Rewiring Instructions for the 3rd generation Nissan Maxima
(1989-1994)
Fog lights on with parking lights, headlights or highbeams
Corner lights blink with turn signal
Corner lights on bright all the time
Corner lights blink with turn signal (variation)
Click on a pic to make it bigger
Fog light rewire
| before | after |
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When completed properly, the fog lamps will operate when the
fog lamp switch is on and the parking light, low beam, high beams, or flashing
high beams are on. The stock setup allows them to be on with headlights only
Required Tools: 10mm deep socket, flat-head screwdriver, wire cutter, needle nose pliers, sharp point voltage tester.
Required Materials: 2 feet of 14-18 gauge wire, electrical tape, wire
some type of wire connectors
1. Locate the relay box on the right (driver) side of the engine
compartment, just in front of the battery. If you have ABS, your coolant tank
will be right above the box, slide it up and out of the way. There should be labels on the top
of the relay box cover including one for Fog Lamps in the upper left-hand
corner.
2. Open the relay box by removing the relay box cover. It is held in
place with a snap connector at each end of the box. Remember the fog lamp
relay is in the upper left corner.
3. The relay box is secured to the chassis with 3 10mm nuts, 2 on the
left end and 1 on the right end. Remove the nuts. The relay box is made of two
halves, top and bottom. All that holds the halves together are several plastic
snap connectors. Use a screwdriver to gently release the snap connectors on
the back (firewall) side of the box. Now pry the top upwards, exposing the
underside of the relays. There is not much play due to the wire harnesses at
each end of the box, but you only need to expose the wires entering the
underside of the fog lamp relay, the one in the upper left corner of the box.
4. Find the red wire with yellow stripe which connects to the underside
of the fog lamp relay. This is the signal wire to the fog lamp relay. To test
the signal wire, turn on the low beams, and use your sharp point voltage
tester to check for power. There are two hot wires for this relay, but you want the
red one with yellow stripe. Before proceeding, make sure you turn off the
head light switch so the wires you will be working on are no longer hot.
5. Once you have located the red/yellow stripe signal wire, gently pull
the wire from the wire harness until there is a little slack. Now cut the
red/yellow wire about 2 to 3 inches from where it enters the bottom of the fog
lamp relay. Splice a 2 foot length of new wire to the end of the red/yellow
signal wire that was left connected to the bottom of the fog lamp relay. (you can use
which ever type of connector you prefer) Next, you must
insulate the other end of the red/yellow signal wire to prevent it from
shorting out and potentially causing a fire. This wire will be hot when the
low beams are on. I suggest crimping a connector on the loose end and taping
it closed. You do not want to leave a hot wire lying around.
6. The next step is to connect your new signal wire to the side marker
light circuit to provide the proper signal to the relay. To do this, remove
the driver's side marker light assembly as follows. There is one screw
securing the top of the assembly to the chassis.
Remove the screw and gently pry the front of the assembly away from the fender
using a flat head screwdriver wrapped in cloth being careful not to chip or
break the light lens. There is a "ball-joint" at the front of the corner lense that needs to be popped out. Once this is loose, the corner light can then be pulled towards the front of the car and out.
Once the assembly is free, disconnect the wire connector
from the back and set the assembly aside. Now fish the new signal wire into
the inner fender and through the opening to where the side marker light
assembly was mounted. Expose the wires about 6 inches from the side marker
light connector by carefully cutting and removing about 1" of the insulation
tubing wrapping the wires. Be careful not to cut into the wires
themselves. Find the red/ hot wire. To be sure you have the correct wire,
turn on the parking light switch and test the wire with your sharp point
voltage tester. Now, splice the new signal wire into the hot wire leading to
the side marker light assembly connector. I suggest using a self stripping
splice connector, and then wrapping the connection with electrical tape for
weather resistance.
That's about it.test the modification before
reassembling. Turn on the parking light switch and the fog lamp switch. The
fog lamps should be on. Also test on low beam, high beam, and flashing high
beam. If all is ok, carefully install the side marker light assembly, and the
relay box. Be careful when snapping the relay box top and bottom back
together, that all the wires have clearance and are not getting
pinched. Congratulations, your done!!
If you're wondering what you did, here's the basic idea:
The fog lamp relay basically connects a power wire (12V) to your fog lights. There
are 2 inputs for the relay: a + and a -(ground). The ground signal comes from
your foglight switch. When you push the button on your dash, it sends the ground
signal to the relay. The + input comes from (before the rewire) the headlight power.
When both these wires have the signal they are supposed to, it will give power to the
foglights, otherwise, they'll be off. All we did was to make the + input wire come
from a different place - the corner light power wire. If that doesn't make sense, dont
worry about it, it works :).
Cornering light rewire 1
When completed properly, the orange
part of the cornering light will flash alternately with the blinker in the
front bumper when the lights are on and the turn signal is also on. It's hard to tell
in the pictures but it looks really neat in person
This is how the cornering light and front bumper blinker are
normally wired.
This is how the wiring should look after the rewire is done. The
blue wire in this picture is just the 2 foot wire that you
provide. It needs to be run from the front blinker through the
fender into the sidemarker.
Directions:
Remove the corner lamps (refer to fog light
rewire) and the turn signal lamps in the front bumper. Each bulb socket in
the corner lamp assembly has it's own ground and it's own positive (Cornering
bulb has two positives). The two grounds (black wires) are joined together just
before they go to the wire harness. You'll need to cut the sidemarker bulb's
ground before it joins with the cornering bulb's ground. Cut it right before
the place where the two grounds meet. Then, connect a two-foot or so length of
wire to the sidemarker's ground wire (the one coming from the bulb); see pic above right. Now go to
the turn signal wire (it's connected to the turn signal lamp you removed). The
wire is protected with a plastic cover. Open up that plastic ribbed cover and
you'll see 2 wires. One is black and one is pink. The pink one is
positive. Now, splice the sidemarker's ground wire (the wire you've already
connected) into the turn signal's positive wire. The easiest
way to do this is to use a 3M Quick Splice Connector you can get from Radio
Shack or something. Make the splice, seal everything with electrical tape or
heat shrink and you're done; see pic above left. The cornering light should now be brighter and the
orange part of the cornering light should blink alternately with the turn
signal.
Cornering light rewire 2
This rewire will make the bright part of the cornering light
always be on when the parking lights are on, not just when your turn signal is
on
This picture shows the basic idea of this rewire
1. Remove cornering light assembly (refer to fog rewire instructions)
2. Cut red wire going to the larger bulb about 3 inches before it goes into
the bulb socket.
3. Cover the end of the red wire that is coming from the harness because this
wire will have power when you use the turn signals and it may cause problems if it is
not covered properly. I suggest putting the end of it into a wire nut and then taping
around the bottom of the wire nut.
4. Connect the end of the red wire that is coming from the bulb to the green
wire that is also going into the bulb. There are many ways to connect these wires,
just make sure to keep the green wire intact (you can cut it, but make sure you
reconnect it if you do).
5. That's it. Turn on your parking lights and the bright part of the bulb
should be always on now. Repeat this process on the other side corner light and
you're done
Cornering light rewire 3
This rewire is similar in function to the first corner rewire. This one will make your
orange cornering light (or clear if you have clear corners) come on like normal with
your parking lights. Once you hit your turn signal (when your headlights are on)
the orange bulb will blink in unison with the front bumper blinker. When you turn
the blinker off, the orange cornering bulb will remain light like normal. When you
are only using parking lights or your lights are off completely, it will remain off
at all times like the stock function.
This rewire is a little more involved than the previous ones. You will need a SPDT (single
pole, double throw) relay, as opposed to SPST. You can get this at Radio Shack or
most any automotive parts store. It is just a standard 30amp relay.
Your relay should have 5 posts on the bottom. There are usually numbered 30, 85, 86, 87, and 87A.
If yours are not, it probably has a drawing somewhere showing what the pins are.
Figure out your corresponding numbers from this pic.
They sell sockets that plug directly into the relay, but female butt connectors will work
just as well and are a lot cheaper. I just attached a connector onto the end
of each wire going to the relay and pushed it on the relay pins.
Remove the corner light and front blinker following the steps in the first corner rewire.
You will need 5 new wires about a foot or 2 in length depending on where you locate
your relay. I used different colors so I could tell where each one is going.
Stock/before
After
Directions:
Connect one new wire from relay pin 87 to the + (pink) wire of the front bumper blinker.
Make sure the pink wire still makes contact so it can turn the blinker on as it's supposed to
Connect one new wire from relay pin 86 to any ground location (under a screw, the black wire from corners
or blinker, whatever).
Connect one new wire from relay pin 85 to the RED wire on the corner light assembly. This is the color
AFTER it goes through the harness (on the bulb side).
Connect one new wire from relay pin 87A to the GREEN wire on the corner light assembly. This is the color
AFTER it goes through the harness (on the bulb side). You could also connect this to the
unused end of the green wire you cut in the next step
Now cut the wire going to the smaller, orange bulb in the cornering assembly. Cover
the end that goes back towards the harness (if not used in previous step). Connect a new wire to the end of the cut wire
going to the bulb. Connect the other end of this to pin 30 of the relay.
That's it, repeat on other side.
Good luck
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