My Civic modding thread (2000 Civic Dx Coupe)

[pletby]

What sort of amperage fuse will I need for my remote located battery? I should have put that in some time ago but life got in the way. It is a safety issue though so I need to address it.

All electrical loads will pass through this fuse so I don't want it to blow upon startup. I'm making a wild guess at 130 amps. I'll see what I can find for current draw on a Civic starter, that should be my highest load.

I'm looking at getting an ANL inline fuse that the stereo crowd uses, they don't seem expensive.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by pletby

What sort of amperage fuse will I need for my remote located battery? I should have put that in some time ago but life got in the way. It is a safety issue though so I need to address it.

All electrical loads will pass through this fuse so I don't want it to blow upon startup. I'm making a wild guess at 130 amps. I'll see what I can find for current draw on a Civic starter, that should be my highest load.

I'm looking at getting an ANL inline fuse that the stereo crowd uses, they don't seem expensive.

The 1996-1998 Honda FSM rates thestarter motor at 1.0kw or 1.2kw (depending on which you have, I guess. Assuming 12.8 voltage, an ohm's law calculation suggests 78-94 amps, a couple amps higher draw with 12.5 voltage assumed.

[pletby]

Wow checked out some Civic forums and saw a spectrum of Amp draw but one guy was saying he's measured over 200 amp draw on his. So I'm thinking on a nasty cold night I don't want the fuse to blow so 300 could be a good number, now I need to figure out how much 20' of 2 gauge welding cable can handle safely and make sure it's more.

All of the tables so far I've found indicate that 2 gauge cable is not enough for 20' at 300 amps, but that's for continuous duty at a small voltage drop. I'm only going to see a spike up to less that and then run much much lower steady state.

[pletby]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

The 1996-1998 Honda FSM rates thestarter motor at 1.0kw or 1.2kw (depending on which you have, I guess. Assuming 12.8 voltage, an ohm's law calculation suggests 78-94 amps, a couple amps higher draw with 12.5 voltage assumed.

Thanks! I think I would see that go up in the ungodly cold here in the winter turning oil to jello (assuming block heater and oil pan heater not plugged in) so I have quite a safety factor built in at 300. Is that too much I wonder?

[pletby]

I think I'll order the fuse holder with the 250 amp fuse, and order some spares of different ratings to have on hand since it's not winter when I can actually test the actual worst case scenario load.

Would suck to have it blow on a murderous cold night (8 hour days near Christmas, so it's mostly night) and have to replace it then with numb fingers in the dark.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by pletby

I think I'll order the fuse holder with the 250 amp fuse, and order some spares of different ratings to have on hand since it's not winter when I can actually test the actual worst case scenario load.

Would suck to have it blow on a murderous cold night (8 hour days near Christmas, so it's mostly night) and have to replace it then with numb fingers in the dark.

250 amps sorta has to be enough for this car, even in the cold. That's three times the calculated draw of the starter. Here, check this Metro post... our cars can't be THAT radically different:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post111598

[pletby]

There we go. Ordered off eBay Canada and on the way for $19.60 CDN or $1.00 US ha! Thanks for your help!

[LittleBlackDuck]

Hope that is big enough. I would have sized the fuse at 500A because of the instantaneous inrush current into the starter. When the solenoid closes and you have a stone cold motor with treacle in the sump, the starter is as good as stalled for a short time. At this point I would expect a peak current in the order of 500A-600A for a very short time.

Simon

[Stubby79]

If it's a slow-blow fuse, it should be fine at 250 amps. Those ANL and such tend to be slow-blow, assuming that's what the OP went for.
2 gauge wire should be fine, assuming your battery isn't border-line for being able to just kick over the starter. Welding-wire used for welding at 2 gauge is rated for 400 amps at up to 50' of it. Not sure if it's been mentioned, but you should probably run a negative wire to the engine block as well, not just straight to the chassis, to keep voltage drop to a minimum. If you're running it to both, it could potentially be lighter gauge.

[pletby]

I've been driving the car a few times this week in eco mode. Nice to see even with some mods removed for a short time that I can hit 55 mpg without working too hard. My Wife is still commuting with it but soon I will attempt a return to work and need to get back in the saddle.

Today I plugged in the car for the first time since spring to top off the battery after a long drive. The timers I am using have enough battery to keep time after 4 months, that's pretty good!

In answer to the fellow wondering about the state of my battery...Trojan 12V AGM 24 deep cycle with enough power to P&G for 1 1/2 hours with the lights on and the fan on medium at -20C to 50% DoD. I think it's 500 Cold Cranking Amps, 1kwh. A tad more than stock.

The car is always plugged in when it's cold out so the engine is always warm, I think that should help in the fuse department.