Burned wire

[ajm 10+ year member]

I wanted to share these pics and what you guys thought. Cause, effect, etc? Just a little back story.

This is used in a race car application- im no longer into car audio. The wire is 1/0 CCA from a very reputable wire supplier that is talked about/used a lot. Id rather not mention the name as im not here to bash them or attempt to for that matter.

The burned wire pictured is a short 3-4' run that goes from the alternator (130a) to the main fuse box, then from the feeds back to the battery. The burned area is on the alternator end lug so to speak and was burned about 1-1.5" back. There was zero damage to the jacket, which was also covered with a heat shield type sleeve. The damage was contained to the inner 75-80% of the wire, the strands on the outer diameter were not effected. I noticed this because I decided to rewire the car and replace all power/ground wires with 2/0 SGX wire, found that the pictured area was very stiff so cut the wire open and below are the results.

Click to read more...

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

That's CCA for ya. I would use OFC instead.

As for what happened, maybe too much current...?

 

[ajm 10+ year member]

Too much current was the only thing I could think of as well. Pretty weird. The run from the alternator to fuse box will now be 2/0 sgx, the rest will be 2/0 welding, and the grounds 3/0 welding. I would have liked to have used sgx for the whole car but it didnt want to fool with routing the crazy stiff bs.

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

Then stop using SGX wire.... There are several welding wire lines that are as flexible as car audio cable.

 

[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

Never heard of SGX wire. If I were you, I'd stick with known brands. Royal Excelene is good....and it's welding wire, made to take heat.

I would not cheap out on electrical components in a vehicle, this includes wiring.