I did the Foglight hack

[daverman]

Wow, that was the easiest mod ever. It took me about 15 minutes to modify the foglight harness--and now my fogs can come on with just the parking lights.

I took pics, but this mod has been done so many times, you can just search for pics that others have posted.

[evolaerok]

any problems like flickering of the low beam and stuff? I just remember someone mentioning this back on a-tl.

[pianoman41]

The only time you will experience flickering of the low beams is if you (a) use the auto-off/auto-on features of our headlights, and (b) you leave the foglight switch in the "on" position when you shut the car off. If both of these conditions are true, when the alarm system flashes the parking lights it will also try and flash the HIDs. While momentary flashing of the HIDs is not the healthiest thing in the world for them, it is also not completely unexpected. When you "flash" someone with your hi-beams by pulling back on the light stalk, both the HIDs and the hi-beams come on momentarily (hi-beams are positive ground and require lo-beam circuit to be live in order to activate). I doubt Acura would have designed it that way if it weren't at least permissible to let them flash in this manner.

There is a fix for this that someone on the MDX forum originally proposed. It makes the mod more permanent because it involves cutting a wire but it does the solve the problem. But the bottom line is--if you don't use the auto-on/auto-off function of the lights it will never be an issue for you.

As an aside, I never use the auto-off/auto-on feature of our headlights simply because when you start a vehicle, the battery needs a lot of power to crank the engine. Why tax the battery further by drawing the voltage/amperage necessary to power the HIDs (and all the running lights) while trying to crank at the same time? Us New Englanders know better than to try and start a car with the headlights on--especially in the cold weather.

[69tl]

daverman, since you already took some pix, then might as well just post the pix up.....

[rominl]

i am pretty sure i am one of the very few OLD guys here without doing this mod yet

[Outlook]

Allll rite Daverman, very easy mod huh? Congrats. Adding the shock sensor is pretty straight forward as well...

[daverman]

OK, here are the pics...

Step 1: Pop open the fuse compartment cover on the driver's side. Simply tug on the bottom edge of the cover and work it loose.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_01.jpg

Step 2: Unscrew the brass screw that holds the plastic kickpanel to the metal frame.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_02.jpg

Step 3: Pop open the plastic kickpanel. This piece is held together by spring-loaded clips on the top edge.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_03.jpg

Step 4: Disconnect the dimmer harness. There's a tab on the underside of the harness that you press in to remove the harness. This will allow you to pull the kickpanel out far enough to get your hand behind the foglight switch.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_04.jpg

Step 5: Push out the foglight switch from behind.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_05.jpg

Step 6: Disconnect the foglight switch harness. There's a similar tab on it that you have to push in.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_06.jpg

Step 7: With a pair of scissors, cut open the plastic sheath that covers the wires so you have enough room to maneuver.

Look down at the harness with the tab on top. The leftmost wire is #5, followed by #4, #3, #2 and #1 on the right. What you want to do is to splice together wires number 3 (white/red) and 4 (red/black) together.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_07.jpg

Step 8: I used a splicing connector to do this. The regular splicing connector usually has one through-hole and one blind hole. I used my dremel tool to punch through the blind hole.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_08.jpg

Step 9: Wrap electrical tape so that the wire bundle stays together, then push it through the foglight switch opening and reconnect the harness to the switch.
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_09.jpg

Step 10: Put the whole thing back together, and voila!
http://home.kc.rr.com/daverman/img/fogs/pic_10.jpg

A nice thing about this mod is that the little green light on the foglight switch still comes on whenever the fogs are on!

[Outlook]

Nice little write up Dave. Do we have your permission to put this in the FAQ???

[fahoumh]

very nice post, Dave! I think it should go into the DIY section

[rominl]

moving