Amazon fog lights - Issues, Resolutions and a surprise

Recently, I bought fog lights off Amazon for the Camaro. The kit came with everything...light housings & bulbs, wiring harness, inline fuse, relay switch and on/off switch.

The hardest part of the install was what to hook the hot wire for the relay to, since I didn`t feel like running wires through the firewall. I decided on the right parking light, since it is the easiest power source to access and since the lights will come on automatically when the headlights come on when it starts getting dark out OR if I turn on the parking lights manually. This also gives me the benefit of having the headlight warning chime go off if I forget to turn the lights off when I shut off the car as well as the car itself turning the lights off after 5 minutes if the car is not running.

The Issue:

I had driven through some heavy rain a few times and didn`t think anything of it. Until I got behind a black truck early one morning and saw that neither of the lights were on. On my day off, I checked all the wiring under the hood. The inline fuse had heavy corrosion on it, even though I placed it in a "dry" area under the hood, so I spliced out the fuse. They still didn`t come on. I check all the other connections, including the relay and even tried to wire the lights directly to the battery, still nothing.

The Resolution:

So I contacted the seller through Amazon and we exchanged messages. They initially wanted me to send the lights back for a full refund, I didn`t want to do that and told them so (because I like the way they look on the car). I also told them that I didn`t expect then to send me a new kit for free, because through my testing, the only thing that seemed bad was the bulbs. They said they would get back with me and the next day they messaged me that 2 new bulbs would be on the way, was I OK with having to wait for them to ship? No Brainer, so I said I was fine with that. So now I`m waiting for the new bulbs to ship free of charge.

The Surprise:

I went the the parts store to buy a new inline fuse and my gut started telling me to buy wire too. So I picked up the proper gauge wire in red and black along with some heat-shrink tubing. Today, I jacked the car up and saw water draining from the driver`s side wire loom to the fog lights. On a hunch, I cut the connectors off and threw out the harness that came with the lights. Then one at a time, wired each light directly to the battery and a ground. Both lights came on! It seems the stock harness is wired in series and the water I saw draining had shorted out the driver`s side of the harness causing BOTH lights to not work. So, I finished what I started and now the lights are wired in parallel, so if one light goes out, ONLY that light goes out. Now both lights are working again, coming on with the parking lights as I had originally wired them to do and I have two free replacement bulbs on their way for when the lights actually do burn out.

Thoughts on the Seller:

The seller is The Albert Company. Even though their messages came through at 2 and 3 am, they were AWESOME to deal with, more than willing to assist in any way they can, I am definitely leaving a positive review on Amazon for them.

Don- Gld you got it sorted out, and that they were OK. Thanks for posting this, it`s good to know what Co.`s stand by their stuff.

I couldn`t do it...I couldn`t just let the company send me two free bulbs for no reason when the bulbs hadn`t failed, not after they were so diligent in trying to help me find a solution. So in response to their last message about sending out the bulbs, I wrote them and told them about me discovering the harness had failed and that I had bought new wire and fixed it and now the lights were working properly and that they did not need to ship the new bulbs to me. I probably won`t get their response until 2 or 3 o`clock in the morning when (hopefully) I`ll be asleep, but at least I should be able to sleep knowing I`m not a scammer.

Darn my good upbringing and my generally honest nature LOL

Great job, Don !
I am also glad you have them on and they look Great in your Pic !!! Do they give you great, low, wide, light at night, on the road ?
If they are emailing, etc., you at 2:00-3:00 am, they are probably in China, the next day and 12 hours ahead..
Glad you told them about the lights not being the issue after all... :)
Dan F

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stokdgs

Great job, Don !
I am also glad you have them on and they look Great in your Pic !!! Do they give you great, low, wide, light at night, on the road ?
If they are emailing, etc., you at 2:00-3:00 am, they are probably in China, the next day and 12 hours ahead..
Glad you told them about the lights not being the issue after all... :)
Dan F

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They do "fill in" a few areas where my headlights don`t hit, low and to the sides, especially in the rain. I figured China too, with a distribution hub in California. In their correspondence, you can tell that English isn`t the writer`s first language, not that it`s bad, just a little "off." I`m glad I told them too, as soon as I fixed them, I started feeling guilty that they were going to send the bulbs for no reason.

I received a response to my message stating they didn`t need to send the bulbs as the issue was fixed. It came between 2 and 3 am this morning LOL. They told me not to worry, the bulbs had already been shipped and to keep them as spares. Definitely a stand-up company that I will have no problems with in future purchases.

Don- No surprise to *me* that you couldn`t just stay quiet about the real issue...and it`s one *nice* surprise that they were so good about it. It`s always great when good people do the right things by each other :D