okay today i hardwired my radar detector, neons, and power inverter. everything was working fine until i decided to add an extentions to my power inverter...so i cut off the wires and attach additional section to the wires. the 12v is connected directly into ACC wiper (20amp), and grounded under the 10mm bolt under the steering wheel. so i turned on my car...i see my wires are smoking...
so wtf just happened? both of my inverter and ACC wiper fuses are still good...but i'm not getting any power. and my wires are smoking....

 

Ur probably pulling of different current or something. im sure your radar needs a whole lot less than ur neons. if ur connecting them all in series then the same current passes through all devices maybe. not too sure

 

both 15" neon tubes are connect to the ash tray source. therefore neon only turns on when my headlights are on.

radar detector is connect to ign "meter" (10amp), which is just the fuse for reverse tailights.

175watt power inverter is connect to acc "wiper" (20amp), which is just the fuse for wiper. before when i had 2 sections of extended wires, everything was fine. but when i added the 3rd section my wires started to smoke. this is where the problem is.

 

Nice! 90% chance you mixed up the + and - like me 2 days ago when i was changing a section of the wiring.. Thing went up in smoke. It was beautiful...

10% chance you have exposed joint or a loose connection somewhere along the way.

200% something aint gonna be working when you figure it out.

 

yea...most likely. i'm gonna redo the wiring tomorrow morning, and take new interior picture and my ICE setup.

lol...now at nite my interior glows even more blue. i got my EL gauges, blue neons, now blue color HU, even the DVD idle screen is blue.

rice rice rice

 

How long are these extensions you're talking about, and what are you running with your power inverter? Also what guage wiring are you using?

You may be trying to carry too much current in your wire, and regardless you also increase the wire resistance as you make the wires longer.

This somewhat relates, but don't ever use long extension cords to run motors like compressors, etc. If your cord is too long you'll increase the resistance and can burn out your motor.
-hype

 

It's gods way of telling you to put down the rice and step away from your vehicle.

 

the inverter is actually only 175watt. and i just bought one of those generic gauge wire from radio shack.

in fact when i had 2 extentions from the fuse box to inverter it worked like charm. but once i extend it all the from the fuse box to the trunk...it starts to smoking.

yea...ur right about long extension chords. i shouldn't done that. btw the shorter the wire is to the power/ground source, the stronger it is right? (correct me if i'm wrong)

 

Step AWAY from the rice... and all wil be well. I wish I could have seen the WTF look on your face when it started to get toasty

 

hey man... i eat rice everyday and i expect them well-cooked, and u'll see a happy face like this >>




anyway forealZ...hardwiring makes a big difference. before i attempt to hardwire all my 12v devices...i have wires under the carpet like krazy...and used up my 1-4 12v splitter. now everything (well almost everything) are hardwired which makes things a lot easier.

oOo..did i mention i will have to hardwire my g-tech pro meter when it gets here?

anyway i know my wiring problem now. i'll just have to get my lazy **** up tomorrow and deal with it.

 

Please stop connecting stuff to the fuses meant to run the car's accessories. run a dedicated FUSED wire from the battery to the load, control them with relays off switches or the ignition, and you'll be okay. don't try to half-*** an install by tapping into existing fuses- you're going to overload them and eventually cause a fire (i.e. smoking wires ain't cool).

also make sure you're using the proper size wire. Invertors aren't 100% efficient, so a 175W invertor is probably drawing something like 250-300W from the car's electrical system.. 300w/ 12V = 25A. you need at least 10 awg wire to run that much current. You can also easily see why the 20A fused circuit on the car won't be enough to do what you're trying to do.

 

yeah I agree

For my power inverter, I ran an independent wire w/ fuse straight from the battery to my trunk... I tucked the wires along the edge/under my carpet. It works great... I just drilled a hole in the fuse door and connected my switch on it.

 

i suggest maybe educating yourself more before attempting to do work, or like others said, step away from the car. seriously, this isnt your first time with some type of screwup you lucky you havent messed up anything major....YET.

 

i did do a good amount of research and PM orgers about this issue. perhaps u think i'm hella dumb trying do to this out of innocence...but ur wrong matthel. i came this far doing all these works on my car through failures, not through success. i admit i'm not mechenically skilled like some people on the org, but i still try my best to mod my car, and feel happy when i accomplish a mod.

i post my problem here and hopefully expecting some friendly assistence, especially from older members who i always have respect to, but i guess i'm wrong. oh well it's not like anything i can do about it so whatever.

thx nadir...i will try your method if i failed mine

 

well..metallic97gxe (will) suggested using the cig lighter for the inverter. in fact all 3 of his TVs are hardwired to the cig lighter. so i decided to give it a shot. this way i won't have to hardwire it directly from the fuse panel, and the 20amp fuse in the fuse panel will also protect it. additional 30amp fuse on the inverter itself will also protect it. i think that's plenty enough.

so i went out and tried and everything worked out fine. i'm just loading a DVD player under my seat so nothing too major.

thx for those who helped me out

p.s. i used 16 gauge amp for my inverter. 20 gauge amp for my neons and radar detector.

 

do what Matt93SE said, stop rigin stuff, you could realy set you car on fire man.