F23A1AT
Well-Known Member
This write-up will detail how to properly add in electrical accessories into you car. It will use a standard four-pin relay and in-line fuse.
I will be doing this write up with re-constructing a wiring harness for civic fog lights that are being retro'ed into my buddies car. The harness that I had for it was FUBAR and useless.
Tools:
Wire crimpers
Wire strippers
Knife/box cutter
Lighter/heat gun
Parts:
Wire 16AWG (preferably)
Female spades
O-terminals/fork terminals
Heat-shrinkable butt connectors
Four pin relay
Switch of some sort
As always working with electrical components the first step is common sense followed immediately with unhooking (+ & -) your battery
I am not you and you are not me, if you break it don't come to me looking for someone to blame.
This write-up should be universal, all one would need to do is substitute the different components for what you want to wire in.
Get tools:
Get pinout information:
On the OEM foglight switch the pinout is as follows:
Bulbs UP, button LEFT, wires RIGHT.
1. Ground ____________________White
2. Output ____________________Yellow/Green
3. 12V power from fuse panel ____Red/Silver dots
4. Ground _____________________Red/Black/Silver dots
5. Backlighting from parking light __Yellow
I took my pigtail from a CB7 I found at the junk yard. The plug was in the doors, from the window switches IIRC. This can be used rather than using the tiny little spades that don't really cooperate well. This slides right on and fits perfectly without clicking into place.
Now back on the topic of the relay.
Look at your relay, there will be numbers on the relay for their corresponding posts:
87, 86, 85, 30.
30 - This is going to be your 12V in from the battery.
85 - This post is for the ground on the relay circuit
87 - Post 87 is for the output to your device, in this example the foglights
86 - The last post on your four pin relay is going to be for your switch.
No copying my finger prints plz
Also, yes it is upside down.
Now lay out your wires in an approximation of where they will be routed. Be generous, if you cut too short the entire run is wasted.
As you can see here my output pin from my OEM switch goes to post 86 on the relay. This tells the relay to turn on the power to the accessory.
I also routed the two grounds from the switch to the same ground as the relay with a simple tap in.
The longer lead with no visible end (pin number 3 on the switch) is for the 12V in from the back of the fuse panel. This will be put in the slot mentioned in Juicebox's writeup on the foglight retro.
The last wire on the switch (shortest, no connector) is for the backlighting for the foglight symbol. I used another tap in to use the backlighting on the CC switch which on that one is the fourth down.
Turning attention to the relay now
The blue wire is the output to the foglights, when the switch is engaged a small electromagnet moves inside the relay to this post
The yellow wire is the 12V in from the battery it has an inline fuse. The one that came in the fuse block was a 30 amp fuse. I am not sure what the capacity is supposed to be, I have a 20 in mine that works fine.
Also you can see the ground as the black wire and the red as the input from the switch.
Here is the referenced picture:
Now like I said earlier in the post this method should be universal. This was merely my method of conveying it to you.
If for example you wanted to hard-wire in a radar detector. You would substitute the described output (87) with the power in for the radar.
The switch (86) would be something like your clock in the dash that comes on with the ignition.
Of course ground (85) would still remain ground.
The 12V power supply (30) could be from the battery or one of the 12V jacks located on the back of the drivers sidefuse block
This method can be used for really anything you want to add to your car, assuming enough power can be safely allocated to the desired components.
I will be doing this write up with re-constructing a wiring harness for civic fog lights that are being retro'ed into my buddies car. The harness that I had for it was FUBAR and useless.
Tools:
Wire crimpers
Wire strippers
Knife/box cutter
Lighter/heat gun
Parts:
Wire 16AWG (preferably)
Female spades
O-terminals/fork terminals
Heat-shrinkable butt connectors
Four pin relay
Switch of some sort
As always working with electrical components the first step is common sense followed immediately with unhooking (+ & -) your battery
I am not you and you are not me, if you break it don't come to me looking for someone to blame.
This write-up should be universal, all one would need to do is substitute the different components for what you want to wire in.
Get tools:
Get pinout information:
On the OEM foglight switch the pinout is as follows:
Bulbs UP, button LEFT, wires RIGHT.
1. Ground ____________________White
2. Output ____________________Yellow/Green
3. 12V power from fuse panel ____Red/Silver dots
4. Ground _____________________Red/Black/Silver dots
5. Backlighting from parking light __Yellow
I took my pigtail from a CB7 I found at the junk yard. The plug was in the doors, from the window switches IIRC. This can be used rather than using the tiny little spades that don't really cooperate well. This slides right on and fits perfectly without clicking into place.
Now back on the topic of the relay.
Look at your relay, there will be numbers on the relay for their corresponding posts:
87, 86, 85, 30.
30 - This is going to be your 12V in from the battery.
85 - This post is for the ground on the relay circuit
87 - Post 87 is for the output to your device, in this example the foglights
86 - The last post on your four pin relay is going to be for your switch.
No copying my finger prints plz
Also, yes it is upside down.Now lay out your wires in an approximation of where they will be routed. Be generous, if you cut too short the entire run is wasted.
As you can see here my output pin from my OEM switch goes to post 86 on the relay. This tells the relay to turn on the power to the accessory.
I also routed the two grounds from the switch to the same ground as the relay with a simple tap in.
The longer lead with no visible end (pin number 3 on the switch) is for the 12V in from the back of the fuse panel. This will be put in the slot mentioned in Juicebox's writeup on the foglight retro.
The last wire on the switch (shortest, no connector) is for the backlighting for the foglight symbol. I used another tap in to use the backlighting on the CC switch which on that one is the fourth down.
Turning attention to the relay now
The blue wire is the output to the foglights, when the switch is engaged a small electromagnet moves inside the relay to this post
The yellow wire is the 12V in from the battery it has an inline fuse. The one that came in the fuse block was a 30 amp fuse. I am not sure what the capacity is supposed to be, I have a 20 in mine that works fine.
Also you can see the ground as the black wire and the red as the input from the switch.
Here is the referenced picture:
Now like I said earlier in the post this method should be universal. This was merely my method of conveying it to you.
If for example you wanted to hard-wire in a radar detector. You would substitute the described output (87) with the power in for the radar.
The switch (86) would be something like your clock in the dash that comes on with the ignition.
Of course ground (85) would still remain ground.
The 12V power supply (30) could be from the battery or one of the 12V jacks located on the back of the drivers sidefuse block
This method can be used for really anything you want to add to your car, assuming enough power can be safely allocated to the desired components.
