Nowhere Man
05-27-2008, 11:17 AM
One of the easiest mods on a VW (my last car before the MS3) is to wire up the rear fog light. Here's a GTI example:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/peter.flanner/SDdwvTlr-ZI/AAAAAAAAAIM/mQnVag_FTJA/s800/TOD3.jpg
And a Touareg:
http://www.avalonsystems.net/img/albums/touareg-shots/IMG_1377.jpg
If you don't know what a rear fog light is or what it's for, here's the Cliff's Notes version: This light is an additional light of equal color and brightness to a brake light. It is also physically separate from the brake light to avoid confusion. It is used in extremely thick fog to make your vehicle visible from behind, as in the GTI pic above.
I found out how Mazda does this in Europe. Instead of 2 reverse lights mounted to the rear hatch, there is only one reverse light on the pax side; the driver's side is the rear fog light. (New Beetles are the same, except the reverse and fog lights are in the bumper.) The good news is, I found the OEM replacement part for this (http://www.awrracing.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=162):
http://www.awrracing.com/store/popup_image.php?image[0]=images/products/led2.jpg&
The bad news is, I have no idea what to do with it. It obviously has to be wired in. The easiest way to do this would be to tap off the front fog light wiring, and thus let the stock fog light switch simultaneously control both front and rear fog lights. Where's the easiest, cleanest location to tap off the front fogs, and how would I cleanly run a wire to/through the hatch?
The more correct way would be to somehow source the E-spec fog light switch (it should have 4 positions: front only, rear only, front + rear, and all off) and wire it in. Do we have a source for foreign-market OEM parts, and know anything about their wiring?
Finally, cars with rear fog lights typically have an instrument cluster indicator for this. Do the US-Market MS3's have such an icon, and if so, how do we activate it?
PS: Before you say "who cares" to this thread, consider that some of us live in areas of pea-soup fog and don't want our shiny new MS3's rear-ended by one of the many inattentive idiots out there!
http://lh4.ggpht.com/peter.flanner/SDdwvTlr-ZI/AAAAAAAAAIM/mQnVag_FTJA/s800/TOD3.jpg
And a Touareg:
http://www.avalonsystems.net/img/albums/touareg-shots/IMG_1377.jpg
If you don't know what a rear fog light is or what it's for, here's the Cliff's Notes version: This light is an additional light of equal color and brightness to a brake light. It is also physically separate from the brake light to avoid confusion. It is used in extremely thick fog to make your vehicle visible from behind, as in the GTI pic above.
I found out how Mazda does this in Europe. Instead of 2 reverse lights mounted to the rear hatch, there is only one reverse light on the pax side; the driver's side is the rear fog light. (New Beetles are the same, except the reverse and fog lights are in the bumper.) The good news is, I found the OEM replacement part for this (http://www.awrracing.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=162):
http://www.awrracing.com/store/popup_image.php?image[0]=images/products/led2.jpg&
The bad news is, I have no idea what to do with it. It obviously has to be wired in. The easiest way to do this would be to tap off the front fog light wiring, and thus let the stock fog light switch simultaneously control both front and rear fog lights. Where's the easiest, cleanest location to tap off the front fogs, and how would I cleanly run a wire to/through the hatch?
The more correct way would be to somehow source the E-spec fog light switch (it should have 4 positions: front only, rear only, front + rear, and all off) and wire it in. Do we have a source for foreign-market OEM parts, and know anything about their wiring?
Finally, cars with rear fog lights typically have an instrument cluster indicator for this. Do the US-Market MS3's have such an icon, and if so, how do we activate it?
PS: Before you say "who cares" to this thread, consider that some of us live in areas of pea-soup fog and don't want our shiny new MS3's rear-ended by one of the many inattentive idiots out there!