Spoiler LED Wire type

how do you know it would melt? how much current is it conducting?

Uh, it COULD be due to the fact that he reverse connections earlier this month and blew a fuse. Then, after reconnecting it properly (he says), he had still more problems.

Frankly, while I believe everyone should learn how to do this simple stuff, I'm glad he's "learning" on his own vehicle and not someone else's. I hope that's the case anyway.

Search back on his posts. The best recommendation for him MIGHT be to find somebody who knows what they're doing and have them do it for him/her.

Let's start with the wire size. Locate the fuse the circuit is getting power from. If the fuse is 5A or less, you can use 22 guage wire or larger. At 10A use 18 guage wire or larger; for a 20A fuse use 16 guage wire. The fuse exists to protect the wire, and if the wire is melting you already have a problem.

The LED bar itself should be drawing well under 5 amps. The overheating wire is a good indication the wiring between the melted wire and the light is bad; shorted or backward, that sort of thing.

Both situations need to be corrected before you drive safely and happily. Definitely get the wire size corrected, or you could have a car fire. No fun.

Mike

Your response is all the reason to believe that you should not be doing this work yourself...

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LED's are light-emitting DIODES, and if you've ever run juice through a diode backwards, they may be shorted, which will keep on blowing up the wiring, no matter if its thin or heavier.

Remove the + and ground connections from your car and try powering the diodes directly from another 12 V source, like a different battery. Put a fuse in the line (as you suggested) or just a tail light bulb (way better), since the LED's are supposed to take way less current than a light bulb and if the light comes on bright, you know the diodes are indeed shorted to death.

Don't bother trying a battery charger as your power source. . many don't put out any power unless they are connected to a half-ways alive battery.

'Curly'

ok, if the wire melted, there's something wrong with the light unit. total current should be under 1 amp. well under. don't try re-wiring it until you sort it out - probably replace it. as pointed out by mike, failure to fix could lead to a car fire.

volts are different to amps.

Here, I believe, is the problem (as I mentioned in my first response).

As written by Guest on 1/09/2007

"I installed a spoiler on my car and when I first installed it, the light did not come one and I later found out that I put the wires on in reverse and blew a fuse. Some of the wiring even melted. I corrected the problem and it was working correctly. Then yesterday, I bought a splitter for the cigarette light plug so that I can plug in a radar detector and a cell hone at the same time. As I was backing out of the lot, I noticed that the spoiler light was not on. I had just plugged the splitter in the socket before I started the car up. I checked and the wires were melted again and were still very warm to the touch. This time, the fuse was not blown. "

Methinks that Guest and other items, like water, should be kept away from electrical devices.

dude, it's not the freakin' wire, it's the freakin' unit. led's draw /very/ little current. skinny wire works just fine /if/ the led's are fine. go fix the unit and suddenly all your wiring problems will disappear.

jim beam wrote in news:yNudna2MTMvlxjXYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

Why does this "Guest" guy preface his posts with the "-- " signature code?

Doesn't he realize what this does when you reply using many common newsreaders?

i don't think it's him, i think it's his "sponsor". if he even knows or cares.

Back up one step. The fuse has to be changed back to what it was originally because there was already wiring on the circuit. The fuse has to protect that wire also. For example, if the original fuse was a 10A the existing wiring would be sized for 10 amps... but with the overrated fuse in there it could be subjected to twice that much current in the event of a fault. Twice the current also means twice the voltage drop across the wire, so the wire will get four times as hot before the fuse blows. Don't shrug this off; notice the recent thread about the 2002 Civic destroyed by an electrical fire.

Ordinary stranded, PVC jacketed wire is fine. Radio Shack probably carries it as will many car parts stores. The guage should be at least as heavy as the original fuse size dictates (from my earlier post).

As the others say, there is still something wrong with the LED if it blows the original size fuse. They don't draw much current.

Mike

unless there's a simple "gotcha" like a shorted connection, yes.

My guess is that the wire itself is shorted to ground, most likely where it can be pinched or goes through a small hole. I'm not familiar with the latest in LEDs, but for the most part the active device needs resistance in series to limit current. That would probably prevent the LED from appearing as a short on the supply.

Mike