Coverting Fog Lights to Brake Lights: wwest?

wwest, I saw an intriguing post by you in "Father's Day Present" and just wanted to follow up with you. You had seemed to indicate that it was possible to rewire the the fog light lamps (only the left-fog light lamp comes on now as you are undoutedly well aware) to make it an additional brake light for more pronounced braking. I've long felt that the one-sided fog light is a waste (at least in the US). On the Ferarri 355 and others, the fog lights for both sides switch on simultatenously which really give the car a mean look at night. So two questions: 1. Can you elaborate on how to convert the left (and switch on the right) fog lights to brake lights for more pronounced braking, and 2. If you don't want to convert both sides to brake lights, do you know how to activate the right-side fog light, so at least both can be switched on simultaneously (I never turn the left side on, because then it looks like the light is broken since the other side never comes on). Regards.

I am not wwest but here is my 2 cents... If you add a second rear fog light then it is likely that people will mistake it for your brake lights (being on all the time). Some states may have laws about this. I know that in states you can be cited for having your fog lights on in "non-fog" conditions. Now with that said... it should be easy enough to add the second bulb as the socket is already there. The problem is that the wiring harness (for US and Canada) does not have the wiring to the switch on the dash. This is pretty major since this is the primary car harness. You could likely get around this by running a secondary wire from the working rear fog and splice it into wiring for the other rear fog light. I would suggest running this wire to the inside of the car (under the carpet where the DME is) and back to the other side so that you don't have a wire dangling in the engine compartment. You could also wire it like the factory European cars but would require removing the seats, carpeting and part of the dash.

Thanks Loren. Thats an interesting point you raise about state laws. I will try to check into that to see how it works. I agree that (1) taking the spliced wire through the engine compartment is not a good idea, and (2) taking it through the carpeting, under the seats (aka European style) is a big pain. If this is the case, then where exactly does one run the wire through? By the rear seats, but behind them? How do you get to this space? Regards.

Really easy to get to the space... routing the wire might be more challenging. Just lift the carpet/foam cover...

On the left rear "fog" light simply cut the wire leading to the socket, tape off, insulate, the hot side, and now splice the bulb/socket end into the brake lamp circuit. I Don't remember if the right rear "fog" lamp was fully wired, but I'm sure you can do the same thing, wire it into the right side brake lamp circuit. If you convert both to "fog" mode then it will look as if you have brake lights on at all times. Read other posts to see what I mean.