question on what guage wire to use

RIalltrac

Active member
I recently installed my straight intake and in order to do so I had to lengthen the wires to the afm. The only thing i had handy was a 12 guage wire(I think), which was hefty looking next to the stock wiring. So my question now is, is it bad to have a change in guage like that? I dont want to mess anything up or cause unnecessary damage. I'm not a wiring buff so any help I can get would be appreciated, Thanks.
 

alltracman78

Active member
1st off, when you judge wire size, look at the wire, not the rubber coating. Some coatings are alot thicker than others.
As for changing the wiring, it probably will effect it some, but not enough to matter. The car's been running fine, right?
 

RIalltrac

Active member
The car's been running fine, right?

so far its not bad, but I do get a drop off on my idle if I drop speeds quickly. It comes back up after about a second or two, this type of thing never happened before, I'm assuming my connections are suspect. I'm having a buddy of mine show me how to solder correctly this weekend, I'll get in there and do it up proper like.
 

alltracman78

Active member
The reason the added wiring would change things is the potentiometer in the afm is calibrated to send a certain voltage to the ecu, depending on how far it is turned. Once you add/shorten wire, it will change the reading, as will connections. For the most part, the difference won't be noticeable, as the voltage is set up to have a bit of play, to account for old wiring, connections, ect.
Soldering is definitly the way to go, especially for something like that. Why didn't you say something when I was up? I could've showed you.
 
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