Raidiator fan wiring

[93forestpearl]

What are you trying to power from the cigarette lighter?

[SubaruNation]

dan, see thread name

we got it working, i tied into the drivers-side (side) running light... so they will come on with that in the meantime.

i can't see or even get my hands to the back of the cigarette - lighter itself, so its not wired in that way right now... at least until i can find out where the ignition fuse is.

its ghetto as hell because it was getting dark and we ran out of solder... but it will work for tonight until i fix it tomorrow.

[93forestpearl]

I didn't realize you were trying to power the fans from the cigarette lighter. It might work for now, but I can't recommend using that power source for a long time to run the fans. They do draw some significant current and that wiring isn't large enough to support that for a long time, unless you are only using it to power a relay, which would be fine.


Melting the plug and one of the fan relays from running both on one plug and relay was an eye-opener for me.



On another note, I try to stay away from soldering important wires in a car. Solder is such a rigid connection that flex and vibration in a wire can cause the strands to fatigue and fail one by one over time. I use heat-shrink butt-splice connectors on everything that is important. I don't care on things like my stereo harness and what-not, but I'd never solder my crank-angle sensor or something like that. A properly crimped butt connector will rip the wire before the connector fails. Plus, you won't find a soldered wire in an entire vehicle harness. This is what I got to wire the new car: http://cgi.ebay.com/200-3M-Heat-Shrink- ... 588787c325

That's a pretty good price for 3M stuff and you can mix and match your sizes.


Sorry about the wiring rant, lol.

[SubaruNation]

yeah i used a relay setup similar to the one josh has attached on the previous page, the power isnt being drawn from the corner light itself.

i have some of those connectors, i thought solder was the better way to go when you use shrinkwrap also but i can start using those pinch-type connectors.

thanks for the info

[Legacy777]

Zach,

Are you looking for a 12v source for the signal wire?

[SubaruNation]

well i have the relay all setup so that its basically a switch from my running lights(the 12v source). the rest of the power comes from a fused line from the battery.

if you can think of a better one josh i would gladly go with that as the source.

[Legacy777]

That works, but you have to turn the running lights on to turn the fans on. If you leave your lights on all the time, that's less of an issue I guess.

If you leave your lights on all the time, I'd probably just leave it until you're ready to run that signal turn on lead back to the ECU for it to control the fans.