In alt.home.repair, on 06 May 2021 13:52:55 GMT, Rob
wrote:

rbowman wrote:
On 05/05/2021 11:57 PM, Tim+ wrote:
I thought it was to to with everything being CAN BUS now. Most of the
wires just carry signals, essential power is carried by fewer thicker
wires.

I'm guessing the tail light wires on the Toyota are 22 or 24 gauge. No
problem for the application but considerably smaller than on my old
('86) pickup.

I have no complaints with the car but it is not over-engineered as was
typical in Detroit's golden years.

Over-engineering is not good for the world as a whole.
To do it "just right" saves on resources.

Also in a modern car thje tail lights will be LED and use less power, so
the wires can be even thinner.

But mine aren't leds. Nothing in the car is that except maybe a few
dashpanel lights.

Very little is related to CAN BUS. I think 2 pages out of 70 or so in
the wiring manual. (The wiring manual is about 300 pages. I'm
estimating how much of that actually shows wiring. )

On Thu, 6 May 2021 07:50:42 -0600, rbowman wrote:

On 05/05/2021 11:57 PM, Tim+ wrote:
I thought it was to to with everything being CAN BUS now. Most of the
wires just carry signals, essential power is carried by fewer thicker
wires.

I'm guessing the tail light wires on the Toyota are 22 or 24 gauge. No
problem for the application but considerably smaller than on my old
('86) pickup.

I have no complaints with the car but it is not over-engineered as was
typical in Detroit's golden years.

Tail lights used to draw a couple of amps, requiring larger fuses,
hence thicker wire.

You'll find that modern trailer harness assemblies, with built-in
protection circuitry, sometimes have trouble with old incandescent
bulb turn-on surge current in older trailers.

New cars may also have other kinds of limiters (faster), besides
fuses.

On 6/5/21 3:10 am, micky wrote:
The wires in my Toyota are much thinner than the wires in any of my
American cars were. I've had GM and Chryslers built from 1950 to 1995,
and Toyotas from 2000 and 2005.

I'm not saying they are too thin, just thinner. Do you know why?

I see two poassible reasons.

1) Increased efforts to save money and help the environment, by using
thinner and thus cheaper wire. Perhaps wires in American cars are
thinnner now too??

2) Japan and the Japanese domestic auto industry after WWII was short of
money and had to economize any way it could. Thinner, cheaper wires
were one way, and now, even though they are making plenty money, they
see no reason to change.

3) lower current requirements of many of the devices on modern cars.

It matters only when I'm trying to splice wires, and I have to be more
careful not to cut the wires while stripping the insulation. But the
wires are so thin that there have been connections I don't try to make,
because, where it's difficult to reach a wire, up under the dashboard,
for example, that makes it even more likely I'll cut the wire and makes
it harder to repair it.



--

Xeno


Nothing astonishes Noddy so much as common sense and plain dealing.
(with apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson)