Durango foglights woes

Looks like I've bitten the bullet with aftermarket foglights for 99 Durango.
Being a cheapskate I bought two generic (nicely looking) 55W foglight
assemblies (OEMs were destroyed in accident) and attempted to install them.
Blew my fuse right away. Checking wiring diagrams it appears that Durango
uses ground-switched circuit for foglights, but my aftermarkets are grounded
inside! No wonder it blows the fuse...

I see I can solve this by using an aux relay: either single one for both
lights and extra wiring, or separate relay for each light. What bothers me
is bunch of extra wires & relays right where all the dirt & water comes
in... can anyone suggest way around this?

Peter

On Tue, 19 Jul 2005, Peter wrote:

> Looks like I've bitten the bullet with aftermarket foglights for 99
> Durango. Being a cheapskate I bought two generic (nicely looking) 55W
> foglight assemblies

Mistake numbers one through twelve: Buying cheap garbage and expecting
them to work correctly (or at all).

> I see I can solve this by using an aux relay: either single one for both
> lights and extra wiring, or separate relay for each light. What bothers
> me is bunch of extra wires & relays right where all the dirt & water
> comes in... can anyone suggest way around this?

Start with good fog lamps that will actually do some useful work for you.
Bosch Compact 100s fit Durangos and work great. And as a special bonus,
they're fully electrically isolated, so they don't know or care which leg
of the circuit is switched.

>> Looks like I've bitten the bullet with aftermarket foglights for 99
>> Durango. Being a cheapskate I bought two generic (nicely looking) 55W
>> foglight assemblies
>
> Mistake numbers one through twelve: Buying cheap garbage and expecting
> them to work correctly (or at all).

I know. But sometimes just can't help myself 8-P

>> I see I can solve this by using an aux relay: either single one for both
>> lights and extra wiring, or separate relay for each light. What bothers
>> me is bunch of extra wires & relays right where all the dirt & water
>> comes in... can anyone suggest way around this?
>
> Start with good fog lamps that will actually do some useful work for you.
> Bosch Compact 100s fit Durangos and work great. And as a special bonus,
> they're fully electrically isolated, so they don't know or care which leg
> of the circuit is switched.

Thanks for the advice... Boschs are definitely good but overly pricey...
just can't seem to justify that expense for a set of lights I use coupla
times a year.

Anyway, I hooked up the original relay and wiring that came with those
cheapo aftermarkets... seems to work just fine now. As a special bonus I now
have double-fused foglights circuit )

Peter