Hi all, a bit of a puzzle, first foggy night in my recently aquired 92 Classic Vogue SE. Turned on front fogs and no joy, only for them to come on when i clicked on the high beams.
Obviously this isn't normal but i was wondereing if they're supposed to be wired so they work on dipped beams only, the reverse of what they are doing, and something has been wired 'arese about face'. Any ideas? I bow to your collective greater knowledge.

Chris J

Hi Chris,

Yes - fog lamps are normally programmed to only operate when dipped beam is selected. However, on my MK3 4.4, the fog lamps work when the side lights are on. I haven't checked to see if they go off if I select full beam.

I used to have a classic and the fogs were wired directly to the switch, so worked all on their own.

Sam

Curiosity got the better of me, so I checked this out.

As long as my side lights are on, the fog lights work with any combination of head lights. e.g. Off, Dipped and Full Beam.

Strange!

Hi, thanks for your replies, but i think that the old girl has more deep seated problems (other than that the drivers seat controls work the mirrors, the heater fan only working on it's highest setting and the cruise control not working).
Last night i used the aircon for the first time in anger, it works fine, nice and cold, but the car ran like a pig with it missing, pulling back and generally having a lack of power so i switched it back off and the car ran fine again. This caused me to experiment (as we do) and switching it back on caused the car to fart and miss again. So i tried other things (heated screens, seats, fogs, wipers, etc) and it transpires that the more electrical goodies that i turn on the worse the car runs.
My thoughts are that the battery isn't man enough to keep everything running (down a cell maybe?) and the more 'leccy stuff that is turned on the less power there is for the coil and injectors (it's the 3.9), unfortunately my battery tester has bitten the dust but my multi-meter shows 12.1v across the terminals switched off and 13.7 - 14.2v whilst running, so i'm now at a loss.
Other that calling in an auto electrician i'm stuck, any more thoughts?

of course the air con will set the car to run slowly because it takes its energy from the engine , specially if you are running up ... but not as you wrote ... anyway , check your spark plugs , maybe there's a problem ..
or the problem may be in the engine itself ...

good luck .

Hi, i doubt that it is my engine as it had a full re-build at 75,000 (50,000 milles ago) and she had a full service (with Magnacor leads) 1,000 miles before i got her (2,500 miles ago), this is why i bought it as, despite it's faults, it has a very full service history.
As stated above it seems to run worse the more electrical items are switched on, which says to me that the battery isn't man enough for the job, i get paid tomorrow so i'll take a trip to my local bargain motor factors and see if the codes match up.

Chris J

Chris,

Once the car is running, it's the alternator which provides the power to the systems an charges the battery at the same time.

The air con compressor runs via a clutch and belt drive mechanism, which could be nackered, causing the excess power drain.

I'd certainly get it looked at, if I were you.

hi mate my 92 vouge does the same thing mate i just thought thats howthe front fogs where ment to work

HI my 1993 classic LSE is the same. When I got the car I just thought that they did not work, only found out later that they worked with the high beam
Craig