Hmmmm. (archive)

Seems no one cares to mention that #4 cable is no where near rated for 210 amperes-closer to half that. However, there are people who use the #4 cable and everything works great. Why is that? Probably because the actual amperage used by the starter is really less than 210 Amps combined with a short duration for starting (God willing). There is no way #4 cable would not at least get very hot under that kind of load (210 A)even if it was brief in duration. The voltage drop over fifteen feet would only affect the "cold cranking power" and not the car's performance once running. Even upon starting the voltage drop seems negligable as compared to 2/0 or 3/0 cable. The factory cable for the starter lead on 2002s is about #4 in size. No bigger to be sure. Merely adding 14 feet of length to something that has it's resistance measured in a thousand foot scale will not appreciably affect the performance of the starting abilities of the car in this aplication and using #4 wire. Therefore, I contend that #4 cable is perfectly acceptable to use seeing as the factory also uses it. Overkill is nice but I feel in this case unnecessary IMHO.

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