installing a additional cigarette lighter
installing a additional cigarette lighter
ok guys just wanted to know if this would be alright and work best.
my deck is currently hard wired inside my car what i want to do is wire up another cig lighter that only works on accessory and whne the car is started so to make it simple when the car is off no power to my cig lighter.
i was thinking since my deck is hard wired could i was going to take the ground wire for the cig lighter and wire it up with the ground thats wires with my car and deck and than do the same for the power wire for the cig lighter and than twist it in with the one accessory power wire for my deck and car.
reason why i want to do this is b/c i want to hook up a satelite radio and have it plugged into a additonal cig lighter thats hiding underneath the dash.
also down the road i may also want to wire something else into the ground wire and this accessory power wire is it ok to have multiple things wired up to it?
my deck is currently hard wired inside my car what i want to do is wire up another cig lighter that only works on accessory and whne the car is started so to make it simple when the car is off no power to my cig lighter.
i was thinking since my deck is hard wired could i was going to take the ground wire for the cig lighter and wire it up with the ground thats wires with my car and deck and than do the same for the power wire for the cig lighter and than twist it in with the one accessory power wire for my deck and car.
reason why i want to do this is b/c i want to hook up a satelite radio and have it plugged into a additonal cig lighter thats hiding underneath the dash.
also down the road i may also want to wire something else into the ground wire and this accessory power wire is it ok to have multiple things wired up to it?
50 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 477
I would ground the lighter directly to the ground point (don't tap in to your head unit ground). I'm not sure what kind of draw there would be for your cig lighter, but you might want to consider using a relay rather than just tapping into another power circuit. It could pop a fuse if you overdraw.
50 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 477
I'm assuming that you are installing and extra cig lighter because you don't want to splice your wires on your satelite radio so I would run a seperate power wire and ground to a decent ground point (where your radio grounds or any metal in your dash). I would use a relay to switch the power on and off and use either your remote wire on your deck or another acc wire to trigger the relay. Just my 2 cents.
Originally Posted by AeR0
ok guys just wanted to know if this would be alright and work best.
my deck is currently hard wired inside my car what i want to do is wire up another cig lighter that only works on accessory and whne the car is started so to make it simple when the car is off no power to my cig lighter.
i was thinking since my deck is hard wired could i was going to take the ground wire for the cig lighter and wire it up with the ground thats wires with my car and deck and than do the same for the power wire for the cig lighter and than twist it in with the one accessory power wire for my deck and car.
reason why i want to do this is b/c i want to hook up a satelite radio and have it plugged into a additonal cig lighter thats hiding underneath the dash.
also down the road i may also want to wire something else into the ground wire and this accessory power wire is it ok to have multiple things wired up to it?
my deck is currently hard wired inside my car what i want to do is wire up another cig lighter that only works on accessory and whne the car is started so to make it simple when the car is off no power to my cig lighter.
i was thinking since my deck is hard wired could i was going to take the ground wire for the cig lighter and wire it up with the ground thats wires with my car and deck and than do the same for the power wire for the cig lighter and than twist it in with the one accessory power wire for my deck and car.
reason why i want to do this is b/c i want to hook up a satelite radio and have it plugged into a additonal cig lighter thats hiding underneath the dash.
also down the road i may also want to wire something else into the ground wire and this accessory power wire is it ok to have multiple things wired up to it?
If all you are gonna hook up is a sat radio then i would splice right in but any more than that youll run into problems forget the cig lighter and splice it in if you are sten on hooking up more than i would run all new wires 10ga or better right from the batt fused of course to a switch
2000 Watt CAFz'r
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 2,026
To do what you want safely, do this:
Buy 12awg or 14awg wire and a 15amp fuse.
Buy a relay.
Run the new wire directly from the battery with the fuse close to the battery.
Connect that wire to the relay input.
Connect a second length of wire to the relay output and connect that to the + of the new cig. lighter.
Connect the ignition wire / acc wire to the relay turn on contact.
Ground the relay and the cig. lighter to the chassis.
For more information about wiring a relay go to
http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/online/car-audio-technical-discussions/22385-remote-turn-relay.html
Because of the relay the cigarette lighter will only be on when your accessories are on.
Because you ran a new wire from the battery with a fuse you will not need to worry about overloading existing circuits and causing a fire.
Total cost would only be around $30.
Buy 12awg or 14awg wire and a 15amp fuse.
Buy a relay.
Run the new wire directly from the battery with the fuse close to the battery.
Connect that wire to the relay input.
Connect a second length of wire to the relay output and connect that to the + of the new cig. lighter.
Connect the ignition wire / acc wire to the relay turn on contact.
Ground the relay and the cig. lighter to the chassis.
For more information about wiring a relay go to
http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/online/car-audio-technical-discussions/22385-remote-turn-relay.html
Because of the relay the cigarette lighter will only be on when your accessories are on.
Because you ran a new wire from the battery with a fuse you will not need to worry about overloading existing circuits and causing a fire.
Total cost would only be around $30.
