Fog Lights?

[Tuschay425]

Hey guys,

I got my Prima (#425) on Saturday at around 2 pm and immediatly hit the road. I live in Bonita Springs, FL which is the SW part of Florida and I took her to a more appropriate terrain to break her in near North Florida.

I was getting a bunch of looks, thumbs up, and questions.

I also wasn't alone; my friend brought his GTI and another friend brought his Rabbit, and to add to that, we were being joined by some Mini's and other curious cars on the road.

Anyway, the car is fantastic to drive. I'm still figuring out the quirks of things and how to navigate the car properly and that brings me to a question:

I was looking at the exterior lights for this car and there are three distinct areas where light come out of the front. I can turn on the high beams, the driving beams, and the day-time running ones, but the lights all the way at the bottom of the front don't seem to turn on no matter which buttons I press.

How do I turn them on? The owner manual alludes to them being fog lights, which would make sense, but the fog light button on the center consol doesn't seem to do much..

Thanks. :)

[Thad]

I think headlights need to be on at the same time. They are Bright and throw lots of light at the ground.

[Tuschay425]

Ah, I don't know if I've tried that yet. I'll see if it works after work.

Thanks :)

[Fiat500USA]

Thad wrote

I think headlights need to be on at the same time. They are Bright and throw lots of light at the ground.

In the US, fog lights can only be on with low beams. That's the way the factory wires them. They can usually be modified to operate independently, we'll see who the first one is to do that!

[CaliberSRT4]

Fiat500USA wrote

Thad wrote

I think headlights need to be on at the same time. They are Bright and throw lots of light at the ground.

In the US, fog lights can only be on with low beams. That's the way the factory wires them. They can usually be modified to operate independently, we'll see who the first one is to do that!

Makes sense I suppose. I'm just so happy that my car lets me turn on the fog lights without the low beams. Looks cool.

But the Fiat 500 looks so awesome at night with all six lights on.

[ciddyguy]

Fiat500USA wrote

Thad wrote

I think headlights need to be on at the same time. They are Bright and throw lots of light at the ground.

In the US, fog lights can only be on with low beams. That's the way the factory wires them. They can usually be modified to operate independently, we'll see who the first one is to do that!

Don't know if it's a federal mandate in so far as factory installs or not but my truck which has factory fog lights also won't let me use the fog lights unless the headlights are on and they too have a separate switch to leave them off but not sure if they only worked in low beam only or not, not noticed a difference in my case as they are fixed to the bumper and have a fixed position as the adjustments are not adjustable and my bumper not level front to back so they kind of tilt up now. This is my '92 Ford Ranger too.

[prima 109]

Check to see if you can pull out the outer part of the headlight switch once your headlights are on the low beam setting.  You should here a "click".  My convertible Sebring is like that.  Remember these cars have some chrysler parts on them like the stereo controls on the back of the steering wheel.  If that doesn't work then I don't know what to tell you, but try that first.

[Giallo Edizione]

I just went out to my car to verify.

Fogs only go on if lowbeams are on and turn off when you switch to high beams. You need to hit the fog switch on the center stack to turn the fogs on. They are off by default so you have to turn them on every time you drive the car.  Hopefully somebody builds a circuit or crack the software code to enable them to go on automatically with the headlights.

There is no parking light setting on the light stalk. The DRL's ( in low light mode)  and rear lights turn on when you turn on headlights lights and the car ignition off. Again, somebody may come up with a circuit or software add-on that will allow the fogs to operate when lheadlights are off

[ciddyguy]

prima 109 wrote

Check to see if you can pull out the outer part of the headlight switch once your headlights are on the low beam setting.  You should here a "click".  My convertible Sebring is like that.  Remember these cars have some chrysler parts on them like the stereo controls on the back of the steering wheel.  If that doesn't work then I don't know what to tell you, but try that first.

Prima,

The stalks on the Fiat are NOT the same ones used on actual Chrysler vehicles, they are the same ones use on the Euro 500 and of course, the Fiat Panda as they are mechanically very similar and as Giallo Edizone says, in bottom of the H/VAC control panel are some buttons and/or blanks, surrounding the microphone used in the Blue & Me system and in the manual equipped cars it's the ESC and the fog light switch, the seat heater switches also reside there if factory installed at the very least.

[prima 109]

My bad!  Thought they were the same.  I'm picking my car up tomorrow, so I find out more info on it then.  thanks for the info.

[Tuschay425]

Yep, I have them working now. Those lights are actually really bright and helpful. They almost seem to illuminate around 180 degrees around the front of the car. Also, it does look really cool having all six lights on at night...

Thanks guys!

[honey9]

Just eyeballing the picture, keep in mind those are 16" wheels, so the radius of the wheel is 8".  Using this, I'd say the car is riding at least 6" off the ground, maybe more.  If someone took the time to scale it they could extract the preproduction ground clearance from the pictures.

[burg45]

@Honey9 I believe the ground clearance is at 8".

[Front fogs fiat 500]

How did you get then on please?