Technical Retro fitting fog lights

[Northerndoblo]

I have a 2011 Doblo Cargo and want to retro fit front fog lights. I need to know what parts may be there and what I need to buy. I can buy the lights themselves but do I need brackets to fit them to and how do they fit in the bumper? I also need to know will there be wiring in the dash for the switch and will I need to change anything in the fuse box?

 

[Northerndoblo]

Anybody?

 

[Northerndoblo]

Feeling very lonely on my thread, any one any info?

 

[g8rpi]

Feeling very lonely on my thread, any one any info?

Hi sorry you are not getting any replies, I guess no one reading the section knows. I don't and I don't have a Doblo to go look either.
What switch does te owners manual show for the fog lights? Is it fitted on your van? (almost certainly not). Looks like it's part of the hazzard switch cluster so you need to fit that. You might need to add a fuse. It may even need a body computer upgrade but I doubt it. How handy are you? Do you have diagnostic tools like Multiecuscan (MES)? If you do the first thing is to look in the fuse box to see if a front foglight fuase is fitted. If it is, find one of the front foglight connectors, attach a bulb (any 12V car bulb will do) and turn on the foglights using the "actuators" tab in MES. If the light comes on this confirms everything apart from the switch and lamp housing.
If there is no fuse fitted, look down the slots were it goes and make sure there is a visible metal contact in each slot. If there isn't you probably need a lot of work.
Do you really need front foglights? It's not going to be easy to do it as per the OEM (best bet would b to get bits from a scrap car. Even if the lights were broken you wouls get all the switches, bracket connectors etc).
The alternative would be to buy a good branded (Ring, Hella) pair of "E" marked replacement front foglights (maybe LED) nd fit them allong with a switch and warning light. Regulations are here
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/6/made

HTH,
Robert G8RPI.

 

[Northerndoblo]

Hi sorry you are not getting any replies, I guess no one reading the section knows. I don't and I don't have a Doblo to go look either.
What switch does te owners manual show for the fog lights? Is it fitted on your van? (almost certainly not). Looks like it's part of the hazzard switch cluster so you need to fit that. You might need to add a fuse. It may even need a body computer upgrade but I doubt it. How handy are you? Do you have diagnostic tools like Multiecuscan (MES)? If you do the first thing is to look in the fuse box to see if a front foglight fuase is fitted. If it is, find one of the front foglight connectors, attach a bulb (any 12V car bulb will do) and turn on the foglights using the "actuators" tab in MES. If the light comes on this confirms everything apart from the switch and lamp housing.
If there is no fuse fitted, look down the slots were it goes and make sure there is a visible metal contact in each slot. If there isn't you probably need a lot of work.
Do you really need front foglights? It's not going to be easy to do it as per the OEM (best bet would b to get bits from a scrap car. Even if the lights were broken you wouls get all the switches, bracket connectors etc).
The alternative would be to buy a good branded (Ring, Hella) pair of "E" marked replacement front foglights (maybe LED) nd fit them allong with a switch and warning light. Regulations are here

HTH,
Robert G8RPI.

Hi Robert

Thanks for the reply. I understand the points you've made. I'm reasonably competent. The problem arises from not having any diagnostic equipment. Since my original post I've looked at the wiring and it all appears to be there. I do need fog lights because I regularly drive over the North Yorkshire Moors at Night (if you you've driven these roads you'll understand).

The bumper will need replacing because having done some more research the foglight mounting brackets are integral to the bumper. New lights are not expensive and neither is the switch.

Having spoken to a senior Fiat technician it would appear you can't switch on the fog light circuit if it wasn't factory fitted. There is a way of changing the ECU with third party software but I can't seem to find anybody in my part of the country with the appropriate equipment so reluctantly I'm going to have to fit a separate switch and relay. I'll find a front bumper in a breakers yard although they're not easy to come by due to front end accidents normally rendering them useless.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[g8rpi]

Hi Robert

Thanks for the reply. I understand the points you've made. I'm reasonably competent. The problem arises from not having any diagnostic equipment. Since my original post I've looked at the wiring and it all appears to be there. I do need fog lights because I regularly drive over the North Yorkshire Moors at Night (if you you've driven these roads you'll understand).

The bumper will need replacing because having done some more research the foglight mounting brackets are integral to the bumper. New lights are not expensive and neither is the switch.

Having spoken to a senior Fiat technician it would appear you can't switch on the fog light circuit if it wasn't factory fitted. There is a way of changing the ECU with third party software but I can't seem to find anybody in my part of the country with the appropriate equipment so reluctantly I'm going to have to fit a separate switch and relay. I'll find a front bumper in a breakers yard although they're not easy to come by due to front end accidents normally rendering them useless.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Hi,
You should look at getting Multiecuscan anyway if you are going to do your own maintenance. I can't check at the moment as I'm at work, but will look and see if the is a configuration setting to enable the fog lights. If the switch is CAN it may just be a proxy-alignment.
I was in Yorkshire on Saturday (near Holmfirth) but am based in Cambridge so can't easily have a look at your van.


Robert G8RPI.

 

[sludgeguts]

Having a stray thought. Fog lights on modern cars don't actually seem, to me, to be fog lights at all. Back in the day when the only fog light you had came off the shelf of the local accessory shop, the lamps threw a flat beam parallel to the road & so you adjusted them to just touch the road away in the distance.

Looking at fogs on modern cars (my dobbin included), when they are switched on in the fog, other cars look like they are pushing a cloud & mine looks like the lights are simply lighting up the lump of fog at the end of my bonnet - I might as well have my full beams on.

So just wondering if you'd be better off looking at driving lights mounted low on your bumper

 

[g8rpi]

Having a stray thought. Fog lights on modern cars don't actually seem, to me, to be fog lights at all. Back in the day when the only fog light you had came off the shelf of the local accessory shop, the lamps threw a flat beam parallel to the road & so you adjusted them to just touch the road away in the distance.

Looking at fogs on modern cars (my dobbin included), when they are switched on in the fog, other cars look like they are pushing a cloud & mine looks like the lights are simply lighting up the lump of fog at the end of my bonnet - I might as well have my full beams on.

So just wondering if you'd be better off looking at driving lights mounted low on your bumper

Fog lights shoild only be used in very low visibility i.e less than 100m. Their purpose is to illuminate te road directly infront of the car without lighting up the fog ahead. If visibility is poor you should no be going that fast anyway. Just because people used toadjust foglights as you describe does not mean it was right.. There is no such thing as driving lights legally for road use, anything like you describe would be an additional main beam headlight and have to be adjusted as such. Anyhing else is a work light or for off-road (grean lanes etc are technically roads by the way) use only.

Robert G8RPI.

 

[Eklipze3k]

Unless you plan to use an extra switch somewhere in the cabin, based on my experience of trying to get a Grande to use the proper fog light switch I think the short answer is 'don't bother'. Unlike what a normal person might expect, the switch doesn't just operate a standard circuit but instead sends a CANBUS signal to the body computer, which in turn activates the lights and the tell-tale on the dash (whilst also checking resistances, blah blah).

Wiring an aftermarket switch would be a lot simpler, if you feel up to it.

 

[sludgeguts]

Fog lights shoild only be used in very low visibility i.e less than 100m. Their purpose is to illuminate te road directly infront of the car without lighting up the fog ahead. If visibility is poor you should no be going that fast anyway. Just because people used toadjust foglights as you describe does not mean it was right.. There is no such thing as driving lights legally for road use, anything like you describe would be an additional main beam headlight and have to be adjusted as such. Anyhing else is a work light or for off-road (grean lanes etc are technically roads by the way) use only.

Robert G8RPI.

I don't understand your comment "Just because people used toadjust foglights as you describe does not mean it was right".
How so? When you buy a pair of fogs made by a company such as Hella or Ring & their instructions tell you where to mount them and how to adjust them, why would that advice not be right?

 

[g8rpi]

I don't understand your comment "Just because people used toadjust foglights as you describe does not mean it was right".
How so? When you buy a pair of fogs made by a company such as Hella or Ring & their instructions tell you where to mount them and how to adjust them, why would that advice not be right?

I don't know what the makers of fog lights said in the past, but you said the beam should "Just touch the road in the distance" This is not my understanding and the regulations say the top of the beam shall be 3 % below the horizontal.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/6/made

Robert G8RPI