Questions and Answers

Finding The Right Wire In A Honda Accord
Q. Hi Vincent, I have a quick question for you regarding an electrical hookup. I have a radar detector and I bought a direct power source for it so as not to tie up the cigarette lighter in the car any longer.

The instructions say to go tie it into a wire that is between 12-14 gauge and using the supplied 3M connector, you're able to splice cleanly into any wire that you choose. The only problem is I need a wire, preferably in the passenger side glove box fuse panel that is between 12-14 gauge.

The trick is finding which wire is between 12-14 gauge. I have a 2001 Honda Accord Coupe EX V-6. Hopefully you can help me with this so I can free up my cigarette lighter once again.

Thanks,
Evan

A. Most of the wiring, about 90%, used in a car is 14 gauge. The heavier the wire, the lower the gauge number. So 10 gauge wire is thicker and heavier than 14 gauge. 14 gauge wire is heavier than 18 gauge wire. The American Wire Gauge (AWG) table below lists the gauge, size and specifications for wire. You can use this table to determine which wire you need to splice into.

AWG gauge	Diameter Inches	Diameter mm	Ohms per 1000 ft	Ohms per km	Maximum amps for chassis wiring	Maximum amps for power transmission
OOOO	0.46	11.684	0.049	0.16072	380	302
OOO	0.4096	10.40384	0.0618	0.202704	328	239
OO	0.3648	9.26592	0.0779	0.255512	283	190
0	0.3249	8.25246	0.0983	0.322424	245	150
1	0.2893	7.34822	0.1239	0.406392	211	119
2	0.2576	6.54304	0.1563	0.512664	181	94
3	0.2294	5.82676	0.197	0.64616	158	75
4	0.2043	5.18922	0.2485	0.81508	135	60
5	0.1819	4.62026	0.3133	1.027624	118	47
6	0.162	4.1148	0.3951	1.295928	101	37
7	0.1443	3.66522	0.4982	1.634096	89	30
8	0.1285	3.2639	0.6282	2.060496	73	24
9	0.1144	2.90576	0.7921	2.598088	64	19
10	0.1019	2.58826	0.9989	3.276392	55	15
11	0.0907	2.30378	1.26	4.1328	47	12
12	0.0808	2.05232	1.588	5.20864	41	9.3
13	0.072	1.8288	2.003	6.56984	35	7.4
14	0.0641	1.62814	2.525	8.282	32	5.9
15	0.0571	1.45034	3.184	10.44352	28	4.7
16	0.0508	1.29032	4.016	13.17248	22	3.7
17	0.0453	1.15062	5.064	16.60992	19	2.9
18	0.0403	1.02362	6.385	20.9428	16	2.3
19	0.0359	0.91186	8.051	26.40728	14	1.8
20	0.032	0.8128	10.15	33.292	11	1.5
21	0.0285	0.7239	12.8	41.984	9	1.2
22	0.0254	0.64516	16.14	52.9392	7	0.92
23	0.0226	0.57404	20.36	66.7808	4.7	0.729
24	0.0201	0.51054	25.67	84.1976	3.5	0.577
25	0.0179	0.45466	32.37	106.1736	2.7	0.457
26	0.0159	0.40386	40.81	133.8568	2.2	0.361
27	0.0142	0.36068	51.47	168.8216	1.7	0.288
28	0.0126	0.32004	64.9	212.872	1.4	0.226
29	0.0113	0.28702	81.83	268.4024	1.2	0.182
30	0.01	0.254	103.2	338.496	0.86	0.142
31	0.0089	0.22606	130.1	426.728	0.7	0.113
32	0.008	0.2032	164.1	538.248	0.53	0.091
Metric 2.0	0.00787	0.200	169.39	555.61	0.51	0.088
33	0.0071	0.18034	206.9	678.632	0.43	0.072
Metric 1.8	0.00709	0.180	207.5	680.55	0.43	0.072
34	0.0063	0.16002	260.9	855.752	0.33	0.056
Metric 1.6	0.0063	0.16002	260.9	855.752	0.33	0.056
35	0.0056	0.14224	329	1079.12	0.27	0.044
Metric 1.4	.00551	.140	339	1114	0.26	0.043
36	0.005	0.127	414.8	1360	0.21	0.035
Metric 1.25	.00492	0.125	428.2	1404	0.20	0.034
37	0.0045	0.1143	523.1	1715	0.17	0.0289
Metric 1.12	.00441	0.112	533.8	1750	0.163	0.0277
38	0.004	0.1016	659.6	2163	0.13	0.0228
Metric 1	.00394	0.1000	670.2	2198	0.126	0.0225
39	0.0035	0.0889	831.8	2728	0.11	0.0175
40	0.0031	0.07874	1049	3440	0.09	0.0137

Personally, I don't splice into other wires when installing accessories anymore. I found a neat little fuse that makes things simpler and neater. It's called Access-A-Fuse and I even did a product review on it. It's actually two fuses in one. I've been using them ever since they came out. I always keep a bunch of them in my supply room.