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Which fuse can I tap under the hood that will only provide power when the car is on?
2017 EX GK5
I am looking for a fuse I can tap in the fuse box under the hood that will only provide power when the ignition is on. Next best would be when the car is running. I'm just trying to avoid running a wire through the firewall. These are my options.
I ran into this issue myself when installing aftermarket fog lights. I tested all the fuses under the hood and they are all constant power while the vehicle is off.
I opted to fuse tap the DRL fuse underneath the steering wheel in the cabin of the vehicle. I was able to run the wire near the fusebox, inside of the car and out of the grommet located on the driver side front fender.
There are 2 grommets on the fender that you could use. One of them is empty, the other one has the hood latch cable running through it.
If you remove the wheel well it's relatively easy to run the wires over the arch of the splash guard and into the grommet.
I was able to cut a star pattern in the plastic grommet so the wire could pass through while retaining the original grommet.
Inside the vehicle, there is also a few good place to put a ground cable that's not far from the fuse box and not far from the grommet.
This area is ideal because it's also very near the switch panel, if you wanted to install a switch into one of the blank spots.
I wasn't sure which grommets to use so I just decided to do it properly instead of finding an easier, quicker way. I pulled out the airbox and cut back the electrical tape just enough so I could go through the firewall with the main wiring bundle. I did the same on the other side and fished my wire through using string from a string trimmer. I then taped everything back up. That was honestly the hardest part. I had to use small pieces just because of how hard it was to access but I used more than enough to make sure it was really well sealed. On the inside I taped into my dashcam wire which is fuse tapped into my accessory fuse. After that it was just cleaning up the wiring and putting everything back. The job took WAY longer than I had planned but I'm happy with the results.