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5th Gen JDM Fog Installation Instructions w/ pics (56k Death) + Original Instructions
Fifth Generation Fog Light Installation Instructions
Preface: (you know this long when there's a preface)
First, let me congratulate you on purchasing a set of JDM fogs - they are the best JDM appearance accessory out there for the Fifth Gen Prelude IMHO. Secondly, kudos for having the guts to install them yourself, rather than pay a shop to do your dirty work (I swear, you really don't get that dirty!)
The reason I decided to write this up is not because the existing instructions are not enough to complete the job (in fact I have included two of the existing instructions at the end of mine), but to fill the gaps in for those that understand things visually and perhaps want to learn a little bit in the process. Also, the job can seem daunting when you've barely cracked the hood of your car (by accident of course - you were reaching for the trunk release weren't you). With the pictures I've included, you will feel right at home while installing your new pride and joys. I've tried to make these as simple as possible, erroring on the side of too much information in some cases.
If you have any suggestions or questions regarding these instructions, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can find me at PreludeOnline.com under 5Gen_Prelude, or at [email protected]
Final Thoughts Before I Begin:
1. Use instructions at own risk. You are after all installing electrical components. Is it safe? Yes - unless you've had electrical problems before, I wouldn't worry about it. But don't sue me.
2. Some of the pictures are blurry. First, I'm using an auto cheap digital camera. Second, I'm often holding it without being able to see what I'm shooting. Third, this isn't a lesson in photography!
3. My car is dirty. Yes it's fall and there's crap everywhere. I swear I cleaned it up right afterwards!
4. Finally, READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE STARTING. Seriously, it does help. It also allows you to skip some steps. At the very least, read the whole step before doing anything.
What You Need Before Installation:
All of your JDM foglight stuff. This includes:
1. Internal Harness (with 15A fuse installed)
2. External Harness
3. Left Fog Light (with H3C bulb installed). Fog Light is marked with an L on top of the bracket
4. Right Fog Light (with H3C bulb installed). Fog Light is marked with an R on top of the bracket
5. Fuse Sticker
6. Relay
7. Screws, Nut, Bolts (4 screws, 1 nut, 2 gold bolts)
8. Fog Light Switch
9. Zip Ties
In addition you will need:
10. Box of washers (same size as the screws you buy - number 10's fit 3/16"s)
11. Box of screws (3/16-1/4" x at least 1/2" long however to do my ratchet trick later on you will need at least 3/4" long screws) and nuts (used for metal applications - as opposed to wood people!)
Now if you're like me, you've read that you need to buy 4 screws and nuts and surprised to find that your box contains four screws. They must be it! No, sadly not. My theory is that the JDM bumpers have either threaded holes or have threaded clips you screw into. No matter, you don't use them, you use instead the box of screws and washers (I say box because you will lose one if you only buy/steal 4).
Tools you will need:
- Flashlight (fresh batteries - check 'em!)
- Ratchet socket set. Specifically a 10mm socket and socket for your nuts that you bought (3/8" were mine)
- Philips head screwdriver. This has to be long enough to reach through the bumper into the screw that holds the turns on. Most screwdrivers BARELY fit.
- Screwdriver for your bought screws (could be flathead, Philips, or Robertson)
- Electrical tape (you may not need this - see later for explanation)
- Glue (again - see later for explanation)
- Multimeter (if you have any doubt about your connections, you will need this)
- Alligator clip leads (not really necessary but can make it easier for testing with the multimeter)
- Snacks (hey you need to keep your strength up!)
- Magnetic probe (for that screw/washer/nut you will drop at the end)
- Precision screwdriver set (Phillips required, flathead nice for the prying out the fog light switch holder)
- Clean shop towel
Pre-Steps:
You can ignore these if you'd like, however I'd be pissed if I found out my bulbs or my external harness were faulty and I could have tested them BEFORE I went down to the garage. In these steps I'll explain a little how it all works form the external wiring side, and you will use these later on in the real steps. For this, you will need your multimeter, alligator clips (optional), external harness and your two fog lights
1. Lay the fogs out like they would be positioned in the car - left on the right of you, right on the left of you (yes - backwards - left and right marked fogs correspond to the driver's perspective)
2. Set your multimeter on ohm or continuity testing. You will have to look at your meter for instructions but basically if you touch the two probes together on this setting, and the separate them, they have two opposite readings (mine is 0 and 1 for continuity exists, yours may beep etc...)
3. Attach one probe (via alligator clip leads if you have them) to the orange male plug on the external harness
4. Attach the other probe to the ground spade (in the middle of the harness)
5. Read meter. You should get no continuity. This is because the circuit is not complete.
6. Now attach one of your fogs to the circuit. Your meter should read continuity. That's because it completes the circuit - it travels down one probe, into the orange wire, into both sockets, but the one you plugged in the fog light to, it also goes into one side of the bulb, through the filament, down the other side, into the other side of the socket, into the black wire which ends up at the ground spade.
7. Remove one fog and attach the other fog to the other end. Same result right?
8. Keep existing fog connected and connect other fog. Should have the same result.
You have basically simulated (at least from a continuity aspect) what your fogs will do when they are connected. Only one fog needs to be connected or working for it to light up, unlike some old Xmas tree lights where the whole string would fail if one light didn't work). This has been a quick crash course in basic troubleshooting. As I said, you will need these skills later on if you have any troubles, but you didn't REALLY have to this.
One last note, I didn't mention which way to plug the light into the socket. I've tried it both ways and they seem to work both ways which would mean they are not polarity sensitive as suggested before. I may be wrong on this which is why I tell you which way to connect the lights later on just to cover my own ass.
I have split the install into three separate stages.
Fifth Generation Fog Light Installation Instructions
Preface: (you know this long when there's a preface)
First, let me congratulate you on purchasing a set of JDM fogs - they are the best JDM appearance accessory out there for the Fifth Gen Prelude IMHO. Secondly, kudos for having the guts to install them yourself, rather than pay a shop to do your dirty work (I swear, you really don't get that dirty!)
The reason I decided to write this up is not because the existing instructions are not enough to complete the job (in fact I have included two of the existing instructions at the end of mine), but to fill the gaps in for those that understand things visually and perhaps want to learn a little bit in the process. Also, the job can seem daunting when you've barely cracked the hood of your car (by accident of course - you were reaching for the trunk release weren't you). With the pictures I've included, you will feel right at home while installing your new pride and joys. I've tried to make these as simple as possible, erroring on the side of too much information in some cases.
If you have any suggestions or questions regarding these instructions, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can find me at PreludeOnline.com under 5Gen_Prelude, or at [email protected]
Final Thoughts Before I Begin:
1. Use instructions at own risk. You are after all installing electrical components. Is it safe? Yes - unless you've had electrical problems before, I wouldn't worry about it. But don't sue me.
2. Some of the pictures are blurry. First, I'm using an auto cheap digital camera. Second, I'm often holding it without being able to see what I'm shooting. Third, this isn't a lesson in photography!
3. My car is dirty. Yes it's fall and there's crap everywhere. I swear I cleaned it up right afterwards!
4. Finally, READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE STARTING. Seriously, it does help. It also allows you to skip some steps. At the very least, read the whole step before doing anything.
What You Need Before Installation:
All of your JDM foglight stuff. This includes:

1. Internal Harness (with 15A fuse installed)
2. External Harness
3. Left Fog Light (with H3C bulb installed). Fog Light is marked with an L on top of the bracket
4. Right Fog Light (with H3C bulb installed). Fog Light is marked with an R on top of the bracket
5. Fuse Sticker
6. Relay
7. Screws, Nut, Bolts (4 screws, 1 nut, 2 gold bolts)
8. Fog Light Switch
9. Zip Ties
In addition you will need:
10. Box of washers (same size as the screws you buy - number 10's fit 3/16"s)
11. Box of screws (3/16-1/4" x at least 1/2" long however to do my ratchet trick later on you will need at least 3/4" long screws) and nuts (used for metal applications - as opposed to wood people!)
Now if you're like me, you've read that you need to buy 4 screws and nuts and surprised to find that your box contains four screws. They must be it! No, sadly not. My theory is that the JDM bumpers have either threaded holes or have threaded clips you screw into. No matter, you don't use them, you use instead the box of screws and washers (I say box because you will lose one if you only buy/steal 4).
Tools you will need:
- Flashlight (fresh batteries - check 'em!)
- Ratchet socket set. Specifically a 10mm socket and socket for your nuts that you bought (3/8" were mine)
- Philips head screwdriver. This has to be long enough to reach through the bumper into the screw that holds the turns on. Most screwdrivers BARELY fit.
- Screwdriver for your bought screws (could be flathead, Philips, or Robertson)
- Electrical tape (you may not need this - see later for explanation)
- Glue (again - see later for explanation)
- Multimeter (if you have any doubt about your connections, you will need this)
- Alligator clip leads (not really necessary but can make it easier for testing with the multimeter)
- Snacks (hey you need to keep your strength up!)
- Magnetic probe (for that screw/washer/nut you will drop at the end)
- Precision screwdriver set (Phillips required, flathead nice for the prying out the fog light switch holder)
- Clean shop towel
Pre-Steps:
You can ignore these if you'd like, however I'd be pissed if I found out my bulbs or my external harness were faulty and I could have tested them BEFORE I went down to the garage. In these steps I'll explain a little how it all works form the external wiring side, and you will use these later on in the real steps. For this, you will need your multimeter, alligator clips (optional), external harness and your two fog lights
1. Lay the fogs out like they would be positioned in the car - left on the right of you, right on the left of you (yes - backwards - left and right marked fogs correspond to the driver's perspective)
2. Set your multimeter on ohm or continuity testing. You will have to look at your meter for instructions but basically if you touch the two probes together on this setting, and the separate them, they have two opposite readings (mine is 0 and 1 for continuity exists, yours may beep etc...)
3. Attach one probe (via alligator clip leads if you have them) to the orange male plug on the external harness
4. Attach the other probe to the ground spade (in the middle of the harness)

5. Read meter. You should get no continuity. This is because the circuit is not complete.
6. Now attach one of your fogs to the circuit. Your meter should read continuity. That's because it completes the circuit - it travels down one probe, into the orange wire, into both sockets, but the one you plugged in the fog light to, it also goes into one side of the bulb, through the filament, down the other side, into the other side of the socket, into the black wire which ends up at the ground spade.

7. Remove one fog and attach the other fog to the other end. Same result right?
8. Keep existing fog connected and connect other fog. Should have the same result.
You have basically simulated (at least from a continuity aspect) what your fogs will do when they are connected. Only one fog needs to be connected or working for it to light up, unlike some old Xmas tree lights where the whole string would fail if one light didn't work). This has been a quick crash course in basic troubleshooting. As I said, you will need these skills later on if you have any troubles, but you didn't REALLY have to this.
One last note, I didn't mention which way to plug the light into the socket. I've tried it both ways and they seem to work both ways which would mean they are not polarity sensitive as suggested before. I may be wrong on this which is why I tell you which way to connect the lights later on just to cover my own ass.
I have split the install into three separate stages.