[devinpitcher]

Ok, so I have had an issue that has been bothering me for some time. I have wired up some custom LED light strips in my car underneath the dash so it lights up the floor. The issue is, I wired it into the radio's 12v always-hot wire. The issue here is if something were to short, there will not be a fuse to pop. I have had the wire come undone and it grounded itself to the chassis of the car and smoked and heated up really quick. I need to prevent this. My question is, how would I prevent it? A fuse? Would I need a separate fuse holder, or could I somehow use one in the fuse box under the dash? Also, what size fuse would I need for a 12v line? 10A? 15A?

Hope somebody can give me some insight here.

 

[GOLDIE_LOX]

why dont you just use the interior courtesy wire to wire into??? if youre going to use the radio wire you can self fuse the wire, but i dont know how big of a fuse to use

 

[jw89sho]

A 5 amp fuse is sufficient for several LED strings. Attach it as close as you can to the wire you tapped.

 

[Mysterious101]

A 5 amp fuse is sufficient for several LED strings. Attach it as close as you can to the wire you tapped.

You know you could wire into the fuse box located underneath the dash right? There is a device that is plugged into the fuse, and allows you to attach two fuses to this wire, and when you attached the led to it it has a fuse and you don't have to mess with factory wiring.

 

[KhanTyranitar]

What they said, you want a fuse that is a high enough rating that the load won't trip it, but a short will. LEDs draw very little current, so a 5 amp fuse would be more than enough, a 2 or 3 amp would be better.