Have roof rack lights on my aluminum roof rack and when I turn them on the wires heat up very fast and very hot!? Is that normal or is it a wiring problem that I may have wired wrong and need to fix?
Electrical wires heating up?
- Thread starter CruiserMoose Jr
- Start date
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ToyotaDon
I am here
You are likely pulling too high of current through too small of wire. What is the amperage rating on each of the four lights, and what size wire are you running to them?
- Thread starter
- #3
They are Hella 500s so there is about 4.58 amps for each lamp and i have for so thats about 18 on a 16 gauge wire? what gauge wire do i need?
NorCalDoug
problems solved daily...
Wires get hot when you pull too much current through them. Wire is much cheaper than fire...get something thicker.
The exact wire size depends on how long your power and ground wires are but 12ga for each (pwr and grd) would be much preferred. If all you have is 14ga that would work but as I mentioned it will depend on the length of the wire run from the power source and ground.
14 guage is 15 amps, 12 guage is 20 amps. Too small a wire may not be able to pull enough amps through it to cause the fuse to blow BUT it can catch on fire. You have the makings of a very bad day.
