Passenger rear foglight out

[able2ski]

A buddy followed me part way home and celled me to inform me a had a taillight out. That was cool of him. Upon inspection at home, it was merely the passenger side rear foglight bulb. All the mandatory signals still function, so no big deal, right?

I stop by the dealer and buy a bulb. I come home, disassemble the lamp assembly to discover there is no bulb in the socket at all. 100+ point pre-owned certified inspected car my ***.......at least I didn't pay nearly full price.

Anyways, I put the new bulb in. Still no foglight. Bad bulb? I swap it with an identical (& functioning) neighbor bulb, still no foglight (but the newly bought bulb works elewhere). Switch it back with same results; no foglight.

So I totally disconnect the whole taillight assembly and hook up my multimeter to the leads for the various bulb sockets. All have consistent ohm ratings like a bulb filiment would illustrate. Then I switch the meter over to read voltage and touch the coresponding leads exiting from the car. AH-hah! No 12V power off the leads!

Ok.........maybe on a prayer the fusebox has separate circuits for left & right rear foglights. No so; same fused circuit, in fact ALL fuses in the entire panel are intact.

So, it has to be either a wiring harness glitch or a failure in the light switch contacts.

Anybody else have a similar experience or am I possibly overlooking something else I can check myself before I have to go back and pester the dealer? I know it is their job to fix warranty issues, but I hate to nag & nitpick over small stuff. I'd rather bank their goodwill towards an impending RMS failure or something like that.

[Loren]

Nothing is wrong. On US and Canadian cars there is only one rear fog light (so that people are not confused with the brake lights). This is true for Porsche, Mercedes and BMW also.

[able2ski]

I didn't realize we had "auto-censor" here.

*** = rear end, butt, caboose.......whatever PC term you want to call it.

If I was telling a story about a donkey that crossed the road would jack*** get censored too? ;)

Sorry to soil this family-friendly place- I'll watch my language.

Andrew

[Loren]

I didn't realize we had "auto-censor" here.

*** = rear end, butt, caboose.......whatever PC term you want to call it.

If I was telling a story about a donkey that crossed the road would jack*** get censored too?    ;)

Sorry to soil this family-friendly place- I'll watch my language.

Andrew

:lol: Standard Feature ^^^

[able2ski]

""Nothing is wrong. On US and Canadian cars there is only one rear fog light (so that people are not confused with the brake lights). This is true for Porsche, Mercedes and BMW also.""

I didnt see that coming...........then why mold the bulb socket position & install a socket & wiring?

Its not like the left & right lights are interchangeable. Thats just ***nine.

Ooooopps I did it again!

Andrew

[Guest]

able2ski, there are very few american autos that even have the one rear fog light application. It may be just production efficiencies, or some countries use both rear fogs. Anyway, I followed a Porsche one night ( a 993 that had both rear fogs on) and it was very disconcerting to see both bright rear lights on. It looked like he was riding the brakes.

[Costa]

On my 'Downunder' RHD 996 the Fog light is in the RHS position and no bulb in the left. I assume they run the wiring to both sides and enable the corresponding fog lamp for corresponding LHD or RHD versions.

As I live in a region where there is never any fog (just many sunny days), I decided to modify my fog lights by cutting off the fog lamp connector on both sides and connecting an extra Brake/Tail lamp connector on both sides to the existing Brake/Tail lamp wiring. This extra Brake/Tail lamp connector is then just plugged into the fog light position.

It now gives thae car an extra wide tail light as well as a more noticeable brake light setup.

Obviously only useful/legal if you do not use your rear fog lights!

[Guest]

Neat idea ;)

[able2ski]

Converting the rear fog light to extra brake lighting is great idea, but with the advent of the upper 3rd brake light years ago, I think it is redundant. I know I probably pay more attention to that 3rd light than distinquishing the difference between brakes & runing lights if i am the follower.

Besides, I rarely drive at night, but habitually run full lighting during day. It is then i'd prefer to have a full compliment of fog / running lights all around as added measure to make me visable. Even disregarding the upper 3rd brake light, the difference in tailight illumination when you hit the brake pedal is substantial; any driver that can't distinquish the difference had better carry **** good insurance!

Maybe I'll wire up a bridge to get my dual rear fog lights.

Thanks for saving me the embarrasment of ranting all this to my local dealer. As I said, I'd rather stay on their "good side" for when i really need them......like an RMS!

[Costa]

Don,

I thought it was a neat idea too, until I had to purchase 2 new tail light wiring looms $$$ :P so that I could obtain just 2 extra Brake/Tail combo connectors for the lamps.

I have also noted that when the fog light assembly is illuminated, it provides extra wide angle illumination as the lens wraps around the rear and side of the body slightly. I found this to be beneficial, especially when on the brakes as any other car off to the rear and in an adjacent lane will notice the brakes as well - ie keep away from the rear of my P-Car :D

Edited February 13, 2004 by ZX7R

[Tool Pants]

Converting the fog light sockets into additional brake lights must be and Australia thing. Paul from Australia did the same thing to his Boxster. The brake lights were hard to see because the tails lights are painted. So what were the fogs lights light up with the brake lights.

[Costa]

I wonder where he got the idea for the red strip across the rear :thumbup:

[johnp77777]

Sorry, the .bmp was too large (6+ Megs!) to post. If you want this wiring schematic, in .jpg format (368K), drop me a line.

jp

Edited January 22, 2005 by johnp77777

[johnp77777]

I know this is an old post but I've been researching this same situation on my 996 and want to get that fog light working. I've seen a DIY post where the person ran a jumper external to the harness, between the left and right rear fog lights. I'm more interested in something more "factory". I've found the wiring diagram at ALLDATADIY.com and noticed it shows the connection being complete back to the light switch in the dash. Now, if I can find where the disconnect is physically located, it should be simple to make the connection...assuming it's simple to get to!

BTW, I've downloaded the sections of the lighting schematic and patched them all together as a .bmp file. It's about 11"h x 23"w if printed (at kinko's). I've also highlighted the specific wires for the fog lights in green. It's attached to this post.

jp

[Loren]

I know this is an old post but I've been researching this same situation on my 996 and want to get that fog light working.  I've seen a DIY post where the person ran a jumper external to the harness, between the left and right rear fog lights.  I'm more interested in something more "factory".  I've found the wiring diagram at ALLDATADIY.com and noticed it shows the connection being complete back to the light switch in the dash.  Now, if I can find where the disconnect is physically located, it should be simple to make the connection...assuming it's simple to get to!

BTW, I've downloaded the sections of the lighting schematic and patched them all together as a .bmp file.  It's about 11"h x 23"w if printed (at kinko's).  I've also highlighted the specific wires for the fog lights in green.  It's attached to this post.

jp

The schematics show all options for all countries so chances are the wiring harness in a US car does not have the wiring.