Help needed on American wire gauges?

[fatboy18]

OK Im fitting an engine start button in my car, The install guide was written in the USA, It says I require 3ft of 18 Gauge wire and 3ft of 14 Gauge wire?

So I go down to my auto spares shop and we have the bloody metric system where wire gauges are measured in Amps and mm

Ive tried googling conversion tables but in honestly they might as well be written in Latin! Ive no idea

Can anyone tell me what wire I need to buy?

[saleen836]

Does this help.....
http://www.powerwerx.com/wiregauge.asp

[fatboy18]

saleen836 said:

Does this help.....
http://www.powerwerx.com/wiregauge.asp

Sorry but No! Because if you go to Halfrauds or any other automotive shop they ask you how many amps!

[buick350]

http://www.hmwire.com/New%20PDFs/American_Wire_Gau...
Is this any good, the cables will all have size in MM squared, buy it off ebay but don't go by amps, a 10 amp wire is like a hair!

[ViperDave]

The cross section area according to http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/awg-wire-gauge-d... are

14AWG - 2.08 mm2
18AWG - 0.82 mm2

poking around Halfords web site it looks like their wires are as follows

5A - 0.65 mm2
8A - 1 mm2
17A - 2 mm2
27A - is probably 3mm2 but couldn't find that on their web site.

so if I was you I would use the 17A stuff where you need 14 AWG and 8A where you need 18AWG. No harm in using the 17A all round if there is room and you only want to buy one reel.

Don't blame me if your car catches fire.

ps you know it will be cheaper in the long run to get a gen 3 or 4

Edited by ViperDave on Monday 27th May 20:36

[fatboy18]

Thank you Dave