Hi,

since i also got alot of help here i decided to make a little writeup how to convert your oem taillight/brakelight combination to a taillight/brakelight/foglight combination. Generally only the eu-Spec FD's got a rear fog light, but what to do if you import a jdm or usdm fd? You have to apply a rear foglight to legalize your car...
There have been discussed a lot of solutions, for example:

• place a new lamp on the bumper
• convert one of the reverse lights

I don't like both. placing a new lamp on the bumper is ugly and i wanted to keep both reverse lights. So i did something else. I used the outer brakelight on each side to be my foglight. How does it work?

• It works only when you turn on the lights
• if the rear fog light is off, you still have 4 brakelights/4 taillights
• if the rear fog light is on, you have 2 foglights and 2 brakelights/2 taillights
• the foglights can be switched on in the center concole

This is legal, because the foglight is brighter than one taillight and you still have brakelights.
What you have to do:

• run 2 wires from the center console to the trunk
• therefor release the center console and take out the rear seats
• run a wire under the carpet to the trunk
• apply a switch in the center console and put the wires on(there's an oem one available)
• take out the taillights (the center section first just to be sure not to damage the outer taillights)
• buy 2 diodes (i used 3A 40V) and change the taillight harness the following way (changes in blue color)
• put everything back together

wire colors (kouki fd 99'):
green: brakelight
brown: taillight
black: ground

--> finished, now you got a symmetric rear fog light and all the other functionality is still given. I hope that helps some of the european fd owners here.

greetings
ica

 

Appreciate the motivation, but the reason only Euro-spec cars received rear fogs is because (w/the exception of small indirect license plate lights) white/clear lights visible to the rear while the car is in motion forward are illegal in my State....and I suspect in all others. Your modification would cost about $80 if cited where I live.

 

Great info and a clever idea!

Just FYI for others reading this thread -

This is NOT a good idea on a US spec car. This is to meet a European standard for a rear mounted foglight which is required by law. It's basically one or more bright red lights on the back so the car is clearly visible in the fog to a car approaching quickly from the rear.

This just simply puts 2 of the taillight bulbs into permanent "brake light on" mode, which is when they're lit the brightest. So, 2 of the bulbs will be brightly lit all the time, the others will all function as normal.

In the US, your car would look broken with this setup . In Europe, they'd know you had it on for a foggy day. And, I believe you have to demonstrate a functional rear fog light to get the car registered and on the road.

Dale

 

If that's the case, I stand corrected. I didn't read it close enough and assumed he was talking some type of white light. I thought I remembered seeing those occasionally on old TR's, MG's etc. that the local miliary guys brought home with them.

 

In the UK, a fog light has to be a minimum of 100mm from a brake/side light to be legal. They also require an interior warning light to be lit when the fog light is on.

Source: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1989/Uks...1796_en_16.htm

That being said....Mine wasn't even checked when it went in for its test......I was almost disappoint haha

For mine, I just stuck a red bulb in my right reversing light housing & rewired it to an oem front fog switch

Old interior pic of my warning light:

 

My S80 T6 Volvo has the 'rear fog' light built in. Pretty cool, really.

 

That's about 4". Hmmm. The E92 3 series coups rear fogs aren't 4" at first sight.

Eh...

Personally, after looking at the reverse light assembly, it may be somewhat easy to pop the rear plastic out and add a lamp. Plenty of room. But that's just me if I were to do it.

 

my old mazda mx-3 also had the rear foglight next to the break light and that was oem and legal. i'm trying to get the oem rear fog light switch, but if i don'T find one, i'll also use another front foglight switch.

 

Did someone still have the wiring diagram?
THanks.

 

reading this thread as my EU spec rear fog light is right next to me on my desk...

Here are a few pics for reference if anyone is interested.

 

My rear fog light harness has been retrofitted to a USDM FD and the wires are just spliced together with the front fog light switch. I can take a photo when I get to the garage