Fog Lights/DTR Lights -- Captain Obvious or Helpful?

[BoomerRoadie]

Hi all,

I've read a few posts here about day time running lights on the older models and even the DIY hack on the DIY pages.

But I'm curious if others can do this on their cars. I have a "97 Box.

Anyway, I wanted to be able to have just the fog light on and not have the the headlights on during the day. There was not an obvious way to do this until I started fiddling around with the headlight switch in the garage one day.

I found that if I turned on the headlights (two click to the right), then pulled the switch to light up the headlights AND Fog, THEN went one click back to the left, the Fog lights stayed on and the headlights went off.

That was cool....

The headlights are still on, but the lamp is pretty dim compared to the normal headlight intensity (not the high beams).

Can your cars do this?

I just thought I'd share this because the guy who sold me this car had it for 16 years and didn't know how to do this and my neighbor who had a Box didn't know either and was shocked when I showed him.

So...this is a case of Captain Obvious or maybe this is helpful to you. If it's the former of the two.... haha

See ya!

[Finnegan]

I'm going to try this tonight! I've never used the parking light feature, which is a shame. Some German probably spent some considerable time working on that.

[redciv1]

LOL, it worked. Good find. Actually, if you just turn on parking then pull one click out for fog they stay on also!!

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by Finnegan

I'm going to try this tonight! I've never used the parking light feature, which is a shame. Some German probably spent some considerable time working on that.

Well that German's work also benefitted Audi. We had a 1999 Audi A6 Avant and it had the exact same light switch.

[Deserion]

Originally Posted by PaulE

Well that German's work also benefitted Audi. We had a 1999 Audi A6 Avant and it had the exact same light switch.

For what it's worth, it's actually a Mercedes-Benz switch. The only difference is the Mercedes version has one additional pin.

[Anker]

I did the DRL hack and replaced the fog light bulbs with LEDs. Works like a charm. Search for DRL hack and follow the instructions.

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by Deserion

For what it's worth, it's actually a Mercedes-Benz switch. The only difference is the Mercedes version has one additional pin.

I didn't know that, I'm not worthy enough for a Mercedes!

[BruceH]

Originally Posted by Anker

I did the DRL hack and replaced the fog light bulbs with LEDs. Works like a charm. Search for DRL hack and follow the instructions.

Yep, works great

[BoomerRoadie]

So cool! I didn't have a Captain Obvious moment!!

I was kinda worried that you guys would have all jumped on me, 'yeah, yeah, yeah...manual page 87, been there done it....'

HAHA.

Cool. I use this all the time now. I'll have to try the other switching method mentioned earlier.

Thx!!

[Chuck W.]

I use to activate my fog lights using the same method of turning on the parking lights. The one issue I found was the headlight lens would be hot to the touch if I had them on for a prolong period of time. I have no doubt that if I was to use the fog lights for prolong periods of time over time I would burn and discolor the plastic lens. When I completed the DRL hack I switched over to LEDs to prevent this from happening.