The integrated fog lights on my TCH are too high to be meaninful in the very low lying ground fog we get in the foothills of the Cascades. I have even driven in some cases where the fog lights were above the top of the fog layer and the light bounced off of it -- useless.

Does anyone know if the TCH harness supports replacement of the two lower (blank) panels with the OEM accessory fogs used by the XLE? Do I need to find a place for a switch or can I tie it into the stalk switch at some point that doen't require opening the steering column?

 

The answer is no, the hybrid harness does not support fog lights.

Do a search, there are many posts on here about how people have installed aftermarket foglights, and there are several different ways to wire the power to them. Some people have purchased the factory turn signal stalk, and others have simply wired them into the low beam relay.

 

TCHs don't come with foglights. do you mean headlights?

There is a way (I remember seeing factory fogs in the owners photos here) but I have no idea how it's done. Probably using a factory turn signal stalk like flopshot said.

 

Some of the US literature refers to the shuttered low beams as an 'integrated fog light eliminating the requirement for a separate fog light." I was being just a little sarcastic by the reference. The beam is too high and is simply not that effective.

I will probably go the easy way and not mess with the stalk. I will just use the low beam (shudder) voltage to pull a relay for the fogs, and get the power from the 12 volt supply at the fuse panel as it already has a fuse position in there, wired or not.

 

jeez.. who are they trying to fool? lol.

I don't get it when the foglights get integrated into the headlight compound (e.g. Mazda6 or RX300).

Or how 'bout this.. The Q45's machine-gun-like HID headlights are powerful enough that they don't need foglights. (2002). Fast forward a couple of years and what do we find? foglights >.<.

anyway.... yeah sure. A separate button is probably the easiest way.

 

Fog lights, in my understanding are not designed just to be brighter. They emit a wide and short angle(beam) of light close to the ground so as to illuminate the road rather than the mist of the fog. Low beam and high beam lights have a much longer and narrower beam of light. High beam headlights beam od light is much higher and longer, making them not a good choice in fog. I'd like to get a set of fog's installed.......i'm sure they would help with the low-beams in dense fog.

 

IF you can get them to turn on without the low beams on. Otherwise, the fogs are useless with the lows on.

 

Fog lights usually operate with low beam, thats how it is done in XLE too, when you switch to highbeam, fog lights are also switched off. You can not turn fog lights on without turning your low beam on. I used the XLE light, and tied them with my low beam.

 

In my state it's illegal to run with just Fogs. The low beams are required to be on -- stupid but true. The low beam just lights up the top of the ground fog so you can't see what the fogs are illuminating.