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MG MGF Technical - 12v Wiring Feed Help!

Hey Peeps,

I want to hard wire in a tom tom 12v in car socket which comes on when ignition is turned. Where can I get a power feed from? Was thinking 2 places?

1. The radio live wire, but Im worried about draining power from this source. Plus can I earth it from here to? Any idea what colour wire it is?

2. The ciggy lighter power wire. Again any idea how to access it? (I dont fancy ripping out the centre arm rest console, can I access it by taking out the ashtray? And again any idea what colour wire it is? (Can I earth it)

Many thanks - I want to attempt it at the weekend so any help would be most usefull!

Cheers

Fran PS My cars a 97 F (in case anyone kindly looks up wiring diagrams!)
fran

Ciggy lighter is a good bet fran. What is the current/power rating of the TomTom?
Rob Bell

You can get to all the wiring diagrams via Dieter's very usefull MGF site on the link below

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.mgfcar.de/index.htm&langpair=deen&hl=de&prev=/language_tools

I think you can access the cigar lighter via the small cubby box in the centre arm console. The liner will pull out to give a small hand space to get in.

Hope all goes well.

Keith

Keith Williams

Hi Fran
Just bought a Tom Tom one.
I have added a ciggy lighter to the yellow & brown leads into the radio. It takes very little power.
I have the ciggy lighter on a flying lead and have it in the glove compartment so that the cable does not get in the way.
Connecting to the radio allows it to be live at he first position on the ignition switch. The original ciggy lighter only comes on when the ignition is on.
Also, connecting anything to the original lighter socket gets in the way when driving.
PS the positive must be on the central contact, yellow wire.
Martin
M Hall

Thanks Peeps!

Its 5v Rob! I've bought a female cigggy lighter extension as I've heard of a few horror stories where people sniped the socket of there original tom tom socket and wired it straight through, and BANG no more Tom Tom! (Im presuming its cause the original socket has a power regulator so it needs to stay on!)

Cool ok im spoilt for choice! So yellow is positive and brown earth in the radio loom?

I'll have to look up the colours for the ciggy lighter wiring! Its looking good so far, the charger lead at the mo pops out of the top vent above the vent itself as there a bit of a ingress in it! Looks very OEM! At the moment Im having to plug it in though whoch gets in the way of driving but hopefully if this works you wont even know its there! :) :) :) Thanks so much, if anyone knows the wiring colours for the ciggy hole power and earth leads I'll be forever in your debt!
fran

Hey Fran.
I've just done EXACTLY the same thing. But i cheated and sent it to a chappy i know. He took a feed off the ciggy lighter as everyone has said and it comes on when starting the car. Looks neat too. Makes it very cockpit looking!
Enjoy!
MC&HNY everyone!
S J Knight

Cool thanks mate, any chance you know what colour wire he chopped into ha ha! :)
fran

Thanks for all your help people with this. I managed to wire it in with my mate, and it works YAY!

Firstly we attempted to use the ciggy lighter feed and popped the cubby hole out and ashtray, but on inspection feeding the wire back up to behind the front centre vent would of been a nightmare, so we thought it wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Instead we then removed the top centre vent (easily done with a flat screwdriver) and used a radio feed instead! We simply wired an additional ciggy lighter I bought from halfords.

*IF YOUR THINKING OF WIRING IN ANY TOMTOM GO SYSTEM OR SIMILAR, DO NOT CUT THE PLUG ON THE ORIGINAL IN-CAR CHARGER CABLE AND WIRE IT STRAIGHT IN! THIS CONTAINS A FUSE REGULATOR AND A FUSE WHICH ARE VITAL! INSTEAD DO WHAT I'VE DONE AND BUY A FEMALE CIGGY LIGHTER (like this http://autoaccessories4less.com/ebayimage/vectorCableAdapters.jpg) AND SIMPLY CUT THE MALE SOCKET END AND HARD WIRE THIS UNIT IN INSTEAD. IT EASILY FITS BEHIND THE DASH UNDER THE CENTRE CONSOLE VENT SO THRES AMPLE OF ROOM IN THERE. THEN YOU SIMPLY PLUG THE TOM TOM CABLE SOCKED INTO IT AS YOU WOULD NORMALLY DO! THIS WAY YOU RETAIN THE ORIGINAL TOM TOM SOCKET!*

I've read some horror stories of people cutting there tom tom socket plug off completety, and hard wiring it straight in and there TomTom GO's blowing up! Not good and suspect it wont be covered under warranty if you did this! NOT GOOD!

Amyway the wires we used that worked (on my 97 F VVC) were the black wire for the earth connection, and the red wire for the positive. It automatically switches on when my keys are turned to position 1 along with the radio!

I did first of all use the yellow wire as suggested, but when I used this I found it was constantly on even when the car was switched off so which could drain the battery if I forget to take it out of the dock. Might be different colours for different cars though but that worked for me.

Anyway heres a pic of the final result! Thanks again! :)

http://img15.imgspot.com/u/05/358/18/satnavinstall1135554350.jpg
fran

This thread was discussed between 21/12/2005 and 25/12/2005

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