Originally posted by ak96ss
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Autopal H4/h1 Upgrade
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I was being somewhat facetious - unless you are running high beams all the time, you probably won't burn the car down. "Probably," however, is not "won't."
Were you blowing fuses 1 and 2? Running 60W bulbs in both high and low positions means you are pulling 10A (roughly) when you have your high beams on. Since the original fuses are only 7.5A, that's why they kept blowing - too much current for the fuse.
By simply putting a higher-rated fuse in, however, you have made the wiring the weak link rather than the fuse. The fuse is designed to blow safely, without fanfare, smoke, or fire. The wiring is not - it will heat up with the greater current draw, and eventually melt the insulation and possibly cause a fire.
The problem is that the wiring used for the stock setup is only 1mm, or roughly 16AWG. Although this is sufficient for the stock bulbs, it really isn't for higher-power bulbs. The rating of the fuse is selected based on the current-carrying ability of the wire used in the circuit, not on the load at the other end of it. So that 7.5A fuse that was originally in there was used because the wiring can really only handle 7.5A.
You have to factor in the current draw and the resistance of all the connections as well as the total length of wire in the circuit.
IMO you should have at least 14AWG wire for those bulbs. I went with 12AWG, mostly because I had a big roll of it. Thicker wire is always better than thinner for large-draw applications. The added benefit is that with heavier gauge wire, you'll actually get full output from the bulbs.
In this case, though, running new wire may be overkill, given that you probably don't run the high beams all the time anyway. If it were me, I'd probably stick a 10A fuse in and see if that works. If it does, leave the high beams on for several minutes and then feel the wire. If it is warm to the touch, you should go to the larger-capacity wire. If it still blows with a 10A fuse, I would definitely use the larger wire.John in MD - 1991 318is
190k miles and still rolling!
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So I took your advice ak96ss thanks...I put a 10A fuse thanks for the info.....So whats up with this whole CAPS LOCK thing?.....Well here are some day shots......She ain't much to look at but hey it sure is reliable......
With my cheap ass muffler.....Got Rice haha
She still has a looongg way to go
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