Cigarette lighter recepticle install?

F

Flycaster

Member
 Boynton Beach, FL
Hope my starting a new thread on this won't be disruptive tot he forum. I just felt that I'd get more hitws by making this a separate post.

I'll probably be getting a nuvi 350 soon and want to install a cig lighter receptical into, or near, or under, my glove box. I'll be using Proclip's car mount that mounts to the right of the radio and velcro the nuvi to it. The wire from the nuvi can pass either into the glove box or under it...in any event they should be hidden. By installing the lighter, I'll only have to simply plug the nuvi into the lighter. All this sounds rather ghetto, but I think it will be a neat install and allow for easy portability of the nuvi.

I'm looking for where to get the lighter recepticle and for any suggestions on where to place it.
 
Good luck, I will keep an eye on this one. One project I want to do is add a 12V outlet in the middle storage compartment to charge iPods, phones, and what not, but they'll be tucked out of the way instead of flopping around in the cabin.

My truck has three 12V DC outlets, and I use them all extensively.
 
Hmmm... what about just hardwiring (with a blad fuse) into the existing lighter circuit? You'd have to buy a second power cord if you needed to use it in another vehicle, but it saves the bulky socket/plug arrangement.
 
Roadster said:
Hmmm... what about just hardwiring (with a blad fuse) into the existing lighter circuit? You'd have to buy a second power cord if you needed to use it in another vehicle, but it saves the bulky socket/plug arrangement.
Click to expand...

First, if I can get things set up the way I want, then I do plan on getting a second power cord for portability.

I'm a little confused about your suggestion of hardwiring into the lighter circuitry. Could you explain further?

I've seen elsewhere that the power cord plug contains a circuit board and that if one wires it to the fuse box, the other end must go into the 350's holder...this set up won't work by simply plugging into the 350 itself (which is what I'd like to do). This is why I'm opting to place a lighter recepticle somewhere's under the dash or in the glove box or along side the fuse box.
 
Fly
Is this your power cord? I didn't realize that it was a USB adapter. Ya, there may be some circuitry in the plug to regulate it down to 5V. I was thinking it was a simple 12V feed.

I might not be the most elegant solution, but if you didn't want to mount an additional jack you could always buy a dongle, cut off the male end, trim the length, and hard wire it into the exisiting jack ciruit. You could drill a small (3/16"?) hole in the golve box and feed the cut end into the panel where you'd make the splice. The 350 power cord would then route into the glove box and plug into the female socket of the dongle. Be careful to not route in front of any airbag...
 
Flycaster said:
Roadster, what's a "dongle?"
Click to expand...

Slang for a loose cord. By 'dongle' I mean the cord that is shown in the link.

This is vs. a 'jack' which would be something flush mounted to a surface in the vehicle.
 
Roadster said:
Hmmm... what about just hardwiring (with a blad fuse) into the existing lighter circuit? You'd have to buy a second power cord if you needed to use it in another vehicle, but it saves the bulky socket/plug arrangement.
Click to expand...

Before hardwiring, be sure your device takes 12 volts. I have a XM Roady2 radio with cigarette lighter plug. If I just hardwired a 12-volt supply to that connector, I may need to buy a new radio. The radio says it takes 6-volts. The cigarette plug drops 12 to 6-volts.

While we're on the subject, has anyone found the BMW cigarette lighter socket to be quite un-compatible? My Roady2 and a few other cigarette plugs just don't get power, no matter how I push & twist the plug. A few do get power, but not very reliable.

I do like the idea of putting a reliable cigarette socket in the center console storage unit. Once again, has anyone one it? How tough is it to get to the back of the panel? Where did you get the source of the positive voltage?

Btw, picked up my new 2007 Silver Grey 3.0i 4 days ago--FANTASTIC car!

Thanks,
 
Check this out flycaster...you might like it :driving: :wink:
http://leatherz.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=01&Product_Code=Z4PowerRelocate&Category_Code=Z4
 
CaptNorm said:
While we're on the subject, has anyone found the BMW cigarette lighter socket to be quite un-compatible? My Roady2 and a few other cigarette plugs just don't get power, no matter how I push & twist the plug. A few do get power, but not very reliable.

I do like the idea of putting a reliable cigarette socket in the center console storage unit. Once again, has anyone one it? How tough is it to get to the back of the panel? Where did you get the source of the positive voltage?

Btw, picked up my new 2007 Silver Grey 3.0i 4 days ago--FANTASTIC car!

Thanks,
Click to expand...
First Welcome To The Forum... :thumbsup:
I have not experience any lighter socket compatibly problems with either my previous 2003 Zed or my current 2006. When traveling I have the need for a number of 12 volt devices. GPS, Radar detector, cell phone charger and small 12 volt cooler. I did a direct connect to my battery in the trunk with a 20 amp three way socket which I can route the connection into the cabin. If you want pictures or further info let me know. Hope this helps.
 
thumbsup said:
I did a direct connect to my battery in the trunk with a 20 amp three way socket which I can route the connection into the cabin.
Click to expand...

I understand about hardwiring a 3-way socket to the battery, did the exact same thing on my boat. Sounds like you didn't mount it anywhere, it's just on a long cable, is that correct? I'm considering drilling a hole & mounting a single lighter socket so it is available in the storage unit behind the seats. For this application, I'd like it to be switched on when the ignition is on (for a satellite radio). Ideally, it would be great to tap off the circuit that stays on for 20 minutes after the ignition is turned off, but I don't think I can find that wire.
 
CaptNorm said:
Roadster said:
While we're on the subject, has anyone found the BMW cigarette lighter socket to be quite un-compatible? My Roady2 and a few other cigarette plugs just don't get power, no matter how I push & twist the plug. A few do get power, but not very reliable.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I found that BMW has altered the basic shape of the lighter down at the tip such that most power adapters won't be able to properly seat on the power contacts. I took a file to the bottom plastic ring on a power adapter to remove about 1/8" all the way around and it worked just fine after that. If you compare the tip of the OEM cigarette lighter with a typical power adapter you can see the difference in the shape.

No clue why BMW chose to modify a universal design on this item. :idunno:
 
zee42 said:
Check this out flycaster...you might like it :driving: :wink:
http://leatherz.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=01&Product_Code=Z4PowerRelocate&Category_Code=Z4
Click to expand...

Very neat install; however, I'm already committed to my original plan

I just go my Nuvi 350 and checked out a few things and thus have a few questions.

The Nuvi's power cord does fit nicely and works well with the cig lighter in my Z4. But, that's not where I want to plug it in. I got a 12v power adapter and a minicircuit (too lazy to do any soldering, the minicircuit plugs into a fuse slot and has a slot to put your fuse into and a hot wire lead coming off it) from Autozone. Before doing anything stupid, like installing everything before I knew it would work, I first jury rigged up the following: Chose a 5amp fuse (for Australian cig lighter???), and used it's slot to put the minicircuit (with 5 amp fuse) into. Lightly crimped the hot wire (red) from the 12v power adapter to the hot wire lead from the minicircuit and grounded the mini's black wire (ground wire). Then after praying that I don't blow the Nuvi, I plugged the Nuvi's power cord into the 12v adapter. Turned the key on and when the radio went on, the Nuvi went on and all its functions worked. Now for my three questions:

1. There is a little led light on the Nuvi's power cord plug. When plugged into the car's cig lighter, it lit up. However, when the plug was in the jury rigged power adapter, although the Nuvi worked fine, that light didn't go on. Any problem here?

2. Although my choice of fuse slot worked, I'm not really sure that it was the best one to use...I plain just don't know. Any other suggestion, or am I OK where I am? BTW, the Nuvi's power plug has a 1 amp fuse in-line and draws 5 volts (the power plug also has a circuit board).

3. On my car's fuse box, fuses 1-5 are empty. Can anyone tell me a little about them? Like: are they switched or always on or when do they go on, how many amps, should I use one of these, blah-blah-blah?

Now I might add, that the power adapter appears to be too big to conseal in the fuse box area, especially after the power cord plug is attached. What I think I will have to do is velcro the adapter plug to the flat plastic underside behind the glove box. The power cord can then be run to the Nuvi's mount from the under side of the passenger dash. No wires should really show as the Nuvi will be mounted just to the right of the A/C panel with a Proclip mount. As I don't want to drill any unsightly holes, I guess I'll have to live with some wires running unseen, but out in th open, under the dash.
 
AlanL said:
I found that BMW has altered the basic shape of the lighter down at the tip such that most power adapters won't be able to properly seat on the power contacts. I took a file to the bottom plastic ring on a power adapter to remove about 1/8" all the way around and it worked just fine after that. If you compare the tip of the OEM cigarette lighter with a typical power adapter you can see the difference in the shape.

No clue why BMW chose to modify a universal design on this item. :idunno:
Click to expand...

I recently asked BMW Corp, here is their reply:
This is the first complaint I have received regarding our cigarette lighter socket. Unfortunately, we are not technically trained at this location so I cannot give you advice on a type of socket to install. You may want to contact a parts manager at the Parts Department to inquire about another type of socket.

I will certainly document your comments regarding the socket. I apologize that I am unable to help you directly.
 
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