Wire melted once, fuse blew wierd months after.

[ice745]

I had 900 Watts on 8 AWG. 500 Watt Alpine Sub AMP and 400 Watt Alpine Speaker Amp.

I knew right from the beginning that 8 AWG was dumb, but it was what I could afford at the time. Interestingly, and maybe not, the wire around the fuse melted, and the plastic fuse holder melted. (No I did not put it on the exhaust manifold, it is between the air box and fender). What I found weird was the 40 AMP fuse had burn marks on the glass, but still continuity. I threw it out since it obviously failed. Luckily the wire melted all the way through to break the connection before a fire. (Let this be a lesson to other noobs not to underestimate importance of wire gauge!)

I then replaced it with 4 AWG, which is definitely more appropriate for my application. It came with an 80 AMP fuse, but I put 60 AMP in to be "safe". One day the stereo didn't work, and I determined it to be the fuse. The fuse looked completely fine, no burn marks, and filament was still intact. I was intrigued and carefully broke the glass so I can inspect it more. I determined the reason continuity stopped was the filament actually separated from the solder on the metal end cap. Is that ... common? And is there anything that could suggest other than bad workmanship of the soldering?

Thanks!

[pimprolla112]

You do know that wally world sells decent 4 guage kits for $25. Most companies give power ratings on there kits also. But iv seen crazier stuff like people using speaker wire for power wire.

As for the fuse most likely vibration.

What you need is an ANL fuse.

[PlayStation3]

yep anl is the way to go but for smaller beginner systems agu and others aren't bad. And plus 1 on the wiring kit from wally world i tell people to go there and use that stuff before going to cc or best buy and getting the same wire for 4 times as much.

[ice745]

Oi! I was getting cut to length wire from my local car audio place, "One-stop car stereo." None of Best Buy/Circuit Cities had wire long enough for me car. I think at most they had 15' kits that would be just too short. I have a pretty long car, and the battery is at the very front of it. I did not think to check out wally.

[pimprolla112]

What car is it. Want to talk about a long car try doing a suburban or and excursion.

At BB and CC you are paying for name. As for the by the foot, autozone sells 2 gauge wire which is a little excessive but its a nice size for 1.30 a foot. And fuse holders and such can be found online and at alot of audio shops. My first system i had about 1k watts on a 4gauge wire.

[PlayStation3]

well my kicker one came with like 20 ft of 1/0 wire. i even have extra that i use for the second battery with out even having to get into my extra wire.

[ice745]

It's a 3rd gen Camry/ES300. It's a long car as in a long sedan, obviously doesn't compare to SUVs/trucks. I did the 8 gauge like 3 years ago, so I probably was smoking pot or just really dumb... or both.

[PaulD]

most of the resistance of the power wire is in te connectors, like where the fuse holder connects in. It's common for that connection to overheat first if the wire is too small.