Not sure if this is the right forum, but maybe: I need to know how much alternator capacity the Evo X has, and how much auxiliary lighting can be added without draining the battery while running/ idling. I'm looking to add (6) 50w lamps for ice racing. Is this feasible? Thanks.

 

The alternator is rated at a 130A; not too sure about the rest.

 

Any idea how much of that the standard lights/ accessories use?

My new lights will be 300w/12v =25a, so I should be good, right? Side question... What's the best way to fuse these? I'm hoping to control all with the foglight switch.

 

Create a separate circuit that uses the fog light power to switch a relay

 

If your new light set up is only drawing 25A, than you will be fine. Good luck ice racing!

 

you're close. when your car is running it will be anywhere from 13.8v - 14.4v on a healthy alternator. when it is off it should read 12.44v (coming straight from the battery).

when your car is off: 300w/12.44v = 24.12A
when your car is on: 300w/13.8v (to 14.4v) = 21.73A to 20.83A

so you can see how much less of a strain electronics are on your car when it is running. a good example of this is when you roll your windows up/down it tends to kind of bog when the car is off, but when on it's much easier because it doesn't take as much current since the voltage is higher.

you can control all 6 with a foglight switch, but you should have your 6 lights energized by a spdt relay. i know there are some switches that will go up to 25A by itself, but it's better/safer to do it with a relay in the circuit as well. what happens is since a standard relay only requires 150mA to turn on, you make your foglight switch inside the car turn THAT on, so it doesn't burn out the switch. it in turn lets some fat current (i like to call it) at your headlights. you can even do two seperate switches, and two seperate relays to do 3 lights each. if you want i can draw you a diagram of how this works. just shoot me a PM

 

here you go, i made you a high quality diagram



make sure you use 12awg stranded wire for all the wires. you don't need 12awg for the line running from the switch to the relay however, since it only will have a 10th of an amp on it or so.

also make sure you fuse your line within 8 inches of the positive terminal post (or wherever you grab power from).

high quality diagram, huh? lol

 

^ Thanks a lot, that helps a bunch! I do like the diagram, too.

I'm now just trying to decide if I want to do all 6 lights at once or if I should switch them independently in pairs for certain conditions (two pencil beams, two euro beams, two side floods)

Do you happen to know if the fog light switch is just a simple ON/OFF or if anything more complex could be done with that? Currently it's a centered barrel where rolling forward turns ON, and rolling backward turns OFF. I deleted my regular fog lights a while ago.

Thanks again!

 

I would instead of wiring to the switch, run the relay to the +12V for the fog light itself. The switch will still control it. You can run another switch to control the number of lights separately.

 

you didn't see anything i posted prior to this statement, did you?

 

armstrong: any ideas on an easy way to switch these independently? I suppose installing aftermarket switches may be better than trying to use the fog toggle for multiple purposes?

Thanks!

 

If you're planning on using the factory fog light switch (the part on the inner headlight switch), you can definately use it, but only turn on/off one group. Wether your group be one light, two lights, 3 or 6 (whatever amount you want), you can still use this switch. The diagram I drew would be slightly different though since the foglights wire at the etacs ecu outputs a positive signal instead of a negative.

What I would do if I were you, is have 2 basic, regular toggle on/off switches. One to do one group of lights and one to do the other. You choose the number that's on each (maybe 2 outside fogs on one, and the inner 4 on the other?).

In a different setup, you could have one aftermarket switch, which only turns your 6 aftermarket fogs on IF ONLY your factory fog switch is on. You can pretty much do anything you want. Let me know what sounds good to you and I can draw you another epic diagram like before

 

Hey everyone, I got the lights installed... thanks for the help. The fog light switch relay works great. One little problem though... I forgot that the fog lights don't stay on with the high beams. DOH! I'm hoping to find a work around for this and will post in the ECU forum. Let me know if you have any ideas.

 

did you wire it off of a seperate switch? sounds like you went straight off of the factory fog switch. i'd suggest doing an aftermarket switch then running it off constant or accessory power (still use a relay as the ignition wires at ignition cylinder are low current).