I bought a used 2010 r56 that had the auxiliary headlights installed by the prior owner. Please read this description of a lighting issue and see if you can help me diagnose it.

Mysteriously, even without turning on the headlight high beams, I can turn on the auxiliary lights when I press the auxiliary headlight button on the panel in front of my left knee -- the factory switch for those auxiliary headlights. I have read that if properly installed, the auxiliary lights will turn on if you press the button only while the high beams are on, but that they should not turn on if the high beams are not on. But I can turn on my auxiliary lights whether the headlights are on low or high beam, so something is amiss in the wiring of the auxiliary lights.

The second mystery is that the fog lights -- inside the little round recessed lights in the front lower bumper -- do not turn on at all when I flip the toggle switch on the roof that is supposed to turn on the fog lights. And I have a light-out error display on the dashboard that indicates specifically a fog light burned out. Again, neither of the in-the-bumper fog lights will turn on at all when I flip the toggle switch on the roof. The running lights/parking lights in those two little round lenses mounted low on the front bumper are both illuminated, but the fog lights in those same lenses do not turn on at all when I hit the fog light toggle.

Since the auxiliary lights turn on when the high beams are not on, I am concluding that the installer did not wire them according to the proper specifications. I suspect that the installer hooked the auxiliary headlights to the power supply for the fog lights and then disabled the fog lights and possibly removed the fog light bulbs. Again, the auxiliary lights turn on when I press the button in front of my left knee. They are not operated by the fog light toggle switch. But I suspect some wiring monkey business, which would explain why the auxiliary lights turn on without having to turn on the high beams.

Is my diagnosis sounding accurate? Can any wiring genius suggest what I should inspect to confirm what is going on? I would like to get rid of the bulb-out fog light warning in the dashboard. I am ok with the auxiliary lights turning on independent of the high beams. And I could live without the fog lights in the little round recessed bumper lights. I just want to get rid of the fog-light-burned-out warning in the dash (I confirmed the bulb out with the CC-ID code) Thoughts/suggestions?

 

I'm not certain about the 2010 R56 (pre LCI, AFAIK?), but on my 2013 R56 LCI, there are two separate switches for front and rear foglights. Both (if present) are on the lower toggle switch panel below stereo and HVAC controls, not on the ceiling switch panel! Rear fog toggle only present if it was purchased or retrofitted. Not sure if all had front fogs or that was an option as well?
As for driving lights: you are correct, they should only come on when hi beams are on. However, there are poeple who wire them just as you describe, so that can use them with low beams. While that is illegal, some use that for off road purposes or dark, untraveled country roads.
As for the front fogs: try the correct switch on the lower panel. Since you have a bulb out error display, could it be that 1 or both bulbs are actually burned out?
Try the correct switch first to see if 1 or both are out, and if so, try to replace the front fog bulb(s).
Let us know if this works.