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Johnnybee
Well-Known Member
I have always been under the impression that true fog lights work best when they are: (i) as low as possible on the car; and (ii) used alone, without headlights. However, it has been my experience that the lights are rarely as low as possible and can't be used without the headlights on. I rarely turn mine on, usually only on dark (wet or dry) roads where they provide some additional side illumination immediately in front of the car, which is handy to see the crappy lane markings we have here when wet, or the edge of the pavement on the right. As such, I see ours as simply a styling exercise.
stangs-R-me
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Johnnybee,
I agree with everything you said, but I do most of my driving at night and want the maximum available light.
The fogs on SN95's were in a decent spot as were the ones on my 2011 and the 2016. The 2011 & '16 were also round glass lensed lights making them even better than the SN-95 offerings.
The 2018-up location is not a good spot and more of an afterthought being tiny and likely not-very-functional lights integrated in with the plastic T/S & Marker Lights.
So I was really hoping someone would come up with a custom bezel / bolt in solution for these cars but no one has yet.
Back in simpler times, I bought Blazer Projector Beam Fog & Driving lights and put them in the stock fog light location in my 1998, which was WAY more functional than the factory plastic housing lamps. Wish it could be that simple with a 2018-21 !!
Doug
I agree with everything you said, but I do most of my driving at night and want the maximum available light.
The fogs on SN95's were in a decent spot as were the ones on my 2011 and the 2016. The 2011 & '16 were also round glass lensed lights making them even better than the SN-95 offerings.
The 2018-up location is not a good spot and more of an afterthought being tiny and likely not-very-functional lights integrated in with the plastic T/S & Marker Lights.
So I was really hoping someone would come up with a custom bezel / bolt in solution for these cars but no one has yet.
Back in simpler times, I bought Blazer Projector Beam Fog & Driving lights and put them in the stock fog light location in my 1998, which was WAY more functional than the factory plastic housing lamps. Wish it could be that simple with a 2018-21 !!
Doug
Cobra Jet
Well-Known Member
Search eBay and buy the parts used... why pay insane retail when there's tons of working take off parts? You can also try LKQ for Ford take off parts.
stangs-R-me
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Picked up my 2021 101A yesterday, and this morning I reached down behind the bumper and unplugged each lamp assembly and both plugs DO have 5 wires going into them (vs. 4 req'd for w/o fog lamps) as mentioned in POST #8. So it at least appears that the wiring harness has not changed since 2018.
![IMG_3349[1].JPG](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='1425' height='1900' viewBox%3D'0 0 1425 1900'%2F%3E)
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stangs-R-me
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Got a Motorcraft SW6985 Switch from RockAuto for $36.94 delivered and bought 2 used lamp assemblies off of ebay (cheaper than new but more than new in March).
Installed the switch and using the LH side plug (long enough to come up & plug into a loose light) to test. I get the marker & T/S lights to come on but NOT the Fog Lamp ... even in ACC mode or with engine running. Bench testing with a 9V battery I DID get the fogs to come on this way.
Doug
Installed the switch and using the LH side plug (long enough to come up & plug into a loose light) to test. I get the marker & T/S lights to come on but NOT the Fog Lamp ... even in ACC mode or with engine running. Bench testing with a 9V battery I DID get the fogs to come on this way.
Doug
stangs-R-me
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Got them both installed and the fog lights do not come on. Ford has obviously changed something between 2018 and 2021, so it looks like I'll have to buy the cable and do Forscan ... hopefully I'll get them working that way.
In Starky's installation instructions they claim you only need to drop the belly cover, well you also need to drop the horns (unplug & 1 bolt) on the drivers side.
On the passenger side, need to turn the wheel and undo two pins in the wheel well liner so you can push it out of the way in order to get the light assembly out & back in with the W/S washer tank right there. I also unplugged the W/S pump as this wire was also in the way.
Doug
In Starky's installation instructions they claim you only need to drop the belly cover, well you also need to drop the horns (unplug & 1 bolt) on the drivers side.
On the passenger side, need to turn the wheel and undo two pins in the wheel well liner so you can push it out of the way in order to get the light assembly out & back in with the W/S washer tank right there. I also unplugged the W/S pump as this wire was also in the way.
Doug
Whoznex
Member
I installed Diode Dynamic Elite Fog lights and SW-6985 fog light switch on a 2018 non premium package mustang. I can confirm that it’s plug and play, the fog light works. I guess next up is forscan to activate the fog light indicator in the dash. Thank you op for this information.
stangs-R-me
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Appears I never updated my Fog Light install on my 2021 !!
Had an email exchange with Starkey and ended up buying their wiring kit. Did not feel confident that I would be successful playing with Forscan (after spending $50 for an OBDLink Adapter) that I could really do things on my 2021 like you can on earlier cars.
The fog light button in the headlamp switch sends a "pulse" signal when it is pushed, it does not supply 12V to activate a relay like SN95 Mustangs & earlier. There are 2 relays in the Starkey wiring harness ... a special "solid-state latching relay" that gets activated & deactivated by this pulse signal and this is what turns on / off the normal relay that sends power to the fog lamps. They were not willing to share the P/N of this latching relay or their circuit diagram (I probably would not either) so I bought their $240 harness.
Now that I own the harness I now know what the special latching relay is (InPower VCM-01, around $60 + Tax & Shipping), and could duplicate the whole harness if I wanted to. The $240 price does seem a bit high, but if you were to buy the relays, plug ends, terminals, convoluted sleeve, and wire and spend a few hours making it would you really come out ahead ??
Main deviation from Starkey's kit that I did was the routing of the sense wire to the fog lamp switch. I ran mine on the passenger side under the cowl and went through a black plastic plug in the firewall that is behind the accelerator pedal. Starkey run's their sense wire on the driver's side then through where other wires pass through directly above the dead pedal. This is accessible on the inside but near impossible area to access under the hood.
I also spent $30 on a Motorcraft WPT-1294 Headlamp Switch Wiring Pigtail so I could steal one of the terminal/wire assy's out of it and NOT cut the delicate factory harness. Pulled the factory wire end out of the headlamp switch plug, taped it off to the harness, then swapped in my sense wire end in. 100% reversible solution.
Final deviation was I used a proper "Add-a-Circuit" fuse tap adapter instead of using their supplied "fuse tab".
Doug
Had an email exchange with Starkey and ended up buying their wiring kit. Did not feel confident that I would be successful playing with Forscan (after spending $50 for an OBDLink Adapter) that I could really do things on my 2021 like you can on earlier cars.
The fog light button in the headlamp switch sends a "pulse" signal when it is pushed, it does not supply 12V to activate a relay like SN95 Mustangs & earlier. There are 2 relays in the Starkey wiring harness ... a special "solid-state latching relay" that gets activated & deactivated by this pulse signal and this is what turns on / off the normal relay that sends power to the fog lamps. They were not willing to share the P/N of this latching relay or their circuit diagram (I probably would not either) so I bought their $240 harness.
Now that I own the harness I now know what the special latching relay is (InPower VCM-01, around $60 + Tax & Shipping), and could duplicate the whole harness if I wanted to. The $240 price does seem a bit high, but if you were to buy the relays, plug ends, terminals, convoluted sleeve, and wire and spend a few hours making it would you really come out ahead ??
Main deviation from Starkey's kit that I did was the routing of the sense wire to the fog lamp switch. I ran mine on the passenger side under the cowl and went through a black plastic plug in the firewall that is behind the accelerator pedal. Starkey run's their sense wire on the driver's side then through where other wires pass through directly above the dead pedal. This is accessible on the inside but near impossible area to access under the hood.
I also spent $30 on a Motorcraft WPT-1294 Headlamp Switch Wiring Pigtail so I could steal one of the terminal/wire assy's out of it and NOT cut the delicate factory harness. Pulled the factory wire end out of the headlamp switch plug, taped it off to the harness, then swapped in my sense wire end in. 100% reversible solution.
Final deviation was I used a proper "Add-a-Circuit" fuse tap adapter instead of using their supplied "fuse tab".
Doug
Whoznex
Member
Direction for FORSCAN activation fog light indicator in the dashboard. Forgive me if I miss any steps.
1)Go to https://forscan.org/download.html
2) Buy one of the recommended usb to OBDII cables
3)Install the program on a laptop and get the extended license (free 2months trial available)
4) Connect the laptop to your car and have FORSCAN enstablish connection
5) Click on configuration and programming button, IPC, Play button
6) Scroll down and find front fog lamp, enable it, Write button
7) Cycle ignition
8) Check to see if the indicator is activated
1)Go to https://forscan.org/download.html
2) Buy one of the recommended usb to OBDII cables
3)Install the program on a laptop and get the extended license (free 2months trial available)
4) Connect the laptop to your car and have FORSCAN enstablish connection
5) Click on configuration and programming button, IPC, Play button
6) Scroll down and find front fog lamp, enable it, Write button
7) Cycle ignition
8) Check to see if the indicator is activated
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