What gauge wire is used in a car?

If you just remember to take everything one step at a time, automotive wiring can be done.Before wiring can be done, you need to know how many Amps you're dealing with and what the distances are.

If you just remember to take everything one step at a time, automotive wiring can be done.Before wiring can be done, you need to know how many Amps you're dealing with and what the distances are.

The distance from the powered accessory's power source to the accessory is more important than the power draw itself in determining the right wire for any given application.If you're new to electrical wiring, the first thing you need to learn is that current through a conductor between two points is proportional to the potential difference between them.If you want to carry the current farther away, you'll need a larger-diameter wire.

A numerical scale starts with a zero for the largest size and gets smaller as the numbers go up.A 000-gauge wire is larger than a 0 gauge wire because of the number of zeroes.The largest wire you're likely to find in an automotive application is00-gauge, which is used in big trucks for carrying current from multiple batteries.0-gauge and 1-gauge wire is used to wire the starters of high-compression gas and diesel engines.You'll usually find starter and batteries wired with 4-gauge and 6-gauge cables, and sometimes 8-gauge for very small-displacement, low-compression motors.

You'll usually find the thickest wires, 10-gauge, running from the generator to anything that it powers, or in very long circuits that run from a front-mounted battery to a high-draw accessory at the rear.Cars with very powerful amplifier or trunk-mounted compressor will usually use 10-gauge or 8-gauge wiring.Smaller 12- through 14-gauge wiring can carry power from the battery to high-draw accessories such as headlights, the main fuse block, horn to relay, and the 12-volt "cigarette lighter" outlets in your cab.The latter may use heavier-gauge wiring because it's far from the battery.

The majority of the systems in your car use 16- or 18-gauge wiring.16-gauge wiring carries current from the generator to the starter on cars with so-equipped interior lights, parking lights and tail lights.Almost everything else uses either 18-gauge or smaller, with the smallest being your non-subwoofer speakers.