skittles

My dashboard is in peices now. im hooking up a new HU. for the people that saw my dashboard you saw how ugly all the wires were so exposed. i have the 4 port car lighter thingy. im gonna mount it inside my glove compartment although i need to know where i can hook it up for constant power. im not scared to splice and cut. so shoot me ideas please. i dont wanna plug it on the center car lighter anymore coz it just looks too messy. here's some pics of my progress.

and fyi.. there's no stff results on this. lmao!

samaritrey

why not tap the cig lighter wires. i know that would work because that is a common place to tap for power. if it was one device you could tap the wires for the radio like i did for my sat radio. it works well because even if the key is not in you can turn on the radio and then the sat radio will come on.

LinDenKid

Just tap the cig lighter cable , switch the fuse to a higher amp rating and you'll be ready to go.Other place you can do it in , first thing that comes to my mind is the ignition cable?, not sure you might want to go that way though.

amdeutsch

Remind everyone never to let you do any electrical work. Make sure the wires are capable of handling it as well as not overheating the bundle the wires are run through. Etc. Etc. Etc.

C24owner

Do NOT listen to LinDenKid, unless you want to set fire to your car.

If you plan on plugging in a lot of stuff that will draw a lot of power, your best bet would be to go directly off the battery.

Run some 2ga or 4ga wire to a fuse block. Then tap into that for power.



You get the sirius working yet?

skittles

nah... im gonna take it apart again tom morning.. bluetooth works flawless though.

LinDenKid

I forgot to say I'm no expert lol. But my car never caught on fire, and I always did all my connections, maybe I was very lucky, actually the idea to run a cable from the battery to a fuse block sounds about right, ohh I forgot most of us have our aftermarket radios tapped to the cig lighter I guess i better check on my car before it starts to burn.

acr2001

You do realize that the OEM fuse is rated for the maximum amperage the cigarette lighter can carry? Changing the fuse would be a huge mistake no matter how you look at it.

bdgdl08

I just ran an 8 gauge from the battery... but that was for an amp for subs. I say go for the battery.

LinDenKid

Ok guys , today it's Sunday , not hitlindenkidwithalluhaveday mbcollector sorry for giving you misleading info or incorrect info. But like I said before HOW MANY OF YOU GUYS , that have an aftermarket head unit, got their ignition wire tapped to the cig lighter?. (I hope I'm not by myself here)lol.

LinDenKid

Plus isn't all this mess about plugging in a radar?.

C24owner

Tapping into the cigarette lighter isn't a problem if you use it to power a radar detector, or for the a head unit. The problem is if you use it as a power source for lots of different things. The wires running to the cigarette lighter are rated for a specific amount of power, when you draw more than they could handle they heat up, and the fuse blows. If you change the fuse then the wires would just melt, and short out.