New switch for fog-light

Hi,

My 2001 Super Custom is currently on the high seas and I'm getting things ready for landing. One is the addition of a rear fog light. It has a few redundant switch blanking plates in the dashboard where I can fit the new switch, but it would be good to know if there are any after-market switches available that would fit in one of those positions and be MOT compatible (lit)?

Thanks

Hi again,

I've been thinking about this and i believe it's allowed for the UK MOT to wire the rear fog light into the existing front fog light switch? Also, it appears that the 2001 SC has two reversing lights - one in each cluster. I assume it's OK to replace one reversing light with a fog red bulb and wire it up?

Hello g00se

I’ll try to answer both of your questions as well as I can.

Yes, there are generally some blanks suitable for aftermarket / OEM switches and wiring. The same age Toyota switches are quite square in profile but the newer ones are a bit rounder, though they will fit the older dash knock outs.

If you have a look at my show us yours page there was a bit of a discussion and some pictures there of some of the dash switches. Most are press for on and press again for off. Some have a single bulb that illuminates with the dash wiring and some have two bulbs with the second one illuminating (brighter) when on. If you have a look on eBay etc you’ll see there are quite a few different switches for sale. So far so good and fairly easy!

The harder bit, and if you are going down this route, I’d appreciate your help to answer the question of the socket the switch engages with? I presume this is a single or small family of sockets as all the switches are similar. When asking eBay sellers who have switches for sale if they can also supply the socket then have all told me no. I’m guessing that nobody thinks to cut the socket and a short wiring spur out of the vehicle and sell this with the switch unit, but this is sort of what I’m after, for several additional wiring circuits I wish to add. I’m happy to re-pin and wire the socket into my loom but without the socket a switch is only useful to replace a broken unit, not wire in a new circuit. I hope this makes sense, so when you are digging about, grateful if you can consider, please?

Back to fogs, yes, I think you’ll need an illuminated switch so you don’t join the legions of UK drivers with fog lights on when unnecessary. The rear fog on my van has its switch at the bottom of the steering wheel cowl. It works fine. I honestly cannot remember if it’s also tandem to the dipped main lights so it can only be activated when the dipped headlights are on. An ideal system would have it wired this way, but it’s probably not necessary. On my VW it’s not possible to switch on the fogs unless the headlights are on but this is a switch interconnect, not through the wiring.

I may replace the fog switch on mine for a dash-mounted one, but it’s not a top priority. The EPC electrical section shows the range of electrical switches and it is possible to see various examples on eBay, and do take a look at my show us yours pages for some further ones.

On wiring both fogs into the same switch, I’m not so sure. I’ve never seen a car wired this way and I don’t think it’s allowed. You might get away with it at a MOT but I wouldn’t want my van (or any car) wired this way. It’s normal for the front fogs or driving lamps or whatever to come on, on a first switch stop (after dipped) and the second stop to bring on the rears. This is the setup in my car and I have different dash lights (including colours) for the fronts (green) and rear (red). If you do want to wire a rear up in this way the most elegant option would be to swap out the stalk for a variant with both front and rear fogs, but you’d also need to wire in an indicator lamp, I think.

While I’m not 100% in my setup (or my opinion here) with the fog under the steering cowl, it’s a simple solution.

My rear fog is an aftermarket lamp fixed below the bumper. It’s not very nice or tidy and I also wondered about doing something different. I have the same rear lights (including tailgate lights) as yours and have two reversing lights. I’d be interested to know whether it’s as simple as turning one into a fog, but I suspect it’s not. It might be a bit easier with LEDs but the normal fog bulb is 21W (P21W, I think) and I’d expect the reversing one to be a R10W (I can’t quite remember, but this is a standard rear lamp value) so quite different in heat etc. While there’s no beam forming, the aftermarket fog lamp I have can only go one way up (its marked TOP on one side of the lens) so there’s likely to be some sort of lensing, which I expect the reversing lamp not to have.

Please do let me know how you get on with both of these.

HTH!

Re wired to the front switch, the MOT is a bit vague - "Front and rear fog lamp switches may be combined or independent switches." - By combined, do they mean a two-position switch? I'll dig a bit further but may err on putting in a new switch.

Yes - of course I'll keep eyes open for sockets.

For replacing a reversing bulb with a fog bug, I think LED will be the way to go. There are even dual reversing/fog bulbs so that both reversing light reflectors can be both fog and reversing lights - a few aliexpress types but some others that look more legit: https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/products/bay15d-1157-red-and-white-stop-reverse-fog-combined-led-glb380-llb380-380

or just a plain low-wattage LED fog light to replace the offside light: https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/collections/fog-light-bulbs

The van has an MOT and a red fog bulb was put in the offside reversing light. The guy putting it through the MOT did it so I don't know how difficult it was, but I'll ask him next time I see him. The switch he installed doesn't really go with the rest of the van, but I found one on ebay that should fit (an f10cs16) that came with the multiplug cut to go with it. I guess that's uncommon as breakers will want to keep the looms complete. No rush, but when I get a chance, I'll swap them out.

Congrats on the MOT!!

Good work on the rear fog. I've lived places where it's been really useful to have the best reversing light available for seeing, but I do like the idea here and thanks for the LED options. Hazards (and a fog) can also be used to see when reversing and it's also usually possible to drag the brakes a bit to see behind as necessary.

I had a look at the switch and thanks for posting the part. As written elsewhere I think lots of breakers sell switches and just junk sockets and wiring; just like they junk hoses and cables to keep parts.

I've had a look at the wiring diagrams I can find and they don't mention the socket parts. I might as my local Toyota people but I'd expect them to not know anything more unless they can cross reference.

Be great to know if the socket has any numbers for future reference when convenient. When installing a new switch this is definitely the way to go.

Thanks!!

When the switch arrives, I'll see if there is any part number or id on it.

g00se wrote:

When the switch arrives, I'll see if there is any part number or id on it.

I'm afraid there's nothing to identify it (code wise).

LH119V wrote:

Be great to know if the socket has any numbers for future reference when convenient. When installing a new switch this is definitely the way to go.

Thanks!!

@LH119V I tell a lie, there's a code and it's quite useful: 11533.

It's an 8 pin Toyota 90980-11533 Housing, Connector F (female) - on the left in the photo. What's more, I noticed that the socket housing in the switch itself is held in with two clips on each side. Releasing these will Let you remove the male housing so you can get to the terminals more easily - so you could use eight individual small female terminal connectors.

All details here: https://www.toyota-tech.eu/wire_harness_rm/RM06H0E.pdf