I recently installed some lights behind the grill on my '99 F-150 (Installed Lights Behind Grill) and wired them to operate off a stock headlight w/ fog switch (only on w/ low beams). After using them for a few months I decided I wanted a little more versatility so I modded the switch to allow the fogs to also operate w/ the parking lights and high beams.

The '97-'99 switches are different than the '00-'03 switches. There are several excellent write-ups for the '00-'03 switches, but the link for the only '97-'99 switch write-up I could find appears to be broken.

The mod has two parts. First, the switch has to be modified to allow it to pull out in the parking light position. Second, the switch needs to be powered in the parking light and high beam position.

In the picture of two disassembled switches below, you can see the three notches for the switch to stop at the head, park, and off positions. When the switch is in the fog position (turned to head and pulled out), and turned to the park position, a ramp pulls the switch in, turning off the fogs. By moving the location of the ramp (carefully grinding it w/ a demel), the switch will pull out for fogs in the park position and turn off the fogs when the switch is turned to off.

The switch on the left is stock (ramp between head and park). The switch on the right has been ground to move the ramp between park and off (allowing it to be pulled out for fogs in the park position). My grind is not real pretty (believe it or not it was the first time I've ever used a dremel), but the switch operates smoothly, like it came from the factory this way.




The second part of the mod consists of connecting a wire between the white w/ black stripe wire (comes out of the small gray plug) and the brown wire (comes out of the larger gray plug). This powers the foglight switch whenever the parking lights are on.


Foglights on w/ parking lights ...




Fog lights on w/ high beams ...

 

I thought there was a 97-99 write-up out there? Well I followed one of those and it worked, about 4 years ago.

Should put this in the how to's if it's different.

 

excellent! so you pull your headlight switch and it engages your aftermarket foglights? did you already have the wire tucked away?

 

You need help getting this in the "How To's". It will be easy to reference that way. Email Bluejay or I can if you would like. This one IS different and good, I know I would like to use it in the future

 

99 f150 my headlight/fog lt **** pulled right off in my hand the other day when i pulled for the fog function one of the plastic tabs on the center rod broke off and the **** wouldnt stay on after that


me being mr curious i thought the black trim around the **** and dim control was just a cover held in by tabs/or clips and if i got a screwdriver behind it i could pop it off and see what holds the switch in....WRONG!...i broke the front cover off a sealed switch so now i can see all the circuits and parts inside it (i will attach a pic in the event anyone ever wondered what is in there)

so after that happened and i went in the house to warm up from the 10 degree temps and order another switch i returned to the project it became apparent that the dash panel the switch is in would have to come out and there must be screws on the back side of the switch

my issue is after i had taken out roughly 12-14 screws from a total of 3 dash panels that overlap i am down to 1 screw that is holding but i dont know how it was put in where it is and have evaluated all possibilities i could come up with for removing it and i am left with....break the plastic support brace that it goes into which appears to be part of the switch and is directly behind the switch and has 2 sides closed ( see pic to get what i am looking at )

 

There was an excellent write-up for modding the '97-'99 switches which I saw about 6 months ago. When I went to mod my switch, the link for the write-up was broken. I remembered how the switch was altered, but I couldn't remember which wires to jump. Fortunately, the '00-'03 swiches use the same color wires, so I jumped the wires as shown HERE and everything worked.

When I added the grill lights, I didn't want to add a cheezy switch to my nice Ford interior, so I got a headlight switch w/ fogs and wired the lights to operate off the fog switch. My truck is a XL (no factory fogs). Wiring existed for the fog lights from the switch to the firewall, but stopped there. More details on the installation HERE.

 

video in post 2 of the link below will show you how to get it out

https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...r-97-03-a.html

 

pancake, it is not necessary to remove any dash parts to remove the switch. On a '97-'99, the switch removal procedure is as follows:

1. Turn the **** to the Headlight position and pull it out.
2. Insert a pin (I use a small allen wrench) into the hole at the base of the **** and push the clip on the shaft which releases the ****
3. Remove the ****, reverse it 180* and push it back on the shaft
4. Turn the **** back to the Off position and push it in
5. Turn the **** to the Headlight position and pull the switch out of the dash

From your last picture, you need to put the **** on the shaft and turn it to the off position. Then, push the **** in and turn it to the headlight position. The switch should pull out of the dash at this point. If you need any further info/pics, let me know.

When you get your new switch, make sure you get one for a '97-'99. The '00-'03 switches, while looking almost identical to the '97-'99 switches, mount into the dash differently and have different plugs on the back.

 

can someone get me the link to the '00-'03 switch mod
thanks

 

awesome. to my knowledge, my truck doesnt have ANY wires for fogs (Base Model)

 

This is it...

Thanks for this contribution, fairlaners! Moving you up to TAC status! Thanks for your contribution to the site!!

-RP-

 

'00-'03 switch mod

 

This might be a stupid question but I am going to ask it anyways. Can you use the switch that doesnt say "pull out for fog lights"?. I am just curious because it pulls out to just like the fog light switch. I am guessing not and thats why you replaced it but I just wanted to make sure

 

You need to get the foglight switch ...

The non-foglight switch, while it pulls out like the foglight switch, it is not wired for the foglights. My '99 XL didn't come w/ fogs, but there were wires for the foglights plugged into the non-foglight switch (smalll gray plug on the right side of the headlight switch). There were no pins on the switch side of the plug.

 

Never tried it but once I get my fogs up and running (the same way Fairlaner has his) I will test it for I still have my stock switch and it still works. if I were to take a stab in the dark I would say it would be a safe bet that it wouldn't work, But I will test it anyway.