Categories: M35-M45 Articles

Infiniti M35 / M45 Fogs Only Operation Modification

I’ve always wanted to have the factory fog light switch on my Infiniti M45 to work independently.

In other words, as long as the car is on, the factory fog switch can control the fogs whether the low beams or high beams are on or off.

I was going to add a relay to them and mount a separate aftermarket switch somewhere under the dash on the drivers side that would control the fogs regardless the status of the high and low beam.

I ended up saying making an easy modification to the turn signal stalk on which the fog light switch is located.

First you remove the lower steering column cover (5-6 P2 screws).

Next, you locate and remove the top steering column cover. After that, you proceed to locate the turn signal stalk that contains the low beam, high beam, and fog light switches. The entire turn signal stalk is held down by two small P2 screws. Remove those two screws and the stalk will come loose.

After that, observe the two wiring harnesses that attach to the stalk itself, there should be two, a larger one with 10 or 11 wires, and a smaller one with only 2 wires going into it (a light blue with bronze dots on it, and a red one with a white stripe and bronze dots on it).

Now, take the smaller harness with only two wires going into it (a light blue with bronze dots on it, and a red one with a white stripe and bronze dots on it), cut the black plastic sleeve that protects the two wires. It should look like this.

Next, cut the two wires about two inches from the harness (white plastic).

After that, take the red or the light blue wire (it doesn’t matter which one since they both go to the switch, just pick one.) and wire it to an existing ignition wire in your fuse box located on the outer left wall under the dash on the driver side. You can use an “add a fuse” thing that you can purchase at any local auto parts store.

This is what it should look like after your done with that step.

Then take the other wire (blue or red depending on which one you chose to go to your ignition fuse box) and wire this up to the number “86” post on the aftermarket relay to be used to power your fog lamps.

In order to do this you will need to decide where you would like to place your relay, then find the rubber grommet on the driver side firewall and snake through the wire(always wrap wire with wire loom to protect it from heat, oil, water, etc. etc.).

I placed my relay inside the factory relay box located next to the battery under the hood (relay is marked by red box in this next pic).

If you don’t know how to wire up a relay, here goes.

There are usually four or five metal posts on the bottom of a regular 40-amp automotive relay. Each of the posts is labeled with a number. Some relays have a fifth metal post that is located dead center on the bottom of the relay in between the other four metal posts, for this write up, the fifth post is not being used.

The four metal posts that are to be used are labeled; 30, 85, 86, and 87.

Post number “30” goes to your 12 volt (red positive battery post or equivalent. Also make sure you fuse the wire going to your battery with the right size fuse).

Post number “85” gets grounded (black negative battery post or grounded to frame or chassis).

Post number “86” gets wired to your positive output on your switch or positive ignition depending on how you would like to have your relay power up.

Post number “87” is the 12 volt positive GOING TO your fog lights or fog light HID ballasts depending on what you will be running in your fogs. This one can be split into two wires (one for the right and left side fog lights or fog light HID ballasts.

If you are running HID’s in your fogs, it should look like this (the black/negative wire coming from the ballast harness should be grounded to chassis or equivalent). In this pic, notice how the wire on the left side of the ballast gets grounded with the same bolt that holds the ballast in place on the chassis.

The finished product should look like this.

We hope you liked this article – Find TONS more useful Infiniti M45 / M35 information here: Infiniti Technical Articles.

 

Greg

Greg is the owner and CEO of the NICOclub Network, and when he's not restoring an old Datsun, you can probably find him hard at work building the best damn Nissan resource on the web.

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