matt777

I'm wanting to add a new circuit for my HIDs. It would be nice to have a fuse in one of the open slots for this circuit. My second choice is just to take power from somewhere in the box and use an inline fuse. Has anybody done anything like this? I tried to pull one of the harness connectors to see what might be required out but the plastic seems pretty brittle. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

EckFe1

Hi Matt,
Not a good idea. I run 4x55W HID's, low and hi and I run 2 separate harnesses from the battery, through an inline fuse to the power relays and then to the ballasts. If you run 35W, you won't need a fuse at all. Only the 55W won't ignite if you have a hi/lo set up.
To use the fuse box means that you'll add unnecessary wiring. Plus the current necessary requires some heavy gauge wires and relays. You can't use the stock wiring as it will burn out. Ideally, the stock wiring will control the power relays. There are premade harnesses with the correct plugs and sockets available on the internet.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Ed

matt777

Thanks Ed. I bought a matching relay harness already so the stock circuit will control the relay. The issue is that I'm trying to eliminate how many things are hanging off of the battery. I already have the stereo amp and charging harness. I'm thinking that the fuse box is already rated for the current load as I don't believe that the HIDs will draw substantially more amps than the stock lights (the stock fuses are 15 amps for each side on the low beams). I see that there are two terminal lugs on the fusebox which must be the power supply to the buss. I could connect there but I'm too happy about doing that. Alternately if I pull power off of an empty fuse location that should work but I'm not sure how to do that and its difficult to work in the fuse box.

My original plan was to have one power take-off from the battery into a small enclosed fuse block. I could then use this for the stereo and HIDs and any other future power requirements. However, I haven't been able to find such a thing for smaller gauge wires. The stereo stuff is for #8 and larger conductors. Perhaps an enclosed terminal lug would do the trick.

Mike J

My assumption has been that the current draw for HID's is not any worse than halogens, so why would you bother to wire in a separate circuit? Any idea on how much they draw?

Cheers,

Mike

matt777

No but the fuse is 30 amps. My HIDs weren't coming on consistently which I am led to believe is often caused by the DRLs per the DDM tuning website. The relay harness was $15 so I said why not. Of course I should have known better as I had to pay another $33 for shipping, duty,GST and brokerage. When I can't find an easy solution I often wonder if I'm barking up the wrong tree. I think I will just stack the power lead onto the battery terminal somehow and be done with it. Thanks guys.

EckFe1

Matt,
If you're looking for a location for an external fuse bus location, the right in front of the battery, behind the plastic cover for the front part of the trunk, where the lock is located, there is enough hollow space to mount a nice terminal. It's about 3 inches away from the battery so you can run a very short heavy gauge cable and have it all neatly tucked away. I mounted my 4 ballasts in there for the HID's. You can't even see it anymore when the plastic cover is back on.
Check it out!

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matt777

That is a good location. Right now the relay and fuse on my harness could be mounted there. Thanks.