Using rear foglights as brakelights

[Ivan141]

I just finished a simple mod on my rear light clusters that makes the foglights come on along with the brakes. Not very usefull (well...at least people will know for d@mn sure when you're braking) and also not very legal, but the electronics needed for this can be pulled out easily.

Here's what you need:
-1 diode, rated up to about 6 Ampere.
-2 regular car type fuses. 10A and 30A

The normal brakelights are 2 21 Watt bulbs which have a 15A fuse. The foglights are also rated 21 Watts so a quick calculation shows that the maximum current will be about 42W/12V=3,5A. I replaced the STOP fuse (located under the dash on the drivers-side) for double the regular value eg. 30A.

Remove the rear light panel from the housing and unplug the wiring, take it inside where the soldering begins. I bent one leg of the diode so I could jam it alongside the Green/white wire in the back of the white connector. Make sure that the diode is pointing in the right direction, the stripe side of the diode should be facing the foglight wire(red) and the other side should be facing the green/white wire as mentioned above. I positioned the diode right behind the connector, then I soldered the 10A fuse to the second leg of the diode (which I shortened by cutting a cm of the leg. Then I soldered a wire to the 1cm bit of leg I cut off earlier and jammed that next to the red wire on the connector. It should be right next to the green-white one used earlier. Solder the free end of the wire to the free end of the fuse and you're ready to go. Pics of the electronics in the lighting panel coming up soon, pics of the rear while braking coming up tonight after dark.

[EDIT] Made a silly mistake..the 10A fuse should be made smaller, I think 5A would be okay. Forgot the fact that the diode will fail above 6A, so it would be safe to use 5A to prevent the diode from failing.[/EDIT]