well i mounted the lights and wired them up new years day, right after i finished putting the motor and trans in my ranger. i cut the block off holes out in the valance with a jig saw blade clamped into a pair of vice grips and it worked great, just took some filing with a hand file after wards. there was no factory wiring so i had to do it myself, which wasnt too bad since i had already drawn up a diagram of what went where so i just had to cut the lengths and run them, to the lights and into the firewall. the hardest part was mounting the factory fog light switch as the hole needed to be perfect so it didnt look like i put them there. i went to the junk yard a few weeks prior and found a radio bezel that had the holes cut in it so i cut the section off that i needed for my template and traced the hole onto her bezel. i cut it out by drilling a 1/4" hole in each corner of the template and then used my air die grinder with a carbide bit to get rid of the excess material. once i got all the wires ran and tied down in the engine compartment, i got out my test light and probed the radio plug so that i could find a key on power source and a dimmer source so that i could make the light on the switch dim with the rest of the dash. by this time it was 1:30am so i was getting tired and decided to take a short cut by using scotch-loks to splice into the needed wires. up to this point i had been soldering and shrink tubing all my connections, and i should have taken the time to do these too as my scotch-loks didnt pierce the insulation on the radio harness due too the wires small size. my girlfriend was mad that we did all that work and the lights wouldnt turn on, but i told her we would finish it in a few days since i still needed to get a few more bolts and clip nuts to fasten the fog lights with and also fill her transfer case as i found it to be low during the oil change i did on it earlier that day. so all in all it wasnt a hard job, it just took alot of patience and planning to make it go smoothly and i wish i would have got to see them light up that morning, but ill look it over in a few days and post some pics or links or whatever im allowed to do since im not an elite.

 

[Dan95-5.0]

right on.

i found someone parting out a Explorer Sport with the same fogs. he wanted $50 for the whole assembly. i was thinking about picking these up and just wiring to my Day Time Running Lamps. because when ever the lamps come on is normally when i would want to turn my fogs on. this way i dont have to worry about a button on the radio bezel or a new headlight switch.