Fuse size head unit + oil pressure gauge

[ViPER1313]

On the way to work this morning I blew a 15A fuse for my head unit + oil pressure gauge on my Talon. It's a custom circuit run directly off of the battery. The wire is 10ga from the battery to the head unit, then 16 or 18ga from the head unit to the oil pressure gauge, with the fuse directly hooked to the battery. Is there any chance that the 2 simply draw more than 15 amps (I really don't think that's likely....)? I probably have a short somewhere, but I can't find any info on how much power a head unit can draw :dunno: I'm probably going to re-do the oil pressure gauge circuit on it's own 5amp circuit just to make sure that it doesn't overdo that tiny wire.

[Mike]

Searching for anything "amp" related to a head unit is... tough. What I did find is that household utilies (dishwasher, clothes washer, etc) all use around 12amps... There is no way in hell your head unit and oil pressure gauge use anywhere near the amount of power a dishwasher does.

[ViPER1313]

Not directly comparable due to the voltage differences, car electronics use higher amps due to their lower voltage (car is 12v, house is 110 or 220v for large appliances.) A car alternator usually puts out 75 to 1XX amps.

I have a short somewhere though - I downloaded an owners manual for a random pioneer head unit, it claims it only sucks 2 amps. FML.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Christ, this is what you get with Adam wiring

Aside, why are you running direct wire to the head unit? The stock wiring is plenty enough. A head unit pulls nowhere near the amount of energy a simple amp can produce. Simply, a head unit can only achieve at most 20-25RMS per its 4 channels. 100watts RMS is not a problem, (assuming we are talking constant). Second, go to a 25 or 30amp fuse if you somehow find in your own logic that a head unit is an actual amp. Grounding a 10 gauge will pop a 25 or 30 amp fuse so you wont have any problems with it. Hell I had a Avic Z2 based out of the stock wiring, and saw no draws/power cuts or pulls. If I remember you bought the alpine unit thats in there, which is probably pulled 18-23rms per channel, and would have absolutely no problem with stock wiring.

[ViPER1313]

The stock wiring is abysmal, I ran a straight wire to the head unit and it actually made a noticeable difference when the system was cranked. Hell, the LCD on the unit would dim with the stock wiring on a bass note at high volume. The wire you wired it to (and me subsequently rewired it to) is well routed and looks to be in good condition. I don't know what grounded out, I was careful as hell running all this stuff, soldering / taping, etc.

[ViPER1313]

Just in case anyone cares, the wire that I ran for the oil pressure gauge (under the carpet) became frayed because it was under the clutch pedal.

[Gs dewd]

A head unit should use at the very most a 10 amp fuse. Most use right around a 5 amp fuse. Now about the oil pressure gauge. What kind of gauge is it and how does thw wiring run? I haven't seen one that uses a fuse. But I also have old school guages in the monte ( ie uses the plastic hose kinda like a boost gauge.)