I've been having some major electrical problems with my methanol injection kit, and I just had an epiphany as to what might be causing them. The kit is simple to install but twice now I've had major shorts in the controller where the unit became too hot to function and became stuck spraying. I'm pretty sure the failure is due to something on the wiring, but all of the wiring has been redone except for the LED in the dash and the ignition source. Currently the ignition source for power on both my gauges and the methanol kit are run to the wire for the heated seats. As the gauges have been running for some time with no observed problems I didn't think twice about the choice to attach the methanol kit to the same source.

I'm wondering now though if that was a good idea as both times the kit has malfunctioned the weather was bitterly cold and the heated seats were turned on. Does that line draw more power when the seats are active? Those that have methanol injection, where did you run that wire?

 

Dude, seriously?

Speaking from an entirely electrical point of view, if you only tapped into the hot side of the circuit (before the switches), and grounded elsewhere, then you essentially created their own circuits for the gauges and meth kit, and this can't be your problem, since the only thing you could run into is if the seats are on, the meth is on, the gauges are on, and you pull too much power and blow the fuse, at which point nothing would work again until you replaced the fuse. I am guessing this isn't the case, since you haven't had to replace fuses yet.

However, if you tapped the ground line (or neutral line, or electrical return, if you will) into the continuing line to the heated seats, so that any power the heated seats pull will have to come through the gauges and meth kit first, then yes, you are certainly drawing way too much current. If you added a resistor before the gauges/meth kit to limit the draw, your heated seats would stop functioning. If you added a rated to the meth kit and/or gauges, you would certainly blow it. However, the only fuse upstream from the seats is rated for the seats, it is way too high for the meth kit (I assume)

If this is how it was wired, then the best correction would be to move the power return (or ground) wire(s) to ground them outside of any other circuit, with an easy option being grounding them to the same point the fuse box is grounded at.

I don't know exactly what too much current through the meth kit would do, but I can see it would easily cause problems with the kit. Overheating the wires being the most serious if the meth kit wires weren't designed to draw that kind of power, causing a fire / slagging.

 

In this case I can take only limited blame as the gauges were wired that way on the recommendation of IamDANoMITE and PFS wired the meth kit to the same line. When I installed the second meth kit I simply followed suit. I highly suspect this is a BAD place to put the line now, but it doesn't explain where to actually put it, and why the gauges have worked for over a year without issue.

 

I'll open the center console and take some pics of the wires I'm using there later too.

 

I'd bet that the gauges aren't nearly as current sensitive as the meth kit, as the gauges are probably just an analog signal vs something with electronics. Also only rarely using the heated seats will certainly conceal the problem for alot longer.

Mine have been permanently on for a month or so now


If you are inside the cabin, and unwilling to go through the firewall, then I believe the best location to go for 'always on' power is the power cable to the radio behind the dash, however this can be a pain to get to. You can alternatively use the power to the 12v outlet, which has power whenever the key is to the 'on' position, and for 20-30 seconds after turning off the car. Those are your 2 best bets.

Ideally, it's probably best to wire from the alwayson power behind the radio, to the switch, and everything after the switch returns directly to ground / chassis. There is probably a central grounding point behind the radio/dash, if you already have that stuff off, otherwise the fuse box behind the kick panel on the driver's side has a central grounding point for those items I believe.

 

Sounds like a problem with the actual controller circuitry....

A lot have poor circuit designs...and they overheat

 

...why don't you just use a relay? are headlights powered by the instrument cluster?

 

where is your controller located?

 

The controller is in the glove box, the ground is connected through the firewall to the chassis, the pump power runs directly to the battery, but the controller needs an ignition power source. (source of power only active when the car is turned on) The seat heater line was doing that, tested by checking the current on the wire when the car was turned off and then on. dannobre its very unlikely the failure is the result of the controller as I have redone all of the wiring (except the line to the heater wire) and installed a new pump and controller and encountered the same problem. Both times it occured it was VERY cold outside and the heated seats were on. Because of the way the seats work to achieve a particular temperature I'm guessing it pulled enough juice warming my frozen *** to fry the methanol kit. I know other people are running methanol kits, where are you running your power lines? I can run it inside the car or into the engine bay easily, I have a hole cut in the firewall with a rubber fitting to keep wires from fraying.

 

Please clarify the issue...are the wires overheating ( your fault )

Or is the controller overheating? Not your fault...call the Company that made it. A few of the usual kits out there have very poorly designed controller circuits....and the overheating is a result...


I Would definitely run it off of a different circuit that has less power draw than the seats....really running it back to the fuse box would be best.

 

i ran mine off the seat heater circuit but i dont have heated seats.
my gauge power is from the cig lighter.
my a/f gauge (innovate lc 1) power is from the second oem o2 sensor( i do not have a cat--i have dogs)
OD

 

The wires themselves don't appear to be overheating but the controller is overheating. This is the company's fault if there is a faulty controller but the likelyhood of that happening twice the same way both on extremely cold days where the seat heater is struggling to heat my bony *** is very small. Chances are much better that the way I have it wired is not correct and I need to move the power source it is connected to. I will try moving the wire source to the cig lighter, thanks OD.

 

what meth kit do you have?

 

AEM kit...

 

FYI- i have my source hooked up to the cig lighter along with my boost controller/gauges with no issues, but So.Cal weather is pretty different from yours if that is a factor

 

The cig lighter is probably fine and a better choice for multiple reasons. For starters I never use the cig lighter so its never doing anything besides providing a steady ignition source. I'll have to see if the latest controller is still operational and I'll move the power line to the cig lighter and see what I can see.

 

I think I wired my aem kit right to the fuse box. I think I used the acc fuse or something like that. You don't have to worry about splicing into your factory wiring and is easily reversible. I know nothing about wiring plus I hate it, so I figured this was the most painless way to do it.

 

Heated seats on = lower voltage at the power source for the W/M controller.
Lower voltage = a LOT more current.
A LOT more current = BOOM.

The controller should be on its own, dedicated 15A power source, connected through a relay closed by the fuel pump circuit.

 

Yeah, that sounds pretty much like what I experienced.

Hmm, I've never attempted this before as my engineering skills are software not electrical. I'll have to do some reading before I attempt this...

 

You should meter the line and see how much voltage you are sending to the controller. We recently switched to a new controller that can now handle 16 volts. Our old controller couldn't handle anything over 13.5 volts.

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