cigerette lighter 12 v

[silverbullet 96]

Has anyone attemted to insall a 12v cigerette lighter in there mini? how did it go? and where did you put it.

Aha I dont smoke but would love to charge my gps, ipod etc!

cheers

[Hylsan]

I have

Not the best picture but right beside heating;


/Hylsan

[John Doe]

And I have it in my old clubbie and will do that again in my new one

Will see if I could post a picture of it later this day...
But here´s how I did it:

Take a look at Hylsans picture! That´s a good place to put this 12v stuffs on...

First you need to take direct power from the battery (that´s what I did because I also installed the stereo)
And to be on the safe side, mount a fuse on the cable also (How big I don´t know, 15A or bigger just to be safe if you will use the cable to other things?) And the cable from the battery should be 10mm²...

Mount the lighter plugg where you want it and rubb off some paint to ground the black cable!

I´ll hope you get what I´m talking about?

And remember, unplugg your devices when you not using them now when it´s direct power from the battery...

And a BIG NO NO NO! Don´t do as I did when I´l l did this once... Remove the plus cable from the battery or else you will find the cables burning if you ground the plus cable while installing

[Hylsan]

hum....excuse me but isnt 10mm² way to big??
Think my cable is just 4.5mm², had a 8mm² when I connected my old amplifier to the car..

/Hylsan

[minijanne]

If you R just charging phones and running GPS, y ou don´t have to take power directly from the batt, you can take it from the fusebox under the bonnet. The cars are well "over fused" and should with no problem be able to provide the current needed.

[John Doe]

The cars are well "over fused" and should with no problem be able to provide the current needed.

With only 4 fuses I think the answer is yes they are

[minijanne]

Eh, nooo! The number of fuses has nothing to do with it! I´ve got two fuses and they are at 35A each! OK, you shold maybe not hook up a 250w amplifier on it but as long as you are only charging a cellphone or an GPS there´s no problem. A GPS is consuming about 500mA when turned on.

[Mazze]

Has anyone attemted to insall a 12v cigerette lighter in there mini? how did it go? and where did you put it.

Aha I dont smoke but would love to charge my gps, ipod etc!

cheers

I put the lighter socket on the right side, underneath the back seat. I took the power from the battery via a separate fuse and a relay (controlled from the rear lights). That way the cooling bag or whatever is connected won't discharge the battery (unless I forget to turn off the lights when I park, but in that case the battery would die anyway).
I also put another lighter socket right beside the first one, but this one is connected to the battery via a flip switch. I only this one to power a old MP3-player and other low power stuff.

/M

[Hylsan]

hum...clever idea connecting it to the rear -light....clever...

/Hylsan

[silverbullet 96]

great thanks for all the advice!

Either I will fit the lighter socket beside the other switches as there is a space there.

But better still to keep the interior as original as possible I will fit it under the dash out of sight.

I have just fitted a new CD payer and may even take the power from that and ad a fuse to the line! - I will only be charging a GPS!

Thanks again

Craig