Hey guys.. I was pondering the heated seats idea.. I just have one question. How do you wire power to the fuse box? I've seen numerous people say it, and I just don't know exactly how.. Is it a fuse tap? Or a wire tap on one of the wires behind the box or what.. I plan on having some accessories in the car once i get it, so knowing this would be very helpful.
Thanks guys.

 

You are going to want to bring in clean power from the engine bay. Depending on what you want to run off of this fuse box, you may want at least a 12 gauge wire. Whatever fuse box you get, it should be straight forward. One side of the box is gonna be your power strip and the other side is what is going to be attached to each individual component. For instance power comes in on one side of the box to Fuse A. The other leg of that fuse supplies the power to the seat heating element.

Amperage is key though. You need to know what amperage is required by every component, the fuse box should be rated a bit higher than the sum of the current going through it.

Hopefully I didn't complicate it for ya.

 

There are three ports in the fuse box that are designated by GM for accessory use. Each is a single leg port on a 15-amp circuit. They are marked BATT (power at all times), IGN (power only when ignition is on), and ACCY (power when ignition is on and during RAP operation like the radio and power windows). You only need a standard spade (flat) connector to plug into one of the ports.

I ran a different color wire from each port to power distribution blocks behind the console so that I would have easy access to power when I add any accessories.

I recommend not using the BATT connection for heated seats so you don't have to worry about them being on when the car is off.

 

Hmmm.. I misunderstood the post. I thought it was about a new fuse box, not tapping into the OEM. I didn't know that info either way.

 

Hey there WhiteBird, your always on my threads ;D (don't worry about the misunderstanding candela). I have a picture of the spade connectors, lemme know if thats what you mean. So the fuse spot is empty, and you just put the connector in the fuse spot? No fuse taps or anything? I'm interested in what you mean by the power block, as i'm most likely doing the heated seats and probably some interior lights under the dash so it would come in handy.
Thanks again WB!

 

When you pull the cover of the fuse panel, you will see the ports in the fourth and fifth rows. They are like half of a fuse slot. You can plug in crimp-on connectors known as spade terminals because they have a flat blade similar to the business end of a shovel (spade). It's like using just one leg of an ATO style push-in plastic fuse.

The use of an additional fuse depends on wire size, circuit requirements, and length of wire. The ports themselves are protected by 15-amp fuses but if you use them with small wire for a low-power accessory (perhaps a radar detector) then you should use an inline fuse with a smaller rating (something like 3-amp for the radar detector example). In my case, I ran 12-gauge wires from the three ports to accessory fuse blocks (available from your local parts store) without an additional fuse because the wire size was sufficient to handle the maximum 15-amp current available from each port. I then used the appropriate smaller wire and fuse for the accessories I connected to my fuse blocks.

The fuse blocks are plastic housings that have a power input and three or four fuses for output to separate circuits. They range from inexpensive kits that are rather bulky to sleek, waterproof units that are quite expensive (intended for motorcycles).

 

Sorry to have you bouncing back and forth between my threads lol, i have many questions..
I found this on JCWHitney http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...atalogId=10101
That looks like you put in fuses and then put your accessories wired to the outside prongs, correct? Then their fuse protected? Seeing as there are prongs on both sides, are both sides for power, meaning two powered spots for 1 fuse? or is one side for something else.
Thanks again

 

That model will work if you only have a few accessories to connect. It has each of the six fuses as completely separate circuits (individual power input and output). That has the advantage that you can determine if you want battery, ignition, or accessory power connecting to each fuse individually and you only need one box. But it also means that you have to split your input wiring (the wires from the factory fuse panel ports) to each of the fuses you want to use.

The fuse boxes I used had a single power input and four fused outputs - all the outputs are powered from one wire coming from the factory fuse panel. That meant that I had to have three fuse boxes - one each for battery, ignition, and accessory input.

If you're not planning on adding a lot of electrical acessories then the 6-fuse box you found should be fine.

 

Any idea what kind of fuse block you have?
Thanks WB